- Category: Our Good Causes
Our Better Angels aims to support local, national, and global organizations which support our core values of courage, compassion, continuous learning, community service, and fun.
Our Better Angels (OBA) was originally created as a qualified subsidiary of the Wisconsin Leadership Institute (WLI) with headquarters at Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin. Thus many of our original Good Causes also host chapters in Ripon led by our friends and neighbors.
Moving forward, Our Better Angels will help our Good Causes recruit members and raise funds for projects we endorse. You can find out more about our Featured Good Causes here.
Though some of our Good Causes compete with some of our other Good Causes, we are guided by the moral example of Abraham Lincoln, universally regarded as the greatest presidential leader in US history. Lincoln not only called for guidance from “the better angels of our nature” in his first inaugural address, he also recruited a “team of rivals” to serve in his cabinet, thus ensuring a full and healthy consideration of viewpoints. We envision the Better Angels Community as a “Rivalliance” – an alliance of rivals in the same way that Lincoln trusted the advice and counsel of his cabinet members, even though they frequently disagreed with each other on important issues. Lincoln, by the way, was the first president from the Republican Party, which was founded in Ripon in 1854 and acknowledged by the US Department of the Interior as the “Birthplace of the Republican Party.”
Subcategories
Featured Causes
Our Better Angels supports a variety of Good Causes, especially in the areas of leadership education, community service, and enlightened citizenship. Part of our mission, in fact, is to raise funds for Good Causes with which we have developed productive relationships, and for other Good Causes chosen by members of the Better Angels Community. We call this our 2020 Vision 50-50 Sharing plan.
We hope you will consider joining the Better Angels Community and choosing one of our Good Causes to support.
- The Wisconsin Leadership Institute. Founded in 1995, the WLI is the sponsor of Our Better Angels and thus one of our favorite Good Causes.
- Ripon College. Founded in 1851, Ripon College is one of the nation’s premier liberal-arts colleges and the first undergraduate institution to host a program in Leadership Studies. OBA and the WLI are both headquartered at Ripon College.
- Kiwanis International. The Wisconsin-Upper Michigan District of Kiwanis International sponsored the first series of educational video programs produced by the Leadership Studies Program at Ripon College. The Kiwanis International Key Leader Program has also partnered with the Leadership Studies Program at Ripon College. Members of the Better Angels Community are free to choose a local Kiwanis Club as their Good Cause.
- Rotary International. Rotary and Kiwanis are both global service organizations with thousands of local clubs and millions of adult and student members. Because both organizations are represented in Ripon, Wisconsin, Our Better Angels offers both organizations the status of official OBA Good Causes. Members of Rotary Clubs can designate their own local club as a Good Cause to receive 50% of annual subscriptions and donations to OBA.
- League of Women Voters. Because the founder of the League of Women Voters, Carrie Lane Chapman Catt, was born in Ripon, Wisconsin, Our Better Angels will share 50% of its subscription and donation income with the League of Women Voters at the national level or with any local league chosen as a Good Cause.
- CharacterStrong. The CharacterStrong Program also shares a compatible mission with Our Better Angels and enjoys a strong relationship with the school system of Ripon, Wisconsin, one of 1,500 CharacterStrong school systems in the US.
- The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. Our Better Angels, the Wisconsin Leadership Institute, and the Leadership Studies Program at Ripon College all celebrate and promote the vision and values of the Servant Leadership movement.
- Servant Leadership Wisconsin. This program is the strongest state-based Servant Leadership Program we are aware of, and it has enjoyed a productive relationship with the WLI and with Ripon College.
- NASSP. The National Association of Secondary School Principals was the first distributor of the Leadership Skills and Values series of educational video programs produced by the Leadership Studies Program at Ripon College. Members of the Better Angels Community are also free to designate a local school system as a Good Cause.
- Sophia Partners. This nonprofit organization supports Servant Leadership activities of various kinds, especially in Central Wisconsin. It was founded in 2002 by Virginia Gilmore, who also served as the first board chair of the Wisconsin Leadership Institute.
- ECLEA. Equipping Church Leaders East Africa supports development of leadership skills and values among church leaders in five East African nations.
