Give Back Cincinnati celebrates its
10th anniversary this Thursday. Soapbox asked Joe Hansbauer, Ryan Rybolt and Jamal Muashsher to share their thoughts on the celebrated young professional volunteer organization they founded a decade ago and why Cincinnati was the perfect fit.
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Q: So take us back ten years ago and share how Give Back came to be?
Rybolt: The inception of Give Back Cincinnati occurred in December 2000 when a group of individuals organized a small volunteer event around the holidays, bringing together 50 friends to help repaint Norwood Elementary. The success of this project coupled with an overwhelming interest in future activities from the participants, confirmed our thoughts that an organization adopting such a purpose could succeed. Shortly after that December event, the organization was formalized under the name Give Back Cincinnati.
From our inception, Give Back Cincinnati had a vision to foster lifelong commitment to our community through stewardship, leadership, and dedication.
Q: Were there service models that you looked to around the country to help develop your vision of the organization?
Muashsher: As we established the organization structure we looked at several different models - both nationally and locally. We found that there wasn't one specific model that met our vision and would enable the organization to be successful for the long-term. To develop our model we took this learning and relied on the experience of our first boards with a lot of trial and error to establish the model that has made Give Back a successful part of the Cincinnati community for the past 10 years.
Q: Conversely, are organizations around the country now contacting you to learn how to build their own version of GB?
Hansbauer: We have seen a large interest in our model. There are even a couple of organizations that have launched in Columbus and Evansville that are directly modeled after Cincinnati. We have been open and supportive of others, but have purposely never looked to create an affiliate or franchise model. The biggest driver behind this is that a core reason Give Back Cincinnati was started was to attract and retain young talent in Cincinnati by cultivating a unique social service experience. It would be difficult to use Give Back Cincinnati as a tool for retaining young talent if all of our competitive cities had the exact same program!
Q: Is there something about Cincinnati that helped make Give Back so successful?
Muashsher: Cincinnati is one of the best cities when it comes to giving back to their community. Cincinnatians have a pride in their city and a strong sense of community. Having grown up and spent my whole life here, I'm always amazed at the willingness of the people of Cincinnati to go out of their way to help their neighbor in need.
Hansbauer: In addition, Cincinnati is very unique in the access to leaders (civic, corporate and government) in the city. To try to launch an effort in a much larger city like Chicago or New York would be very difficult.
Q: Besides significant growth in your membership, what has changed in the ten years since you began GB?
Hansbauer: Well for one, all the 'early members' have gotten a lot older. Soon we'll have to start a new organization because we won't fit the demographic anymore. And I'm only half kidding - the new volunteers and members we are recruiting don't want to go hang out and volunteer with a bunch of 40 years olds, and that's just around the corner for most of the founding members. In addition to that the general YP/Creative movement is much larger. When Give Back was getting started, there were only a handful of organizations focused on the demographic. Now, there are literally dozens or organizations. Some large, some small, all contributing in some way to the growing vibrancy of Cincinnati. It's a fantastic thing to see, as Give Back cannot (and does not want to be) everything to everyone. However, we can partner with and support organizations to enhance our offerings, and hopefully support theirs as well.
Q: About five years ago, Give Back started venturing outside its borders with Give Back Beyond. Since then you've sent teams to New Orleans and Guatemala on week-long service trips. Were your members pushing you to expand your reach, or was this the next logical step for the organization?
Hansbauer: Give Back Beyond is a very natural expansion. Our membership is built by a large number of very talented, community minded individuals. The concept of launching a service travel program was driven by a small group of passionate individuals, and the success we've seen from the program has been overwhelming. There have been more than 120 people volunteering in countries around the world (Romania, Ghana, Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Guatemala). In addition, we've sent 450 people to help rebuild New Orleans. A natural question is why would Give Back Cincinnati spend time, resource and volunteers to help build homes in other communities when there is need here. The program is about much more than building houses though. It's about building relationships and encouraging deeper participation in Cincinnati when they return. That theory has proven out dramatically, as we've had dozens of service travel participants go on to serve in leadership capacity for Give Back Cincinnati, and in this capacity making huge impacts in our local community.
Q: Over the years you also incorporated taking a lead in community engagement with your Sounding Sessions, addressing topics of interest to young professionals in Cincinnati. What was the catalyst for starting the sessions and will we see more in the near future?
Rybolt: The catalyst for Give Back's constantly expanding initiatives comes from the ideas and passion of our leaders. With a 100% volunteer leadership team that transitions each year, there is a constant flow of new ideas introduced to the organization. As a co-founder of the organization, I never imagined (or would ever take credit for) the many new initiatives, including International Service Travel, Thanksgiving Feasts, or Sounding Sessions. These are all ideas that spawned after the organization was handed to "new legs off the bench". As long as we continue attracting new leaders to the organization, there's no predicting what new initiative Give Back will launch.
Q: Lily Pad was another initiative that transcended the traditional 'volunteer organization' role that GB plays in our community. Can you update us on your progress and perhaps share a little bit about what's next?
Hansbauer: Lily Pad was an innovative program built specifically to address a need in our community and by our target audience. The access to free wireless internet in communities throughout Cincinnati was an important program. Lily Pad was able to do some amazing things as an all-volunteer organization. It was unique in the country. Nowhere else was there a major internet provider (Time Warner) working collaboratively with a non-profit to give away one of their core products. In addition, Lily Pad was able to compete for and win a national RFP to provide free wireless at the Cincinnati International Airport. As an all-volunteer organization we were able to compete with some of the largest internet providers in the country and able to drive the RFP process to require all bids provide free service.
Lily Pad is now closing up operations though. Similar to every program and every event that Give Back runs, we continually evaluate the community need and determine how to proceed. Since WIFI and 3G/4G are now pervasive in the community (you can get free wifi everywhere from Starbucks to McDonalds), there is no longer the same need. So as locations' contracts are up, we will be taking the service offline.
Q: Your latest program is
Fuel Cincinnati, which provides funding for good ideas by young professionals. At your core you're largely a volunteer and service organization, but what inspired the notion to become a financial sponsor?
Hansbauer: Give Back Cincinnati was able to get off the ground with a combination of unique vision, passionate volunteers and luck. The luck came into play because those with the vision and the passion also happened to have connections at P&G that allowed the initial funding to come through and get things jump started. We believe at Give Back, that there are dozens and dozens individuals with hundreds of ideas that are amazing. And we want those individuals and those ideas to have the same opportunity that the founders of Give Back had to get our program off the ground. It's as much about investing in new leaders as it is investing in new ideas.
Photography by Scott Beseler.
Dan Feldman (GB Social/Fundraising Director)
, Jamal Muashsher,
Patrick Newton (Civic Engagement Director)
. Joe Hansbauer, Ryan Rybolt
Give Back Cincinnati logo
Ryan Rybolt