Share Our Strength (SOS)
21
7
"Up" is the number of experts who agree that the nonprofit has had the most impact in the
field. "Down" is the number of experts who disagree that the nonprofit has had the most impact in field.
Headquarters Location: Washington, D.C.
Founded: 1984
Mission: Share our Strength is a national organization that works hard to make sure no kid in America grows up hungry.
Tags:
national, childhood nutrition & health, advocacy, food security, health equity, business partnerships, grantmaking, educational programming, nutritional programs
Summary
Stories
Expert Reviews
Leadership
From the Nonprofit
Leadership
Bill Shore.
Bill Shore is the founder and executive director of Share Our Strength®, the nation’s leading organization working to end childhood hunger in America. Shore is also the chairman of Community Wealth Ventures®, Inc., a for-profit subsidiary of Share Our Strength that provides strategic counsel to foundations and nonprofit organizations interested in creating community wealth — resources generated through profitable enterprise…
See full bio.
Financial Data
Overhead Ratio:
18.58%
Total Revenue:
$13,892,866
From the Nonprofit
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Contact Info
Address:
1730 M St NW
Washington, D.C. 20036, USA
Twitter:
Story:
Share Our Strength funds Camp Fire USA's backpack "Snack Pack Program" in Omaha, NE. Camp Fire USA told Share Our Strength about one young girl who is a part of their backpack program:
"Last year, on a Monday morning, Maria couldn't hear what her teacher was saying about long division. The growl of her empty stomach, along with snickers from her classmates, blocked out the lesson. She was hungry. With her mom working double shifts and the food stamps depleted, the eight-year-old hadn't eaten much more than soda-pop and French fries over the weekend. There was some leftover mac-and-cheese too, but the fridge was out and it had gone bad."
"That was a year ago...today, thanks to Camp Fire's innovative Snack Pack program, Maria receives a backpack filled with nutritious and child-friendly meals every Friday. Child-friendly cans of vegetables, dinner cups, breakfast cereal and fresh fruit take her through the weekend -- and that's when she shares with her little brother. Now, Maria can sit at her desk on Monday mornings and focus on something other than her hunger. Her teacher doesn't have to tell her to quit squirming so much. Even long-division is a little easier."
(Learn more about Share Our Strength's impact on childhood hunger in America at: http://strength.org/our_impact/hunger_in_schools/)
Expert Reviews of Share Our Strength (SOS)
Evidence of Impact Summary:
Share Our Strength takes a state-level approach to alleviate childhood hunger in the US. Their programs also encourage spreading healthy food to enhance levels of nutrition.See expert comments.
Organization Strengths Summary:
Share Our Strength takes a state-level approach to alleviate childhood hunger in the US. Their programs also encourage spreading healthy food to enhance levels of nutrition.See expert comments.
Areas for Improvement Summary:
Similarly, experts seem divided on where opportunities for improvement lie for this organization, including marketing, outreach, and grant making.See expert comments.
Expert Comments: Evidence of Impact
Select the boxes to display the results according to expert type.
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Foundation Professionals (F)
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Researchers and Faculty (R)
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Nonprofit Senior Staff (N)
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Other (consultants, journalists, policy makers) (O)
Impact |
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Share our Strength is a national organization addressing food insecurity. Operation Frontline, a program of Share our Strength provides nutrition education and cooking classes to adults and youth (and has a family program), which teaches impoverished individuals how to use their food commodities to prepare healthful foods. Operation Frontline is currently offered in multiple states. | ||
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Their leadership, focus on school food issues, and influence at a national level are examples of impact. | ||
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This organization is organizing and leading state-based efforts to end childhood hunger in America, including the Campaign to End Childhood Hunger in Colorado. | ||
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Share Our Strength provides free best practice curricula and support for agencies to provide Operation Frontline course at no charge to the participants! This tool is provided to all family members and education is provided to ensure lifelong behavior changes. I have seen the changes in Florida participants over 3 years. | ||
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They fund significant nutrition improvement strategies. | ||
Expert Comments: Organization Strengths
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Show:
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Foundation Professionals (F)
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Researchers and Faculty (R)
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Nonprofit Senior Staff (N)
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Other (consultants, journalists, policy makers) (O)
Program Design |
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Their support of the Operation Rescue initiative in various U.S. locations helped address both under and over nutrition in urban settings. There is a critical need for providing this effort in rural areas where obesity and nutrition are going to continue to contribute to health issues. | ||
Collaboration |
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Collaboration is the key to Operation Frontline's success; the local program collaborates with community social services and schools to reach participants and uses local resources in their classes that are readily available to the class because it is from their community, this allows for sustainability. Collaboration on the national level includes partnerships with renowned chefs to bring awareness and donations. Leadership is also a key factor their impact, it is a community based approach; all are responsible for the health of their communities. Their staff is hired from the community they serve. | ||
Funding |
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I believe that Share Our Strength has the right idea and the drive, with a lot of corporate money to make success happen. | ||
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This is a great group that provides real and meaningful change, and the funding to do it. | ||
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These strong policy advocates combine excellent fundraising events that help local organizations. | ||
Operations |
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They have a clear vision, strong leadership, and national resources. | ||
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Everything about this organization screams "highly effective/efficient organization." | ||
Marketing & Funding |
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Other strengths of Share Our Strength are marketing and finance. There is also a strong commitment to improving families health and self efficacy. They have a collaborative approach, online resources and partner tools and they keep the mission focused on the USA. | ||
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Their marketing, image, and ability to raise awareness about the issue are all strengths. | ||
Advocacy |
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There is great promise in their new strategy to get governors to commit to state nutrition improvement plans. | ||
Expert Comments: Areas for Improvement
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Foundation Professionals (F)
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Researchers and Faculty (R)
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Nonprofit Senior Staff (N)
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Other (consultants, journalists, policy makers) (O)
Marketing |
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Because their education is so widespread, I think it would be great if their educational materials were reviewed to be sure they are all behaviorally focused and theory-based so that they have the most potential for changing behaviors. | ||
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They could have better saturation nationally. The primary issue happening with Childhood Obesity is the hunger/obesity paradox. Families don't know how to cook healthful foods and children don't know how to cook period. Operation Frontline needs to reach more places, not just the "noted" areas of poverty. Marketing is another area of improvement, but my guess is that their fiscal resources are allocated to the program thus there is little dollars left for media and viral marketing. | ||
Outreach |
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They could use more outreach to more non-media markets or more program funding to smaller community based agencies. | ||
Grant making |
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They could include more recognition of their community partners on the national level. They could provide more grant support or local fund and fundraising support in the states they have community partners. | ||
Advocacy |
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They could be more effective if they focused more on legislative advocacy. | ||
Programming |
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Their actual programming is scarce and much of their success rests in simply raising awareness of the issue which is incredibly important yet most supporters believe SOS runs a lot of programming and to my knowledge they do not. | ||
Leadership
Bill Shore
Founder and Executive Director
Founder and Executive Director
From the Nonprofit
The nonprofit has not added any comments yet. If you are a representative of this nonprofit and would like to leave a comment, please email us at
feedback@myphilanthropedia.org
with your request.