PLATINUM2023

Songs & Smiles

Joy for the Alzheimer's Journey

Grapevine, TX   |  https://www.songsandsmiles.com/

Mission

Keeping families connected during the Alzheimer's journey

Notes from the nonprofit

Together, we can and will make a difference!

Ruling year info

2020

Executive Director

Eric Kolb

President

Sheryl Kolb

Main address

129 S Main St Ste 260

Grapevine, TX 76051 USA

Show more contact info

EIN

84-4550884

NTEE code info

Alzheimer's (G83)

Community, Neighborhood Development, Improvement (S20)

Family Services (P40)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

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Communication

Blog

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Alzheimer’s destroys connections. The disease starts by destroying a person’s connection with their own memories. Too often, the disease also destroys connections between people caring for the person who has Alzheimer’s. The journey challenges the entire family, because it is distressing to watch your loved one slowly decline. Caring for someone who has Alzheimer’s gets progressively harder and can last for many years. Sadly, many primary family caregivers get so worn out that they die even before the loved one who has Alzheimer’s. Other caregivers survive, but fail to thrive. Family members and friends stop visiting, eventually drifting apart. Celebrations cease.

Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

In-Person Singalongs

Our in-person singalongs connect people living with dementia with joyful memories and emotions, as well as with their families and friends.

Population(s) Served
Caregivers
Families
Terminally ill people
Chronically ill people

Care tips and resources for families and caregivers. Provided in-person, online, and through the mail.

Population(s) Served
Caregivers
Families

We produce Joyful Memories, a dementia-friendly magazine. Features large type, high-contrast colors, and easy-to-follow-design. No ads, no phone numbers, no current events, and no stories continued on another page. Just fun, interactive, and engaging content. Each issue focuses on a single topic (i.e. gardening, dogs, moon and stars). The magazine is designed to help people living with dementia connect with memories and emotions as well as with family and friends.

Population(s) Served
Caregivers
Terminally ill people
Families

Our free online library of singalong videos are carefully crafted to help people living with dementia connect with joyful memories and emotions, as well as with families and friends.

Population(s) Served
Caregivers
Families
Terminally ill people
Chronically ill people
Caregivers
Families
Terminally ill people
Chronically ill people

Where we work

Affiliations & memberships

Member, Alzheimer's Foundation of America 2023

Grapevine Chamber of Commerce 2023

Our results

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.

Number of books distributed

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Caregivers

Related Program

Educational Resources

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

Selection of helpful books made available free of charge to dementia caregivers.

Number of unique website visitors

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Caregivers

Related Program

Educational Resources

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Number of rallies/events/conferences/lectures held to further mission

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

People with diseases and illnesses, Caregivers

Related Program

In-Person Singalongs

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

Singalongs at memory care and assisted living facilities

Number of Facebook followers

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Caregivers

Related Program

Educational Resources

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Our Sustainable Development Goals

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.

Goals & Strategy

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

Our mission is keeping families connected during the Alzheimer's journey. Our programs and activities are designed to: 1) Increase awareness of the challenges faced by families when a loved one has Alzheimer’s. 2) Help people living with Alzheimer’s better connect with families, friends, and their own joy-filled memories. 3) Provide practical help and encouragement to caregivers and families.

We focus on care, not the cure. We focus on practical and positive care. We focus on supporting primary caregivers by involving family, friends, and communities. And we focus on joy. We know the pain and frustration of caring for a loved one who has Alzheimer's, but we are committed to helping families find joy during the Alzheimer's journey.

Our strategy involves three primary areas of programming: educational resources, singalongs, and magazines.

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES:

Our website and social media platforms teach and equip families and friends, encouraging them to 1) Grieve along the way, recognizing real loss. 2) Rest, realizing and accepting some things aren’t fixable. 3) Invite family and friends to join the journey. 4) Connect through songs and smiles. 5) Celebrate life with love and laughter.

In-person educational workshops provide caregivers and families with personal instruction and interactive training and discussion.

We provide a selection of helpful books and dvds to caregivers free upon request.

SINGALONGS:

Our singalongs are carefully crafted to engage people living with dementia, helping them better connect with memories and emotions, as well as with family and friends. Our singalongs also provide moments of respite for caregivers and families.

We present in-person singalongs and an online library of singalong videos.

MAGAZINES:

We are producing a magazine designed especially for people living with dementia. In the future, we also plan to produce a magazine designed to educate and encourage caregivers.

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES:

Our online presence has grown steadily since we launched our website in August 2020. In 2021, more than 12,000 people visited our website, and we increase our reach and number of followers on each of our social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Vimeo, and YouTube). More than 1,300 people read our article on Not-So-Obvious Dementia Care Tips. We added a translation service to our website, so visitors can now read all of our articles in English or Spanish. We continue to add helpful articles. Most are written by us, but we also have invited caregivers and industry experts to write articles for our website.

In 2021, we presented our first workshop on "Grieving Along the Way" to help dementia caregivers better understand and manage ambiguous loss and complicated grief.

We started offering books and DVDs to caregivers free upon request. In 2021, we mailed 55 books and DVDs to 43 caregivers in 27 different states.

SINGALONGS:

We presented 188 in-person singalong shows at care facilities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, including 31 Christmas shows. We also presented singalong shows at care facilities in Iowa and Wisconsin. In 2021, our YouTube and Vimeo singalong videos received more than 17,000 views. We continue to expand our online library of singalong videos.

MAGAZINES:

We are currently working on layout and design of a magazine for people living with dementia. After a period of testing, feedback, and revision, we plan to launch mid-year on a quarterly schedule, printing 500-1,000 copies of each issue for distribution primarily in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

OTHER:

We are now offering professional family photography services to local memory care facilities.

How we listen

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.

done We shared information about our current feedback practices.
  • Who are the people you serve with your mission?

    We serve people living with dementia, as well as the friends, families, and communities loving and caring for them.

  • How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?

    To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals

  • What significant change resulted from feedback?

    We added a Spanish language translation tool to our website, a response to our digital analytics. We started providing books and DVDs to caregivers free of charge, responding to feedback that we needed to make resources more accessible, easier, and less expensive to acquire. We get regular feedback from attendees at our Singalong Shows … from people living with dementia and their caregivers. Based on this feedback, we add and modify songs and song selection, and we also have learned to better interact with audiences during shows.

  • Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

    We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback

  • What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

    We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback

Financials

Songs & Smiles
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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

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Connect with nonprofit leaders

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lock

Connect with nonprofit leaders

Subscribe

Build 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.

Songs & Smiles

Board of directors
as of 01/27/2023
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board chair

Sheryl Kolb

Songs & Smiles

Term: 2020 - 2023

Melanie McGee

Stacey VanBeek

John Ponder

Board leadership practices

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.

  • 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 ? No
  • 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

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 11/20/2020

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
White/Caucasian/European
Gender identity
Male, Not transgender (cisgender)
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual or straight
Disability status
Person without a disability

The organization's co-leader identifies as:

Race & ethnicity
White/Caucasian/European
Gender identity
Female, Not transgender (cisgender)
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual or straight
Disability status
Person without a disability

Race & ethnicity

No data

Gender identity

 

Sexual orientation

Disability

We do not display disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff.

Equity strategies

Last updated: 11/20/2020

GuideStar 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

Data
  • We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
Policies and processes
  • We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
  • 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.