What we do...
Much of our day-to-day work involves researching organizations that are making a difference in communities in the U.S. Understanding the issues that affect children, families, and our community is essential in order for Singing for Change to act as an effective steward and partner to our friends in the nonprofit sector. We enjoy building relationships with these inspiring people and make it a point to familiarize ourselves with their achievements and challenges. It's a pleasure to work alongside some of the most innovative, talented, hardworking people in the world.
Singing for Change funds organizations that inspire personal growth, community integration and the enhanced awareness that collectively, people can bring about positive change. We believe people can achieve sustainable self-sufficiency through vibrant, diverse communities. We focus our resources on inclusive, grassroots organizations.
We support nonprofit organizations, large and small, that provide compelling opportunities for individuals to discover their power to make a difference. The foundation promotes work on the forefront of social change - helping people and communities become smarter, safer, stronger, healthier, and whole.
Specifically, we look for groups that are:
- working to engage individuals in their communities,
- helping people realize their full potential and become self-sufficient, and
- creating lasting change in the communities they serve.
Our Grantees
Singing for Change funds organizations that inspire personal growth, community integration and the enhanced awareness that collectively, people can bring about positive change.
We believe people can achieve sustainable self-sufficiency when they live in vibrant, diverse communities. We focus our resources on inclusive, grassroots organizations that rely strongly on volunteer efforts, where foundation support makes a significant difference.
Most likely to be considered are organizations that keep their overhead low and collaborate with other groups in their community to find innovative ways of solving a common problem.
For the past 29 years, Singing for Change (SFC) has partnered with progressive, community-based organizations addressing the root causes of social or environmental problems. We recently narrowed our focus to projects designed to promote self-sufficiency in communities where people are experiencing poverty.
Specifically, We Look For Groups That Are:
- Working to engage individuals in their communities,
- Helping people realize their full potential and become self-sufficient, and
- Creating lasting change in the communities they serve.
Opportunity – Collaboration – Positive change…
We support nonprofit organizations, large and small, that provide compelling opportunities for individuals to discover their power to make a difference.
Working in specific issue areas enables us to link grantees in one part of the country with those working elsewhere for their mutual benefit and inspiration. We try to be mindful of community leaders’ sense of funding needs and their visions for innovation.
What do we mean by the term "social change" and how does it compare to "social service"? Social change addresses the root causes of problems; social service addresses the consequences of those problems. Social change addresses whole communities, systems, and institutions; social service aids and assists individuals. The foundation does not usually offer grants to support individual assistance programs. For a complete list of restrictions, please see our guidelines posted in our Grants section.
ABOUT JIMMY BUFFETT:
Singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett (1946-2023) regaled audiences for over five decades with songs about the faces and places he'd seen during his lifetime journey along the road less travelled. With Hemingway's eye for detail and Mark Twain's inclination for mischievous humor, Buffett's music tells the stories of the hustlers, the beach bums and the pirates from all corners of the world. Through it all are woven the themes of escapism, wanderlust and an unbridled curiosity that makes life a journey worth taking.
Buffett was born on Christmas day 1946 in Pascagoula, Mississippi and raised in the port town of Mobile, Alabama. His grandfather, James Delaney Buffett, was a captain on a steamship and his father J.D. traveled to India and Africa with the Army Corps of Engineers before settling in Mobile. For young Jimmy, the Gulf of Mexico was the doorway to a world of adventure where the characters he heard about in his grandfather's stories were waiting to be discovered. The siren call of exotic ports was in contrast to his days as a parochial school student and an altar boy, and it only took a guitar to take him off course from the life his parents had imagined for him.
When Jimmy saw how a fraternity brother in college with a guitar garnered the attention of the girls, he quickly learned a few basic chords and started playing himself. Suddenly Jimmy's world opened up - while he still attended classes, he quickly had his first band and went from busking the streets of New Orleans to playing 6 nights a week at Bourbon Street clubs.
After graduation, Jimmy headed to Nashville to work for Billboard Magazine and to try his luck as a folk-country singer, releasing his first record, "Down To Earth" in 1970. However it was a fateful trip to Key West, Florida with Jerry Jeff Walker in 1971 that would give Jimmy the inspiration to merge his musicality, wanderlust and storytelling.
Image of Jimmy Buffett playing guitar and smiling widely while playing to a close-knit group of young people. Key West in the 1970s was not the tourist-friendly town it is today – it was the last outpost of smugglers, con-men, artists and free-spirits who simply couldn't run any further south in the mainland United States. It was there that the young musician thrown into the midst of this eclectic mix found his true voice as a songwriter - telling the stories of the wanderers, the adventurers and the forlorn.
In 1974, his song "Come Monday" from the fourth studio album "Living and Dying in ¾ Time" entered the Billboard charts, eventually peaking at number 30. That year found Jimmy touring solo-acoustic and performing at well-known folk venues across the country, from the Troubadour in Los Angeles to Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He hasn't stopped touring since.
And then in 1977 came "Margaritaville." A laid-back anthem about escapism and life in the tropics, the song spent 22 weeks on the Billboard chart, peaking at number 8. It catapulted Jimmy to national fame and, nearly a decade later, inspired Jimmy to launch a business empire.
After 27 studio albums, New York Times bestselling books, a Broadway play, numerous movie and television appearances, Grammy nominations and Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association awards, it was still the music that inspired Jimmy. He was just as likely to pop up and play an impromptu set alone at a Caribbean beach bar as he was to be on stage in front of 30,000 loyal ‘Parrothead' fans. And after logging millions of miles on the road, on the ocean and in the air, distant ports still beckoned and the same unbridled curiosity drove him to keep looking for that next story to share via song.
Jimmy passed away peacefully on the night of September 1st surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs after a four year battle with Merkel Cell Skin Cancer. He was 76.
He lived his life like a song till the very last breath and will be missed beyond measure by so many.
