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According to a 2019 point-in-time count, there are more than 612 unsheltered homeless individuals in the Coachella Valley. A Southern California company, Renova Energy, has handed out a few dozen cell phone solar chargers to homeless individuals living in Sunrise Park in downtown Palm Springs to power their phones while living unsheltered so they can reach public safety, caseworkers, family members, doctors and friends.
Renova Energy CEO Vincent Battaglia believes that any business no matter how large or small has the responsibility to give back. And he's not alone.
Companies around the country are doing more to tackle homelessness. Some companies, like Microsoft, are providing loans for affordable housing in Seattle. Others are small start-ups like The Giving Keys, an L.A. jewelry company that hires homeless individuals, or Detroit's Empowerment Plan, which hires homeless women to sew jackets for people on the streets.
According to experts, there are several ways businesses can work toward being socially responsible: philanthropy, volunteering, using company skills to create human-centered products or services, or providing innovative opportunities for community members.
For any business wanting to be sustainable and mission-based, it needs to be innovative. Abby Fifer Mandell, a University of Southern California business professor and the Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab director, requires the need for business models that are "financially sustainable, which means they have to be clever, creative and innovative, and are also digging deep on pressing problems by addressing long-term solutions."
Selected Grant News Headlines
A customized collection of grant news from foundations and the federal government from around the Web.
"What's so cool about manufacturing in Pennsylvania?" That's a question students across the state are asking after winning top honors in the "What's So Cool About Manufacturing" student video...more
Sixth-graders at a Massachusetts school are turning trash found on the beach into art. Hull's Jacobs Elementary School is hosting a live viewing of students' work on Friday from 2pm to 3pm,...more
"When students succeed, our entire community prospers," says the CEO of Florida's Barancik Foundation, which has awarded nearly $6 million in grants to support education, youth development,...more
Employees of Savings Bank of Danbury in Connecticut are putting their money where their mouth is. The bank's foundation has awarded more than $301,000 in grants to 113 non-profit agencies in the...more
Michael Orth has spent three decades working to improve children's mental health in New York's Westchester County, and on Tuesday he received the state's Lifetime Achievement Award for his...more
"We may have never imagined that fascism would be looming in our lifetimes, and yet, this is where we find ourselves." That's the takeaway from a New York Times op-ed by actress and activist...more
Foundation: Share Our Strength
"If you run a walk series, you have content creators in your program. There are content creators on your board, in your caregiver network, as major donors and as walk team captains. How big...more
When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its latest report last month, it warned that the West Antarctic ice sheet is melting and warming twice as fast as previously thoughtand...more
The House is set to vote Monday on a bill that would make it harder for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. The SAVE Actshort for Safeguard American Voter Eligibilityis the brainchild of...more
The House is set to vote Monday on a bill that would make it harder for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. The SAVE Actshort for Safeguard American Voter Eligibilityis the brainchild of...more
Social Entrepreneurship
Spotlight
Celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver Backs Social Saturday
UK will be celebrating its first national celebration of social enterprises dubbed as Social Saturday. World famous celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, who founded the Fifteen restaurant chain.
