New Maine-based Nonprofit ‘World of Change’ Converting Loose Change into Social Change for Children and Families

Founder Matt Hoidal of Falmouth, a seasoned charity executive, brings community-based approach to new endeavor

PORTLAND, Maine (March 8, 2017) - Matt Hoidal’s dream of making a World of Change has come true with his launch of a new Maine-based nonprofit organization that converts the loose change all around us into social change for children and families.

World of Change (www.worldofchange.world) will work with sponsors on a wide-range of community- and school-based events and programs, including change drives, Classroom Change Kits and ChangeFest, to collect donations – and to secure matching donors to double the impact. Partnering with established nonprofits and programs, World of Change will target 100 percent of the funds raised to provide support in six areas: housing, food security, education, financial literacy, health and wellness, and children’s play.

Hoidal, the Executive Director at Camp Sunshine in Casco for 13 years before his most recent position as a SVP at United Way of Greater Portland, started conceiving World of Change years ago. He decided recently the time is right to make his dream a reality.

"Now more than ever it seems people are looking for change, and it's right there in front of us all,” said Hoidal, who lives in Falmouth. “All we have to do is believe in it, reach for it, and put it to good use. World of Change will rally communities to dream of and reimagine the type of change that's possible." 

Studies show that an estimated $10 billion in change sits idle in households across America. With World of Change, Hoidal wants to collect the scattered troves of quarters, dimes and nickels and make a positive impact.

Already, planning is underway for World of Change’s inaugural public event, ChangeFest, this fall in Portland, which will be a Guinness World Record-styled festival that engages schoolchildren, community organizations and the general public to collect change and bring it to the event in an attempt at a world record for the most change in one place.

ChangeFest will be done similar to the Pumpkin Festivals in Freeport, Maine and in Boston that Camp Sunshine started hosting during Hoidal’s tenure. Those efforts raised well over a million dollars through the years for the Casco, Maine-based national retreat for children with life threatening illnesses and their families. In 2006 in Boston, for example, partnering with Life is Good, Camp Sunshine raised $500,000 while setting a Guinness World Record with 30,128 carved and lit pumpkins covering the Boston Commons.

Hoidal envisions ChangeFest starting in Portland before scaling up to eventually include many other U.S. cities, each engaging their communities to compete for a Guinness World Record.

Hoidal also is developing Classroom Change Kits, comprised of old-fashioned milk crates holding six labeled Mason jars, that will be used by schoolchildren and civic organizations to collect change. Each Mason jar will represent one of World of Change’s focus areas, enabling children to decide which to drop their change into and to see the change add up in the jars.

“One of the key components of World of Change is to engage kids in philanthropy at a young age,” Hoidal said. “I can’t think of a better way to show children how they can make a difference. They will be able to take the change just sitting around their homes and decide which jar to drop the coins into and then literally watch it add up and see with their own eyes how they can make a world of change.”

World of Change has caught the attention of a host of business and community leaders who have joined the effort as Board members and advisors, including philanthropist Roxanne Quimby, co-founder of Burt’s Bees; Carol Hancock and Kevin Hancock, owners of Hancock Lumber Company; Barry Tatelman, a Broadway producer who formerly owned Jordan’s Furniture; respected Maine attorney Fred Frawley III, Esq.; Chet Homer, owner of Shawnee Peak ski area; Board Chair Peter Wasserman, a noted businessman living in Palm Desert, Calif.; Daniel A. Scheerer, a finance educator in Greater Boston; and Tissa Hami, a stand-up comic and activist now living in Weston, Mass.

Homer said Hoidal’s passion and commitment stand out and led him to jump at the opportunity to become involved in World of Change, where he serves as Board Treasurer.

“Matt thinks big, is deeply committed to whatever cause he embraces and his enthusiasm is infectious,” Homer said. “And together with his many years of experience in the nonprofit sector, I have no doubt that World of Change is going to make a world of difference in Maine and around the globe.”

World of Change also has attracted a growing list of Founding Donors to cover operating costs, allowing 100 percent of the change and other donations collected to be used to provide support, Hoidal said. 

World of Change has two featured projects underway right now. Both are matching fund drives, one for the Maine Locker Project to support childhood literacy and food, and the other for the Central Asia Institute to support education for girls:

• Buy a Pack, Give a Pack allows donors to sponsor a special STATE backpack filled with food and books that will be given to kids in need in Maine through the Maine Locker Project. STATE will also donate one filled backpack for every backpack that is sponsored. The goal is to donate 200 backpacks.

• The Gift of Education helps send girls to school in Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Tajikistan for a whole year. A scholarship of $960 through the Central Asia Institute will cover the cost of one girl for a whole year, which can change lives through education, providing hope and the opportunity to dream. All donations will be matched by an anonymous donor and the goal is to raise $48,000, plus the match, to send 100 girls to school.

Hoidal said additional programs and fundraising efforts will be added soon. He urged everyone to start collecting the change in their pockets and lying around their homes.

“Change is everywhere. It's all around us, literally within everyone's reach. Yet for many, philanthropy seems as though it's reserved for a select few,” Hoidal said. “World of Change will harness the collective compassion and goodwill within everyone's hearts, empowering people of all ages and all walks of life to perceive and believe in themselves as change makers, and inspiring action through a range of accessible opportunities.” 

Find more information at www.worldofchange.world or on Facebook, and contact World of Change at info@worldofchange.world or (207) 400-0274. Individual World of Change donations are welcome, while many opportunities exist for individuals or corporations to make a World of Change matching challenge.

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