Case Foundation - Investing in People and Ideas that Can Change the World

TED Fellows Friday

sokuntheas — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:59:12 +0000

We are proud to support the TED Fellows program, because we truly believe in giving a voice and platform for social entrepreneurs, innovators, and changemakers, like the Fellows, who are coming up with big ideas that can change the world. The Fellows get to benefit from the amazing resources that TED provides, and we want to be able to share some of their experiences and learnings with up-and-comers and social citizens with great ideas who aspire to be like them.

Since the TED and TED Fellows blogs feature a series, Fellows Friday, that profiles one Fellow each week, we asked them to answer another question for our audience:

There are many aspiring social entrepreneurs out there who are trying to take their passion and ideas to the next level. What is one piece of advice you would give to them based on your own experiences and successes?

So, every Friday – starting this week – in conjunction with the Fellows Friday posts, we’ll also highlight each person’s answer to the question above on our blog. We’ll continue to look for ways to feature the Fellows and their amazing work and insight. Check back here for a quick look at all of our posts that reference TED Fellows.

For those who are less familiar with the TED Fellows program, it is an international fellowship that selects a group of 40 individuals from all around the world each year, who show world-changing potential, to participate in the TED Conferences. The program is designed to help nurture and spread their work to the world. Ten of the 40 Fellows are then selected to be a part of an extended Senior Fellows program. The Case Foundation is a sponsor of the TED Senior Fellows program. For more information about the TED Fellows program, check out http://www.ted.com/fellows. And, make sure to check out previous Fellows Friday posts!

Share Tweet

Want to run a nonprofit video contest? Here's how

joshuat — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:35:57 +0000

Nonprofit video contests are great. I think they are the most interesting type of online contests, and not just because I like watching YouTube videos. Aside from giving thousands of nonprofits a platform to tell the stories of their hard work and producing hours of fascinating and visually enticing video content, video contests can offer more benefits than your standard “vote for me” prize or grant competition, both for the organization running the campaign and for the contestants themselves.

Here are some of my favorite features:

As the entrance process requires some serious creativity and effort, contestants tend to be more engaged and driven than those who blindly enter other online contests with low barriers to entry.
The videos themselves are responsible for much of the promotion and messaging, which can save both the sponsoring organization and the contestant lots of time, money and effort.
Since video contests tend to have a smaller contestant pool than other contests, the chances of winning are greater.
When the contest is over, both the host and the contestant have great video content for their websites or other uses. In this sense, even the losers win as they stand to benefit from their own hard work, rather than viewing their participation as a waste of time and money.

All that said, video contests can be disastrous if they are not run correctly. There is a lot of thought and planning that goes into a successful online video contest, so it is important to make sure that you cover all your bases when considering pulling one off.

I recently attended a Google conference on online marketing, where I had the opportunity to sit in on Ramya Raghavan, YouTube’s Nonprofits and Activism Manager, giving an expert perspective on video contests. While there were many valuable takeaways, such as limiting the length of video submissions (around 2 minutes), contest length (under 12 weeks) and using automated upload platforms (like YouTube Direct), it was incentives and promotion which proved to be the most imperative elements for making a contest succeed – or fail miserably.

Give me one good reason why…

Incentivize, incentivize, incentivize. As video contests have a high barrier to entry, a sufficient incentive is highly necessary to obtain enough submissions. As Ramya put it, money is always appreciated, but video producers are outside of the box thinkers, so give them an out of the box incentive. Here are some options that were presented:

A chance to meet with a celebrity or expert in your field.
Access to a closed event, or better yet, participation in a closed event. Check out the "What a difference a friend makes" video contest on mental health, where the winner will receive a free trip for two to the 2010 Voice Awards in Hollywood, and have their video screened publicly at the event.
A “video makeover” package of production equipment.
Free promotion of the winner’s cause / organization on your website.

What’s even better is a package of multiple items; the winners of the DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards were given a $2,500 grant from the Case Foundation, a feature on YouTube’s homepage, a Flip Video Camera and free registration to the 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference.

It was also noted at the conference that it is important to offer smaller, more frequent prizes on top of your big prize. Offering daily or runner up prizes greatly increases the chance of winning and creates more happy campers. As Lisa Feldberg of ePrize put it, most people are not even concerned with the value of the actual prize, they are most satisfied with the feeling that they won something. This can also help you with promoting web traffic; offering voters entrance to some sort of giveaway will greatly increase participation.

Viral Video for Contest Success

The place where most video contests blow it is in the promotion, which is important for obtaining both sufficient submissions and voters alike. While traditional advertising methods and press releases are helpful, online video contests are rooted in web 2.0, so take advantage of that market for advertising. Ramya suggested making a call-out video and promoting via social media. Your own YouTube, Facebook and Twitter pages are a great place to start, but reaching out to YouTube celebrities or influential bloggers in your field can help your contest go viral.

What’s even better is to include these influencers or celebrities in a panel of judges, giving them a larger stake in the contest and more of an incentive to promote heavily, while at the same time giving the press something to write about; check out how the Obama administration used celebrity judges like will.i.am to promote a video contest in support of the President's healthcare reform plan. Ramya put a lot stress on the judging, as having a panel of judges can also help you narrow a large content pool to a manageable group of 10 or so videos fit for promotion and fit for your audience to vote on.

There are also plenty of website channels built for promotion of these sorts of campaigns. Onlinevideocontests.com is obviously a great place to promote. Also, keep a lookout for the re-launch of Space for Good, a new hub for showcasing nonprofit videos. And, of course, for the best promotion, the 500 pound gorilla in the room is always YouTube. Check out the video below for tips on advertising with them.

At the end of the day, online nonprofit video contests can produce some of the most entertaining, enlightening and fascinating content on the internet, but because of their high barrier to entry (the capability and skills needed to create a good video), they can also fail relatively easily if they don’t gain enough traction. Proper incentives and promotion are key to the success of any contest, but they are especially important for ones reliant on video submissions. Developing a solid game plan for these elements can put you well on your way to pulling off one of the most innovative and amusing marketing promotions, for the benefit of both your organization and your contestants.

Share Tweet

Crowdsourcing in a crisis: Q&A with Jon Gosier of SwiftRiver

allysonb — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:33:57 +0000

The benefits of crowdsourcing for crisis information were brought into the limelight in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, when Ushahidi, a platform originally developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout in early 2008, was deployed to provide a map of vital information based on reports coming in from social media and other channels.

The information provided by Ushahidi helped people and organizations on the ground in Haiti direct rescue and other relief efforts, and find emergency care and other vital information. During the crisis, the Ushahidi team quickly saw the need for a tool that could not only take in crowdsourced information, but quickly and effectively filter the tremendous volumes of that information coming in, ultimately leading to today's launch of SwiftRiver, a new open source platform that will have the capability to not only gather as much information on a particular event from as many available sources as possible, but also deploy a range of tools to filter and validate the information provided. I had the chance to ask Jon Gosier, Director of Product at SwiftRiver and a TED '10 Senior Fellow a few questions about the new platform.

Allie: With the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, and now the devastating floods in Pakistan, this year has brought the concept of crowdsourcing information during disasters and the benefit of applications like Ushahidi into the limelight. How did these events help inform and influence the development of SwiftRiver?

Jon: Haiti was truly a baptism by fire for myself and the rest of the team. Ushahidi brought me on board in December to begin building Swift. I spent the first month doing some research and inspecting the original prototypes and interviewing the staff about the problems they were facing dealing with crowdsourced info. I spent January designing the system and planning an 8 month workplan. Then, in February the earthquakes happened, and all that meticulous planning had to go out the window!

To make a long (stressful) story short, we were informed by what wasn't working. The fact that we had around 25,000 crowdsourced reports coming in per day with a small staff and a small group of volunteers processing that data was a problem we had to deal with. We had an event that devastated this tiny country and the people living there, and we were crowdsourcing info that had to be acted upon by organizations on the ground while we were thousands of miles away in Kenya and Uganda. So the information we passed along had to be vetted, it had to be true, and if it was an urgent situation (like someone being trapped or missing their child) the reports had to be escalated to proper authorities.

We had a finite number of people and a finite timeframe of response (people whose lives are being threatened have no extra time). On top of that, the number of incoming messages from SMS, Twitter, Email and the Web seemed to be growing exponentially with each passing hour. Since we couldn't take a collective 'time-out' to review every single message, we had to think of ways that we could use tech (algorithms) to maximize our time.

The goal of Swift is not to make algorithms replace human verification, but rather it's to speed up human operations.

Allie: If I understand correctly, the ultimate problem that SwiftRiver aims to solve is to help journalists and relief organizations more effectively and efficiently sort through the huge volume of real-time information during a crisis without sacrificing accuracy. How do you envision the open source platform ultimately moving from developers and into the hands of these users?

Jon: You're right, SwiftRiver is a platform not a product. It's made up of five different web APIs (Swift Web Services) and several different applications that combine those APIs in different ways. All of these products are free for basic use. For users who need premium access, they either take the code and build their own, or we offer paid options that they can use if they prefer not to do a lot of work.

What this means is any person, whether they are in Des Moines, Iowa or in Blantyre, Malawi have access to the same set of highly powerful, customizable intelligence gathering programs. A blogger might use our platform to look for data he writes about, an NGO might use it to respond to a disaster, a business might use it to perform market research... We tried to build a platform that's completely agnostic to the data it processes.

So the way I understand this question is, "how does the average person use SwiftRiver without getting into the all the minutia of code and setting things up?" The answer is that we've got several solutions in the works that will make it easy for everyone.

Allie: You’ve talked previously about the concept of distributed reputation and its importance in helping users prioritize trustworthy and nontrustworthy sources. How does that concept work within the SwiftRiver platform?

Jon: For us it's about history. When organizations 'crowdsource' data they are usually dealing with all these new sources of information that they've never interacted with before. So the information, the people sending it, their motives, their backgrounds... all these things become variables. This is why there's such a strong resistance by some humanitarian groups to using crowdsourced reports at all.

Our product we're working on that deals with this is called RiverID. RiverID builds a profile of users as they send in data. If the organization has information like phone numbers, email addresses, social media profiles and so on, they can build a profile for users who may repeatedly use the system.

You will still have a majority of first-time users and people who choose to remain anonymous, but at the very least you'll know if the same phone numbers or twitter accounts that were active during Haiti are also the same ones actively reporting during the floods in Pakistan. Also it benefits the users sending in reports. What if they want to be known and respected for how active they are at helping to vet crisis data? Now they can take their profile with them to new Swift communities that say, "I am person X, these are my details, and I was an active and trustworthy volunteer during the Haiti quakes."

Think of it like a passport that Swift users and administrators can opt-in to using. Facebook Connect lets you take your social profile with you to to different websites; we want to do something similar for people verifying crowdsourced data.

Allie: You make a good point in your UX Magazine article that the web is not a primary mode of communication in many of the countries where disasters occur. How can more traditional and offline modes of communications be incorporated using the SwiftRiver platform?

Jon: There's a A LOT of advanced intelligence and analytic software that focuses on web communication. There's also a lot that focus specifically on Twitter and email. There's virtually none that try to pull it all together to make connections between information that comes in across these channels.

