Party Corps: Interview with Leila Monroe

Party Corps, a non-profit social network shows us that supporting good causes can be enjoyable as well as rewarding. We are privileged to showcase Party Corps and their ingenuity when it comes to helping non-profit organizations and also having fun in the process. 

Here is our interview with Leila Monroe, Founder & Executive Director of Party Corps.

What is your mission with Party Corps?

Leila: Party Corps’ mission is to use music and art to raise funds and build grassroots community support for small non-profit organizations.

Party Corps is a non-profit social network – our members volunteer to throw events to raise education and funds for Bay Area non-profit organizations that lack capacity to hold their own events.   The events are centered around a lineup of music, but also include food, art, and other entertainment.  We pride ourselves in throwing energetic, soulful parties where people have a great time while getting engaged in good causes.  Essentially, we are a non-profit event promotion group and we work hard to ensure that the organizations honored at our parties receive real benefits to help them grow.

Why did you decide to merge the idea of parties and supporting a good cause?

Leila: Music, dancing, and art bring people together and build community.  We use these community-building tools to gather people, then we introduce them to good causes that they may not know about.  Our events provide large event capacity to organizations that would probably not be able to throw an event for 400+ people – we bring a big crowd of energetic new potential supporters, then our organizations can tap into that community for future support.

I’ve been working on the concept of how to use social activities such as music and dining to increase public education and interest in social and environmental issues since 2002. The first permutation of the idea was to operate a venue, but this is very expensive and requires a ton of time to operate. In 2007 I threw a big party for the birthday of 5 people and had my “ah-ha” moment: we can gather people for a purpose just by having parties!

What have been your biggest challenges and rewards with Party Corps?

Leila: Running an organization on an entirely volunteer basis has been very challenging, but it has also been extremely rewarding to see how much good we have been able to do without any formal budget!  The community we have built around Party Corps is wonderful, and we are happy to be able to support great organizations doing amazing work.

What are some positive things you’ve seen grow out of the work Party Corps does?

Leila: In that past two years we have thrown four events for 170-500 guests each, raising thousands of dollars on behalf of different amazing Bay Area Organizations including: an urban farm providing fresh fruits and vegetables to underserved San Francisco residents (Alemany Farm); a program to send physical therapists to the Democratic Republic of Congo (Rehabilitation Project); and a free women’s health clinic Women’s Community Clinic.  

One of the most important things that our parties do is to build a community of conscious, energetic people who want to have fun, but are very excited about supporting good causes and getting involved to make the world a better place.

What kind of events does Party Corps have coming up?

Leila: On Friday, August 6th we're throwing an event at the Rickshaw Stop in SF to benefit an amazing group called At the Crossroads (ATC). They serve homeless youth -- primarily African American and Latino young adults who would not otherwise reach out for the food, clothing or counseling services, which ATC provides.


How do you see Party Corps evolving in the future?

Leila: We have been operating as an all volunteer organization.  We’ve thrown some amazing parties, but our next most important step is to get funding for Party Corps staff so we can take our work to the next level. 

In the long term, we might branch out to create Party Corps chapters in other cities.

How can people get involved in Party Corps?

Leila: Go to our “Get Involved” page on our website and become a member or volunteer for our upcoming event. We can always use help on the night of the event!

You can also join us on Facebook.

Where can people learn more about your organization?

Go to our website and watch our documentary.