As volunteers and others affiliated with Tri Cycle Farms labored to complete a project on a picture-perfect spring Saturday, organization founder Don Bennett found himself sitting behind a computer more than 30 miles away from the action.
Being indoors was tough on Bennett, who has taken a very hands-on approach to fighting hunger in Fayetteville. Instead of lending a hand on the urban farm he founded, Bennett was at Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville talking Web design with some of the region’s top techies.
“It’s kind of driving me crazy to be here and not there, but this may be the most important thing we do this year,” Bennett said. “We need a website that reflects the great work we’re doing. We need a way to make people want to give or get engaged.”
Bennett was attending GiveCamp NWA, a weekend-long event that matched cash-strapped, nonprofit organizations with developers and other professionals from a who’s who of companies headquartered in the region, including Wal-Mart, Tyson Foods and marketing firm Collective Bias. Seven nonprofit applicants were selected to participate: Fayetteville Partners for Better Housing, L.I.F.E. Ministries Food Pantry and Thrift Store, The Payson Carter Foundation, Tri Cycle Farms, Ozark Education Inc., The Foundation for Nerd Advancement and Seeds That Feed.
Like Tri Cycle’s Bennett, they agreed the three-day event was a critical part of furthering their missions in Northwest Arkansas.
Tri Cycle’s entire budget for 2013-14 was $10,000. Due to grants and other support, the organization will have more than $60,000 to spend this year, but none of that is budgeted for things like marketing or website design. Add on the expense associated with hosting a website and the value of the weekend could get into tens of thousands of dollars.
Ozark Education Inc. founder Christine Silano said her biggest goal for the event was to incorporate application and payment functions into her organization’s existing website. Currently, the nonprofit is spending about $2,000 annually for outside vendors to handle those services.
In addition to saving time and money on Web design, the nonprofits also were given free Web hosting.
“This is like writing us a $10,000 check,” Silano said. “For a brand-new nonprofit that is struggling to get started, it’s hard to explain how much that means.”
GiveCamp events are becoming increasingly popular across the country, and some draw hundreds of volunteers and more than 20 nonprofit organizations. Phyl Amerine of Startup Junkie Consulting and Pablo Arellano Jr., a marketing and technology entrepreneur who recently relocated to Northwest Arkansas, got what they said was a late start on putting the event together. They came up with the idea of reviving an event last held in 2012 and pulled it off in two months.
Amerine said the hope is for next year’s event to rival some of the country’s larger GiveCamps.
“We can do this, we just need to own it,” Amerine said. “That’s our goal. We’ll do it, and we’ll make Northwest Arkansas proud. These events are happening on a large scale all across the country, and there is no reason we can’t match them here. There is enough need and there are enough people who want to give back.”
Volunteers were drawn to the weekend because it provided them with an opportunity to help others. What most struck Chris Whittle, Collective Bias director of technology, was that his time was spent exercising a skill he routinely uses but that would have an impact beyond the weekend.
Whittle and Collective Bias director of marketing and communications Mailena Urso were partnered with L.I.F.E. Ministries. Before the weekend, L.I.F.E. Ministries had no Web presence. Word-of-mouth had been the organization’s only way to reach volunteers, and the time spent by Whittle and Urso was providing a solution with some longevity.
“I could go and volunteer a few hours at L.I.F.E. Ministries, and that would matter, but this website will still be there long after this weekend,” said Whittle. “I couldn’t do nearly as much to make a difference for them if I went and volunteered at their place.”
That potentially lasting impact is what brought Bennett to the event. Last year the urban-farm operation survived on a tiny budget and 11,000-plus volunteer hours, which Bennett said is the nonprofit equivalent of $250,000. Attracting new volunteers, generating additional donations and providing a website that appeals to outsiders - especially those considering Tri Cycle for grants - will be crucial to continuing to help fight hunger in Northwest Arkansas.
For some, the website will be their only interaction with Tri Cycle and thousands of dollars in donation or grant money could hang in the balance, Bennett said.
“We’ve got a site we cobbled together at one point and it seems to be the most unprofessional, unoperational website ever created,” Bennett said. “I appreciate everybody’s effort, but we needed professionals. This was a godsend.”
Business, Pages 19 on 04/21/2014