In the last five years, a quirky idea for helping others has transformed into an event that has spurred thousands of people to donate more than $85,000 to nearly 100 groups that are improving Detroit with passionate and inventive projects. And it all started with soup.
Detroit SOUP, an organization that hosts recurring community dinners to give out microgrants, is celebrating its five-year anniversary Sunday with a fundraising party. Though this weekend’s event will be a bit of a blowout, held at the city’s football stadium, Detroit SOUP has built its success on giving Detroiters an easy, affordable and personal way to do good.
For the monthly dinners, attendees pay a $5 suggested donation to eat a meal of soup and salad and hear four presentations, each under four minutes long, from people seeking funds, whether for a community radio station, literacy program, kids’ four-square tournament or anything else that benefits the community. Then, the audience votes for their favorite, and the winner takes all the donations home. The total award varies by event, ranging from a couple hundred dollars to over $4,000 (that one went to a woman starting a flower farm).
Kaherl speaks at a recent Detroit SOUP dinner. Photo by Kenny “Karpov” Corbin.
“The system’s messed up, so I removed the rigamarole,” Director Amy Kaherl said about the straightforward funding process, in contrast to the barriers to achieving nonprofit status and applying for traditional grants. Though there’s no oversight in how winners spend their funds, Kaherl told The Huffington Post all but a handful of project leaders have come back to later dinners, as expected, to talk about what they did with the money.
“I feel like people feel accountable to the community once they win,” Kaherl said. “They want to come back with their story.”
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Burners without Borders Detroit is helping the homeless, a backpack at a time.
Ronald Parrish and Danielle Doxie Kaltz under a highway bridge chatting with a man about he needs. Courtesy Burners without Borders Detroit.
Danielle Doxie Kaltz started Detroit’s Burners Without Borders (associated with Burning Man) before she named it anything, when in 2007 she began bringing food and supplies to homeless people she encountered in the city. It became a routine, and soon grew into an organized group that would fill backpacks with supplies, including food, socks, ponchos and gloves, which they would hand out to homeless people.
Kaltz, who won $700 from SOUP in 2011, said her one rule for volunteers is to exchange names with the homeless to ensure empathy.
“We have no overhead, we just have people who are passionate about helping out,” Kaltz said. “We don’t have the skills to get somebody off the streets, but we can give compassion and human connection and a bit of supplies to get through an evening, or maybe two.”
See Detroit SOUP’s site for tickets and information on their five-year anniversary fundraiser Sunday at Ford Field in Detroit.