Living in Uganda for the past two years, I saw a lot of humanitarian groups coming in with amazing products for both. Then they get out to a rural community here and everyone's using their mobile phone for communication. The usual response is, "we need to get these people on computers so we can help them use our Twitter apps." That sounds ridiculous, but it happens more than one would hope.

We took a different approach, because we wanted to be relevant in all parts of the world. How can we apply the same advanced semantic technologies we use for Twitter, Email and RSS feeds to SMS as well. So our goals were to:

make our tools open source, so that anyone can use them,
make them available for offline use (because not all real-time data is on the Web - again, SMS), and
make it distributed so we don't touch anyone's data if they don't want us to.

David Kobia and Brian Herbert at Ushahidi just wrote a great plugin using CloudVox.com that allows people to use a regular phone to call in reports of incident. That data is then transcribed as text and submitted as a report to Ushahidi. So we can even do voice now thanks to them. We're also using the Google Languages API to offer Swift for 50+ languages that we'd never be able to do on our own.

Allie: A recent BBC article notes that the SwiftRiver platform could also be used by other industries and situations beyond crises. Can you give us an example or two of how that might work?

Jon: Oh sure, I can give a few actual examples of usage right now by some of our pilot partners. Most recently we were contacted by a medical company who wanted to use our natural language processing APIs to help sort internal communication within their organization to apply automated summaries, like who this message is about or what it's about, while using those key terms to find related messages across departments.

PubHealth.org is using our APIs to power their new blog. They wanted an aggregator that scrapes data from all across the web about public health information. Their problem then became: if we're scraping a thousand websites, what makes it to the front page? So we used our APIs to build an aggregator that was one part Techmeme.com and one part HuffingtonPost.com. Half the editorial decisions are made algorithmically and the other half by a human editor.

We've also been contacted by international news agencies, advertising agencies, artists, bloggers... even governments. It seems we've attempted to solve a problem that affects quite a broad group of people.

Share Tweet

Weekly News Roundup: Social Innovation Fund debate, WSJ shares the "business case against corporate social responsibility"

allysonb — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:36:04 +0000

News from the Case Foundation and what people are talking about this week in the world of giving, tech and everything in between.

Social Innovation Fund discussion turns into a "kerfluffle"

A few weeks ago, the Nonprofit Quarterly published this highly critical article of the Social Innovation Fund (SIF) for its lack of transparency and unwillingness to publish the names of the applicants, reviewers and proposals that were submitted, or the contents of the ratings forms provided from members of the panel to the SIF staff. However, the discussion really began to heat up late last week following this somewhat scathing WashingtonPost.com piece from one of the fund’s reviewers, NYU professor Paul Light and subsequent response from fellow reviewer Steve Goldberg, who described the discussion as a "kerfuffle." This blog post from Sean Stannard-Stockton has a good recap of how the criticism evolved from the initial Nonprofit Quarterly piece through last Friday. Over the weekend, Stephanie Strom at the NY Times published an article shedding a little bit more light on the criticisms both around the lack of transparency and potential conflicts of interest, bringing the discussion into the mainstream media and setting off a stream of tweets and blog posts reacting to the piece. Adin Miller has a great recap of the salient posts that went up last weekend.

As the story evolved, the Corporation for National and Community Service released most of the proposal narratives, application materials and review comments on Monday, and as the NonProfit Quarterly reported on Wednesday, has agreed to release the ratings of its review panels.

One of the most interesting elements to come out of the discussion, however was a Twitter debate initiated by NY Bureau Chief of the Economist and Philanthrocapitalism author, Matthew Bishop - you can review a full transcript of the discussion here. And PND blog captured some of Matthew's thoughts about SIF on video (in an article that also covers the progress of the Giving Pledge).

WSJ article offers the business case against CSR; CSR community rebuts

Another passionate discussion in the blog and Twittersphere took place this week after an article in the Wall Street Journal by University of Michigan Professor Aneel Karnani shared “The Case Against Corporate Social Responsibility,” opening up the piece with his assertion that “the idea that companies have a responsibility to act in the public interest and will profit from doing so is fundamentally flawed.”

Not surprisingly, the article resulted in an outcry from the CSR community and there have been quite a few rebuttal blog posts and tweets about the article, including from Matt Bishop on his Philanthrocapitalist blog where he picks apart some of the arguments made in the article and argues the case for truly strategic CSR efforts. Our friend and managing principal of CauseShift, Scott Henderson published a response on the Chronicle of Philanthropy blog, and argues for the need to rethink how businesses can play a role in helping to solve social problems:

Historically, corporate social responsibility programs, along with corporate philanthropy, government affairs, and cause-marketing activities, have been sequestered in different silos within corporate structures. They have been kept away from operational decision making, seen instead as a marketing opportunity or a reputation management necessity. This type of approach and thinking is inherently flawed—especially when the world is no longer about controlled messages and imagery.

The folks at Fenton Communications have also posted a great roundup of the various articles responding to Professor Karnani's article.

More links we like

This article from Care2's Frogloop blog has some great examples of how donors are engaging with mobile.

Congratulations to our friends at SnagFilms on this week's launch of SnagLearning, an online platform dedicated to presenting high-quality documentary films as educational tools to ignite meaningful classroom discussion.

Are there other stories you were keeping an eye on this week? Share them with us in the comments!

Share Tweet

BIG Citizenship: Citizens as catalysts and innovators

blogger — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 22:26:48 +0000

The 65th Annual National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) is taking place September 17, 2010 at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Themed “BIG Citizenship: Citizens as Catalysts and Innovators,” the conference will explore the powerful role civic innovators are playing in fostering societies that are informed, engaged, giving and trusting.

This theme was inspired by the recognition that individuals everywhere are self-organizing to meet community needs, demanding transparency and accountability from government, and greater social responsibility from corporations.

Citizens are leading the way in creating change and solving community problems - not waiting for “leaders” or organizations to ask them. This “inverse power structure” is supported by several key civic activities including personal/informal forms of giving (such as providing food and shelter), the use of social media for civic organizing, and “buycotting” products and services from companies consumers feel align profit with social purpose.

Sixty-five percent of Baby Boomers and 71% of Age 65+ engaged in some type of informal helping behavior, such as giving food, money, or shelter to someone who needed it. Millennials, a generation sometimes known for its “Do It Yourself” tendencies, leads the way in the use of social media for civic purposes. These online engagement opportunities often provide cost-effective, quick and easy opportunities for self-organizing for causes.

Consumers are letting their wallets do the talking in conveying the importance of corporate citizenship; 75 percent of consumers say they are more likely to purchase products or services from a company after reading its responsibility agenda.

While these trends were key findings in the 2009 America’s Civic Health Index, NCoC also seeks to highlight past citizen-driven movements that have transformed communities and our nation. Not the least among these is the Women’s Suffrage Movement, which celebrates its 90th anniversary this year.

NCoC program highlights include:

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will participate in a keynote conversation
TIME Magazine Managing Editor Rick Stengel will receive the “Citizen of the Year” award for the integral role he has played in elevating America’s dialogue on national and community service
We will host a discussion on how institutions are supporting citizen-driven solutions, which will feature elected officials and representatives of our country’s leading corporations, foundations and media outlets, including:
- Karen Baker, Secretary of State of the state of California
- Iris Chen, President and CEO of the I Have a Dream Foundation
- Alan Khazei, CEO of Be the Change, Inc.
- Stan Litow, President of the IBM Foundation
- Anne Roosevelt, Vice President of Global Corporate Citizenship of the Boeing Company
- Elliot Schrage, Vice President of Global Communications, Marketing and Public Policy of Facebook
- Rick Stengel, Managing Editor of TIME Magazine
- Erica Williams, Deputy Director of Progress 2050 at the Center for American Progress
- Judy Woodruff, Senior Correspondent of PBS NewsHour
We will also discuss our “Civic Health Assessment,” produced for the first time in partnership with the Corporation for National and Community Service, which highlights progress and challenges facing our country’s civic life
For the third year, Chief Judge Royce Lamberth will perform a naturalization ceremony welcoming America’s newest citizens

Registration is available here. If you can’t join in person, the conference will be streamed online and will receive questions from Twitter - sign up for NCoC updates to learn more about how to participate virtually. The conference is made possible with the support of event sponsors the Case Foundation and Target. We hope you will join us for this exciting event.

About the National Conference on Citizenship:
NCoC was founded in 1946 and chartered by Congress in 1953. The organization works with more than 250 partner organizations to strengthen citizenship and increase civic participation in the United States. The National Conference on Citizenship is an annual event that focuses on the state of civic engagement in America, and brings together 400 civic leaders, educators, CEOs, and representatives from each of the three branches of government to address issues related to our nation’s civic health. More information is available at http://ncoc.net>

Guest blogger Kristen Cambell is the Director of Programs and New Media at the National Conference on Citizenship.

Share Tweet

More than $: Insights from the Case Foundation-White House gathering on prizes, challenges and open grantmaking

jeanc — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:51:28 +0000

We're proud today to release a new report as part of our “Case Studies” from the spring gathering, Promoting Innovation: Prizes, Challenges and Open Grantmaking, a daylong strategy session we co-hosted along with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Domestic Policy Council. This event brought together over 200 individuals representing more than 35 government agencies and 35 private sector and nonprofit organizations to discuss lessons and strategies from experiments in prizes, challenges and open grantmaking.

The Promoting Innovation report is meant for anyone who may have missed the conference, or wants to share some of the chief learnings with colleagues who weren't able to attend.

Prizes and challenges can drive dramatic and transformative innovation. While prizes and challenges are not new – they date back to at least the 1700’s – the evolution of social media and Web 2.0 technologies has certainly positioned this space for growth. Private and philanthropic organizations have been experimenting with new ways of using them and many of their lessons are transferrable to government agencies. One study identified more than 60 new prizes, of more than $100,000 each, having debuted since 2000.

As discussed during the Promoting Innovation session, prizes and challenges can generate transformative innovation by engaging the best minds. As a result, there are numerous benefits, including:

The ability to establish an important goal without having to choose the approach or the team that is most likely to succeed

Enables sponsors to pay only for results

Highlights excellence in a particular domain of human endeavor to motivate, inspire and guide others

Increases the number and diversity of individuals, organizations and teams that are addressing a particular problem or challenge of national or international significance

Improves the skills of the participants in the competition

Stimulates private sector investment that is many times greater than the cash value of the prize

Attracts more interest and attention to a defined program, activity or issue of concern

Captures the public imagination and changes the public's perception of what is possible

However, as we’ve found from our own experience and from working with others developing these types of programs, good prize design can be hard work. Agencies should take into consideration the following advice from the summit participants.

Dos and Don'ts for Creating Prize and Challenge Programs

The report shares some key dos and don’ts that panelists and speakers raised:

The problem to be solved must be clear and well defined, with clear, measurable, and objective rules.

Agencies must make sure authority and budgets are in place.

Challenges should be open and transparent. Do not underestimate the effort it will take to remain fair.

Prizes don't have to be money. A nonmonetary prize that creates recognition can stimulate innovation.

Use the public for the right purpose.

The Promoting Innovation report, which was prepared by Brad Rourke of the Mannakee Circle Group, is available here. In addition, the full agenda, speaker biographies , and interviews with many of the key presenters on CaseSoup are available on our Citizen-Centered Solutions page.

