The founder of Charity Makeover, a volunteer renovation organization, held a small workshop Saturday at Co+Hoots with Tumbleweed Center for Youth Development and SEEDs for Autism to help give the organizations a “makeover.”
“This isn’t a way for people to get free work on a charity because they can already afford it,” founder Sean Tierney said. “It’s more to tip the ones who are right there, but they just can’t afford to fix it.”
Charity Makeover is an organization of volunteers who renovate the marketing, business and technical aspects of local nonprofit charities. During the renovation, organizations meet with Charity Makeover one Saturday each month. They focus on financially stabilizing the charities with a goal of obtaining reoccurring subscription donors.
Their newest renovation is for Tumbleweed.
Tumbleweed provides a safe place for at-risk youth and young adults experiencing homelessness, abuse, abandonment and neglect, according to the organization’s website.
“Improving the communication overall is key,” said Erin Cullen, community engagement manager for Tumbleweed.
Another charity that was revamped at the workshop was SEEDs for Autism, an organization that provides vocational training for adults with autism. SEEDs stands for Success through Education, Exploration and Development.
SEEDs was the first organization chosen to work with Charity Makeover, and since the relationship began earlier this year, SEEDs has gained $1,000 in donations and is now set up with social media and a more engaging website, said Mary Ann LaRoche, founder and executive director of SEEDs.
“Social media is important because you can do an awful lot of creating awareness and promotion, the cost is minimal if anything, so if you know how to maximize it you can really get your message out there without a lot of cost,” Becky Papp, a volunteer, said.
SEEDs assists adults with autism in continuing their education, developing social skills and career opportunities with the goal of better preparing them for the professional world.
“My inspiration was to create a program for my brother, Paul Foti, that assisted him in transitioning into the real world,” LaRoche said.
The organization developed a program to help the adults utilize creative and entrepreneurial skills by creating art pieces that can be sold to the community.
“What’s great about Sean and Charity Makeover is that he wants to help nonprofit organizations that have a need and really need the skill sets that they don’t have the funding to provide,” LaRoche said.
Tierney started Charity Makeover to create a long-term impact on the charities involved. His inspiration is a project where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas, form a team and launch a prototype in a matter of three days called Startup Weekend.
“There’s something magical about bringing strangers together and getting them exposed to all these skill sets, especially in the pursuit of creating something real,” Tierney said.
Instead of inventing new things, he wanted to reinvent the local causes that needed a little help.
Tierney said people fundamentally want to give back so “if we get really good results, word will spread.”
Contact the reporter at nlong3@asu.edu
