PROPEL US INTO THE NEW YEAR

Dear Friend,

As a volunteer-run organization, Cardborigami relies on the amazing generosity of supporters like you who give either of their funds or time, or both. I would like to highlight one such steadfast volunteer, Ragini Bhattacharya, who joined us this year and has been superbly active in multiple promotional / fundraising projects as well as helping improve our operations. In her own words:

"My favorite part of volunteering is seeing the reactions to the innovative design of the structure. At the Southern California Children's Museum this summer, the structure had kids playing in and out of it, while also sparking deeper conversations around homelessness and disaster relief with museum goers. I've also greatly enjoyed being part of Cardborigami's amazing and creative working model to further community impact, providing youth employment through the supply chain."

Ragini (standing) in action at SCCM below!

I invite you to contact me directly to see how you can join us in sparking more actions within our communities.

++ PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING TO US AS WELL!! 
(idea: set an affordable, recurring amount every month) AND FORWARD ON THIS EMAIL TO FRIENDS & FAMILY ++

With abundant wishes for the new year,

Genevieve Liang
Executive Director || Cardborigami
p: 323.786.3211
e: genevieve@cardborigami.org

HAVE YOU VOTED YET?

Hi there,

Before you settle fully into the weekend, would you please do one quick thing?
 

Help us make LA the best place to LIVE by voting for our proposal in the My LA2050 Grants Challenge. Read all about how we plan to turn inspiration into impact here and cast your vote NOW.

It takes less than 10 seconds to VOTE -- I promise!
(voting closes next Monday 4/29; anyone in the US can vote; and it's optional to vote in any of the other categories)

Spread the love ❤ by forwarding this on!! 

Genevieve Liang
Executive Director || Cardborigami
p: 323.786.3211
e: genevieve@cardborigami.org

Hiring Youth to Build Cardborigamis

Thank you so much for supporting Cardborigami with your monetary donation in recent years. We have just launched a specific campaign that I want to share with you.

As you know, we are actively working on applying our shelter product towards relieving the lack of emergency shelter for the homeless in LA. As part of our mission, we have partnered with New Earth Arts & Leadership Center, a fellow local nonprofit that educates and engages justice-involved youth aged 13-25, to temporarily hire their students in the manual assembly of our shelters. Participating students learn and practice invaluable teamwork skills in these collective builds, along with improving their communications and design thinking. We successfully piloted this partnership over 4 months in 2018under public funding which has since disappeared.

In order to embed this partnership under New Earth's ongoing vocational program, we need your support to kickstart our funding for the market-rate compensation that students earn.

PLEASE CLICK HERE to pledge your support!

Genevieve Liang
Executive Director || Cardborigami
p: 323.786.3211
e: genevieve@cardborigami.org

DONATE NOW

You’re probably getting a lot of emails right about now from causes that you’re tuned into, reminding that you only have until 11:59 pm to make a donation for year-end tax purposes. While I am also asking you to give to Cardborigami as 2018 winds down, here are some reasons why we're different than the other appeals in your inbox:

For a limited time, if you give any amount greater than $150 and are in the LA area, you will get one of our white, showroom model shelters as a THANK-YOU gift!! These are perfect for play and/or art-making with kids of all ages, and come with fun peek-a-boo windows on both ends. For more details, see our current holiday sale on eBay, and spread the word!! Retail purchases will also benefit our general fund (though are not tax deductible). 

A number of our field-use shelters will soon be going to aid in disaster recovery for the wildfires that have again ravaged our home state of California this fall. In the same spirit as our action for the 2017 Thomas Fire, I am ensuring that local organizations working with vulnerable populations in the impacted communities will put Cardborigamis to direct, life-rebuilding use. Without the generosity of donors like you (it means so much especially if you are able to set a monthly auto-give amount!), we could not afford as a volunteer-run organization to sustain our shelter production and connect them to where they are needed. In the new year, you will see the difference that your contribution will make via individual stories that we’ll be sharing. 

Thank you in advance for your generous donation and, as always, for your continued support. On behalf of our dedicated Board and myself, we wish you a New Year filled with renewal, hope and resilience!

Genevieve Liang
Executive Director || Cardborigami
p: 323.786.3211
e: genevieve@cardborigami.org

READY. SHELTER. GO.

We recently had the wonderful opportunity to participate in the annual Valley Disaster Preparedness Fair, organized by the Southern California Preparedness Foundation. Many attendees at the free, public event commented that our booth was the most interesting one they had encountered, and we shared ample information about how our shelter has been put to service following earthquakes and wildfires near and far. Community and neighborhood emergency response teams interested in stocking our product in bulk can get in touch with me to discuss directly; for a limited time, we are offering free delivery within 30 miles of downtown LA. (Just mention this newsletter!) 

While the annual National Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week will once again rally public focus the week before Thanksgiving, here at Cardborigami, we keep this issue top-of-mind every day. We invite you to join us in this fight as well as amplify the work of local partners by taking any or all of the following actions between now through December:

1. Help us find an outdoor pop-up host site where we can pilot our emergency overnight shelter program locally. Respond to this email if you or anyone in your network has a warm lead on a private property owner in LA that would be interested in partnering with us.