Share Tweet

Pakistan flood relief: ways you can help

allysonb — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:39:36 +0000

As the world's attention increasingly focuses on the difficult situation in Pakistan in the wake of devastating floods that have affected more than 17 million people in the country, you may be looking for ways to help. We wanted to share a few online and mobile resources, and invite you to share your own suggestions in the comments.

As it has done for previous disasters, Global Giving has created a centralized page listing projects directly involved in flood relief, and Network for Good has also developed a list of organizations who are providing funding and other critical aid to Pakistan, with links to donate directly to those organizations' efforts. The Jolkona Foundation has also dedicated a special project page that allows you to donate directly to families affected by the floods. This New York Times article is also a great resource that points to various organizations involved in flood relief. And for grantmakers, the Council on Foundations has set up a disaster grantmaking resource page with background and links on various corporate, NGO and philanthropic efforts to help.

If you prefer to help via mobile, you can contribute to the State Department's Pakistan Relief Fund by texting "FLOOD" to 27722, or via text to one of the numerous organizations that mobile giving platform MGive has partnered with - the full list of organizations and text codes are available in this press release.

If you're looking to keep up-to-date via Twitter, follow #helppakistan for updates on relief efforts and other tips on how you can help.

Share Tweet

Weekly News Roundup: Charity:Water September birthdays, Facebook Places, CauseOn and more

allysonb — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:59:06 +0000

News from the Case Foundation and what people are talking about this week in the world of giving, tech and everything in between.

Charity:Water launches September birthday campaign
On Monday, Charity:Water launched its fourth annual September Birthday campaign asking folks to "give up" their birthdays and instead ask for donations to the organization's efforts to bring clean drinking water to the Central African Republic. As this Chronicle of Philanthropy piece reports, this year, Charity:Water is aiming to raise $1.7 million for the campaign, which will rely heavily on social media to help spread the word, as well as their own online presence, which serves as the platform for folks to sign up for the campaign. As this Technorati article puts it: "Since its inception in 2006, the September birthday campaign has helped Charity:Water grow its base of supporters by embracing social media and providing the platform and tools for individuals to lead their own campaigns." The significant press coverage that the campaign kick-off has received, which also includes articles on the Huffington Post, TechCrunch, Fast Company and numerous other blogs and sites, is a testament to its success over the past four years. Will you be giving up your September birthday this year?

Facebook Places
This week, Facebook announced the initial launch of the much anticipated Facebook Places feature, which allows users to "check-in" much in the same vein as Foursquare and Gowalla (check out Mashable's coverage of the event announcement). According to this CNET article, one of the aims of the new location feature is to add to the site's overall focus on storytelling:

Facebook Places will not just collect location check-ins, it'll allow for messages and comments and pictures to be aggregated around them, creating a sort of "collective memory" that places a layer of Facebook-published narrative atop the physical world.

Speaking of Foursquare and Gowalla, a lot of the press coverage has speculated about what Facebook Places might mean for these two companies, and the LA Times had the chance to interview Dennis Crowley, Foursquare's CEO to get his thoughts. Interestingly enough, we woke up to the news this morning that Foursquare had its biggest day ever in terms of user signups on Thursday. And, of course whenever Facebook announces any new feature, there is always a debate over privacy concerns that arise with every launch. This PC World article has a good overview of some of the privacy concerns that were raised by the Places launch.

Need a primer to learn how to use Facebook Places? This ABCNews.com article provides a good overview. Will you use Facebook Places, stay loyal to Foursquare/Gowalla, or have you not bought into the check-in craze?

CauseOn launches to tie group coupons closer to nonprofits
As its name suggests, CauseOn is a new group couponing site that launched this week to bring the benefits of social couponing to consumers while also benefiting charity. As this TechCrunch article notes, customers will have the option to direct 20% of their purchase to the charity of their choice. The Chronicle of Philanthropy has more on the site, which initially launched in Portland but hopes to be in more than 40 cities within a year, as well as an overview of the charitable efforts of other group couponing sites.

Other noteworthy items
Inspired by the spirit of the Giving Pledge, young entrepreneur Bryan Sims, who is not (yet) a billionaire, pledges to make a substantial contribution of his future earnings to charity, and over on the Change.org Social Entrepreneurship blog, challenges other young entrepreneurs to do the same.

Frequent travelers were excited when JetBlue announced its "All You Can Jet" pass this week. The great folks at DoSomething are taking it one step further by offering free passes to five lucky young people for sharing their stories of how they'd use the pass to further their organization's goals, whether by meeting with potential donors or going to conferences to learn new skills.

Share Tweet

College students, want to build your resume while having fun this fall?

sokuntheas — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:35:22 +0000

Intern with us! We are looking for energetic and talented college students with a passion for civic engagement and philanthropy to join us for the fall semester at The Case Foundation. If you or someone you know fits the bill, please read on or forward the job description below!

Internships at the Case Foundation offer college students invaluable resume building work experience and networking opportunities! Not only will Interns work closely with members of the Case Foundation team and have the opportunity to learn about and contribute to many aspects of our business, but they also get to interact with our partner organizations and participate in events that feature leaders in the community.

Job Responsibilities:
Interns are a valued part of our team will handle a variety of projects to support the Foundation's mission of investing in big ideas that can change the world. They will support our social innovation programs, social media strategy and office operations on a range of tasks including, but not limited to:

Conduct research and prepare reports or write posts for Foundation blog
Assist with grant administration tasks
Perform project-specific outreach to nonprofit and other external partners
Assist with special event planning and organization
Contribute and help maintain/enhance social media and networking presence
Assist in blogger outreach
Perform project-specific marketing and communications outreach
Help with online photo gallery, video gallery and image search needs
Support team administrative needs, when needed (including data entry, filing, mass mailings, schedule coordination and taking and preparing meeting notes)

Job Requirements:

Undergraduate and graduate college students
Ability to commit at least 15 hours per week (flexible structure, either broken out into 2 or 3 days per week)
Excellent written, oral and interpersonal communication skills is a must, as successful candidate will work both internally with Foundation colleagues and externally with applicants and grantees from diverse populations and communities
Interest in and ability to work in both a team environment and alone with minimal direction
Demonstrated personal computer skills, including basic troubleshooting and use of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint and the willingness to learn other software tools
Demonstrated use and comfort navigating Web 2.0 sites and tools, including blogs, social networks, video and photo sharing, etc.
Interest in building capacity in underserved communities and championing individuals, nonprofits and social enterprises that connect people, increase giving and catalyze civic action

Compensation:
This is an unpaid internship. The Foundation does offer transportation reimbursement.

To Apply:
Please email resume and cover letter to contactus@casefoundation.org, using the subject line: “Fall 2010 Internship” by September 15th. We will only contact candidates who will be asked to come in for interviews.

Share Tweet

Bringing the 2.0 revolution offline

joshuat — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 14:01:55 +0000

It’s the year 2010, aren’t we supposed to have flying cars by now? And teleports? If you were to ask me 20 years ago what the future would be like, I would have told you about moon colonies, not Twitter.

To be sure, the techvolution in information sharing and communications we have experienced since the birth of the computer has been nothing short of astonishing, but many industries have not yet seen the same rate of exponential innovation and progress that the online world has undergone in the past twenty years. We still have not put a man on mars, cured cancer or found a reliable source of clean energy – accomplishments which many thought would have been done decades ago.

I recently read a blog post by Wendy Schmidt, a Silicon Valley veteran. Remarking on the BP oil spill and the state of technology in the oil industry, Wendy had this to say:

When I think about it, I realize we are looking at an old operating system: last century's energy infrastructure coupled with an inadequate and out-of-date understanding of the human relationship with natural resources. We need Version 2.0. The sooner the better.

Out of context, she could have been talking about the car industry, the airline industry, you name it. While indeed we have witnessed exceptional progress in these industries, the ideology and rapid advancement of the “2.0” revolution has yet to break out of virtual space and spur the fast paced innovation, invention, investment and infrastructure capable of carrying these industries to breakout capacity. The good news is, Wendy is out to change this.

The Prize

Wendy Schmidt is funding the Oil Cleanup X Prize, a $1 million dollar award for the most innovative and effective solution for cleaning up today’s disaster, as well as those of the future (China is ALREADY wrestling with an oil spill of its own). While the Challenge - put on by the X Prize Foundation - is guaranteed to breed overwhelmingly positive effects on the environment, wildlife and businesses around the gulf and elsewhere, what intrigued me most was the concept and the strategy underlying the prize’s purpose; namely, to build the 2.0 infrastructure necessary to resolve a detrimental and pervasive threat to our environment.

Schmidt chose the X Prize Foundation as the platform to build this infrastructure so that she could utilize the venture model of the 4 previous X Prizes, which have led to the birth of the $1 Billion private space travel industry and the 100 mile per gallon car; you can check out the other successes of the X Prize in the video below. As Wendy puts it:

Through competition, new ideas and approaches that do not advance due to lack of funding, can have a chance to develop, be tested, and make their way into the public imagination and eventually, the marketplace.

According to Wendy, who spent her adult life working within the Web 2.0 Revolution, this is the same model which transformed building-sized computers to pocket-sized smart phones, and the key to building tomorrow’s world.

The Formula

This idea, that the tenets of the Web 2.0 revolution could be applied across industries and be used to resolve global problems from Malaria to the world water crisis really started to inspire me, and I began searching for the common threads between the communications revolution, the X Prize and other programs seeking to exploit this model, like the TED Fellows program. I am clearly no expert, but it seems to me that there are three major practices which helped spur the online 2.0 revolution and could help bring the revolution to industries offline:

Crowdsourcing: The success of the iPhone is very much credited to Apple, but the driving forces behind its achievement are the Apps, developed by non-Apple entrepreneurs around the world. By offering developers the tools and the incentive to create these apps, Apple was able to exploit the world’s greatest resource – the minds of the global public. The truth is that often, the best ideas and inventions are found outside of the company, and even outside the industry. The best path to innovation is to harvest these ideas through crowdsourcing, not necessarily to come up with them yourself. After all, no company has ALL the answers; someone out there probably knows how to build the perfect flying car, he just might not work for Ford or Honda. I believe the prize is one of the best methods of crowdsourcing knowledge and skills, but there are plenty of methods available to achieve this. For example, check out OpenIDEO, a new platform whose purpose is to crowdsource good ideas and then crowdsource input for those ideas to help them gain the momentum to become reality.
Experimentation & Targeted Failure: As Peter Diamandis, CEO of the X Prize put it: “The day before something is a breakthrough, it’s a crazy idea”. But one breakthrough can take a hundred crazy ideas or experiments, just as there have been hundreds of failed social networking sites for every success like Twitter. Even the internet had to go through a market bust before it was able to become the superpower it is today. The trick is to benefit and learn from every failure rather than to demonize it; after all, some of the biggest breakthroughs in history have been failures in their own right. Penicillin was discovered when a scientist accidentally forgot to cover his Petri dish. If you don't believe in this idea, just think about Facebook, a constantly evolving program, which is always experimenting with new features, but tweaking them whenever public opinion is more rash than expected.
Investment in Big Dreams: According to Wendy Schmidt, one of the most exciting parts of working in Silicon Valley is constantly challenging the notion of what is possible. Web 2.0 was built on the optimism and the imaginations of web entrepreneurs, not on pragmatism or a reliance on hard facts. The same can be true in the physical world. According to the X Prize website, when a prize is launched, the question changes from “can it happen” to “when will it happen”. Sometimes it takes an investment in people’s dreams, rather than their finished products, to make the future happen. We can do anything we can dream of, but we need to dream the dream first.

