A Decade in the Making | Taproot Foundation's Advisory Services Newsletter

Ten years ago, when Lindsay Firestone Gruber started Taproot's Advisory Services practice, the purpose was simple: to help nonprofits tackle their toughest challenges by connecting them to hard-to-reach corporate talent. A decade later, the landscape of corporate pro bono is thriving. Kim Gillman, National Director of Advisory Services, sat down with Lindsay Firestone Gruber, founder of Advisory Services and the current Chief Programs Officer, to reflect on the past decade and to explore what’s next for the field.

Unlikely Allies Are Crowdsourcing Funding and Habitat to Save the Monarch Butterfly

The Monarch Butterfly Habitat Exchange is an innovative market-based program dedicated to restoring and conserving high-quality monarch habitat on America's private working lands. It’s been dubbed an ‘Airbnb for butterflies’ because it’s the only program of its kind that can open the vast untapped potential of large-scale farms and ranches to make habitat available for monarchs at an unprecedented scale and pace.

Smithfield Foods, a global food company that is also the world’s largest hog producer and pork processor, is the first food company to participate in the program, contributing $300,000 to restore key prairie habitat for monarchs in Missouri.

Bloomberg Headquarters in New York Receives Highest 3 Star Fitwel Certification From Center for Active Design

Bloomberg L.P.’s headquarters at 731 Lexington Avenue has been certified by the Center for Active Design (CfAD) with a Fitwel 3 Star Rating, the system’s highest achievement level. Fitwel is the leading global health certification, evaluating evidence-based strategies in buildings that support human health. The Center for Active Design is the operator of the Fitwel Certification System and is an international not-for-profit organization that was launched in 2012 by then Mayor and founder of Bloomberg L.P. Michael Bloomberg.

ERM Announces Acquisition of BrownFlynn, Ltd.

ERM, the world’s leading sustainability consultancy, has completed the acquisition of BrownFlynn Ltd (BrownFlynn). BrownFlynn is the leading U.S. corporate sustainability and governance consulting business based in Cleveland, Ohio.

Pizza Hut: The Literacy Project – Help Start a New Chapter

Pizza Hut: The Literacy Project represents a global commitment to literacy and reading. Help start a new chapter for millions of children by enabling access to books and educational resources, empowering teachers and inspiring readers.

Closing the Gender Gap in Women’s Access to Financial Products and Services Could Unlock $330 Billion in Annual Global Revenue

Closing the gender gap in women’s access to financial products and services could unlock $330 billion in global annual revenue, according to a new report released today from BNY Mellon and the United Nations Foundation. Increased market opportunities for financial services firms, along with greater financial inclusion and empowerment for women, are additional key outputs from narrowing this gap.

Sands Cares Fresh Start Mobile Showers: Biannual Review

In July 2017, Las Vegas Sands and Clean the World responded to one of the challenges within Las Vegas’ homeless community with the Sands Cares Fresh Start Mobile Showers Powered by Clean the World, a mobile hygiene unit that visits various locations serving the homeless population to provide showers, hygiene supplies, and other resources.

Innovation Platforms for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa

A project in Uganda, funded by ACIAR and run by the World Agroforestry Centre, is empowering smallholder dairy and honey farmers to control their own community development by gaining access to high-value markets.

General Mills and Its Natural & Organic Brands Join Annie’s in Forging Ahead on Climate Action

We are very excited to see the Climate Collaborative community growing today with General Mills and its nine Natural and Organic (N&O) brands making new climate commitments. With these new commitments, the entire General Mills N&O product line is now represented in the Collaborative.

Alongside this announcement, General Mills is also coming on board as a Climate Collaborative donor at the highest Catalyst level, which means they’ll be helping fund vital programming and events as we look to the project’s second year.

It is incredibly exciting to have such a large company see the value in the collaborative platform we’ve created—and to see them expand the strong record of climate performance from Annie’s and EPIC out to all of their other natural products brands.

Artist Zio Ziegler and WWF Debut Tiger T-shirt on World Wildlife Day

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is proud to collaborate with artist Zio Ziegler on an exclusive new tiger-inspired t-shirt design aimed at raising awareness and support of WWF’s global conservation efforts to protect tigers and other wildlife and wild places.