Our Blog
The stories behind the grants
The Hill & Dale Show – Interview with Alissa Hauser
Alissa Hauser, our Executive Director, was recently a guest on the popular LA Talk Radio Show, the Hill & Dale Show. Listen to the recording (Alissa's part is about 32 minutes into the May 22, 2013 show).
Bérangère Maïa Parizeau & Noam Chomsky
We gave Maïa a Pollination Project grant to help her make a documentary about Professor Noam Chomsky and his commentary on our planetary environmental crisis. See the original grant announcement. We enjoyed her update so much, we wanted to share it! "Meeting...
A Grantee Update from Nikki Myers
Pollination Project grantee, Nikki Meyers, recently wrote this post for Mind Body Green about her journey into addiction recovery through yoga. Nikki is the founder of Yoga for 12 Step Recovery and we loved the humanity, authenticity and love that comes through in...
Solutionaries!
Recently, grantee David Sidwell produced the first- ever Solutionaries Congress. Building on the amazing work of Zoe Weil and the Institute for Humane Education, David explains, "Solutionaries are people who transform unjust, unsustainable, and inhumane systems into...
Inspired by Jennie Kay, the Detroit Sanctuary Project
Jennie Kay, a Detroit native, set out to do something really ambitious. She is organizing an army of volunteers to photograph every single house of worship on every street of Detroit, Michigan. By documenting spaces of "sanctuary" Jennie hopes to create a new kind...
Meet our 100th Grantee: Thomas Ponce, Founder of Lobby for Animals
Our 100th Grantee of 2013 is Thomas Ponce, a Florida 12 year old who recently launched Lobby for Animals. Lobby for Animals is a website that provides timely, relevant, user-friendly tools and resources to animal rights activists of all ages to support them in...
Wisdom 2.0, Marianne Williamson and Community
This past weekend I attended parts of the Wisdom 2.0 Conference in San Francisco. The Conference, in its 4th year, is focused on the intersection of technology, wisdom and interconnection. It is a gathering of 1,500 people across the technology and "mindfulness"...
Fox & Friends Interview with Ari Nessel
http://www.youtube.com/embed/7RpR-R2eztY This short interview also featured grantees Melody Moore, Oscar Medina and Hashem Abushama.
Girlie Girl Army
How can you not love the title? "This Dude Gives Away $1,000 a Day to Things He Believes In"
Featured Grant: Keith McHenry’s Food, Not Bombs Free Skool
by Stephanie Klempner Recently, I had the sincere pleasure of chatting with Keith McHenry, a founder of Food, Not Bombs, and Pollination Project grant winner. Via our partnership with World Peace Earth, The Pollination Project awarded a grant to fund his newest...
City Life Magazine
Post on The Pollination Project from Toronto's City LIfe Magazine. Click here to download a pdf of the print article.
What Can One Person Do to Change the World?
The Highlander Center, credited with training Rosa Parks and some of the greatest social justice and civil rights leaders of our time, posted this photo on 2/1/13. They reminded us that 53 years ago at 4:30pm, four brave students at A&T University sat down at a...
Featured Grantee: Leah Lamb, My Planet
By Peggy Hilden Watch the Trailer for "Seagulls" Each week we read through incredible applications and have an opportunity to share some of the enthusiasm, dedication and passion of the applicants – people with a deep desire to give something back to their...
What is "The Pollination Model" of Philanthropy?
Want to learn more about why we do what we do? Check out Alissa Hauser's article at Philanthrogeek. Click here to go to the article. And if you just can't wait to read the whole thing, here's a short excerpt: ....By any logical standard, it is grossly inefficient...
Featured Grantee: José Ramon
by Mark Morrison As a physical therapist, José Ramon Gonzales had always been interested in the benefits of a healthy lifestyle including fresh garden vegetables. After several years as a physical therapist, he grew empty inside and began contemplating what inspired...
Milena Fraccari, Website Administrator
Milena is a communications consultant and activist from Italy. She majored in Communication and Advertising at the Turin University. She’s been working for over 15 years in Sustainable Communication in the non-profit sector, helping green companies and associations to...
Shabnaz Yousefia, Applicant Advocate
Shabnaz has worked in international development and education for 13 years in countries around the globe - including India, Nepal, Nicaragua, Haiti, Malawi and Senegal. Her passion for social justice has led her to document the oral narratives of women in Nepal as a...
Hana ElSafoury
Hana is a proud Egyptian currently finishing up her B.A at Wesleyan University in CT. Her curiosity about people around her and their stories led her to Anthropology. Nothing brings her more joy than overthinking and endlessly questioning the motivations behind the...
George Freeman
George Reginald Freeman is a dedicated sexual health educator, feminist, researcher, circular transformation agent, and human rights defender for people marginalized and discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. He...
Ulfat Kazemi
TPP Grant Recipient Ulfat Kazemi is an experienced team player, leader and social entrepreneur who is passionate to make big positive impacts with a demonstrated history of working in the community. Furthermore, Ulfat is skilled in proposal writing, project...
Olympia Auset
TPP Grant Recipient Living and learning through the awakening experiences of Vippassana Meditation, Inippi ceremony, and many other transformational, synchronistic events in her journey, Olympia Auset has became steadfast in her commitment to creating infrastructure...
Kahlida Nicole Lloyd
TPP Grant Recipient Kahlida Nicole Lloyd is a believer, attorney, teacher; but most importantly a reconciler. As the founder of Mission Reconcile, Kahlida has a love for people and a love for bringing people together. Through the vision of Mission Reconcile, Kahlida...
Yaminah Childress
TPP Grant Recipient Yaminah Childress is the Founder and Executive Director of the DREAM It Forward Foundation, a nonprofit who’s mission is to help build a foundation of knowledge, life skills, and cultural awareness to youth in under-served communities through...
Sara Trail
TPP Grant Recipient Sara Trail learned to sew at the young age of 4, and is now a successful author, sewing teacher, and pattern and fabric designer. At age 13, she wrote a nationally published book, “Sew with Sara” that teaches teens and tweens how to sew cute...
Sarah Yooyoung Cho
TPP Grant Recipient Highly motivated, enthusiastic, and detail-oriented professional with over 11 years of combined experience in the non-profit and government sectors. I am familiar with cultural diversity, human rights violations, and organizing various programs for...
Happy Arnold
Happy Arnold has newly been appointed as The Pollination Project (TPP) Grant Advisor. Arnold holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Cultural Studies from the University of Malawi and Diploma in Journalism from The Polytechnic. He has been working with different...