How cool is Operation Turkey?

Operation Turkey is one of those philanthropic organization that can inspire the rest of us to forget our inhibitions and do something obvious to help someone else.

I first read about Operation Turkey in June. Andrea Ball had a bit about the project in her philanthropy column, and reading it was one of those "A-ha!" experiences. What got me about it was the story about how it all started - basically - with one guy just having the guts and willingness to do what we all think about doing.

Thanksgiving 2000: Richard Bagdonas and a few friends were enjoying one of the great big Thanksgiving dinners, complete with all the fixings. Turkey, dressing, rolls, potatoes... all that food piled high on their plates - and there was plenty left over for second and third helpings. After having their fill of Thanksgiving goodness, Bagdonas realized that there was more than enough food left. Plenty. It all made him realize how lucky he was.

Then he thought of the people in Austin who might not get a Thanksgiving dinner that day and, in fact, might not eat anything at all. What a waste. Wasn't there a way, he wondered, to get his leftovers to someone else who might need a good, hot meal? Well... there was.

Why not put some on a plate and drive downtown to find someone to give it to?

Could it be that simple? Would it really help? What if that person was offended, told him to go away, threw the food back at him? Or worse, what if that person tried to rob him or hurt him? It just could't be as simple as putting food on a plate and giving it to someone. If it were, why weren't other people doing it?

That year, despite his fear and hesitations, Bagdonas did it anyway. He drove to Sixth Street, spotted a homeless man in a wheelchair, and offered him the food. The man couldn't speak, but another homeless man sitting nearby thanked Bagdonas and proceeded to feed the man in the wheelchair.

I met Bagdonas for lunch at Casa de Luz this summer. He told me all about that first year.

"I admit it, I cried all the way home," says Bagdonas. "I had just never done something that affected me so much. It was this unbelievable feeling."






Seven years later, Bagdonas is still plating up Thanksgiving dinner, driving around Austin, and handing it out to people on the street. In 2006, he handed out 500 Thanksgiving dinners. And in 2007, Operation Turkey will hand out hundreds of Thanksgiving dinners in 13 cities across Texas and Lousiana. He doesn't do it alone, of course. He's enlisted dozens of volunteers to cook, package, and distribute the food. He's gotten the support of Austin Community Foundations to administer the Turkey fund. He even throws two concerts earlier in the year to help pay for all the food and packaging.

One of the most interesting things about Operation Turkey is that it has had no shortage of volunteers. Aren't there a lot of other places people can volunteer around the holidays? "I think we make a great volunteer experience because I let people choose how they want to help," says Bagdonas. "And we make an effort to find something interesting for people to do." Last year, he remembers, a number of volunteers brought their children, which were quickly enlisted to decorate and color the styrofoam boxes used to serve the food. "We had kids writing 'Happy Thanksgiving' on all these boxes, drawing turkeys, flowers, hearts... it was a great way to get them involved."

Intrepid people in other communities have contacted Richard to figure out how they can start an Operation Turkey of their own. (See this page, "Start in your city") Richard walks them through it, even contacting that person's local police department to find out where it would be safe to deliver food to people in need.

Bagdonas's story and organization continues to stick with me because of its straightforward, entrepreneurial approach to giving. He didn't head for a soup kitchen where he'd be one of many ladeling food. He didn't just write a check the next year to the food bank. ...not that either of these options are bad choices. The point is, Bagdonas found a way to help that best suited him.

It reminds me that there's an opportunity out there for everyone to give.

Make it easy to give

I wondered if was easy to tag-on a canned-food drive to an event. It seems like lots of events do, and it's certainly not asking much of attendees to "pay" for attending the event with a food donation.

We went to a party at my son's Little Gym yesterday in South Austin, and they were collecting cans and cash donations for the Capital Area Food Bank. The party was to celebrate Little Gym's new relationship with Disney - some kind of marketing partnership, I assume - so I didn't expect a fundraiser on top of that.

The Little Gym's staff is small, though they're very dedicated to the children. Pulling off an event this size seemed like a big enough feat in itself - two moonwalks, games, free snacks, and Grupo Fantasma to play (the lead singer is my son's teacher). So to add a food drive on top of it all... must be easy to do, right?

I went to the Food Bank Web site and found a nice sidebar listing - in easy-to-follow language - all the steps to take to have a successful drive. The downloadable Food and Fund Drive Coordinator Kit goes into more detail, and even offer suggestions and downloadable posters and promotional material. And the food-drive registration form is easy to complete, too.

The overall impression I got was that hosting a food drive is easy. How great is that?

I wonder how much this contributes to the Food Bank's success. The forms and downloadable posters are one thing, but they've also obviously thought all this through. They didn't just put it all in plain language and simple instructions, they made the process easy itself.

I also wonder how many other organizations are missing out on donations and volunteers because they make the process and instructions overly complicated. It seems like a big challenge for Austin NPOs is in creating easy and obvious ways for people to give - money, books, toys, clothes, food, school supplies...

I can see this as a regular department in GoodCause. A "So you want to give..." section that features something different each month. A "So you want to give... children's clothes" story would list all the places that take children's clothes and give them directly to the people who need them. Personally, I would appreciate this kind of information. I know these days some people take their stuff directly to eBay or Craigslist or hold some kind of garage sale, but a lot of us are too lazy/busy to do all that ... and Austin charities should captialize on our laziness!

By the way, if anyone knows any charity that needs gently used wedding decorations, please let me know.

GoodCause Logo: What do you think?

Nice, huh? Positive. Clean. Modern.

Torquil did this, of course. He's got this whole idea of how the covers should look, but ... we don't want to give everything away.

But it helps us visualize the magazine to have little (HUGE) things like the logo to look at. It can set the tone for the whole look-and-feel of the magazine. And I think he's pretty close to being right on the money with this one.

Not that we're not open to change!

Coffee with Patsy Woods Martin

One big thing I forgot to mention in my last post was that after reading that article in ABJ, I called up the executive director of the campaign to ask for a meeting. Ballsy, huh?

(I'm not a salesperson but, as a writer who's interviewed at least 100 people on everything from their brother's death to nanotechnology to ice cream, I can make a cold call once in a while and ask for stuff.)

Anyway, she said yes! So we met the next week at Central Market for coffee.

She had had an incredible week, having just launched the I Live Here, I Give Here campaign two days ago at City Hall. So she was still jazzed about the effort and very impressive in her commitment to it. She's the E.D., yes, but lord knows anyone - especially at that point in the campaign - would have had some burnout.

I learned a lot from her about the state of Austin philanthropy. And the great thing is, she was very hopeful about it all. She gave me the impression that local giving in Austin will only get better, bit that the whole idea of it needed to be "sold" to people, probably in the same way the whole "live music capital of the world" thing was sold.

I also got to present to her my little presentation about GoodCause magazine. I love talking about it, but mostly I love hearing people's reaction to it. The good news is, it's mostly positive. And even when they ask tough questions, it helps me go back and rethink parts of the magazine - which makes it so much better.

I think the I Live Here, I Give Here campaign and GoodCause would be a good fit. Both efforts are about the same thing - to raise awareness about the issues and encourage local volunteerism and charitable giving.

But we have lots of work to do to figure out the business plan stuff - figuring out costs and predicting profit. Not my core strengths at all. But it's worth it for me to make the effort.