Our Focus Areas
Education (primary focus)
Our goal for this focus area is to help advance students' educational experiences and outcomes through mini-grantmaking accompanied by advisory and consultancy support for small-scale projects. To do this, we're gradually building partnerships with the Quincy Public Schools (QPS) system and local 501(c)(3) nonprofits that focus on educating QPS students. Examples of projects we can take on include, but are not limited to, providing college scholarships to high school graduating seniors, funding / co-funding projects designed to enhance the teaching and/or learning experience, or sponsoring / co-sponsoring educational events that foster leadership, collaboration, and sense of community. Our most recent projects include scholarship awards for North Quincy High School (NQHS) Class of 2024 graduating seniors, a mini-grant for the installation of stairway handrails and anchoring of bookcases at Panethnic Pourovers to help ensure the safety of the local community using the facility, and purchase of pizza & beverage for the 2nd Annual NQHS Biotech Fair.
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Food Security (secondary focus)
While not our primary focus, we'll make a small grant from time to time. Our most recent projects include a mini-grant to alleviate a temporary shortage of size 3-6 baby diapers at the QCAP South West Community Center, and another mini-grant to fortify the Community Food Fund program at Panethnic Pourovers.
How We Assess What Projects to Take On
We assess what projects to on by considering the following factors:​
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Vision - Do we have a clear and compelling statement of what the project aims to achieve?
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Value - What benefits will the project deliver to its targeted recipients? How will the project solve their problems or meet their needs?
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Validation - How would the outcome or results of the project be measured or validated?
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It may look easy, but things are always easier said than done. As humans, we've got this tendency to over-analyze problems, over-engineer solutions, and then end up with projects that cost more and take longer to complete, and that's if we actually complete them. That's why we won't tackle complicated and expensive endeavors. We'll only take on small-scale projects that can be completed within a short timeframe. If we ever take on a larger endeavor, it would need to be broken down into smaller "projects" that can be carried out over a longer period of time. And that's honestly a good thing because any organization that takes on more than it can handle is bound to fail, and no one benefits when that happens. Our mantra will always be "While we may have some time, energy and money to spend, we don't have any to waste."
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We're Always Learning
We don't realistically expect every single project to be successful. Just like Hollywood movies, some projects will be flops, and that's ok. We simply won't repeat them. Lessons learned. Life goes on.
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