RVLATION – BLOG

6/10/2026 – Christian Mierke

Hello everyone and welcome back to another blog post. Today I will be sharing my experience as a member of the YC2 group organized by the Community memorial foundation, detailing how this opportunity provided clarity on RVLATION’s goals and values for making a positive impact through social responsibility.

To those who may not know the Community Memorial Foundation (or CMF), is a local non profit dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of people living and working in the western suburbs of Chicago. It pursues this goal through issuing grant funding to local non-profits focused on particular issues such as health care, addiction, and homelessness to name a few.

I had heard about this program from my neighbor who recommended it to me. When I got in I was in awe with how much I was able to learn about the non-profit sector.

The YC2 group was split into two classes who were tasked with learning about the non-profit sector, choosing a funding priority and allocating $15,000 to local non-profits through grants.

I was a part of group B who chose the funding priority of Increasing health equity by reducing the health, social, and economic barriers to optimal well-being and quality of life, specifically the ability to pay. What this meant was we wanted to allocate funding towards non-profits focused on providing healthcare services to those who otherwise would not have access due to the barriers listed above.

We then collected grant applications, narrowing them down to 5 non-profits which we would conduct a site visit to ask questions, ultimately leading to a decision about which organizations should receive the grant funding.

I site visited Helping Hand in Countryside, a clinic providing services to children with intellectual/developmental disabilities. The requested $3000 in grant funding to start a lending library for assistive technology.

After a successful site visit with two therapists and the President and CEO Bill Dwyer, the choice was clear; my site visit peers and I would make sure to advocate effectively to secure the grant funding for Helping Hand.

At our last meeting we were able to secure that decision and I volunteered to give a speech at the YC2 ending ceremony explaining why we chose to fund Helping Hand.

Through this experience I realized something, this type of work gave me a purpose I haven’t felt before. It gave a mission and further ignited my desire to highlight RVLATION’s value of social responsibility and ethics in all of the venture’s decisions.

It wasn’t just purpose I gained, I gained clarity and structure to how a person who wants to change the world can do so, no matter their situation.