Tag Archives: giving

The Fight for Good: Disney vs. Pepsi

Lots has been said about Pepsi’s Refresh Everything Project. However, not as much has been said about Disney’s “Give a Day. Get a Disney Day.” Why?

Both projects launched around the same time and both stand to do good. Thus, let’s match them up and see who’s left standing: Disney or Pepsi. Let’s begin.

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Disney: Give a Day. Get a Disney Day.
What: Inspire one million people to volunteer a day of service.
How: Individuals can sign-up to volunteer at participating community organizations in their area. In return, that person will be awarded with a 1-day, 1-theme park ticket to the Disneyland® Resort or Walt Disney World® Resort, free.
When: Jan. 1, 2010–Dec. 15, 2010

Pepsi: Refresh Everything Project
What: Award a total of $20 million in grants.
How: Engaging in a social good crowdsourcing experiment.
When: Early 2010

Round 1: Program

Disney: It’s simple–give a day, get a day. It’s easy to understand and process. It’s national yet local–and is on the tail of national calls to service and volunteerism. It’s also collaborative by working with organizations across the nation. It’s also customizable and has something for everyone as any person wanting to participate can type in their zip code and find volunteer opportunities in eight different categories: animals and environment, arts and culture, children and youth, community, education and technology, health and human services, hunger and homelessness, and seniors and elder care.

Pepsi: It’s innovative, creative and “sexy.” It’s also a big investment–$20 million big. Pepsi is also a heavy hitter, and has entered the social good space by doing something new and doing it first, which can work to their advantage. The project is also inclusive–where anyone can submit an idea and anyone can vote up projects and ideas. Pepsi, like Disney, has also divided up the entries into different categories for people to consider: health, arts and culture, food and shelter, the planet, neighborhoods, and education.

Round 2: Usability

Disney: The landing page for this initiative is a bit buried and there is no friendly URL. However, once there, Disney outlines the steps a person needs to take pretty well and makes the process relatively simple. The downside-there’s a lot of small print.

Pepsi: For both Disney’s and Pepsi’s initiatives, you have to create an account. However, for those less technical, the Pepsi site may be harder to navigate and understand–given the complexity of the competition.

Round 3: Authenticity

Disney: This is being promoted–but not as heavily or perhaps just more traditionally as I have seen TV spots. You can argue you this two ways: First, perhaps Disney doesn’t want to dedicate as many resources to a do-good promotion. Or secondly, maybe they don’t want to wave their do-goodness around. Out of the two companies, I’d say Disney has had a tougher road to climb to gain consumer’s trust.

Pepsi: For Pepsi, the Refresh project was a cheaper investment than the Superbowl, and some would argue, is having a higher return on investment. However, it may be too early to tell just what the return on investment really is. What I have noticed–is that they are definitely promoting it through blogger outreach, social media, celebrity endorsement, television ads and Pepsi was also a sponsor to the Superbowl Fan Jam that aired on VH1. Some have also commented that Pepsi’s set-up of the Refresh Project doesn’t express a true commitment to the social change community and dub it more cause-washing. Either way, we’re all talking about it.

Round 4: Impact and Sustainability

Disney: In the short-term, a lot of projects will be accomplished. In the long-term, hopefully people will be inspired to continue volunteering and giving back to their communities. In addition, the participating organizations have an opportunity to engage new community members to their cause and build a long-term relationship with them.

Pepsi: In the short term, people can be inspired by the dreams and ideas for a better world. In the short term, many groups and individuals will receive much needed resources to make things happen and take the efforts to the next level. However, it will be the responsibility of these organizations to put the funds to good use and create and drive the impact and its sustainability. One could also argue it’s the voter’s responsibility to vote for those projects that will be sustainable.

Winner: Disney

While I give props to Pepsi, I think Disney edges them out and this is why:

1. I understand it. My friends, who aren’t bloggers and aren’t techy, know about it, get it, and are participating. It’s simple.

2. It works for both the short-term and the long-term. In the short-term, it encourages volunteering, while working to inspire volunteering as a normal and frequent experience in the long-term.

3. Everybody wins. The organizations get help and an opportunity to build a long-term relationship with volunteers. The volunteer gets a free ticket to Disney. Disney gets people in their parks where they are bound to buy food, souvenirs and more–not to mention the engagement and positive press.

4. It’s collaborative. Disney found a way to not just talk about collaboration, but actually do it. The Huffington Post even claims Disney’s program “is beautiful on so many dimensions.”

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Where the Rubber Meets the Road

When defining the success of these initiatives, here’s the more important question:

  • For Pepsi/Disney, did the project increase sales of Pepsi or encourage more people to visit?
  • For the do-good community, what is the overall impact of these initiatives to our communities?

Now, what if it’s found that there is a larger impact to our community, but not an advance in sales? That is where I think the rubber will meet the road.. My hope, is that we can continue to learn from one another to make it a win-win so that more organizations think about doing good.

What are your thoughts–Disney or Pepsi?

Note, this write-up is without any specific background knowledge, research or documentation about these initiatives. Also, thank you Pepsi and Disney for embarking on these efforts, as I hope all of us continue to learn and discover new ways to make our world better.

flickr credit (in order): mrkalhoon, vrogy, Express Monorail

Beth’s Birthday Bash

We all have influence and impact. Today’s post is to recognize the influence of one person, Beth Kanter, and to realize the impact we can all have when we act together. Beth Kanter, if you don’t know, is a top changeblogger working to help nonprofits do good.  But, I won’t provide a bio, her actions speak for themselves.

