ShiftHappens: Our Blog:
The stories behind the grants
One Organization Makes Strides in Caring for Animals and the Environment
In the heart of the Ozark mountains, just miles from the Buffalo River, lives the Human Society of Marion County, a no- kill shelter that is not only having an impact upon the lives of animals and people, they are having a profound impact on the environment as well....
Working to End Gender-based Violence
Even as a child growing up in Mtakuja II, Anthony Migeka was aware of gender inequality. At an early age, he saw that girls and women in most African communities were often disregarded and had far fewer privileges than men in almost every area of life. In thinking...
Urban Gardens and Repurposed Waste Materials Create New Opportunities for Street Youth
Wairimu Mwangi, an inspiring woman with a love for sustainability and desire to design a balanced life, developed an incredible project that is changing the lives for street youth in the urban areas of Nairobi. In teaching youth and those living in informal...
Creative Ideas to Help Communities Around the Globe
Vulnerability. Courage. Creativity. Heart. Time and again throughout the course of six weeks, these were the qualities exhibited by the members of the first, exceptional cohort of the Greenhouse Project. The Greenhouse Project, a program developed by The Pollination...
An Inspiring Podcast Addressing the Mistreatment of Animals in a Unique Way
Angela found a bird in a garbage can while throwing out the trash, it was drenched in food oil and unable to fly. The young girl, who was only six or seven at the time, ran back inside her home wondering what to do. Her Mom who’d grown up on a farm told her daughter...
10 Billion Strong: Launching an Environmental Leadership Movement
Patrick Arnold created 10 Billion Strong, a leadership development organization focused on environmental sustainability, because he believes it’s unjust that more than a billion youth as well as future generations have to find solutions for environmental catastrophes...
HelpUkraine: Opening Their Hearts and Homes to Ukrainian Refugees
“When you try to help someone, I think that there are no particular inspirations, you just need a little sensitivity and humanity.” Those insightful words opened a heartfelt conversation with Luca Quaiotti, the project and educational manager for ETHIKA and...
Thank you TPP Volunteers
“If you want to be important—wonderful. If you want to be recognized—wonderful. If you want to be great—wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That's a new definition of greatness. By giving that definition of greatness, it...
Girls’ Pride: Inspiring Conversation and Generational Change
A few years ago, Fatoumatta Kassama met a woman named Sarah who would share a story that would have such an impact, it would change the course of her life. Sarah, a retired American teacher, has been working on a project that supports girls’ education in Kenya but she...
Vegan Kitchen in Ukraine: A Light of Hope in a Dark Time
Before the Russia-Ukraine war, Every Animal, a vegan animal rights organization in Ukraine founded by Tamara Human, was focused on vegan education and protecting animals. There was an online education course. There were vegan tours and samplings. They even wrote and...
Art-making as Therapeutic Practice for Refugees
In the summer of 2019, a small group of volunteers began to notice an important need within the refugee community in Athens, Greece. Women and LGBTQIA+ migrants and asylum seekers needed a safe space where they could engage in creative expression. In such a space, art...
Reflections from The Greenhouse
Over the last six weeks, nearly 50 grassroots volunteer leaders gathered each Tuesday and Thursday morning over Zoom. They were part of our very first cohort of “Greenhouse,” The Pollination Project’s new community and capacity-building effort. Representing 17...
“I Matter”: Uplifting the Voices of Youth Around the World
Isabella Hanson received her first Pollination Project grant for her work which focused on empowering girls when she was only nine-years-old. Then in 2020, at the age of 14, Isabella once again looked to empower and amplify the voices of youth, only this time it was...
One Woman’s Expressive Quilts Inspire Us All to Create a Better World
Allyson Allen is not only an exceptional quiltmaker, she’s an artist and storyteller who is using her gifts to create works that inspire reflection and, most recently, stand up to censorship. In 2019, Allyson was thrilled when she won the Laguna Beach Arts Alliance...
Tumbleweed Sanctuary: An Illustration of Love and Respect for All
Imagine driving along a four lane road when you suddenly come upon a dog standing in the middle of one of the lanes. Would you stop and help? When Andrea Johnson found herself in that exact situation, it wasn’t even a question as instantaneous thought gave way to...
News From the Resilience & Recovery Fund
This month, The Pollination Project’s Resilience & Recovery fund will turn two years old. It was born in the early days of the pandemic, conceived out of an understanding of the importance of community-led, grassroots responses to unforeseen emergencies. We...
One Man Recycles Trash to Create Healthy Food and Feed a Town
The Mushroom Guy. That is the name the community has given to him. It might have something to do with the jacket he wears as it has a giant mushroom on the back but more than likely, it has to do with the fact that Jake Garza has done something extraordinary - he’s...
Inspiring Young People to Apply Design Thinking to Social Issues
As a young girl, AnnaLise Hoopes felt overwhelmed by all the problems in the world and continually asked herself, “What can I do with my one life to make the most impact?” The answer would arrive in college, when she learned of humane education—using education as a...
Journeying Together
Dear Friends, I want to thank you for the warm messages I have received from so many of you during this, my first full week as Executive Director of The Pollination Project. It goes without saying that I am deeply humbled and honored to have the immense privilege of...
Raising the Voices of Indigenous People in an Effort to Save Our Planet
When Abdel Mandili, a filmmaker from the Netherlands, returned home after working on a project that documented the threats that Indigenous people were facing in a battle over palm oil in Indonesia, he hoped things would change. However, in speaking with community...
One Inspiring Program Empowering Women Entrepreneurs
When two, talented women with a love of technology and entrepreneurship came together to create a program that would inspire young Nigerian women to further their education and develop entrepreneurial skills, they had no idea how many lives they would positively...
Transitions
It was nearly ten years ago when I found myself at a crossroads. After years of monastic life - the only world I had known as an adult - I felt a pull in my heart that it was time to move on. I didn’t know what the future held, but I knew that I had grown as much as I...
Dancing with the Natural World
Imagine dancing upon a beautiful, wooden dance deck that lives among a lush landscape of gardens and trails on a warm summer afternoon. The sun kisses your skin as you move across the floor and through the space exploring the connection between your body and the...
Doing Nothing Is Easy
To see something takes little effort. And when we see something, doing nothing is easy. Part of the problem we have in today's times is that we have lost view of the inherent agency each and everyone of us have to be agents of change. It’s become far too easy to do...
Hope Floats on the Wings of a Butterfly
Perhaps it was witnessing her mother’s commitment to environmental politics and the work she did for Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley’s Solar Committee in the 1970’s that inspired her. Or it might have been her own personal experience of saving a chrysalis - the hard...
One Woman’s Inspiring Journey to Provide Access to Education for Children in Nigeria
The Beyond the Classroom Foundation, an incredible volunteer-driven nonprofit working to improve access to education for children and reproductive health education for girls in marginalized communities in Nigeria, was founded by Raquel Kasham Daniel. When varying time...
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