Truth be told, there are obviously very many more factors that led to the online 2.0 revolution and that are necessary to bring that revolution to the offline world, but I think these are the first three gates that need to be opened in order to get the wheels turning. Embracing any of these three principles involves taking on a good deal of risk, something many companies are very uncomfortable with, but I'd argue that risk is necessary for progress. Once this progress is realized, any and all risk will be justified, and today’s dream can become tomorrow’s reality.

What else do you think we need to bring the 2.0 to the offline world? And how do you think we can apply it to the social sector? Let us know in the comments section below.

Share Tweet

Shakira's hips can help educate children, what can yours do?

blogger — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 19:11:29 +0000

It was practically inevitable. You surely saw Shakira’s “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” dance at some point this summer. Besides being featured at the World Cup 2010 opening and closing ceremonies, the Colombian singer’s African-inspired pop hit quickly dominated the internet and had its signature dance poorly imitated at parties - World Cup related or not - around the globe for months. I may personally have tried my hand (and hips) at the energetic step, thankful that everyone present would rather dance than grab a camera.

Shakira must have had some idea of how many of us would choose to stomp spasmodically around our friends’ apartments when she challenged her fans to upload videos of themselves dancing the Waka Waka and join the 1GOAL global education campaign. Shakira’s inspiration of the masses and integration of 1GOAL’s message with her own is another engine of change making doing good more mainstream and demonstrating the benefit that celebrity support can have for causes.

1GOAL seeks to attract massive popular support to strengthen its petitions to world governments to meet their Education for All commitments, especially the goal of offering all children free primary education of good quality by 2012. This was not a one-time gesture for Shakira. You can find in the news feed on her website - among the concert announcements and product release notices - stories of the singer/songwriter/dancer visiting schools in Africa to promote 1GOAL or selling t-shirts to support UNICEF and the Barefoot Foundation.

Her activities are less surprising to those who know that Shakira is much more than a musician and a dancer but also the founder of Pies Descalzos as well as its sister organization, the Barefoot Foundation, and the youngest person ever to become a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. Shakira started Pies Descalzos when she was only 18 to help children in her native Colombia, in particular the city of Barranquilla. Not only does Pies Descalzos provide educational aids, nutritious meals and social support to schools serving impoverished and displaced Colombian children, it has recently built and opened a new school to directly increase the quantity of children served. The Barefoot Foundation helps raise money for Pies Descalzos’ projects and lobbies governments around the globe to improve educational programs. As an advocate for global education reform, she was selected as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2003, joining the likes of Sir Roger Moore (James Bond to you and me) and Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan in campaigning to improve the lives of children worldwide. Some of Shakira’s ambassadorial achievements include co-founding ALAS, a coalition of advocates for early childhood development intervention in Latin America, and launching the Unite For Children, Unite Against AIDS campaign.

This international superstar turned her success and fame to good purposes, much as anybody might if as fortunate as she. Shakira gets special praise from me, though, for the way she invests her resources in the cause of children’s welfare. To promote the cause, she makes herself an intermediary between ordinary people, children in need of aid and the world leaders poised to make a difference. Rather than just calling for donations from supporters, Pies Descalzos and the Barefoot Foundation call for citizens to become teachers, lobbyists, heralds, and surrogate parents to stricken children. Shakira herself seems to spend as much time touring destitute schools and neighborhoods, government offices and NGO headquarters as she does stages and stadiums, so that she can personally listen and speak to children in need and those who would help them.

What can you do to get involved with Shakira’s efforts to improve the quality of global education? Join 1GOAL, go buy a Waka Waka t-shirt (or even a virtual Shakira shirt for your Sims), visit the Barefoot Foundation website and sign up for the newsletter, sponsor a child in Colombia, prod your friends and family to take a look, travel to Colombia to volunteer your skills and time, and even just learn the Waka Waka dance. Better yet, take a look at your own community’s education environment and figure out what you can do to help - not all of us have Shakira’s resources to devote to improving education, but motivating individuals to step up is a large part Shakira’s advocacy. In her words, "I trust that as time goes by, there will be more and more people who want to help those in need. When that happens, the world will definitely come to know peace."

Guest blogger Nikolai Stieglitz is an intern with the Case Foundation

Share Tweet

Dressed to Give: Take a stand against human trafficking and go shopping!

stephanieh — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:12:58 +0000

Human trafficking is a serious problem. It's been estimated that 27 million people exist in some form of slavery today, and with perpetrators of trafficking raking in over $32 billion a year and going largely unpunished, it's hard to see a solution soon. But there's a reason to hope: stylish shoppers are making an impact!

What, you say? How can shopping help bring an end to human trafficking? While some victims are held against their will, others find themselves in indentured servitude working to pay off debts they may not have even personally incurred. Still others end up in situations where slavery is the only option in order to survive.

Survivors of trafficking need jobs in order to provide for themselves (and their families), or else they may have no other choice but to return to their lives of slavery. Several organizations have found a solution by training survivors to produce clothing and accessories and selling them online to the global market. Through these organizations, survivors gain job skills and earn a living wage while working in safe conditions. By purchasing these items, consumers can make a direct impact on trafficking by ensuring survivors have an alternative to slavery.

Below are two amazing businesses that are enabling survivors to make a better life for themselves, all while producing stylish products.

Stop Traffick Fashion

Stop Traffick Fashion (STF) is an online boutique that offers products from eight organizations that work with trafficking survivors. The items range from jewelry to bags to t-shirts, but all are fabulous. STF's founder, Emily Hill, hand-picks the most fashionable accessories from the vendors she works with, insisting:

I don't want my customers to make a pity purchase. I want to offer amazing accessories that people would buy anyway; the fact that they help survivors of trafficking is only a really great bonus.

While in Thailand seven years ago, Hill visited a home for young girls who were at risk of being trafficked. Upon learning about human trafficking, Hill knew she had to do something to help, but it wasn't until several years later that she found out how. At an event in London, she became acquainted with several nonprofits and small businesses that were combating trafficking by employing survivors and training them to produce jewelry, bags and other handicrafts. These vendors pay their employees (usually women) wages above market value and provide safe working conditions. In addition, they often offer other services ranging from medical and psychological services, education and rehabilitation.

Hill saw incredible potential for these products to be sold to mainstream consumers and with her business and marketing savvy, created Stop Traffick Fashion. STF's business model is similar to my last Dressed to Give feature, five ACCESSORIES, where in addition to providing income to survivors, STF commits to donating a percentage of its total revenue (not just profits) to nonprofits that work with trafficking victims. STF is looking to expand its product lines, with the eventual goal of opening a storefront. Hill loves that she and her customers are making a direct impact on trafficking:

The more products my vendors sell, the more women they can hire and save from a life of slavery."

Biographe

Biographe is a new style brand created by The Blind Project to work with the fashion industry to raise awareness about trafficking and help survivors. Currently, Biographe is issuing an open source design challenge, asking designers to submit designs for clothing that are inspired by the stories of survivors. They are encouraged to "Be a Biographer" and tell the story of a trafficking survivor. Check out the video below for more info.

Designs are being accepted until September 15, then the public will be encouraged to vote on the designs from September 16-October 7. Fifteen semi-finalists will be selected, and a panel of judges will then select three grand finalists by October 21. The designs will be incorporated into Biographe's sustainable clothing brand, which will employ survivors of trafficking in Southeast Asia and reinvest all profits into partner organizations in the area that provide rehabilitation services to survivors. Follow Biographe on Twitter or Facebook to get updates on when their clothing line will be available for purchase, and be sure to vote on your favorite designs next month!

See, shopping really can make a difference! So grab your credit card, fire up your computer, and combat human trafficking... all while you're snagging some new accessories.

Meet our summer interns!

joshuat — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 13:39:12 +0000

At the Case Foundation we spend much of our time working with various influential leaders in the fields of philanthropy, civic engagement and innovation, but some of the most inspiring young heroes are right here working at our side every single day. Some of the best thoughts, ideas and initiatives dreamed up in this office come from the minds of our brilliant and driven summer interns, whose college bound brains are capable of reaching audiences and brainstorming ideas that us oldies may miss out on. Without further ado, allow me to introduce you to Nikolai Stieglitz and Jenna Hnath, the two newest young idealists and changemakers at the Case Foundation.

Josh: Give us your story. Where did you grow up? What are you studying? What are your plans for the future?

Nikolai: I moved constantly growing up, living in Florida twice, South Carolina, Northern Virginia, Hawai’i and now D.C., where I study at American University’s School of International Service. Like my background, my studies are a little eclectic - nuclear warfare, American literature, arms control and disarmament policy, intelligence analysis, Greek philosophy, Iran, peace and conflict resolution, cross cultural communications - so I don’t know what I’ll end up doing, only that I want to do something useful.

Jenna: I’m a Maryland native - I grew up in Silver Spring and Potomac, and recently moved to Germantown (technically Boyds). This coming semester I will be a senior at the University of Maryland in College Park, studying History with a focus on the Middle East. I hope to begin grad school by 2012 and earn my masters degree in International Diplomacy or a similar field. Currently I am part of the business development team of AIESEC at George Washington University. AIESEC is an international student run organization that facilitates international exchange, understanding and leadership building for college students and young professionals. I am planning on traveling to the Middle East after I graduate in Spring 2011 (*fingers crossed*).

Josh: What inspired you to seek out an internship with the Case Foundation, and what do you hope to achieve here?

Nikolai: Most of my work experience has been volunteering with organizations across the map and the spectrum of nonprofits: local and national, secular and religious, broad-scoped and narrow, venerable and upstart. With so many organizations, I got thinking about what makes a nonprofit successful, what an organization needs to do to survive and thrive nowadays. Answering some of those questions and aiding nonprofits is part of the Case Foundation’s mission, so working with them teaches me how I can jump in and improve the next nonprofit I work with.

Jenna: I first learned of the Case Foundation through Idealist.org. I was impressed by the Case Foundation’s commitment to finding solutions to complex social problems, and also by the organization’s emphasis on using technology and social media. I’m hoping to learn more during my internship about how technology and social media can be leveraged to further an organization or business’s goals; particularly, how organizations can use social media to communicate with their intended audience and get them engaged. I’m also very interested in success metrics, i.e. how an organization measures the success and effectiveness of its programs, contests, and online presence.

Josh: What has been your most memorable experience from this internship thus far?

Nikolai: Running around DC with a camera and asking people from around the country and the world about the meaning of democracy. Doing something a little new, a little crazy and a little last minute was fun and worthwhile.

Jenna: When I arrived my first day, I went straight into a meeting with Michael and a Congressional aide. I didn’t know what they were talking about and was google-ing acronyms for an hour after the meeting, but it struck me what an important force the Case Foundation is in the nonprofit world, and how lucky I was to be a part of it.

