Volunteers for Youth Justice (VYJ) is a community-supported non-profit organization whose mission is to provide care for children, youth, and families in crisis. It began in 1981 the need to break the destructive cycle of at-risk youths was recognized and the work began to assist the Juvenile Court in diverting first-time offenders. These efforts became the catalyst that launched Volunteers for Youth Justice (VYJ), formerly known as the Shreveport Juvenile Justice Program.

VYJ has a proven track record of success. It is a story of dreams and possibilities. Through the vision of a few active and caring individuals, the unwavering support of the Judges and court staff, and the groundswell of compassionate volunteers, thousands of our community’s children have been given a light of hope for a brighter tomorrow.

Clifton Tate is one of those volunteers that we are recognizing today.

Soon you will enjoy reading about some of the most highly valued volunteers working for our area’s Accredited Charities. With each new issue, you will learn about a different individual who works passionately for a different good cause—why they are inspired by the nonprofit’s mission, how they gain purpose from their work, and what short-term and longer-term hopes they aspire to see satisfied.
An Accredited Charity is one that has met 20 national standards that look at compliance with widely accepted expectations of nonprofits regarding their governance, effectiveness measures, finances, and integrity of their marketing publications. These are standards established by the Wise Giving Alliance, a sister affiliate of the Better Business Bureau.

In his book, Giving Done Right, Phil Buchanan, Director of the Center for Effective Philanthropy, states:

“There is simply no universal measure for nonprofits [i.e., to identify the higher achievers from the lower]—this is why there will never be an analog to a stock exchange… the idea has been endlessly discussed and never fulfilled because it makes no sense. It’s not just that there will never be a universal metric. It’s that our values come into play. The complexity of assessing nonprofit performance doesn’t make performance assessment any less important; quite the opposite…. Unfortunately, it’s too easy for nonprofits to be deemed “high impact” or “high performance” when they’re not. Some of the same organizations that have been the most celebrated and supported because of their performance have actually produced mixed results. These organizations include big-name, respected nonprofits…. Meanwhile, many nonprofits with great results labor in virtual anonymity and struggle to raise money.”

Said another way, the upside of generous households making their giving intentional and well-informed is that those nonprofits more deserving of your support will be more likely to benefit. And the ripple effect is that, as more households take that approach, the overall nonprofit sector benefits in Shreveport and beyond. Why? It is because organizations with better ideas, strategies, and efficiencies are better able to sustain support. The logical outcome of that is that more lives are qualitatively made better.

Connecting the dots, then, there is reason for confidence that giving money, time, or talent to an Accredited Charity makes more lives qualitatively better. To be clear, that is not to say that one can only be confident when contributing to Accredited Charities. Rather, it is merely to suggest that additional discretion may be merited when considering generosity toward those that have not yet earned accreditation.

By spotlighting some of Accredited Charities’ most admirable volunteers, SB Magazine ultimately is participating in helping our area’s more effective nonprofits to elevate the quality of life for more people.