We've recently had David Humphries and Nancy McDonald of Global Communities on the show and today we are pleased to welcome Milton Funes who is the Director of Program Impact and Learning at Global Communities. An engineer by training, he originally became involved in international aid work when Hurricane Mitch struck Honduras in 1998. Global Communities has been operating in Honduras for 35 years and is extremely effective in not only assisting people impacted and traumatized by disaster -- but also giving local people the tools and education necessary to rebuild their lives, livelihood, and communities. A number of aid organizations have made the mistake of going to a country and just talking and talking -- forgetting the importance of listening to learn.
Milton Funes has 15 years of international development experience, with expertise in NGO capacity building, health, social infrastructure, urban/rural planning, micro-finance and economic development. In his current role as Director of Program Impact and Learning, he leads a team focusing on taking lessons learned in the field and disseminating across the development field and other interested parties.
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#165  Global Communities - Milton Funes

Today we sit down with Eric Schaeffer, Artistic Director of Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA. He founded the nonprofit theater in 1989 with actor Donna Migliaccio to stage smaller, more innovative, and challenging productions then available at the time in the Washington, DC area. Their productions are consistently nominated for awards and in 2009 they won a Tony award -- the most prestigious award of the theater world -- for best regional theater. Signature Theatre also has an educational component with two full-time staff and teaches programs in schools as well as teaching adults. Find out how Eric Schaeffer turned a dream into a one of the most respected theaters in the country.  Eric Schaeffer is the Co-founder and Artistic Director of Arlington’s Signature Theatre. Under his leadership, the Theatre was honored with the 2009 Tony Award® for Outstanding Regional Theatre in America, as well as 90 Helen Hayes Awards with an additional 368 nominations for theater excellence in Washington, DC. On Broadway, Schaeffer directed Gigi, the critically acclaimed Follies as well as the Tony Award®-winning Million Dollar Quartet, Glory Days and Putting It Together.   Recipient of the 2009 Regional Theatre Tony Award®, Signature Theatre is a non-profit professional theater company in Arlington, Virginia dedicated to producing contemporary musicals and plays, reinventing classic musicals, and developing new work.

#177 Signature Theatre - Eric Schaeffer

Graham McLaughlin has a pretty cool job. He gets to help his community and help his colleagues do the same through managing the Corporate Responsibility office of the Advisory Board Company. The Advisory Board is a consulting firm focused on making mission-driven organizations do their work better and more effectively but they are also known for their commitment to giving back to the communities around the world where their 4,000 employees live. Through their corporate responsibility program, they encourage employees to donate their time and skills to local organizations doing something meaningful and allow everyone to volunteer 10 daytime hours every month in order to maximize their impact. Don't miss this episode to find out how a workplace policy that builds in the ability to work for others is making the individuals volunteering more focused and better at their jobs while improving their cities and towns. Could something like this work for your organization? Graham McLaughlin is the Managing Director of Community Impact at Advisory Board Company. In addition to his business role, he is the co-founder of Clean Decisions, a social enterprise supporting and hiring only individual coming out of incarceration, and has been published or profiled in Guardian Sustainable Business, Washington Post, ABC News, Forbes, National Journal, Washington Business Journal, and others for this professional and personal work The Advisory Board Company, a global technology, research, and consulting firm partnering with 125,000 leaders at over 4,000 organizations across health care and higher education

#178 Advisory Board - Graham McLaughlin

Lynn Thomas, Executive Director of Community Lodgings and Jasmine Witcher, Director of Development join us today to talk about their work in Alexandria, VA which works to lift people out of homelessness and help them transition into stable housing and self-sufficiency. Lack of affordable housing is a growing problem around the country and it is particularly bad in the Washington, DC area so Community Lodgings provides a way for families to live in an apartment, rather than a shelter, while going through their very successful program. Working with dedicated caseworkers, the clients learn budgeting skills, receive help getting out of debt, and resolve other barriers to transition to full housing. Jasmine Witcher shares her persuasive "Ask" which is key in fundraising to make the work of Community Lodgings possible.  Lynn Thomas joined Community Lodgings as Executive Director in January 2014 bringing 30 years of nonprofit leadership experience, particularly in grants administration, affordable housing and supportive housing management. She is a certified housing counselor, holds a Master's of Human Services from Lincoln University, PA and is an active member of the Governing Board of the Alexandria Partnership to Prevent and End Homelessness.  Jasmin brings over a decade of experience in the non-profit sector, specializing in housing and homelessness issues. In her role at Community Lodgings, Jasmin oversees all aspects of a comprehensive development program to provide long-term funding stability for the organization. &nbsp; Community Lodgings is an Alexandria, VA based nonprofit established in 1987 with a mission to lift families from homelessness and instability to independence and self-sufficiency through transitional housing, affordable housing and youth education programs &nbsp;

#179 Community Lodgings - Lynn Thomas and Jasmine Witcher

Susan Goodell today joins us to talk about her role as Executive Director of the Global Fund for Children. The Global Fund is a nonprofit that funds and strengthens smaller, grassroots organizations around the world that are using creative approaches to solve problems for the world's most vulnerable children. Ms. Goodell talks about the importance of corporate partnerships which allow her organization to have a greater impact by reaching, training, and funding additional groups that may not have access to corporate donors. They currently assist and are helping grow 230 partners around the world with a small staff of 25 and understand the necessity of storytelling in fundraising and awareness campaigns.&nbsp;  Susan Goodell is an experienced non-profit professional who has been serving as the CEO for The Global Fund for Children for just over two years now. She came to The Global Fund for Children with a background in fundraising, corporate partnerships, non-profit management and public policy, and is now committed to strengthening the work of grassroots partners working with children around the world.   The Global Fund for Children finds and invests in small, locally led grassroots organizations that transform the lives of the world’s most vulnerable children.

#180 Global Fund for Children - Susan Goodell

Through the Noise is a weekly podcast that explores "the business of communicating" through conversations with executive directors, CEOs, communications directors, entrepreneurs, and other professionals who deal with the management - technical or creative - process of communications.