Josh: How will the skills or lessons learned during your tenure here impact your life back at school this fall?

Nikolai: Working with the Case Foundation and studying how other organizations with small budgets but huge goals can operate better has gotten me thinking about my student government at AU. I’ve volunteered some of my time with them, but now I think I could help them reach more people and improve their communications with the rest of the campus community.

Jenna:

Research skills: useful in college, the workplace, and life in general
Familiarity with social media tools: trending tools on Twitter; tech sites such as Mashable.com and TechCrunch; sites like Crowdrise that make volunteering and giving easy. I had no idea so many free tech/social media tools were out there. Once you know where to look, there are a ton of great resources available.
Success metrics: how to measure the success or effectiveness of a program, or determine how many people are opening an email/sharing a post, etc. I will definitely share what I learned about this with AIESEC, the student organization I’m part of, and any other organizations I become involved with.
Lessons Learned: Don’t procrastinate. Set deadlines for yourself. Collaborate. NETWORK!

Josh: What advice do you have for other college students interested in careers in civic engagement or philanthropy?

Nikolai: Keeping your eyes and ears open will help. Paying attention to problems facing your community - your family, your school, your town - will help show you where you can make a difference. Talking with people about how to go about accomplishing that is cheap but may put you on to great opportunities to learn and address the problem.

Besides that, working for other small organizations with limited budgets has required me to be flexible as well as hardworking. One tiny nonprofit I worked for had me doing research and writing one day, putting together furniture and fixing computers the next and interpreting French (badly) the next. Know your strengths and capitalize on them, but expect to do what needs to be done to support your organization. Many overlooked little things enable a nonprofit to succeed; doing them will help its cause and teach you to be versatile.

Jenna: Don’t be afraid to jump right in. Ask questions, be involved, and be passionate. And most importantly, network! On a more practical note, Idealist.org is a great website for finding internships related to civic engagement and philanthropy.

VPP invests up to $5.5 million in KIPP DC

sokuntheas — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 14:56:45 +0000

It is important to us to support the DC community, and one of the most effective ways we have done this is by investing in Venture Philanthropy Partners (VPP) and their portfolio of grantees. We're excited to share their latest announcement - an investment partnership of up to $5.5 million in the growth of KIPP DC - and wanted to share the note below from Carol Thompson Cole, VPP's President and CEO. This news comes on the heels of another exciting development for VPP; just a couple of weeks ago, they were included among the first round of grantees for the Social Innovation Fund.

I am very excited to share with you the news of our second investment in Portfolio II. VPP will enter an investment partnership of up to $5.5 million in the growth of KIPP DC over the next four years. KIPP DC is the highest performing network of college-preparatory public charter schools in Washington DC and serves children and youth in under-resourced communities.

The VPP investment of growth capital and strategic assistance will help KIPP DC expand from seven schools serving approximately 1,550 students to ten schools serving at least 3,400 students and promises to provide outstanding social return for VPP’s investors, stakeholders, and most importantly, for the children and youth of low-income families in our region. The demonstration of KIPP’s high performing model at scale in the National Capital Region has the potential to raise expectations for how high-quality education can be delivered in under-served communities around the country.

We began working closely with KIPP DC and its excellent executive and board leadership in October, 2009 when we funded business planning, led by McKinsey, as the final step in our investment selection process. The total investment committed to KIPP DC, including business planning, is $5.9 million. VPP and KIPP DC have developed a very effective relationship, and we look forward to deepening and strengthening our partnership throughout the investment and beyond.

I have personally been very impressed by the vision, commitment and leadership capabilities of Susan Schaeffler, Founder and Executive Director, and Allison Fansler, President and COO, as well as the bold aspirations and drive of board members, including board chair, Terry Golden, and KIPP DC board member and VPP investor, David Bradley. This outstanding leadership team has the passion and ability to achieve this ambitious growth plan and build a strong and sustaining public school system that will be able to deliver outstanding results for students in our region for years to come.

You can read more about the KIPP investment on our website, in the Washington Post, and in our official announcement, below.

Thank you for your investment and support that makes our work with KIPP DC possible and will result in almost two thousand more students receiving an excellent education and strong foundation for a successful adulthood. We are grateful for your generosity and commitment to the children and youth of our region.

Sincerely,

Carol

Weekly News Roundup: lite edition

allysonb — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:22:43 +0000

News from the Case Foundation and what people are talking about this week in the world of giving, tech and everything in between.

This week we're featuring the "lite" edition of the news roundup - sharing links to stories we tweeted and talked about.

Online platforms and mobile apps for good - Forbes.com has a nice slideshow of ten "socially responsible" apps for your mobile phone, including SeeClickFix, GoodGuide and CauseWorld amongst others. And over on Socialbrite, they share a list of "awesome" platforms for good, including the newly launched OpenIDEO and Citizen Effect. (Speaking of platforms, be sure to check out Sokunthea's conversation with Crowdrise co-founder Robert Wolfe).

Share your design ideas for visualizing progress toward Millennium Development Goals & win a trip to TEDxChange - GOOD magazine has issued a project challenge asking folks to share their creative energy by submitting a poster design that demonstrates progress toward the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), in honor of the upcoming 10th anniversary of the MDGs. GOOD is looking for submissions around one of three goals: Eradicate poverty and hunger; Reduce child mortality; and improve maternal health. The winner of this contest will receive a trip to New York for the TEDxChange event on Sept. 20.

CECP executive director weighs in on business' role in solving social issues - Charles Moore, executive director of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP), shares his perspective on recently published negative opinions about the role of corporate philanthropy. His post appears on a new Chronicle of Philanthropy blog, Profit and Purpose, which seeks to "provoke new thinking about how companies, nonprofit groups, government agencies, and individuals can work together to solve social issues."

Congrats to the "Top 25 Women to Watch in Tech" - AlwaysOn announced this inaugural list at the 8th AlwaysOn & STVP Summit at Stanford, which "underscore the critical role intelligence, perseverance, and tenacity play in new company and new job creation as well as providing sustainable environments where technology thrives."

Blogging for clean water - Changents and P&G's Give Health initiative are inviting bloggers to join their Clean Water Blogviation (love this term) by donating a blog post to share their own story about how they are acting (or want to act) as a Change Agent for clean water. The initiative is also a contest - bloggers who spread the word about their post can win money towards a charity doing work in addressing the clean water crisis.

Nonprofits get protective of their brands - A fascinating article from the Wall Street Journal about a recent trend from big-name nonprofits becoming more aggressive in protecting their brands and trademarks, taking action against other nonprofits using names or other brand characteristics that could cause confusion with their own.

Can online giving really be this fun? Ed Norton and Crowdrise think so.

sokuntheas — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:37:16 +0000

Edward Norton says, “If you don’t give back, no one will like you.” He was the Incredible Hulk and leader of Fight Club, so I’d listen if I were you.

I was surprised to see Ed Norton making appearances at various conferences during Internet Week last month in NYC, and even more surprised to find that he was there to talk about online fundraising?! Ok, you had me at Ed Norton, but really, he’s here to talk about things in our sweet spot - giving, social media, online platforms? I’m all ears.

He was making the rounds to talk about Crowdrise, a new online fundraising platform that he and partners Shauna Robertson, and Robert and Jeffrey Wolfe have created. The platform integrates social networking, crowdsourcing, and incentives in order to not only put the "fun" back in fundraising, but also make it more effective. I had the pleasure of speaking with Robert Wolfe - he and his brother Jeffrey were co-founders of Moosejaw, the online outdoor gear and apparel retailer - and wanted to bring their experiences in successful online retail marketing to the fundraising world, hence the birth of Crowdrise.

Clearly, their marketing skills are working. Since their public launch in May, they have been mentioned and featured all over - from networks (ABC, NBC, CNN, and USA Today) to blogs (Mashable, ReadWriteWeb and Likeable Media) and posts on Facebook and Twitter. They’ve clearly leveraged their celebrity connections - Seth Rogan, Russell Brand, and Will Ferrell all have fundraising projects on the site (Will Ferrell is even offering his own brand of sexy sunscreen to donors who give $17 or more to his project, Scholarships for Cancer Survivors). And, it looks like it may be translating into general users and participants, too. Although they’re not disclosing how many users and projects they currently have on the platform, there does look to be plenty of activity.

From my discussion with Robert and perusing through the site, one thing is evident - what lies at the core of Crowdrise is FUN. From his infectious enthusiasm, to the irreverent and witty copy on their site, to the cool prizes offered - they try to infuse fun in all elements of the process. Here’s what Robert has to say:

Sokunthea: There have been many online volunteer and fundraising platforms that have sprouted as of late. What makes Crowdrise different from others out there?

Robert: Our goal at Crowdrise is to have an impact by making volunteering and fundraising fun. I don't want to bore you with a million examples of how we go at it but if you play around on the site you'll see endless foolishness that we hope is somewhat notable. I'd say the two most unexpected parts of Crowdrise, that have been really awesome since we launched, are the point program and the crazy engagement.

The Crowdrise community is obsessed with their points and I certainly mean that in the most positive way. You earn Crowdrise points by donating, raising money and getting votes from the community. The idea is that the crowd determines who the most philanthropic people are on Crowdrise and those people are rewarded with points and awesome prizes. The combination of crowdsourcing along with incentives that you typically find in online retail creates more engagement and raises more awareness about Crowdrise projects. There's no question that the most passionate people are having the most fun and getting rewarded for digging in.

Even though we've only been live a short time I can say with some degree of confidence that people are getting addicted to the site. And, the best part is that it's super niche and all about giving back. Random people are voting for each other and donating to each others projects and helping each other fundraise. It's actually really cool. We're getting multiple emails a day from people saying... 'Someone just started fundraising for the project that I started but I don't know them. Is that a mistake?' And, our answer is that it may be a mistake but that's really what Crowdrise is all about. The social network enables people to click around like mad and find real human people starting projects for causes they care about and helping 'em out.

Sokunthea: How did you come up with the Points Program?

Robert: When we were doing our research and talking to high school and college students to try to figure out how to make volunteering fun and appealing to them, we realized a lot of high school students who had to do community service to graduate didn't particularly like it. We're obsessed with our own airline miles and developed a really successful point program at the other company we founded, Moosejaw. So, we thought it made a lot of sense to create a point system in the philanthropic space to try to make everything a little more fun. And, our badges couldn't be any more ridiculous.

Also, on Crowdrise, a $29 donation also enters you to win an iPad. We have lots of different prizes and they're all really, really good. At the end of the day, our goal is to create engagement, drive donations and make it all fun. If our incentives get people to participate more then it's all good.

Sokunthea: Donor Fatigue is a big question when it comes to the hot topic of online fundraising and the popularity of online giving challenges. Are there ways that Crowdrise addresses this issue?

Robert: I don't want to be boring but, to us, it all goes back to making Crowdrise fun and we're supremely focused on it. There's a difference between asking someone to donate $9 to an important cause and asking someone to donate $9 to an important cause and you also get signed up to win a Macbook Air and a Shower Cap. We’re embracing everything we learned as online retailers to incentivize people to do good. Also, why isn't Incent a word? Can someone fix that? We definitely care about the quality of our community, not the quantity. We'd much rather have 10 people on the site kicking ass then have a hundred people with still those same 10 having fun and giving back.

