Ecogenia Seed Funding
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As a Greek-American, sustainability professional and AmeriCorps alumna, I am excited to introduce you to Ecogenia, an aspiring nonprofit in Greece. As a cofounder alongside Erika Spagakou, I am so thrilled to be kickstarting our seed funding through this campaign. This funding will allow us to support our team members who are currently working full-time in Greece without pay and cover six months of critical operational costs.
Ecogenia’s mission is to provide service year programming that will address pressing community needs related to sustainable development. This will help amplify Greece’s efforts to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Our goal is to become a national program in Greece that provides critical and sustainability-focused employment and training opportunities for young people through a service year model, just like AmeriCorps in the States.
We are a generation with a vision and we are at a critical juncture.
Over the past year, I have met Greeks from around the world - from California to Abu Dhabi - who all believe in creating a sustainable, inclusive and prosperous Greece. In this time, we have crafted our model, identified and developed our two pilot programs, secured key partnerships, and almost completed the process to be established in Greece. All while collaborating remotely across 5 time zones.
Together with our advisors , who offer substantial input pulling from their diverse and rich backgrounds, we make up the growing Ecogenia team.
Ecogenia is inspired by my experience with AmeriCorps in the U.S.. My year of service was truly transformative and connected me to absolutely incredible people, which have turned into lifelong friendships. But most importantly, it provided me employment during the recession of 2008, trained me in practical hard and soft skills, and exposed me to new communities and cultures.
Looking to Greece, the same conditions that led me to apply to AmeriCorps are still very much the reality, 13 years later. The country has never fully recovered from the global recession, and is facing the compounding climate crisis with limited financial resources and significant brain drain. Despite these challenges, and the added stress of the current pandemic, Greek youth are eager to be a part of a sustainable solution, but have limited options.
I've always believed that my family, friends, and peers in Greece could benefit from a program like AmeriCorps - a year-long opportunity, training and mobilizing young people in civic service and engagement to address pressing community needs.
I'm finally turning this belief into a reality.
Why does this matter?
Young Greeks are defined by three major crises – economic, public health and environmental. Because of this, the country holds some of the highest youth unemployment rates and lowest advancements on the UN SDGs in the European Union. Wanting to be a part of solving these problems, we looked to the proven model of civic-engagement as a viable solution. We are leveraging our expertise to craft tailored, community-based solutions that are both responsive and visionary.
So, what do we propose?
We offer civic engagement as an entry point to creating employment opportunities for a sustainability-minded workforce.
• Our main goal is to develop and support the next generation of sustainable leaders by partnering them with NGOs and Companies across Greece in a 6 to 12 month paid service program. We intend to grow into a national program across the country
• Through the service program, the youth, partner organizations, and larger community, all benefit. They benefit In working together:
• The youth will gain new skills and employment opportunities
• The host sites (NGOs and companies) will participate in public interest projects
• The community will become resilient and stronger, all while reaching sustainability goals
What is the value of a service year program? What will it bring to Greece?
• Civic engagement has proven to be a viable asset in the cases of the U.S. and France, with AmeriCorps and Units-Cité respectively. To get a sense of scale, there are 270k+ young adults serving in AmeriCorps, annually. Almost 30k+ people have been mobilized by Unis-Cité since its founding.
• In both cases, the programs have led to significant increases in employment opportunities, civic engagement and upwards of 2x the social return from the investment.
• It is also proven that participating in such civic engagement program helps young professionals refine and gain social and soft skills, which are highly sought after in the job market
• We are confident that in adapting the model to the Greek context, we would see the same positive outcomes.
So where are we now?
1. We are launching our pilot programs in January 2022, you can read about both of them here . We are already working with key local and private actors in both Chania and Dorida. Our goal behind these pilots is to be able to work in local communities that we are already connected to, and where we have secured the endorsement of the relevant municipal authorities. These pilots will allow us to test our model in order to evaluate, adapt and scale our program across Greece. This will also allow us to adjust and fix our prototypes, and hone our impact assessment model and metrics.
> This is why we need to provide stipends for the education professionals on our team developing the curriculum for Chania, and a living stipend for our program developer and strategic partnerships lead, so as to be able to carry out the programs. They are all already working part and full-time on this project, without pay.
2. We are in the final stages of becoming legally established.
> This is why we need initial capital to be able to secure our organization’s status as well as cover the related legal and accounting fees.
3. We are working to build up our communications, development, and program efforts. Our team is personally covering all expenses related to leading multimedia projects, data analysis for impact assessment, and stakeholder engagement.
> This is why we need to be able to secure funding for critical operational costs. While our team is already contributing their know-how and ideas to building up Ecogenia, it is clear that with additional capacity and resources to cover operating cost and critical supplies, their efforts would be amplified all the more.
We hope you will see the impact potential of our program and will consider donating to our campaign. This funding will significantly increase our capacity and allow us to make faster progress as a team innovating for civic engagement and sustainable development in Greece. Any amount is welcome and appreciated. We would love for you to join our mission as agents of change for the country and its youth!
Connect with us on our Website |Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube | Please follow - like - and share!
