Feel Good Friday - Greater New Orleans Foundation

The last few Feel Good Friday blogs have been focused on disaster and crisis relief around the world. That general theme continues today with the Greater New Orleans Foundation .

Earlier this week, Hurricane Ida caused massive destruction when it hit the Gulf Coast of the United States. Many organizations have stepped in to help with disaster response and restoration, including the Greater New Orleans Foundation (GNOF).

What began in 1923 as the Community Chest of New Orleans, GNOF is a philanthropic institution with a mission to “drive positive impact through philanthropy, leadership, and action in the Greater New Orleans Region.” They do this by connecting “donors and fundholders with causes that they’re passionate about to affect transformational change.”

?Initiatives being run by GNOF include:

• Give NOLA Day , a one-day online giving event that raised $8,150,891 for 910 different organizations in 2021.
• Impact 100 , a group of over 100 local women who each donate $1,100 then pool their dollars to make a single transformative grant to a different local nonprofit every year.?
• NOLA 360 , a forum that brings together local and national experts, philanthropists, nonprofits, and community leaders to discuss challenges facing communities in the greater New Orleans area and ways to get involved in the solutions.

Other areas focus for GNOF include providing nonprofits with training to increase their leadership and effectiveness , environmental work related to water management and restoration of the Gulf Coast, and a Workforce Innovations Program in which GNOF “partners with employers to provide post-hire support to their incumbents in an effort to assist with those barriers employees face that may or may not be associated with their day to day work, but that impacts their ability to effectively do their job.”?

?In 2020, over 300 organizations received leadership and effectiveness training, 126 employee clients were served in the workforce innovations program and over $70,000 was granted from the disaster response and restoration fund.

?If you’d like to help the Greater New Orleans Foundation support the people of Louisiana and ?provide recovery efforts in response to Hurricane Ida, the best way to do that is with a donation . You can also amplify their message by liking their Facebook page and following them on Twitter @GNOFoundation and Instagram @gnofoundation.

If you’re looking for more organizations currently providing assistance in Louisiana, check out the Feel Good Friday blogs on World Central Kitchen and Project Hope .