Connect the Dots disseminates environmental sustainability practices to nonprofit organizations to help organizations meet their social missions in an environmentally responsible manner. We see three dimensions of this goal:

• Action - make immediate, measurable environmental impacts for our clients;
• Autonomy - provide the proper framework, planning, tools, and support structure for our clients to adopt self-sustaining, action-based approaches towards environmental sustainability;
• Diversity – empower people of diverse backgrounds take part in environmental sustainability.

Why We Exist

A nonprofit organization consumes natural resources in the course of its daily operations and finds itself contributing to environmental degradation that may affect the community it serves.

Many people working in nonprofit organizations are aware of this. Even as they strive towards their various social missions – serving food, providing shelter, or offering support services - they sense that their own daily practices have unseen and ironic consequences. For instance, they know that paper for donor mailings means forest depletion and soil erosion and trash from food service kitchens grows landfill.

Disasters like Hurricane Katrina have shown, moreover, that disadvantaged groups like those often served by nonprofit organizations are especially vulnerable to changes in the environment. These reasons all make a compelling case for why organizations with social missions should strive for greener operations, and indeed professionals at nonprofits often express their desire for greater environmental responsibility at work.

Connect the Dots was launched specifically to address the difficulties facing nonprofit organizations as they adopt sustainability at work.

• Piecemeal, isolated efforts - We have found that although individuals within nonprofits may innovate towards sustainability, these efforts are often piecemeal and undertaken as side projects in their spare time. As a result, these innovations remain isolated and unable to affect formal, cultural change across the entire organization.
• Lack of one-stop shopping - We have also found frustration over the lack of one-stop shopping for sustainability. Nonprofit staff find themselves overwhelmed not only by the wide spectrum of improvements available but also by the fact that each improvement requires contact with a different entity.
• Lack of tracking and reporting - And, finally, even after all these hurdles have been jumped by determined staff at nonprofits and changes made, the changes are not often tracked to allow a big-picture view of gains in sustainability. Further, a lack of integration exists between greening efforts and central issues such as the budget. As a result, sustainability seems nice to have rather than routine, and we have learned that lack of reporting drains the momentum that any individual improvements might have fostered, requiring many cold starts down the road.

We at Connect the Dots believe that, with the right guidance, nonprofit organizations can realize their desire for environmental responsibility. Our hope is for nonprofit organizations to undertake the path towards sustainability and truly maximize their care for the communities they serve.