So, the way we see it, we’ll contribute to that fatigue if we’re not making it fun.

Also, we don’t see ourselves as competing with online giving challenges like Chase Giving or Pepsi Refresh. We're competing with people who wait to get a letter in the mail from a charity and send in a check. Fifteen years ago, no one thought anyone would buy shoes and backpacks on the internet and, in that same way, we think we can do a decent job getting people why typically give back in real life to also do it online. I'm sure I'm making no sense at all.

Sokunthea: Who’s behind all of the fun irreverent copy throughout your site?

Robert: That's mostly me and my brother and Shauna and Edward with plenty of feedback from customers, too.

Share Tweet

Is mobile giving for everyone? Well, not yet...

joshuat — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:44:22 +0000

We’ve all seen the advertisements: “Text WATER to 38279”, “Text FOOD to 18732”. You pull out your phone, you send a text, and VOILA! you’ve made a $5-10 donation. Its simple, quick and easy, and it requires next to no effort. Heck, you don’t even need a credit card; it just rolls up into your phone bill. What’s more, after witnessing Alicia Keys raise $450K in one night on American Idol, or reading about the Red Cross taking in $32M in response to the Haiti earthquake, we are tempted to believe that text-to-give campaigns are the answer to every nonprofit's prayers, and that 2010 really will be the year of mobile.

It’s easy to see why. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve intended to give next time I’m at my computer, but some hurdle or another impedes my donation. Enter mobile giving, which doesn’t just jump these hurdles, it destroys them.

By introducing the “now” factor, nonprofits can capture that would-be donor who always seems to forget; since the modern man always has his mobile, there is no wait time between the ask and the donation. Organizations using mobile giving campaigns will not lose donors to complicated websites, forgotten logins or credit card issues. But best of all, nonprofits can gain those donors who shiver every time they pull out their wallets; to many people, a $10 text donation can seem more like a way to play with their phone than a way to spend their money. Mobile giving picks up so many lost donors that, according to the Mobile Giving Foundation, it outpaces online donor acquisition 3:1.

It’s so simple that anyone can do it, right? Well actually, not quite. Mobile giving is not for everyone, and certainly not for every organization. Here’s why.

Size does matter

Mobile giving campaigns are not like Causes on Facebook, where any nonprofit can join up and start fundraising with the click of a button. In the US, the platform is highly regulated by the Mobile Giving Foundation, who imposes standards and regulations on nonprofits wishing to utilize text-to-give. These rules are important for keeping the industry safe from spammers, hackers and thieves, but they can be limiting.

The primary imposition is that organizations must have gross revenue of at least $500,000, leaving many small nonprofits in the dust. With expensive setup, monthly and per transaction fees, as well as potentially pricey advertising costs, most small nonprofits will not be able to incur enough ROI to justify a mobile campaign… at least not yet. As mobile giving proliferates, prices will go down as companies like CauseCast begin to offer cheaper platforms. Also, as noted on Social Citizens, mobile service providers may eventually see mobile giving as a perfect CSR opportunity, waiving the backend fees which add to these costs.

Until that time, we’ll have to rely on larger nonprofits like the Red Cross or the United Way to push the momentum of mobile giving forward, and they are. The Mobile Giving Foundation has launched more than 800 campaigns since 2007, and new campaigns are popping up every day. For example, the World Wildlife Federation has just launched a new mobile campaign to protect tigers from extinction. Campaigns are being launched everywhere, for every cause, expanding the donor base and the audience for mobile giving, but there is still a long ways to go.

Ask the audience

With over five billion cell phone connections worldwide (280 million in America), cell phones outnumber computers, making mobile users the largest global audience for fundraising solicitations; however, only 27% of mobile users will actually donate using their phones. The reason is that the mobile audience is highly segmented, and maximization of the mobile donor base can depend on many factors. For example, mobile giving happens to be very successful among members of the millennial generation, but older generations tend to have more reservations about this platform because they are not as familiar with the technology and because they have less trust in its security.

Another “demographic” potentially left out of the mix is the engaged donor. On our blog we love to talk about how new technologies allow supporters to play a larger role in the philanthropic process, and create stronger relationships between organizations and donors. Mobile giving tends to buck against this trend. While they may inspire more people to donate, text-to-give campaigns limit the amount of follow up information that can be shared, they don’t encourage repeat donations and they don’t allow the donor the ability to choose the amount of their donation. Network for Good reported an average donation of $92 in 2009, a far cry from the $10 maximum currently allowed in mobile giving, which leaves both the donor and the nonprofit short changed to some extent.

As the entire process is complete in an instant, the relationship between the nonprofit and the donor tends to expire once your finger hits the “send” button. This goes against the ideology behind the rise of social media, where donors can watch, interact with and even advertise the organization they are donating to. On the bright side, with the rise of smart phones, this is very much subject to change; there’s a good chance that text-to-give platforms might soon develop symbiotic relationships with applications like Twitter or Facebook and make mobile giving more “social”.

To the future…. and beyond

In its current state, text-to-give campaigns should be used as part of a package of fundraising and outreach techniques; they are not the messianic answer some nonprofits are looking for. But mobile giving – or really mobile technology – is improving every day. Though there are various limitations and barriers to entry restricting the effectiveness of text-to-give campaigns right now, the rapid pace of technological innovation and adaptation could transform mobile giving from a successful fundraising movement to an all-out-revolution in nonprofit outreach, as it has already done in other parts of the world.

As more and more devices (and thus, people) are coming equipped with internet access and applications, mobile giving will become easier, cheaper and more engaging both for organizations and for donors. Your great grandmother may not be texting for tigers and auto-tweeting her donation via her Android 7 quite yet, but give it some time. I believe that mobile giving and text-to-give campaigns will continue to grow and outpace all other methods of nonprofit outreach, that is, until the next new technology comes along and changes the game all over again.

Giving USA 2010: The skinny on getting the most out of "The Numbers" online report

blogger — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:13:42 +0000

For professionals in philanthropy, June 9 was important this year because it was the official launch date of “The Numbers”* - Giving USA 2010, The Annual Report on Philanthropy. Because of its 54-year history of proven accuracy, Giving USA has become a gold standard for its reporting and analysis of giving. And, without question, it is a big deal - people anticipate the publication.

Consultants, media types and not-for-profit numbers-junkies want to be the first to read and report about how the nation’s philanthropy is growing (or not). Some reporters try tricks to get “The Numbers” first, but the researchers at the Center on Philanthropy and colleagues at Giving USA Foundation hold fast to the results until the release day. Giving USA requires year-round research and thousands of hours to create, so a coordinated announcement about “who gives, how much, and to whom” is merited.

Those who know Giving USA use and appreciate the numbers-crunching that goes into this online resource that was once a brick-of-a-book worthy of a door-stop (we’ll circle back to this in a minute). Others want to learn how to get the most out of it.

First, the Skinny

For those with a short attention span, the bottom line on giving in ’09 is that it was down. But - according to researchers’ calculations - things weren’t as dire as some speculated they would be. The Giving USA 2010 executive summary and full report fleshes this out.

If you need a benchmark for an evaluation, you can find a comparable example outlined in the Giving USA report. Need to assess your PR efforts? Giving USA can help you determine the confidence rating in your area of giving. Even if you need to supplement a talking point for the boss’s speech, you can use the report to locate a fact or two about giving in your industry.

For more on what you can do with the numbers at the core of Giving USA 2010, visit the Giving USA website and click on Top 5 Ways to Use Giving USA or watch the video below.

Next, About Technology - and that Brick-of-a-book

Anyone who has read or used Giving USA can tell you it has always been distributed as a big, printed book - always. But, in the spirit of Glasspockets and the open data movement, the publishers of Giving USA were set on making “The Numbers” both more affordable and easier to access. Moving it online addressed both of these goals, so the commitment to an all-electronic version was made.

As suspected, a few Giving USA readers resisted. They have made clear that they value the tangible, brick-of-a-book and would prefer to pull it off of their wooden bookshelf, not their (perhaps nonexistent) virtual one. Why is this important? Just as in recognizing the digital divide in our grantmaking and in the services that not-for-profits provide clients, publishers still need to make sure that they are at least acknowledging the folks that feel left behind. This is a key take-away this year for the staff at Giving USA and it deserves more consideration.

If you are immersed in the technology environment - reading tech blogs and active on Twitter - it may seem as if the world has adjusted to the electronic revolution quite nicely. But without stepping out of the cities and out of this country (and sometimes even just out of the NGen crowd) we may forget that revolution can be more like evolution - in actuality, it is slow in happening.

In any case, the publishers of Giving USA are committed to joining the charge in making research available and easily accessible online.

**Finally, Making The Numbers Work for You**

Those of us who are electronically savvy have our own challenges. In this age of quick fixes and lightning fast technology, we can be guilty of giving in easily to “feeding the blog beast” as Mitch Nauffts of Philanthropy News Digest refers to the pressure of content-production all human bloggers feel. We skim the top to find and spread information and don’t dig deep enough or reflect long enough on the data. Author Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows offers more on this.

When pressed for time and turnover of that blog posting - or even that grant request or memorandum to the board - Giving USA is a resource that can help you satisfy the beast. Once you dive in, you can find specific information for your organization that covers the numbers and extends well beyond.

When Giving USA comes around next year, take it for a ride. Or why wait? The data is relevant and topical digests on topics like giving to religion and giving by corporations are rolling out now.

*What is meant by “The Numbers:” Among other products, the Giving USA 2010 estimates report includes graphs, tables, and bullet points for annual results and historical data giving information from all sources of contributions - including individual giving - and all types of recipient.

Guest blogger Melissa Brown is Managing Editor of Giving USA and Associate Director of Research at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

Weekly News Roundup: SKS Microfinance IPO, Facebook Questions

allysonb — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:33:47 +0000

News from the Case Foundation and what people are talking about this week in the world of giving, tech and everything in between.

IPO of Indian microfinance firm raises questions about ties to Unitus

A few weeks ago in the weekly roundup, we covered the surprising closure announcement from Seattle-based microfinance firm, Unitus. Since that time, the story has taken some interesting twists and turns. In mid-July, as Sean Stannard-Stockton of Tactical Philanthropy (who has done an excellent job of following the storyline as it unfolds) shared, Unitus leadership sent an email to supporters clarifying that the organization is not actually shutting down, and providing additional rationale for shifting its focus away from microfinance and shedding most of its staff. The story took an interesting turn last Friday, when Clay Holtzman of the Puget Sound Business Journal, who has been following the story quite closely since the initial reorganization announcement was made by Unitus, wrote an article that detailed how Unitus investors stood to profit from the planned IPO of India's largest microlender, SKS Microfinance. Additional details are provided in this piece from Portfolio.com, which notes:

As the SKS IPO nears, the potential return is raising questions about the ethics of combining charity and business—and the extent to which Unitus founders and board members may profit personally from their investments.

