Doing Good Together 2019-2020 Annual Report

Letter from the Founder and Executive Director of Doing Good Together…

2019-20 Volunteers & Board Members

2019-20 Financials

News & Updates in 2019-20

Let's Stand Together.jpg — **DGT’s Coronavirus Resources** offers dozens of ways families can make a difference while they’re home together, including kindness projects, advocacy initiatives, and suggested books.

Kitchen Table Kits Updated.png — **DGT’s Kitchen Table Kindness Kits - Print or Digital Download** let families share acts of generosity from their kitchen table. The materials enable families to advocate for issues that matter and spark fun, meaningful conversations about empathy, compassion, and the common good.

antiracist collection.jpg — After researching the experts, we compiled guidance on how to talk to children about race. Our **Tools** **to Raise an Anti-Racist Generation** is an evolving collection of the best books, videos, tips, and projects for families and educators who want to better understand racism and better advocate for racial equality.

Membership Circle.jpg — Our **Membership Circle** continues to grow and now includes a Welcome Kit for new members. We’re also working on ways to expand membership and turn current members into tomorrow’s DGT ambassadors!

Summer eCamp.jpg — To meet the needs of families whose summer camps were cancelled, DGT created the **Summer of Kindness eCamp** in which we adapted our most-loved club activities for a unique at-home summer camp experience for families.

DGT’s Festival of Giving went virtual for Make a Difference Day on Oct. 24th. Families completed hands-on projects, enjoyed live music and movement, and downloaded an exclusive activity guide – all for free thanks to our generous sponsors.

DGT’s Partnerships in 2019-20

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota

DGT worked with BCBS Minnesota to create an at-home engagement tool focused on racial and health equity and social impact to inspire their employees to action on this critical topic.

Global Peace Foundation

We were honored that the Global Peace Foundation asked DGT to collaborate on creating a manual titled Family Volunteers for Peace Guidebook: Building a Culture of Service through Family Volunteering. It will soon be available to families globally.

Hats & Mittens

Doing Good Together has completed a year-long project with this Minnesota-based nonprofit that collects hats, mittens, and scarves for kids. We created resources to help organize a collection, as well as materials to teach young people about poverty, philanthropy, leadership, community organizing, and service.

Minneapolis Institute of Art

We joined with Mia to help families explore how courageous actions can produce change. In this pre-pandemic workshop, we talked about how to teach children thoughtful citizenship and had families made their own art about navigating change. We also created a take-home packet, Doing Good Together’s Family Guide to Active Citizenship, for workshop participants.

PJ Library

PJ Library, which offers families with young children books, ideas, and activities to celebrate Jewish life, worked with us to create a customized Kindness Kit featuring many of our projects, but also some of their own content, so PJ Library members around the country could teach their children critical values and make a difference for others from their own homes.

United Church of Christ - Minnesota Conference

Along with several other partners, DGT has been offering UCC families kindness projects, creative activities, children’s book suggestions, and other resources around themes such as practicing gratitude, sparking wonder, and more. Families and faith leaders are able to use this toolkit to share important values with children during this time when they’re not able to gather.

News from our Miami-Dade Partnership

Miami FSF Infographic 2019-2020 .png — Prior to the pandemic, eight of 16 Family Service Fairs were held in Miami-Dade schools. To continue our work there, we created the **Miami Kindness Project** which offers free, virtual options for parents and educators to keep families engaged in sharing kindness and service.

Partnership Quotes for DGT ™ Event - FINAL.png

Letter from DGT’s Founder and Executive Director, Jenny Friedman, PhD

Dear Friends,

As you can imagine, Doing Good Together™ (DGT™) was extraordinarily busy in 2020. In a time of uncertainty and confusion, parents turned to us for ways to share compassion and teach kindness while staying at home with their children. Thanks to our incredible supporters, we were quickly able to design new resources to respond to families’ requests for innovative, easy ideas to make a difference.

For DGT, the pandemic presented an opportunity to teach children that when our community faces difficult challenges, we find ways to help one another.

I’m proud of the work we accomplished during this challenging year. Our research-based projects and ideas have always offered fun, meaningful ways to help families live their values, support their communities, and give back. But as 2020 unfolded, we were required to do more.

Prompted by the unusual circumstances, including cancellation of all our popular Family Service Fairs, our dedicated staff greatly expanded our digital offerings. We developed a comprehensive webpage for at-home kindness sharing, curated an Anti-Racist Toolkit, created a successful all-virtual Festival of Giving, developed our unique Kitchen Table Kindness Kits, and more. These efforts allowed us to serve the community in new ways—and reach more families—while staying true to our mission, values, and beliefs.

I am so grateful to our Board of Directors for their unwavering support, as well as to our generous and loyal donors, awesome volunteers, and fabulous community partners.

In 2019, we launched a three-year strategic plan with the goal of creating new resources to empower children to be kindness leaders, expand our reach, grow our membership circle, and deepen our collaborations with businesses, faith communities, social service agencies, schools, child care centers, and others. The year 2020, despite its challenges, saw DGT make progress toward every goal.

As you read about our new resources and creative partnerships, we hope you continue to feel inspired by our ongoing vision: to build a world in which sharing kindness and helping others is a routine part of every family’s daily life.

Thank you for your support.

Warmly,

Jenny Friedman

2019-20 Volunteers

Maya Aadland

Chris Aerts

Mariah Allard

Jessica Chrastil

Anne Hable

Michael Henley

Diane Hopkins

Sarah Johnson

Junior League of Minneapolis

Samantha Keyes

Marla J. Kinney

Tara Kumar

Natalie Lee-Heidt

Morgan Manos-Scheppler

Cathy McLane

Brian McDermott

Jill Prevatt

Maryann Reynolds

Kate Rome

Gerry Sexton

Natalie Silverstein

Amanda Ungs

2019-20 Board Members

Lisa Glaus - President

Becky Nahvi - VP

Linsa Jabeen

Susan Humiston

Michael Birdman

Julie Rogers Bascom

Jana Bruder

Roy Ginsburg

Cara Johnson-Bader

Sara Theophilos

DGT™ Financial Report for Fiscal Year 2019-20