As a Greek-American, sustainability professional and AmeriCorps alumna, I am excited to introduce you to Ecogenia, an aspiring nonprofit in Greece. As a cofounder alongside Erika Spagakou, I am so thrilled to be kickstarting our seed funding through this campaign. This funding will allow us to support our team members who are currently working full-time in Greece without pay and cover six months of critical operational costs.
Ecogenia’s mission is to provide service year programming that will address pressing community needs related to sustainable development. This will help amplify Greece’s efforts to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Our goal is to become a national program in Greece that provides critical and sustainability-focused employment and training opportunities for young people through a service year model, just like AmeriCorps in the States.
We are a generation with a vision and we are at a critical juncture.
Over the past year, I have met Greeks from around the world - from California to Abu Dhabi - who all believe in creating a sustainable, inclusive and prosperous Greece. In this time, we have crafted our model, identified and developed our two pilot programs, secured key partnerships, and almost completed the process to be established in Greece. All while collaborating remotely across 5 time zones.
Together with our advisors , who offer substantial input pulling from their diverse and rich backgrounds, we make up the growing Ecogenia team.
Ecogenia is inspired by my experience with AmeriCorps in the U.S.. My year of service was truly transformative and connected me to absolutely incredible people, which have turned into lifelong friendships. But most importantly, it provided me employment during the recession of 2008, trained me in practical hard and soft skills, and exposed me to new communities and cultures.
Looking to Greece, the same conditions that led me to apply to AmeriCorps are still very much the reality, 13 years later. The country has never fully recovered from the global recession, and is facing the compounding climate crisis with limited financial resources and significant brain drain. Despite these challenges, and the added stress of the current pandemic, Greek youth are eager to be a part of a sustainable solution, but have limited options.
I've always believed that my family, friends, and peers in Greece could benefit from a program like AmeriCorps - a year-long opportunity, training and mobilizing young people in civic service and engagement to address pressing community needs.
I'm finally turning this belief into a reality.
Why does this matter?
Young Greeks are defined by three major crises – economic, public health and environmental. Because of this, the country holds some of the highest youth unemployment rates and lowest advancements on the UN SDGs in the European Union. Wanting to be a part of solving these problems, we looked to the proven model of civic-engagement as a viable solution. We are leveraging our expertise to craft tailored, community-based solutions that are both responsive and visionary.
So, what do we propose?
We offer civic engagement as an entry point to creating employment opportunities for a sustainability-minded workforce.
• Our main goal is to develop and support the next generation of sustainable leaders by partnering them with NGOs and Companies across Greece in a 6 to 12 month paid service program. We intend to grow into a national program across the country
• Through the service program, the youth, partner organizations, and larger community, all benefit. They benefit In working together:
• The youth will gain new skills and employment opportunities
• The host sites (NGOs and companies) will participate in public interest projects
• The community will become resilient and stronger, all while reaching sustainability goals
What is the value of a service year program? What will it bring to Greece?
• Civic engagement has proven to be a viable asset in the cases of the U.S. and France, with AmeriCorps and Units-Cité respectively. To get a sense of scale, there are 270k+ young adults serving in AmeriCorps, annually. Almost 30k+ people have been mobilized by Unis-Cité since its founding.
• In both cases, the programs have led to significant increases in employment opportunities, civic engagement and upwards of 2x the social return from the investment.
• It is also proven that participating in such civic engagement program helps young professionals refine and gain social and soft skills, which are highly sought after in the job market
• We are confident that in adapting the model to the Greek context, we would see the same positive outcomes.
So where are we now?
1. We are launching our pilot programs in January 2022, you can read about both of them here . We are already working with key local and private actors in both Chania and Dorida. Our goal behind these pilots is to be able to work in local communities that we are already connected to, and where we have secured the endorsement of the relevant municipal authorities. These pilots will allow us to test our model in order to evaluate, adapt and scale our program across Greece. This will also allow us to adjust and fix our prototypes, and hone our impact assessment model and metrics.
> This is why we need to provide stipends for the education professionals on our team developing the curriculum for Chania, and a living stipend for our program developer and strategic partnerships lead, so as to be able to carry out the programs. They are all already working part and full-time on this project, without pay.
2. We are in the final stages of becoming legally established.
> This is why we need initial capital to be able to secure our organization’s status as well as cover the related legal and accounting fees.
3. We are working to build up our communications, development, and program efforts. Our team is personally covering all expenses related to leading multimedia projects, data analysis for impact assessment, and stakeholder engagement.
> This is why we need to be able to secure funding for critical operational costs. While our team is already contributing their know-how and ideas to building up Ecogenia, it is clear that with additional capacity and resources to cover operating cost and critical supplies, their efforts would be amplified all the more.
We hope you will see the impact potential of our program and will consider donating to our campaign. This funding will significantly increase our capacity and allow us to make faster progress as a team innovating for civic engagement and sustainable development in Greece. Any amount is welcome and appreciated. We would love for you to join our mission as agents of change for the country and its youth!
Connect with us on our Website |Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube | Please follow - like - and share!
Fundraising team (3)
Lia Papazoglou
Organizer
Oakland, CA
Erika Spagakou
Team member
Melina Dunham
Team member