Basic Kindness
Sharing bags and kindness
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Basic Kindness works to create awareness about housing insecurity by providing opportunities for people to engage in mutual acts of kindness. We believe that if more people had the opportunity to engage with each other they would continue to support each other. We would like to encourage more people to work to end housing insecurity and homelessness. Eradicate these structural problems will require municipalities, organizations, and individuals to work together using both large scale and grass roots programs and practices. We took note of the amount of people we saw in cars or walking on the sidewalk, ignore other people, often unhoused people, asking them for help. We focus our efforts on this part of the solution, we would like to increase the number of people who stop and interact with people who ask them for help. Our goal is to create mutually beneficial opportunities for acts of kindness.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Basic Kindness Bag Sharing Program
Basic Kindness creates awareness about food and housing insecurity by providing resources and support for
individuals or groups to engage in meaningful and mutually rewarding exchanges through intentional acts of kindness. People take a free basic kindness bag when they leave events or businesses and share the bag,
the next time that they meet someone asking for help. We also work with youth groups, businesses, and organizations to support bag building and bag distribution events. Basic Kindness Bags include approximately three dozen research based basic necessities.
Where we work
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of care packages delivered
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Homeless people
Related Program
Basic Kindness Bag Sharing Program
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
We have been invited to over a dozen events in our short existence and we have shared over 360 care packages for people living without shelter with attendees leaving these events.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Basic Kindness works to create awareness about housing insecurity by providing opportunities for people to engage in mutual acts of kindness. We share basic kindness bags, care packages for people experiencing homelessness with people leaving concerts and events, businesses, schools, and other organizations so that people can take a free bag and share it the next time they meet someone experiencing homelessness. According to Dr. Waguih William IsHak, of Cedars-Sinai, "We all seek a path to happiness, practicing kindness toward others is one we know works." He explains that engaging in acts of kindness creates a biochemical reaction in our brain that makes us happy and feel better, however, kindness is most beneficial as a practice. To maintain the feeling you have to keep engaging in acts of kindness.* Our mission is to provide opportunities for people to engage in a mutual act of kindness as the start of a practice. *https://www.cedars-sinai.org/blog/science-of-kindness.html
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
We share bags at concerts and events. Additionally we help other organizations create bag building and distribution events, and provide bag donations to organizations that do grass roots outreach.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
We have several connections to local business and musicians. Additionally we have several volunteers and connections with local colleges to help us to collect materials, identify possible events, and create care packages. We have been able to maintain our goal of sharing bags a minimum of twice a month, often exceeding our goal. We also continue to share at a pace of 1,000 bags a year, also exceeding our goal.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Each year we have increased our connections to people who can support our programs and outreach. These include other organizations, businesses, community leaders, and people in the music industry to support our programs and outreach. We have also expanded our programing through collaborations with local businesses and nonprofit organizations, doing retail bag item collection and distribution, and participating in community festivals. Each year, with the exception of 2021, which was greatly impacted by covid, we have been able to increase our programs, outreach, and distribution.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We share the feedback we received with the people we serve
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Basic Kindness
Board of directorsas of 05/07/2024
Heather Bickley
Founder
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 05/07/2024GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.