5000 Starbucks Volunteers Help Fifth Ward CRC Make a Better Houston

By Gary Wolfe
District Director, Rocky Mountain Region

How do neighborhoods go from declining to improving? Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation (Fifth Ward CRC) has used partnerships to help turn around Houston’s Fifth Ward.  Most recently, Fifth Ward CRC partnered with Starbucks, during their Global Leadership Conference in Houston, to make a positive difference in the lives of the Fifth Ward residents.

Starbucks "Team Blue" built a playground

In early October, more than 5,000 Starbucks employees volunteered with community members to make a tangible impact.  Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said to KHOU 11 News “When I walked through the Fifth Ward and saw the conditions of the houses and really the people in need, I just thought this is where we need to be.”

In the Fifth Ward, the day began when the thousands of Starbucks volunteers took a bus from their downtown hotels to staging grounds at local churches. There, they ate lunch, learned about the Fifth Ward neighborhood and grabbed the tools they needed to paint homes, install pocket parks and community gardens, clean up vacant lots, put up community artwork and the like. Fifth Ward CRC projects focused on the Lyon’s Avenue Corridor, a 22 block area which encompasses the community’s “main street” and comprised of residential, commercial and public spaces with a unique blend of historical markers reflective of the community’s native sons and daughters. 

In total, more than 9,000 Starbucks employees who attended the Global Leadership Conference participated in volunteer projects across Houston. On average, the Starbucks employees volunteered between four and six hours at each project for an impressive total of more than 42,000 hours of community service over the three days of the conference.

Lyons Avenue Renaissance sign with
numerous partners listed

For the Lyon’s Avenue Corridor area, the volunteering was just one piece of the ongoing revitalization work. Fifth Ward CRC is committed to a complete community renaissance, which will include not only great homes and clean streets, but also new jobs and opportunities. Michael Emerson, Chairman of the Fifth Ward CDC told KHOU 11, “This is an image for us of what Fifth Ward is going to be,” said “We’re creating an economically diverse, ethnically diverse, economically strong, new neighborhood here in Houston.” Fifth Ward CRC has formed partnerships not only with Starbucks, but also with the City of Houston, Rice University, University of Houston and the American Regional Institute of Architects to change the landscape and future of Fifth Ward. With the help of collaborations like these, Fifth Ward CRC can return to being a “neighborhood of choice.” 

To learn more about the Starbucks-Fifth Ward partnership, view this news video or click here to see more photos.

Getting Out the Vote for Starbucks' Vote.Give.Grow.

By Alexandra Chaikin,
Online Media Project Manager

As you may have seen on our NeighborWorks Twitter and Facebook pages, we are pretty excited about the results of the Starbucks Foundation Vote.Give.Grow. contest. Nine NeighborWorks organizations participated, and they raised a combined total of $125,000. Not too shabby.

First, a little background. Vote.Give.Grow. is a new initiative which allowed Starbucks cardholders to vote every week on how the foundation should allocate funds among 124 nonprofits nationwide. The best part? Every nonprofit selected for the contest is guaranteed to win at least $5000! That said, the object is to get the most votes, because more votes could mean thousands more dollars – up to $50,000 to be exact.

To find out how our network members succeeded in getting out the vote, I interviewed Matt Miller, communications and marketing director of Community Housing Initiatives (CHI) in Iowa. Matt explained that Starbucks first contacted them in March about the April contest. At first, they thought it was too good to be true, but, after doing their due diligence, they realized the magnitude of this opportunity. However, there was a big challenge, namely a competing nonprofit in Iowa with more than eight times the number of employees.

Matt, being the entrepreneur he is, went straight to the local Starbucks and worked with the store managers to hand out the Vote.Give.Grow. coasters he’d received from Starbucks Foundation (see image at right). Next, he did the same thing at libraries and the local hospitals. Then he jumped into digital media with a weekly email campaign and a big sign on CHI’s website.  His favorite marketing tool though? Social media. Twitter and Facebook allowed him to easily spread the word to local government and other nonprofits. CHI even made their main Facebook image include information about the contest.

In the end Matt helped CHI win first place in Iowa and a grant of $15,000, which they will use to fund an Eviction Prevention Program this summer. I haven’t had a chance to learn how all our other member organizations will use their funds, but I’m confident they will use them wisely, and I hope they will share their stories too. Feel free to send me an update at achaikin[at]nw.org or to post directly to the NeighborWorks America Facebook page.

Opportunity Finance Network and Starbucks Collaborate to Create Jobs

Many people must have their cup of Joe to make it through the morning. Now they can contribute to a much needed cause while they are at it.

On November 1, almost 7,000 Starbucks stores across the country and the Opportunity Finance Network, a national coalition of more than 180 community development financial institutions (CDFIs), launched a fundraising initiative to kick start job creation in the U.S.

Through the initiative, Create Jobs for USA, Starbucks customers can make tax-deductible contributions to a fund to help local companies hire and retain workers.

One hundred percent of donations will go to the CDFIs to finance underserved community businesses—small businesses, microenterprises, nonprofit organizations, commercial real estate developers, and affordable housing developers. All of these community businesses help to create and sustain local jobs.

More than 90 members of the NeighborWorks network are CDFIs. Related NeighborWorks capital corporations NeighborWorks Capital and Community Housing Capital are also CDFIs.

One organization that is making a difference both in housing and business lending is Community Ventures Corp (CVC), a Lexington-based member of the NeighborWorks network for ten years. CVC is the largest micro-enterprise business lender in the Small Business Administration system, making business loans as small as $500.

Kevin Smith, president and CEO of CVC said, “As a CDFI serving entrepreneurs throughout Kentucky, Community Ventures Corporation applauds the Opportunity Finance Network and Starbucks for creating space where small actions can pay great returns.”

Jennifer Vasiloff, executive vice president for policy at the Opportunity Finance Network is excited about the potential.

“Create Jobs for USA has the potential to raise tens of millions of dollars and make more credit available all across the U.S,” Vasiloff said. “I never thought I would see a major corporation like Starbucks using its scale, the power of its brand, and its vast consumer marketing expertise to help people understand the concept of a CDFI. Millions will learn about these profit-making (but not profit-maximizing) nonprofit financial institutions that lend in underserved communities.”

The Starbucks Foundation is putting up $5 million to kick start the Create Jobs for USA campaign and is encouraging others to chip in. Customers who donate $5 or more will get a red, white and blue wristband with the message “Indivisible.”