Mandi Simon, an 11-year-old from Eagan, Minnesota, founded the nonprofit organization Simon Says Give at age 7 to provide birthday parties and school supplies for low-income children. Her organization has since given birthday parties to 500 children and stuffed backpacks with school supplies to 10,000 students. As a Jefferson Awards GlobeChanger, Mandi aims to expand her nonprofit's work nationally and increase the number of backpacks donated to 50,000. She has taken on a public leadership role to advocate for her organization and help other children start charities through a new "Kids in Action" program.

1. A KID GIVING BACK TO KIDS
Eagan sixth-grader founded nonprofit to give children birthday parties.
By: DYLAN PEERS MCCOY | Special to the Star Tribune | January 28, 2015
Mandi Simon has been to more
birthday parties than the average 11-year-
old in Minnesota.
That’s because she is the founder of
Simon Says Give, a nonprofit organization
that gives birthday parties and school
supplies to low-income children. Her
charity has been so successful that the
Jefferson Awards Foundation, a national
organization that recognizes youth
leadership and problem solving, named
Mandi one of its 2015 GlobeChangers.
“I knew I wanted to help kids, but
I wasn’t sure how,” said Mandi, a sixth-
grader at Convent of the Visitation School.
“Since my birthday was coming up, I
thought of birthdays.”
Simon Says Give offers two kinds
of parties: in person parties, which are
hosted at community organizations like
lifestyle
the YMCA, and parties in a box, which
are given to local shelters. The nonprofit
provides a cake or cake mix and two
presents. One gift is something practical
like a coat, and the other is purely for fun.
The group has provided 500 birthday
parties so far and hopes to fund another
500 parties in 2015.
“I really like getting to see the faces
on kids when they have a birthday,” said
Mandi, who has become friends with
some of the families she’s met through
the program. “I wanted to give them a
birthday party or at least a few hours to
celebrate themselves.”
And while Mandi’s dream for Simon
Says Give started with birthday parties,
it’s the group’s school supplies initiative —
High Five for Supplies — that has really
taken off.
Each summer, Simon Says Give
puts collection bins in businesses across
the metro where people can donate new
backpacks and school supplies. The charity
also collects money and buys supplies
directly. Last year, High Five for Supplies
gave supply-stuffed backpacks to 10,000
Minnesota students.
Kitchen Inspiration
Mandi came up with the idea for
Simon Says Give four years ago when she
was just 7 years old.
One day, she was hanging out in the
kitchen while her mother, Dina Simon,
was washing dishes. Mandi started telling
her mother about her plan to start a
business that would raise money to help
other children.
At first, Simon was only half-listening,
but she said the more detailed Mandi’s
plan got, the more she paid attention.
“I asked her to stop, and I grabbed
my iPad, and I did a 10 minute interview
with her,” Simon said. Over the next six
months, Mandi and Simon talked about
the plan over and over again.
“She wanted to make the decisions,”
Simon said. “If she raised $1,000 she
wanted to make sure that it went into the
hands of kids somehow … versus just
donating $1,000 and never knowing where
the money goes.”
Eventually, they decided that the
best way for Mandi to have control over
how the money she raised would be by
establishing her own nonprofit. Simon
Says Give has been growing ever since.
It sponsors birthday parties, gives away
school supplies and coaches students
on effective fundraising for charity. Last
year, it took in more than $1 million in
donations and in-kind gifts.
Mandi Simon, center, at the Nexus Youth Summit in Washington, D.C. With her are Elizabeth Kennedy,
national director of GlobeChangers at the Jefferson Awards Foundation for Public Service, two other
GlobeChangers, and Sam Beard, co-founder of the Jefferson Awards Foundation for Public Service.
PAGE 1 OF 2

2. “I really like getting to see the faces
on kids when they have a birthday. I
wanted to give them … at least a few
hours to celebrate themselves.”
Mandi Simon,
founder of Simon Says Give
lifestyle PAGE 2 OF 2
Expanding Charity
As a Jefferson Awards GlobeChanger,
Mandi has made a commitment to expand
her nonprofit’s work outside Minnesota’s
borders. In order to meet that goal, Simon
Says Give is looking for partners in other
states and aspiring to increase the school
supplies program from 10,000 to 50,000
backpacks this year, with a goal of reaching
40,000 students outside of Minnesota.
Simon Says Give also is trying to grow
the network of young people volunteering
and fundraising. The charity, which is run
by a board of adult volunteers, is putting
together a children’s advisory board to
keep the group sustainable and connected
to the children it aims to serve.
With a new program called Kids
in Action, Simon Says Give is offering
training and support to young people who
want to raise money for the organization or
pursue another idea for helping children.
“A big thing when you’re raising
money at that young of an age is having a
solid support system around,” said Jordan
Dahlke, the newly hired coach for Kids in
Action. “What motivates kids to do this is
seeing the impact they can have.”
As Simon Says Give has grown,
Mandi has taken on more of a public
leadership role. As a GlobeChanger,
Mandi recently spoke at a national
conference on philanthropy. It was a
big crowd, full of powerful people. But
Mandi has spent so much time talking up
the organization, she said, that she was
hardly nervous at all.
Simon Says Give is a significant
time commitment for Mandi, especially
during the summer when the group
focuses on donations for High Five for
Supplies.
“It’s like another job,” Simon said. But
“we work really hard behind the scenes to
support her so that she can still be a kid,
and do the things kids do too.”