What is the BNI® Foundation vs Business Voices™ Teams
Submitted by David Kauffman Vice Chair BNI Foundation
I am often asked what is the difference between the BNI Foundation and the Business Voices Teams? The BNI Foundation is helping to change lives by improving circumstances for children facing financial instability that negatively affect their educational opportunities. We support initiatives that provide resources to educators and organizations that make success easier for kids, either by removing barriers or by providing incentives for focusing on studies. For us, the mechanism to help with this shift is investing our time, treasure, and talent to assist in education where we can. We do this through our Givers Gain® Grant program and through our Business Voices teams.
Business Voices teams can best be described by the phrase “boots on the ground.” Support looks different depending on what the schools or educational organizations identify as their greatest challenges. Our Business Voices teams have accomplished well over 250 projects worldwide in the past 12 months, although I think this is like reporting TYFCB. There is so much not reported! These projects included things like:
- Team Italy supplying over 1000 dental exams to students.
- The BNI Main Line Team donating health care products and coats to children in shelters.
- The BNI Global Support Team collecting school supplies for the Ashley Park School.
- The BNI CEO Team raising over $5000 dollars for school fees and allowing 70 children to continue their studies.
There are so many ways to get involved and help these children. That is why we recommend listening to what the schools, teachers and even the students identify as their unique challenges. Wherever there are young people there are ways they will benefit from having us in their stories.
We call this work cause networking — and who better to lead the way with cause networking than the world’s largest, most successful networking organization?
Tell
Us About Your Business Voices Efforts
You
organized the team, did the work and put together a great project to help
students in your community. Now let us shine a light on your efforts. By
completing the Business Voices monthly form you will inspire others by letting
the world know what your team is doing. Send us photos, videos and details of
your event so we can highlight it on our website and social media.
You
can find the form here. You can also visit our site to learn
about past Business Voices successes.
