By Kris Patterson

Sometimes our donations come from unlikely and surprising places. Recently, we won a competitive grant from a foundation called Learning by Giving. It’s one of the suite of foundations that the Buffet family have, this one run by his sister, Doris, with seed money from The Oracle himself. This fall PCS learned that we had been nominated for the national grant competition as part of a massive open online course or MOOC which is basically a term for a huge, online-only class. In this course, called Giving with a Purpose, over 10,000 course participants were learning how to strategically invest money in a non-profit positioned to make a meaningful impact and likely to show mission-related results. It taught people not only to look for charities "close to your heart" but to also go through a rigorous research, evaluation and scoring matrix, much like a business or stock investment. Sounds like the Buffet-style of investing, doesn’t it? Through this rigorous and thoughtful evaluation participants learned to focus their philanthropy dollars (of any amount) and efforts in order to maximize results.

Seven hundred organizations were nominated by students and then subjected to a rigorous peer review process. The 80 highest performing organizations advanced to a finalist round and 40 were evaluated and selected by peers in the course, with the Foundation determining final grant amounts (which varied). PCS received a $1000 grant and perhaps more importantly, the recognition that we are making a meaningful difference, are strong in our non-profit management, and are poised to achieve even more good in our community.

At PCS, we appreciate and carefully manage every donated dollar, leveraging every personal gift into thousands more in donated resources to make a difference in clear, clean, and safe waters here in Northwest Ohio. This national recognition is a welcome confirmation that PCS does make a strong impact, which is great news for anyone wanting to donate to a high impact, local non-profit. Your donation matters; it will be managed well; and it makes a real difference.

For more information about the national Learning by Giving Foundation awards, please check out the Results of World's First MOOC on Effective Charitable Giving and the Giving with Purpose Infographic.