Blog

Having celebrated VIVA’s 8 year anniversary as a firm, we are proud to reflect on how we view our work, our team, and those we serve. We regularly discuss as a team what brings us together and what unifies our efforts, and at the end of these conversations, we always land on social impact partnerships. With this in mind, we began to think about our firm’s name. But before we go further, let’s take a brief walk back in time. When Nicole and…

At this year’s Build #QRIS2019 Conference, we participated in some excellent sessions, delivered three presentations, spread the word about VIVA Goods, caught up with many familiar faces…and, of course, ate more than our share of beignets!

Did you know that summer reading programs began in the 1890s as a way to encourage school children, particularly those in urban areas, to read during their summer vacation?

Yes, meetings can be powerful. As professionals, there are times when we wonder, “Why are we meeting? Was that worth my time?” And other times when we walk away feeling the WOW of a great meeting. For those of us focused on social impact, it is worth pausing to think about how we can make our time together even better.

Quick—how long would it take you to grab your phone and take a picture right now? 30 seconds? 1 minute? The ubiquitousness of smartphones means that we each have a camera, video camera, and ways of sharing what we’ve captured with the world at our fingertips, virtually all the time. So what do we do with that?

Effective nonprofits are vital to the healthy development and quality of life in any community. An effective nonprofit, is one with a strong capacity to deliver on its mission. Naturally, this starts with a clear mission and purpose, but it also includes strong governance and leadership as well as financial and professional development systems and infrastructure capacity.

Sometimes the most exciting grantmaking opportunities happen thanks to the smallest comments or observations.

There is an overwhelming unmet need for quality early learning access and supports for young children in California. 

Here is a fact we all know to be true: technology is always changing. Did you just buy the latest iPhone? Don’t get attached–something newer and better is inevitably going to come along within the next six months. Websites are no exception to this ever-changing landscape. Websites we visit on a daily basis are constantly changing to add new features, levels of interactivity, and other bells and whistles that set them apart from the sea of websites that fill the…

QRIS is undeniably complex – and with reason! Quality rating and improvement systems assess, improve and communicate the quality of early childhood programs, and can be thought of as a framework for improving quality in the early learning system overall. However, this complexity makes it a very hard concept to explain to parents and providers, two of the primary target audiences of QRIS. When parents and providers don’t understand, they often feel confused and choose not to learn more. So…