The countdown is over.  Greenlights’ big 10^th anniversary celebration has now come and gone. But even at almost a week out, I think we’re still basking in the afterglow of a wonderful evening. Greenlights’ 10^th anniversary was truly a cause for celebration!

Libby Malone and Deborah Edward

On October 12^th, at the UT Alumni Center, Greenlights took the opportunity to pay tribute to several of its founders, tell some stories about Greenlights’ impact in the community, and raise funds for our new Research and Innovation Fund.

Since fun is one of Greenlights’ core values, we decided to kick off our event with a humorous, tongue- and- cheek glimpse into a day in the life of Greenlights. If you haven’t seen Matt Kouri channel his inner Michael Scott from NBC’s The Office, then now is your chance! Our team had a blast making this video and the talented Sean Cunningham did a fantastic job bringing it all together.

In the video, Matt likens our founders to super heroes and that is truly what they are. It was amazing to have Libby Malone, Greg Kozmetsky (unfortunately Cindy Kozmetsky was unable to join us), Lynn Meredith and Dr. Deborah Edward all in the same room and hear their reflections on their involvement with Greenlights.  Each played such a crucial role in Greenlights’ founding, but also in our continued success.

It was also great to see so many past Greenlights’ board members – the event definitely had the feeling of a family reunion.  To name just a few- there was Dave Wenger, the Director of Communications for the McCombs School, who served on the board and was responsible for helping the then “Austin Nonprofit Resource Network” find the name “Greenlights for Nonprofit Success.” Founding board member, MariBen Ramsey was there and gave a hilarious introduction to honoree, Lynn Meredith (bet you wouldn’t have guessed that they first met in the ladies room!). And early board member and current Greenlights Community Leadership Council chair, Toya Haley, introduced Greg Kozmestky and talked about her current Greenlights’ involvement.

To top off the evening our talented auctioneer, Gayle Stallings with FUNAuctions, led the charge to help us raise funds for our new Research and Innovation Fund. In the past several years, Greenlights has increasingly assumed the role of identifying, researching and leading on issues that are affecting (or will soon affect) the nonprofit sector. With several topics already slated, we set a goal of raising $100,000 over the next year to expand our capacity to conduct broad nonprofit research, build out new services, and deliver those services to the nonprofit community.

I am happy to report that by the end of the evening of our 10^th Anniversary Event, we had already met more than half of our goal. Through two gifts given before the event, sponsorships, four fabulous live auction packages and the Fund-A-Need, we raised more than $60,000 so far! It was amazing to see the outpouring of generosity in the room.

A big thanks to our founders, supporters and friends who joined us last week. What a memorable evening we will not soon forget.  Check out more photos from the event here.