Feel Good Friday - Waterkeeper Alliance

Today is World Water Monitoring Day, a global call for everyday people to test the water in their own community and share what they find, making it the perfect day to spotlight Waterkeeper Alliance.

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in New York City, the mission of Waterkeeper Alliance is "to connect, support, and advocate with Waterkeeper groups to protect the right to clean water with communities worldwide." The Alliance grew out of an older fight: in 1966, a group of working class fishermen on New York's Hudson River began pushing back against industrial pollution, inspiring local Waterkeeper groups to form around the world.

Each May, Waterkeeper Alliance leads the International Plastic Pellet Count, a hands-on citizen science effort where volunteers search riverbanks, lakeshores, and beaches for the tiny plastic pellets used to make everyday products, then upload what they find to a shared, public database. This year, more than 1,000 volunteers surveyed 249 sites across six countries and found nearly 1.1 million pellets, data now used to push for stronger regulation of the facilities that make and ship them. 

That same hands-on approach runs through the rest of Waterkeeper Alliance's work. Local Waterkeeper groups patrol and test their own waterways year round, a dedicated PFAS testing project is tracking "forever chemicals" in communities facing the greatest exposure, and the policy team is pushing for stronger water protections at the state level and through the ongoing Global Plastics Treaty negotiations.

Waterkeeper Alliance has had a sweeping impact. There are 296 local Waterkeeper groups across six continents who now patrol and protect over six million square miles of rivers, lakes, and coastlines, supporting nearly 2.5 billion people!

Supporting Waterkeeper Alliance is easy, and there are several ways to pitch in. You can make a donation to fund their legal and advocacy work, shop for merch, or find your local Waterkeeper group to get involved close to home. Amplify their message on social media by following them on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or YouTube, and share their fight for clean water with your network.

Happy World Water Monitoring Day!

Feel Good Friday - 9/11 Day

Today is the 25th anniversary of 9/11, marked nationwide as the September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance, and it felt like the moment to finally spotlight 9/11 Day.

Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Irvine, California, the mission of 9/11 Day is "to inspire millions of Americans and others to rekindle the remarkable spirit of unity and compassion that arose in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, and to perform good deeds and other acts of service in tribute to the 9/11 victims, survivors, first responders, and members of our military who bravely rose in service in response to the attacks." Co-founders David Paine and Jay Winuk started the organization after Jay's brother Glenn, a volunteer firefighter, was killed at the World Trade Center.

A premier project is 9/11 Day's Meal Pack which mobilizes thousands of volunteers each September 11 to pack shelf-stable meals that are donated to local food banks for families facing hunger. Since 2016, volunteers have packed more than 20 million meals nationwide. The organization also provides free lesson plans to K-12 classrooms, helping teachers explain 9/11 in ways that emphasize the unity that followed, not just the history.

For this year's 25th anniversary, 9/11 Day awarded $3 million in grants to nearly 200 nonprofits, schools, and community groups across 40 states, with more than 70% going to youth organizations and K-12 schools. The anniversary also brought the UNIITE For Good campaign, an interactive pledge map where actor Pete Davidson, whose firefighter father was killed on 9/11, is helping rally one million pledged good deeds by today.

If you'd like to support 9/11 Day today, there are many ways to do so. You can pledge a good deed at 911day.org, sign up for a Meal Pack shift through their volunteer page, or make a donation. Just $25 funds 50 to 75 meals. You can also amplify their message on social media. Follow 9/11 Day on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or YouTube and share their stories of unity and healing with your network. Here's to turning today into something good.

Feel Good Friday - Ms. Foundation for Women

Oh no, I'm back with another post inspired by the passing of a prominent public figure. This time it's feminist trailblazer Gloria Steinem. Two weeks, two icons gone, which makes this a fitting day to talk about the organization she helped create more than 50 years ago, Ms. Foundation for Women.

Founded in 1973 by Gloria Steinem, Patricia Carbine, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, and Marlo Thomas, and headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, the mission of Ms. Foundation for Women is: “We build women's collective power in the U.S. by investing in, and strengthening, the capacity of women-led movements to advance meaningful social, cultural, and economic change.”

As the nation's oldest women's foundation, the Ms. Foundation doesn't run programs directly. Instead, they fund and strengthen grassroots, women-led organizations working on reproductive health and rights, economic justice, and safety from violence, with a particular focus on women and girls of color. Current grantmaking initiatives include the Birth Justice Initiative, which addresses maternal and infant health disparities, and the Girls of Color Initiative, which funds leadership development for adolescent girls and gender-expansive youth of color.

Their Take Our Daughters to Work Day, created in 1993, became a national institution that's now known to eight out of ten people across the country and involves 35 million participants each year. The Foundation also hosts the annual Women of Vision Awards, originally launched in 1988 as the Gloria Awards in Steinem's honor, celebrating women whose leadership is changing the world.

In the fiscal year ending June 2025, the Ms. Foundation distributed more than $7.6 million in direct grants to 194 grantee partners across 108 cities and towns in 38 states and territories! Over 98 percent of that portfolio is led by women and gender-expansive people of color.

If you'd like to honor and celebrate Gloria Steinem, you can do that by supporting Ms. Foundation for Women. Make a monetary donation, become a monthly giver, or shop their store, with proceeds going toward their grantmaking and advocacy work. You can also amplify their message on social media. Follow the Foundation on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or subscribe to their YouTube channel, and share their fight for equity and justice with your network.

Rest in power, Gloria. ✊