2. Meet us at Councilmember Cedillo’s (CD 1) local Weekend to End Homelessness event in Highland Park. Come out this Saturday, Oct. 20, to check out a Cardborigami shelter in-person, sign up to volunteer with us, and also visit with other organizations providing various services to our homeless neighbors. There will also be a vintage car show happening. Bring your friends and neighbors!

3. Make a statement about the urgent need for testing new, temporary shelter solutions like Cardborigami across LA County, at one of these Community Listening Sessions on Measure H program allocations for the next fiscal year. 

4. Learn about how to provide permanent and supportive housing for the homeless in your own community at this panel on Wednesday, Oct. 18,moderated by LA Times staff writer Doug Smith.

SUSTAINING WAYS YOU CAN SUPPORT OUR WORK:

1. Become a monthly donor in whatever regular amount you’d like to contribute (buy us a cup of coffee?) — just click ‘monthly’ here.

2. Are you, or someone you know, a seller on eBay? If so, then please consider making us your charity of choice by clicking here.

In Collaboration,

Genevieve Liang
Executive Director || Cardborigami
p: 323.786.3211
e: genevieve@cardborigami.org

SEEDING A NEW VENTURE

I'm happy to share that our participation in the UCLA Social Enterprise Academy earned Cardborigami $5,000 in seed money to develop a new earned-income venture to support our mission of sheltering people who are homeless in LA. Our founder, Tina Hovsepian, will be incubating the new venture: Cardborigami Design, a high-design company that will produce various home and consumer products that will help fund our social causes. See our pitch deck here; we are still looking for additional funding to launch. A big thank you goes out to the creative and dedicated team of 4 UCLA undergraduates who worked with us throughout the 6-month program. Stay tuned for more on this in the future!

In the meanwhile, as we come to the halfway mark of this year, our Board and I have just finalized our Annual Report for 2017. I'd love to hear your comments about where we've been, and where we're headed.

This spring we have partnered with New Earth to expand our 'Youthployment'shelter assembly / job skills training program, which had initially been piloted in summer 2016. We're excited to have begun working with a motivated group of 10 students from the Arts & Leadership Academy to continuously produce Cardborigami's shelters, and we are all looking forward to see their handiwork out in the world soon, providing Cardborigami shelters to our displaced homeless neighbors in LA and other populations in need.

Easy ways for you to sustainably support our work:

1. Set up a recurring monthly donation here.

2. For those who participate in a donor-advised fund, or are considering it as a new tax strategy, you can direct your fund advisor to include us in your social investments at a frequency of your choice here.

In Collaboration,

Genevieve Liang
Executive Director || Cardborigami
p: 323.786.3211
e: genevieve@cardborigami.org

Pushing the notions of what emergency shelter can be

We've started the new year running, with increased momentum to apply our temporary shelter solution towards fixing the lack of emergency shelter for the homeless in our home base, Los Angeles. Twelve months since the passage of Measure H, there remains an urgent need to provide immediate, consistent places to sleep for the 78% of our local homeless who are unsheltered at night. In just two days from now, all of the Winter Shelters which have been operating since December will close. The folks who have yet to secure transitional housing and have been utilizing these facilities will face real uncertainty as to where they may rest safely. We need to broaden our collective notions on how to effectively meet this fundamental human need, and Cardborigami is working hard on introducing a new approach. Please join us.

Here's a peek at what we're up to:

• Proving that localized emergency shelter can be responsive, efficient and community-building. Starting in April, our proposal to reimagine emergency homeless shelters will participate in the My LA2050 Activation Challenge. When it goes live to the public, you can help us rise to the top. 

• Lighting the way for conversation around shelter as a first step out of homelessness, and giving everyone a thoughtful way to express the warmth of home. We will unveil what we have been hatching in the ongoing 2018 UCLA Social Enterprise Academy in a few months; stay tuned.

Easy, continuous ways for you to fuel us forward -- 

1. Click on the link or banner below to set us up as your Amazon Smile charity; there's a bonus if you act by Saturday!

2. For those who participate in a donor-advised fund, or are considering it as a new tax strategy, you can direct your fund advisor to include us in your social investments at a frequency of your choice here.

In collaboration,

Genevieve

Genevieve Liang
Executive Director || Cardborigami
p: 323.786.3211
e: genevieve@cardborigami.org

YEAR-END SHARING

12/22/2017 - A volunteer at HELP of Ojai's donation center helps unload a packaged Cardborigami.

Just before Christmas, Cardborigami donated and I personally delivered 35 of our shelters to HELP of Ojai, a lifeline-services nonprofit in Ventura County, for their community relief efforts related to the #ThomasFire. Supporting cause-aligned nonprofits doing vital work in our local communities is a big part of what invigorates us.

If you are looking for hands-on action and other service-oriented ways to help those affected by what is now the largest wildfire in California history, this is a good crowdsourced hub to check out.

Your tax-deductible gift via either Paypal or Network for Good (where you can specifically dedicate your funds -- use 'Shelter Matters' as the designation) will help us expand our capability to provide temporary shelter for this and future, similar needs. And, if you give before midnight tonight, your donation will qualify for a 2017 tax benefit.

Many warm wishes for 2018,

Genevieve

Genevieve Liang
Executive Director || Cardborigami
p: 323.786.3211
e: genevieve@cardborigami.org