New Impact Offerings, Restoring Healthy Wildlife Ecosystem, Shop to Support Social Entrepreneurs and Employing People with Disabilities
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Alpha Motor Corporation Featured Among New Impact Offerings - January 22, 2024
Each week, Superpowers for Good shares a list of new impact-related offerings added to FINRA-Registered crowdfunding portals and by broker-dealers. We’ll share four separate lists:
Impact offerings as determined by KingsCrowd reviews.
Offerings with minority founders.
Deals with women founders.
Those with LGBTQ founders.
Your Yard Plays a Vital Role in Restoring a Healthy Wildlife Ecosystem and Fighting Climate Change - s11 ep48
AI Episode Summary
1. Shubber Ali is the CEO of Garden for Wildlife, which aims to educate people about native habitat protection and provides access to native plants for gardens, with a history extending from a program started by the National Wildlife Federation.
2. The initial focus of the program has been to protect species like the monarch butterfly and pollinators, creating certified wildlife habitats mainly in people’s yards and schools.
3. After moving from California to Maryland, Shubber transformed his lawn into a habitat for birds and pollinators by planting native species, inspired by Doug Tallamy’s book Nature's Best Hope, which emphasizes the importance of native plants for local ecosystems.
4. Shubber identified a core problem in the marketplace: the lack of supply of native plants, as most big box stores sell invasive species, harming local ecosystems.
5. Seeing an opportunity to address the problem, Shubber pitched a business plan to the National Wildlife Federation to create Garden for Wildlife, a company that would directly ship native plants to customers' doorsteps.
6. After a successful launch inside the National Wildlife Federation, Shubber proposed spinning Garden for Wildlife out as a separate company, with the Federation as the majority shareholder, employees as stakeholders, and bringing in outside investors.
7. They launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise additional working capital to scale operations, like building more greenhouses, offering different tiers of investment for shares in the company.
8. Garden for Wildlife's website features a native plant finder database, allowing customers to easily find plants that are native to their zip code, aiding in efficient and eco-friendly gardening.
9. Shubber touched on the connection between Garden for Wildlife’s mission and climate change at COP28, discussing how planting native species with deep root systems can help biodiversity, water absorption, and carbon sequestration.
10. Shubber invites interested parties to visit Invest.GardenforWildlife.com to read more about and participate in the investment offering, and he recommends reading Doug Tallamy’s book for a deeper understanding of the importance of supporting native plants for environmental health.
You Can Shop to Support Social Entrepreneurs
Here at Superpowers for Good, we love to talk about impact crowdfunding—the investments we make to support social entrepreneurs, diverse founders and community builders. Today, we’re going to highlight some of the companies that have successfully raised via crowdfunding and that are selling their products on Amazon—giving you another way to support impact!
Ziba Foods
The first company I want to profile is Ziba Foods. I invested in Ziba about two years ago, right after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. The withdrawal left women in desperate peril. Ziba was—and still is—employing women in Afghanistan at fair wages in a country where getting a job is somewhere on the spectrum between difficult and dangerous. Ziba produces delicious snacks—I’ve eaten them—that are sold in the Ziba store on Amazon.
Nonprofit Leader Offers Tips for Employing People with Disabilities - s11 ep49
AI Episode Summary
1. Dom Kelly is the founder, CEO, and president of New Disabled South, a nonprofit with an affiliated 501(c)(4), that focuses on advocacy and support for disabled individuals in the South.
2. New Disabled South is unique in focusing on disability issues from a regional perspective in the South, addressing common challenges that disabled individuals face in the area.
3. Some of the challenges specific to the South include barriers to voting access, non-expanded Medicaid, long waiting times for home care waivers, higher poverty rates, inaccessible transportation, and housing crises.
4. Dom mentions that leaders lacking empathy can negatively impact both their leadership and their organization.
5. New Disabled South's employment practices are designed to create an inclusive and supportive environment and include benefits like a four-day workweek and fully paid unlimited time off, among others.
6. The organization’s workplace policies prioritize empathy and support for employees' overall well-being and life experiences.
7. Dom believes that his superpower is empathy, which has been shaped by personal experiences, such as the loss of his brother when they were children.
8. He shares a story where displaying empathy during a difficult time at his job led to him doubling down on his commitment to help refugees, which reaffirmed his values and eventually brought him on the path to his current work.
9. Dom advises that developing empathy starts with genuinely listening to others without interjecting, allowing for perspectives and experiences to be shared openly.
10. Dom can be reached and supported through New Disabled South’s website (newdisabledsouth.org), with direct donation links available, and he is also on LinkedIn and social media under the handle (at)the_tattooedjew.
Upcoming SuperCrowd Event Calendar
If a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.
SuperCrowdHour February with the CfPA Executive Committee: This free event features President Brian Christ, Vice President Jenny Kassan, Secretary Brian Belley and Chair Scott McIntyre. Learn how you can join and make a difference. Earn rewards!
SuperCrowdBaltimore, March 21, 2024 This in-person event at the B&O Rail Museum features some of Baltimore’s prominent citizens and community leaders. Save 30 percent with the discount code “SuperCrowd.”
SuperCrowd24, April 17-18: This two-day virtual event is our biggest event of the year. Don’t miss it. Save 50 percent with the discount code “SuperCrowd.”
SuperCrowdChicago, June 12, 2024. Save the date! More information is coming soon!
SuperCrowd Community Event Calendar
If a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.
Local Investment 101 with Michael Shuman, January 27 - February 24, Lake Katrine, NY
CfPA Webinar: A Conversation with Brendan Ballou, Author of Plunder, January 31
Crowdfunding & SBA Lending with Kathleen Minogue of Crowdfund Better, February 6
Neighborhood Economics, February 26-28 in San Antonio, Texas
If you would like to submit an event for inclusion on our community calendar, click here.