I live in Boston’s South End, a nice neighborhood with mostly nice people.  Dogs wag their tails on the red-brick sidewalks outside coffeeshops nestled among the picturesque Victorian red-brick brownstones.  Our neighborhood was built to look like London in the 1850s in an attempt to attract the business-owning class to stay in Boston — and 150 years later it’s weathered business cycles and weather, to be the picturesque neighborhood it is today.

Speaking of weather, the winters are awfully harsh here in Boston, so it’s a good thing there are charitable organizations like the Pine Street Inn to help end homelessness in Boston.  Homelessness is a human tragedy that represents a failure of our collective responsibility as a society.  The Pine Street Inn is not far from us, and right on Upton Street, the block next to mine, they own three brownstones at 38-42 Upton Street, which they plan to convert into long-term affordable apartments for formerly homeless clients who are ready for a stable living environment.  The Pine Street Inn has several other affordable-housing buildings in our neighborhood, right alongside the fancy condos and “regular” apartments, with no significant impact on crime or quality of life at all.  These folks blend right in and have done for decades.

Sadly, some of our neighbors don’t feel our neighborhood is for everyone.  See the recent TV coverage at http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/19705850/detail.html — our neighborhood association has been taken over by people who oppose affordable housing for the poor, simply on the grounds that they don’t want poor folks living on their street.  This is terrible.  Several of our decent neighbors signed a majority petition supporting the Pine Street Inn, but still these neighbors fight the poor, with intimidating signs in their windows and spreading falsehoods on TV.  See my blog at http://www.CompassionateNeighbors.org/ for more information.

I’d really like for a company like GGG to be able to help issues like this by giving the vast majority of decent people an easy way to donate to an organization like the Pine Street Inn — say, for legal defense against frivolous lawsuits, or just to support their programs.  When rich neighbors intimidate a charity with their copious free time and funds for lawyers, there has to be a grassroots way to respond.  I’m frustrated, frankly, that my company doesn’t yet have the ability to quickly raise funds for news-cycle-responsive causes like this.  We’re still a very new company, and we will develop that ability.

For now, check out CompassionateNeighbors.org and stay tuned to this evolving issue.

We’re very excited to announce we’ve signed a contract with Project HOPE, the respected global-health organization, to create a grassroots fundraising website for them!  Our website will figure prominently in their upcoming new web design and fundraising strategy.  We’re very excited, too, to be teaming up with the professionals at ICF International to “fuel the fire” and market this cutting-edge grassroots fundraising website!  We should be launched by late July after working with Project HOPE on an initial web design and setup activities.  GGG could not ask for a better launch client in Project HOPE or partner in ICF.  We are totally committed to Project HOPE’s grassroots fundraising success, and we’re proud to be part of their lifesaving work all around the world.  Stay tuned for more!