Since that article appeared, there has been quite a bit of discussion in the philanthropy and social entrepreneurship spheres about the SKS/Unitus tie. In a piece titled "Why Every Social Entrepreneur Should Be Paying Attention to SKS and Unitus," Tim Ogden at Philanthropy Action argues that the debate over whether a microfinance organization should be a for-profit entity "betting on the poor" is a distraction:

But that discussion is well worn and a distraction from the real issues that are raised by the SKS IPO and the Unitus shutdown. In the two organizations we are for the first time, I believe, seeing what the endgame for social entrepreneurship can look like.

Ogden ultimately concludes, "The social entrepreneurship space is still the wild west—everyone is making it up as they go along. I suspect that is going to change as the details about SKS and Unitus slowly trickle out." Yesterday, Stephanie Strom at the New York Times published an article that explores the ties between Unitus and SKS and the proceeds that Unitus will recieve from the IPO. In the article, microfinance guru Muhammed Yunus weighed in:

“If Unitus is closing down, that shows what is the real result of this I.P.O.,” said Muhammad Yunus, an economics professor who is considered the father of microfinance and has been critical of the SKS stock offering. “You are now encouraging the profit-maximizing part, and the nonprofits are closing down.”

Showing his social media prowess, Matthew Bishop, NY Bureau Chief for the Economist and author of Philanthrocapitialism and The Road from Ruin, is hosting a Twitter chat to debate whether for-profit entities should benefit from lending to the poor.

As you can see, this story is quite complicated and is being covered from numerous angles. Tim Ogden has a great guide to stories that helps shed more light on the discussion. Stay tuned for what I'm sure will be a highly anticipated guest post on Tactical Philanthropy from Geoff Wooley of Unitus.

Facebook Questions launches

On Wednesday, Facebook officially launched its anticipated Questions feature, which, as reported by Mashable, "will allow users to get answers to their queries from the entire Facebook community." While there have been some bugs since the initial launch, Marshall Kirkpatrick at social media blog Read, Write, Web asserts that "it will be fixed and is going to be a very big deal," noting that the feature "may come closer than anything else has yet to Mark Zuckerberg's vision of Facebook as a connector of people around the world, a force for empathy and world peace." Marshall's excitement about the potential for the Questions feature as a tool for fostering a global, productive debate on a variety of issues is certainly palpable. Over on the NTEN blog, Holly Ross also shared Marshall's piece, posing the question, "Can Facebook Questions Bridge the Blue/Red Divide?"

Oldest Twitter user passes at 104

Weekly News Roundup would like to conclude by acknowledging the passing of Ivy Bean, who was believed to be the oldest user of Twitter. @IvyBean104 had an impressive 56,000 followers and was an active tweeter (though many of her recent tweets are from friends and family who were with her while she was ill). Mashable sums it up well:"Mrs. Bean’s example showed that social media truly knows no boundaries, and that tools such as Twitter (Twitter) and Facebook are open to everyone who wants to participate."

City Year DC Heroes: A brief look at their year

michaels — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:32:22 +0000

I took years of history and American government in school, but it wasn’t until I interned on Capitol Hill that I found myself really remembering facts and names about the people, players and process – and actually getting inspired about how democracy works. That is exactly the fundamental element of service learning – combining learning with doing, and the City Year Washington, DC Heroes program does it better than most.

The Case Foundation is a proud sponsor of the City Year Washington, DC Heroes program, which guides middle and high school students from DC in learning about challenges in their communities, and then gives them an opportunity to take action on those issues – every week for a whole semester! I recently attended the Heroes graduation program, where more than 150 middle and high school students were recognized for more than 10,000 collective hours of service to their community. Other than being reminded that I am now the old guy when I walk into an auditorium of teens, I was excited and proud to see young people so enthusiastic about service and giving back.

Our City Year Heroes team sponsor liaison, Evan Waldt, a Pennsylvania native and Santé Fe College student, has been sending occasional brief updates on the team’s work throughout the year. These are much more fun to read than the long grant reports I get from City Year every year (you know, the ones with success metrics and budgets), so I am happy to share it with you in celebration of our team’s great work and to pass on some good ideas. I also have to brag about Evan. Not only was he a phenomenal speaker at the City Year graduation, but he also received the Long Walk Award for serving the most hours out of any corps member - over 2,000!

The Case Foundation Heroes Team 2010 End-of-Year Briefing
By: Evan Waldt, Corps Member and Team Sponsor Liaison, The Case Foundation Heroes Team

YOUNG HEROES
The Case Foundation Heroes team recruited and engaged 77 diverse middle school students in 5,700 hours of leadership development and service-learning. The Young Heroes participated in 18 Saturdays (including two overnight retreats) of service learning and community service, working with organizations such as Armed Forces Retirement Home, Emmaus Services for the Aging, Jewish Foundation for Group Homes, Martha’s Table, National Coalition for the Homeless, So Others Might Eat, Thomas Circle Retirement Home, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Additionally, 70 Young Heroes were awarded the Presidential Volunteer Service Awards for their service to the community. The Young Heroes team also hosted a Gallery Walk where 90% of all of the Young Heroes families came to view the work that their Young Hero achieved since January.

CITY HEROES
The City Heroes team engaged 85 high school students in 6,200 hours of rigorous service-learning and leadership development. The City Heroes participated in 18 Saturdays, including two overnight retreats. The City Heroes engaged over 10 local and national service partners, and 78 City Heroes receive the Presidential Volunteer Service Award. One of our most recent days of service that really got our City Heroes engaged, was our Celebration of Service. We took them to the Hirschon Art Gallery, the Air and Space Museum, and to the Fiesta Asia Street Festival. The City Heroes enjoyed learning about new cultures and spending time together with all of the new friends they made in the program.

OUR LIFE AFTER CITY YEAR
Our time spent together has been challenging and made us come together more than we ever thought possible. I have made friendships that I feel are going to last a lifetime. Every day that I have put on my Red Jacket I have found passions and lessons. Because of this, Janae and I have decided to return for another year of service with City Year. As for the rest of my teammates, Andres has excepted a position teaching in DC Public Schools, Dana is going to medical school, David is going to school to finish his bachelors degree, Thanh is joining the National Outdoor Leadership School, Julliane and Peter are looking for a careers in the non-profit field, and Samantha has just joined the staff team at City Year Washington, DC. We are all looking forward to the new opportunities ahead of us. Thank you for all your support this year!

Does pay-what-you-want really work? Ask Panera

blogger — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:39:33 +0000

Two months ago on the Social Citizens blog, Kristin Ivie wrote about the then-new non-profit Panera opening in Clayton, MO. Describing the new Saint Louis Bread Company Cares Cafe’s (SLBCCC) pay-what-you-want (PWYW) model, she raised several questions about the 501(c)3: Will it sustain itself? Whom will it benefit? And perhaps most importantly, what’s the real point of pay-what-you-want instead of running a traditional nonprofit or a for-profit with philanthropic practices?

Reports from the cafe’s first month of operation imply that Panera’s model could work. Between 60% and 85% patrons pay full price for their meals, while equal numbers of customers over and under pay for their meals. Responsible customers combined with the cafe’s popularity (thanks in part to the press coverage of its opening) have netted the nonprofit $100,000 in revenue during its first month. While it’s difficult to predict whether or not this money will sustain the effort or that the responsible giving of customers will continue, the strong showing of the first month has been enough to convince Panera and its chairman, Ronald Shaich, to open two more locations.

What makes Shaich and Panera so confident that their pay-what-you-want model will work where others have faltered or failed? Part of that confidence comes from the operating practices of this cafe, learned from running the highly successful chain and from the informal chain of community kitchens known as One World Everybody Eats. The list of other successful community kitchens is long and more will open soon, so don’t mistake Shaich’s aspirations for a maverick pipe-dream. Good business practices of this cafe include:

Informing customers how much they would be paying at a regular Panera. Unlike many of the independent pay-what-you-want endeavors which failed, SLBCC can compare the meal customers buy to regular customers who have an objective measure of what’s ‘fair’ to pay.
Using donation boxes. It took a while for some PWYW kitchens to learn the value of using donation boxes instead of open baskets, discouraging theft and reminding patrons that their payments are donations.
Offering volunteer opportunities. People who can’t pay are encouraged to donate their time in exchange for their meals, shaving some money off of overhead costs and lending a little dignity to those down on their luck who would normally refuse charity. Volunteers lend a hand cleaning the cafe, breaking down boxes and taking out the trash, but one day SLBCC hopes to train frequent volunteers and at risk youth to perform skilled tasks

But the key factor in the future success or failure of the cafe will be the community it serves. As Kristin Ivie and Ron Shaich himself both point out, the Saint Louis Bread Company Cares Cafe is not a typical charity, using its assets to strategically relieve a problem in a community. Rather, it represents an organized community venture in Clayton, MO. Its chief beneficiaries will be members of the local community and its only supporters will be local community. It will survive only so long as the community trusts its members not to take advantage of the system and the establishment to help feed its members. In this way it operates less like a soup kitchen and more like a group of neighbors aiding beleaguered neighbors with Panera’s assistance.

Compared with a traditional nonprofit approach to addressing hunger, this pay-what-you-want model has several advantages:

People support it just by buying lunch. It’s made philanthropy part of a customer’s daily routine.
Expected donations are small - giving a dollar or two while paying for lunch is easier than writing a large check for a charity, increasing the number of donors and reducing the burden on any given supporter.
It blurs the line between giver and recipient. By encouraging those who cannot pay the full price of a meal to pay what they can or volunteer, SLBCC gives its beneficiaries the chance to become active recipients, limiting their strain on the community’s resources and letting them support those even worse off than they. This way all the people in the community can collaborate to maintain a valuable resource, rather than adopting the soup kitchen mentality where one community gives to a separate class of people.

Alone, this non-profit, pay-what-you-want community kitchen will feed far fewer hungry than a traditional charity effort might. However, the low cost and close integration with the community gives it the opportunity to survive lean times by keeping the donations coming and stretching its money farther than a soup kitchen might. Community kitchens’ blend of business and charity might be a new solution to an old problem - if Americans embrace it.

Could you envision this model playing an effective role in your town, or are efforts better spent improving the operations of traditional charities?

Guest blogger Nikolai Stieglitz is an intern with the Case Foundation.

Weekly News Roundup: Social Innovation Fund, Facebook 500 million users, Online contest debate, Blogetery.com

allysonb — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:34:11 +0000

News from the Case Foundation and what people are talking about this week in the world of giving, tech and everything in between.

Inaugural Social Innovation Fund grantees selected
Yesterday, the Corporation for National and Community Service announced the first round of grantees for the Social Innovation Fund, which, as reported by Justmeans, will "help distribute some $123 million in public and private dollars to catalyze social innovation." Firstly, we congratulate all 11 organizations that were selected, including our partners at Venture Philanthropy Partners, which received $4 million in a two-year grant to create a network of effective nonprofit organizations in the Washington, D.C. area that will team up to address the education and employment needs of low-income and vulnerable youth aged 14-24. As reported by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, "Patrick Corvington, the Corporation for National and Community Service’s chief executive, says the winners were chosen because of their 'proven track record to source innovation.'" The NonProfit Times shares a bit more insight into how the fund will work:

Awards will be made annually and eligible to receive for programs up to five years but are not expected to be a sustained source of funding. Rather, the SIF is intended to be venture funding of sorts and once an organization gets funding to prove its model, the hope is that it can show other funders to be more aggressive with them for future dollars.

