Archive for March, 2011
Surgance unveils new corporate partnership and program!
Showcase U gives high school student-athletes a way to market themselves to increase their opportunity to be recruited by college coaches and access scholarships. ShowcaseU does this by providing technology and mentoring services for the student-athletes and their families.
Surgance is a 501c3 nonprofit, charitable organization dedicated to uniting uncommon partners on common ground social issues in order to change lives and transform communities.
With this partnership, I am pleased to announce the Surgance Student-Athlete Showcase Powered by ShowcaseU.com.
Through this program, Surgance will provide access to the services provided by ShowcaseU.com to minority and low income populations that could not normally take advantage of them.
The end result we seek to achieve is greater access for these under-served populations to post-secondary educational opportunities.
President and CEO
Surgance, Inc.
Get on the Bus
Seth Godin is my marketing mentor. He had the following post entitled “Without them” to his blog a few weeks back:
One of the most common things I hear is, “I’d like to do something remarkable like that, but my xyz won’t let me.” Where xyz = my boss, my publisher, my partner, my licensor, my franchisor, etc.
Well, you can fail by going along with that and not doing it, or you can do it, cause a ruckus and work things out later.
In my experience, once it’s clear you’re willing (not just willing, but itching, moving, and yes, implementing) without them, things start to happen. People are rarely willing to step up and stop you, and often just waiting to follow someone crazy enough to actually do something.
I’m going. Come along if you like.
This spirit is a part of the Surgance culture. Our mission is to transform communities and change lives. Our strategy to achieve that mission is to empower social entrepreneurs and innovators at the grassroots level. We do this by helping them take new ideas to help people and turning them into impact locally, nationally or internationally as a part of the Surgance movement.
Once their new program or place is official, we bring uncommon partners together on their common ground issue to change lives. By utilizing the Surgance platform, these social innovators have immediate leverage, legitimacy, a distribution network, a national and corporate board, centralized operations and the track record of an organization and/or leaders that have run social programming in over 50 nations and from coast to coast in America. “They” become “us” when they get on the bus.
Our bus is headed to community transformation and life change for those in need. We will get there by bringing uncommon partners together to work collaboratively on common ground, nondivisive issues. We’re looking for people who have the spirit to get that done without having to have everybody on board or everything in place before moving forward with a new idea. Together, we’ll find a way to make a difference.
brian AUDIA
President and CEO
Surgance 2011
Dear Friends,
The mission of Surgance is to unite uncommon partners on common ground social issues in order to transform communities and change lives for the better. The Surgance strategy to achieve the mission is to empower, equip and train the grassroots leader (the next generation social entrepreneur and innovator) that would normally start a new nonprofit organization to use the Surgance corporate name, infrastructure, collective experience, legitimacy and leverage to accomplish far more than they ever could alone or starting from scratch with none of the assets mentioned above. Surgance leaders focus on either programs (issues), or places (geography or populations), with a goal and a desire to transform communities and see as many lives changed as possible. Surgance leaders work only on common ground, non-divisive social issues within communities.
The 501c3 nonprofit corporation is currently based in Boston, MA with offices in five other cities: Atlanta, Birmingham, Las Vegas, Nashville, Tucson; and operations in two-dozen cities and four other nations: South Africa, Zambia, Dominican Republic, Haiti.
There are seven official programs in the areas of education, youth empowerment services, feeding and nutrition, refugee and immigrant services, and athletics. Additionally, Surgance assists with homelessness and coats for the cold in urban centers.
Current Surgance programs:
Surgance Community Collaboration Centers: Provide world-class services to enable nonprofits and social service organizations to achieve breakthrough performance. These organizations benefit through innovation, collaboration, leadership development, strategic planning and professional facilitation services. The impact is increased benefit to the community.
Nutrition and Feeding Program: Brings technological and financial resources to Sub-Saharan Africa to combat malnutrition.
Youth Empowerment Services: Provides children with the knowledge and tools required to succeed in every area of life. Programs include the critical success skills of motivation, self-esteem, goal setting, career assessment, time management, and personal productivity.
Athletic Equipment Program for Underprivileged Youth: Allows those more fortunate to share the joy of athletics with others through equipment drives and distribution to children in urban America and the Dominican Republic.
Construction, Painting and Renovation Program: Brings much needed community investment to Title I schools and historical sites of local significance across America. To date, over 3,000,000 square feet of wall space has been painted coast to coast with community-wide volunteers.
Education Enhancement Services: Provides homework assistance, reading aloud, back-to-school supplies, and international teacher training conferences and sponsorships.
Refugee and Immigrant Services: Works with social service providers and community-based organizations to help new citizens access the resources and support they need to assimilate.
Youth Sports Leagues Rewards Program: Unites communities across the country to show appreciation to youth sports league volunteers while encouraging young athletes to maintain a healthy lifestyle through season-end participation award bags.
The coming year will continue to position Surgance as the industry leader in equipping world changers to go change the world. We’ll accomplish this through two primary foci:
- Strengthening the existing infrastructure and centralized operations to deliver more benefit than ever to our existing social entrepreneurs
- Establishing “Surgance Services” as an alternative to utilizing the expertise within the Surgance network and operative model to allow those that are not interested for whatever reason in coming to Surgance, to pay Surgance to help them establish their own new nonprofit initiatives in a “fee for service” model that will contribute to the net revenue Surgance has on hand to invest in our strategic initiatives
Additionally, Surgance will begin work with Kennesaw State University, an NCAA Division I athletic program, to co-brand fundraising initiatives for their athletic department and Surgance social initiatives in their local community leading to positive life change and community transformation. This could prove a model for Surgance to work with other universities.
And in particular importance, Surgance continues to look to develop collaborative partnerships that will provide benefit to communities and underserved populations. Two examples of this are initiatives underway with the Boston Foundation in the areas of urban violence, youth athletics and the StreetSafe Boston project; as well as an educational incentive project with ShowcaseU.
In 2011, Surgance will continue to provide thought leadership in the area of innovative social enterprise, never forgetting our mission to unite uncommon partners on common ground social issues in order to change lives and transform communities for the better.
All the best,
Brian D. Audia
President and CEO