In an analysis of the Fund's selection, Nathaniel Whittemore of the Social Entrepreneurship blog expresses some disappointment in what he perceives to be a focus on the "what works" versus innovation. He notes:

I tend to think that the relative smallness of the amount of resources being deployed lend themselves well to this being the "sandbox space" where the government could support really experimental efforts that could go nowhere, but could also have the disruptive potential that just couldn't be enacted through a government structure that is designed fundamentally to be incremental.

On the other hand, Sean Stannard-Stockton of Tactical Philanthropy shares that he's "thrilled" with the grantee selection, noting that "In many ways, the results read like my personal wish list for how I thought they should approach their decision." Nicole Wallace of the Chronicle of Philanthropy has a good roundup of the commentary that has appeared thus far around the Fund's announcement.

Facebook surpasses 500 million users
Facebook made a splash this week with its announcement that it has now surpassed 500 million users (interestingly enough, roughly 70% of those users are outside of the US, showing the kind of impact the social network has had for a global audience). Not surprisingly, the milestone made national and international news, and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg granted a rare interview with Diane Sawyer of ABC News, which also generated its own set of chatter. Of course, the news coverage on this story is far too extensive to share in one weekly news roundup, but I thought I'd share a few of the highlights. This CNET News article points out that the milestone was not really a surprise, with Caroline McCarthy noting, "everyone was aware that this was imminent. Facebook had already announced that it would be launching an application called 'Facebook Stories' to commemorate the experiences and connections that people have created and shared on Facebook's network." This video from BBC News shares the story of the company's global impact, and the Economist has a fascinating article that shares a sentiment that Facebook is starting to look (and act) like a sovereign state..

One of the interesting side stories to the 500 million user mark for Facebook was the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index, which ranked Facebook in the bottom five percent of companies surveyed. As Inc.com reported, this ranking put Facebook along with "much-loathed airlines and cable companies (and below even the IRS's e-file service)." An article from the E-Commerce Times shares a bit more insight into what the survey found as to why users aren't satisfied with Facebook.

Debate around online contests heats back up
The sometimes heated discussion about online contests for philanthropy bubbled back up this week when new media guru Chris Brogan wrote a post titled "The Problem with Social Only Nonprofit Campaigns." In the post, Chris laments the numerous appeals he's received asking him to throw his support behind various causes in the Chase Community Giving campaign, but spreads his criticism to the larger proliferation of online competitions:

The problems with using social channels heavily for things like vote-raising events like this is that it floods one’s channel with that kind of promotion. That’s problem 1... The secondary problem is that if you’re someone with a larger following, you have to manage how many of these competitions you’re going to promote, because one begets another begets misgivings about which charities one supports and which charities one doesn’t.

Another critical article appeared this week on Huffington Post; this one from Kelly Kleiman of Nonprofiteer.net who shares her belief that the Chase Community Giving campaign is "...called 'crowd-source philanthropy,' but it's not philanthropy at all: it's 'crowd-manipulation marketing.'" Nonprofit consultant Barbara Talisman shares her response to Chris Brogan's post, and Rebecca Leaman at the Wild Apricot blog has a great recap of the various conversations.

Blog network shut down over terror concerns
An interesting story took place in the tech world this week after Blogetery.com, a platform hosting more than 70,000 blogs was shut down, as the BBC reported, after "a 'link to terrorist material' and an al-Qaeda 'hit list' was posted to the site." The sudden shutdown came as a surprise to the platform's users, who lost all of their information in the shutdown with no advance warning. There was quite a bit of speculation that the shutdown had been forced by the FBI or another government agency. However, this CNN.com article notes that according to the platform's internet service provider, BurstNet, the decision to shut down Blogetery was "...very much the company's own. It was not ordered to do so, but the request for information from the FBI triggered a federal law that allows internet service providers to voluntarily disclose information in some circumstances and take action against sites they host." Greg Sandoval, who writes the Media Maverick blog for CNET News and has been covering the evolution of this story, is reporting this morning that bloggers will in fact get their information back.

10 ways students can get their good on this summer

sokuntheas — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:02:12 +0000

After just experiencing the third heat wave in the New York/DC area, summer is surely in full swing! And, the best part of summertime for students is … no school! But, what are you going to do with all that free time?

Youth Service America put out a list of 10 ideas on how you can really make this summer a GOOD one! A summary of their 10 suggestions are below. Check out their site for full details on 10 Ways to Get Ur Good on this Summer!

Set up a lemonade stand and donate the money you make to Alex's Lemonade Stand.
Offer to pet-sit for your neighbors going on vacation for free.
Are you a certified lifeguard? If so, offer to volunteer at your local local YMCA.
It’s hurricane season. If you live in a hurricane-prone area, make a disaster relief kit or refill your current one and share information with friends and family.
If you're eligible, donate blood.
Keep the World Cup fever going! Support your city’s homeless street soccer team by cheering them on or hosting a drive to collect soccer accessories.
Make sure to help elderly neighbors, by offering to mow their lawn, help with gardening, or with groceries.
Volunteer at a nursing home or shelter.
Did you grow from last summer? Donate those clothes that no longer fit to Goodwill or Salvation Army.
Help promote literacy and Summer reading by registering organizations in your community that can use free books with First Book.

Hot guys of Hollywood team up to do good with GQ's Gentlemen's Fund

Molly Porter — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:07:31 +0000

A celebrity endorsement brings a familiar name and face to a cause and broadens the audience for other potential participants. Take a look at what Ashton Kutcher and others are doing to promote their causes through GQ's Gentlemen's Fund.

Celebrities are interesting people - plain and simple. From careers in entertainment to their personal lives, celebrities have the capability to draw the attention of the public - including their involvement in charitable and philanthropic causes. Today, many celebrities are lending more than just their names to issues and organizations, but their time and talents as well. As familiar faces, celebrities have the power to help focus donor and volunteer energy on a particular project to push for a quick solution to a crisis or to buttress the flagging efforts on an endangered or obscure cause. With an engaged fan base, celebrities naturally have a broad audience to use as a platform for their cause - often times, issues that are personal to them. Celebrity power goes beyond the ability to bring awareness, but can inspire people to donate, volunteer and actively engage in a cause. As well known public figures, celebrities can serve as role models for youth by encouraging the habit of giving and volunteering. Celebrities can also give a face to an organization - a celebrity endorsement can help make a cause personal and trustworthy to the average donor.

One initiative that utilizes celebrity power for the sake of good is GQ’s Gentlemen’s Fund, where Adrian Grenier, David Arquette, Ashton Kutcher and Josh Duhamel each serve as an ambassador for one of the Fund’s four key issues: conservation, education, hunger and integrity. For each of the four causes, the Gentlemen’s Fund celebrity ambassadors have partnered with charities and corporate sponsors to bring awareness, encourage donations and advocate for active engagement for these issues. Although it is inspiring to see Adrian Grenier deep sea diving with Oceana, David Arquette volunteering with Feeding America, and Josh Duhamel representing the Pat Tillman Foundation - the message present in all of these causes is the encouragement of others to get involved. As Ashton Kutcher says in his public service announcement regarding his involvement with UNICEF for education:

Part of being an active citizen is participating in ways to help other people… Change in the world starts with change in yourself.

These four representatives have set a standard as role models for the Gentlemen’s Fund in what it means to be a gentleman and an active citizen.

While Adrian, David, Ashton and Josh participate in causes they are personally passionate about, the Gentlemen’s Fund also draws attention to other men acting as agents of change through a variety of programs. The Better Man Better World Search asks for nominations of ordinary men doing extraordinary things and will donate $10,000 to the charity selected by the grand prize winner. The Gentlemen’s Fund is also creating dialogue amongst readers by asking the simple question, “What Makes A 21st Century Gentleman?” in their Gentlemen’s Creed Sweepstakes. Visitors to the Gentlemen’s Fund site can also make direct donations to Oceana, UNICEF or the Pat Tillman Foundation or purchase products from the website store where proceeds go to the respective charity organization.

We at The Case Foundation are excited to see celebrity leaders participating in causes, not just for the work they do as individuals but the change they inspire in others. To learn more about the GQ’s Gentlemen’s Fund, the work they do and ways to get involved, visit their website.

Dressed to Give: five ACCESSORIES makes social enterprise stylish

stephanieh — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 21:43:58 +0000

Dressed to Give readers know I love highlighting businesses that are giving back in style. I've blogged about shoe companies and boutiques that have made giving back a part of their business model, and I've been thrilled to see an upsurge in fashion-focused entrepreneurial ventures lately that have a strong commitment to philanthropy.

One of my favorites is five ACCESSORIES, based in Chicago but with a global focus. five ACCESSORIES features a collection of handbags and accessories made from sustainable or recycled materials made by artisans in five regions (hence the name): Bali, Honduras, India, Cambodia and Chicago. five ACCESSORIES supports income-generating programs for people in need in these areas and also donates a portion of the proceeds to a local nonprofit in each of these communities ($5 for each bag, 15% for each accessory). For example, if you purchase this amazing coconut bag (which will be in my closet soon), not only are you supporting a Balinese artisan, but also $5 of your purchase goes to a Balinese nonprofit that allows underprivileged children to continue their education. Check out the Giving Back page of the company's site for more info.

From $5 to five ACCESSORIES

Last week, I had the wonderful opportunity to talk with the founder of five ACCESSORIES, Christine Hutchison, to learn more about her company. She and her husband got the idea for five ACCESSORIES on a trip to Bali. Their tour guide told them how an American couple had given him $5 and what a huge difference that had made in his life from encouraging him to finish his education and to send his children to school as well. "The large impact that $5 had on his life and the fact that he was still so grateful for that gift many years later inspired us to create five ACCESSORIES," said Hutchison.

To get started, five ACCESSORIES linked up with existing organizations that work with local artisans to make fashionable and unique products. "We wanted to work with organizations that were also fair-trade certified and in areas receptive to income-generating programs," explained Hutchison. The company maintains direct contact with all of the organizations that supply the products and the nonprofits they support, ensuring that working conditions meet their standards and that their donations are being spent as expected.

Stylish and Successful

In order to provide on-trend products to their customer base, five ACCESSORIES usually tweaks or customizes the items the artisans are producing, like adding a gold chain to a bamboo handbag. Hutchison understands that to reach college students and young people in their 20s and 30s, she has to get serious. About fashion that is. If the products don't look good, then no one is going to be interested in buying them, despite the philanthropic component. The company is continuing to expand and evolve their product line, often relying on interns from Chicago's art and design schools to weigh in on what's hot and what's not.

Hutchison firmly believes she can do well by doing good and has big plans for five ACCESSORIES. While the products are currently available online or in various retailers around the US, she hopes to have five ACCESSORIES store fronts some day. In addition, she sees opportunities to expand by offering items for men and the home as well. five ACCESSORIES also operates 2 blogs about eco-couture, fair trade, and gives updates on its sponsored nonprofits. You can also follow the organization on Twitter and Facebook.

I'm excited to see what's in store next for five ACCESSORIES... in the meantime, I'll be placing my order for the cream coconut bag and the silver clutch made from recycled chip bags and the bangles from Bali and the...

Check out the online store here! Do you know about similar businesses that are giving back in style? Let me know in the comments below!