Actions such as making a birthday wish. Of course, this was no ordinary wish. For Beth’s 53rd birthday, she wished for people to donate to the Sharing Foundation on her behalf. The Sharing Foundation helps Cambodian youngsters go to school and holds a special place in Beth’s heart.

So I did. And so did many others. And so can you. You see, this blog post is one of many that is part of Beth’s Surprise Birthday bash. We want to thank Beth for all of her leadership, her generosity and belief in doing good, and this is the non-profit and social change community’s way of saying THANK YOU.

If Beth’s had an impact on you, join us and let her know by blogging or leaving a comment below. To donate and help make Beth’s birthday wish come true, here’s the link.

Want to follow Beth’s lead and use your birthday for good? Get to know the Causes application on Facebook.

Guest Posting Part Deux: Max Gladwell and Mashable’s Summer of Good

Mass publishing. Did you know this is accomplishable through blogs? This type of experimentation (or application) of guest posting took place earlier this year when Max Gladwell published 10 Ways to Change the World through Social Media, and it was simultaneously published on over 80+ blogs. Today is part two. *Know of other examples of “mass” publishing (i.e. Blog Action Day, Bloggers Unite, or others)? Feel free to share in the comments.* 

This post is a collaboration between Mashable’s Summer of Social Good charitable fundraiser and Max Gladwell‘s “10 Ways” series. The post is being simultaneously published across more than 100 blogs.

Mashable's Summer of Social Good

10 Ways to Support Charity Through Social Media

Social media is about connecting people and providing the tools necessary to have a conversation. That global conversation is an extremely powerful platform for spreading information and awareness about social causes and issues. That’s one of the reasons charities can benefit so greatly from being active on social media channels. But you can also do a lot to help your favorite charity or causes you are passionate about through social media.

Below is a list of 10 ways you can use social media to show your support for issues that are important to you. If you can think of any other ways to help charities via social web tools, please add them in the comments. If you’d like to retweet this post or take the conversation to Twitter or FriendFeed, please use the hashtag #10Ways.

1. Write a Blog Post

Blogging is one of the easiest ways you can help a charity or cause you feel passionate about. Almost everyone has an outlet for blogging these days — whether that means a site running WordPress, an account at LiveJournal, or a blog on MySpace or Facebook. By writing about issues you’re passionate about, you’re helping to spread awareness among your social circle. Because your friends or readers already trust you, what you say is influential.

Recently, a group of green bloggers banded together to raise individual $1 donations from their readers. The beneficiaries included Sustainable Harvest, Kiva, Healthy Child, Healthy World, Environmental Working Group, and Water for People. The blog-driven campaign included voting to determine how the funds would be distributed between the charities. You can read about the results here.

You should also consider taking part in Blog Action Day, a once a year event in which thousands of blogs pledge to write at least one post about a specific social cause (last year it was fighting poverty). Blog Action Day will be on October 15 this year.

2. Share Stories with Friends

twitter-links

Another way to spread awareness among your social graph is to share links to blog posts and news articles via sites like Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Digg, and even through email. Your network of friends is likely interested in what you have to say, so you have influence wherever you’ve gathered a social network.

You’ll be doing charities you support a great service when you share links to their campaigns, or to articles about causes you care about.

3. Follow Charities on Social Networks

In addition to sharing links to articles about issues you come across, you should also follow charities you support on the social networks where they are active. By increasing the size of their social graph, you’re increasing the size of their reach. When your charities tweet or post information about a campaign or a cause, statistics or a link to a good article, consider retweeting that post on Twitter, liking it on Facebook, or blogging about it.

Following charities on social media sites is a great way to keep in the loop and get updates, and it’s a great way to help the charity increase its reach by spreading information to your friends and followers.

You can follow the Summer of Social Good Charities:

Oxfam America (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube)

The Humane Society (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Flickr)

LIVESTRONG (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr)

WWF (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr)

4. Support Causes on Awareness Hubs

change-wwf

Another way you can show your support for the charities you care about is to rally around them on awareness hubs like Change.org, Care2, or the Facebook Causes application. These are social networks or applications specifically built with non-profits in mind. They offer special tools and opportunities for charities to spread awareness of issues, take action, and raise money.

It’s important to follow and support organizations on these sites because they’re another point of access for you to gather information about a charity or cause, and because by supporting your charity you’ll be increasing their overall reach. The more people they have following them and receiving their updates, the greater the chance that information they put out will spread virally.

5. Find Volunteer Opportunities

Using social media online can help connect you with volunteer opportunities offline, and according to web analytics firm Compete, traffic to volunteering sites is actually up sharply in 2009. Two of the biggest sites for locating volunteer opportunities are VolunteerMatch, which has almost 60,000 opportunities listed, and Idealist.org, which also lists paying jobs in the non-profit sector, in addition to maintaining databases of both volunteer jobs and willing volunteers.

For those who are interested in helping out when volunteers are urgently needed in crisis situations, check out HelpInDisaster.org, a site which helps register and educate those who want to help during disasters so that local resources are not tied up directing the calls of eager volunteers. Teenagers, meanwhile, should check out DoSomething.org, a site targeted at young adults seeking volunteer opportunities in their communities.

6. Embed a Widget on Your Site

Many charities offer embeddable widgets or badges that you can use on your social networking profiles or blogs to show your support. These badges generally serve one of two purposes (or both). They raise awareness of an issue and offer up a link or links to additional information. And very often they are used to raise money.

Mashable’s Summer of Social Good campaign, for example, has a widget that does both. The embeddable widget, which was custom built using Sprout (the creators of ChipIn), can both collect funds and offer information about the four charities the campaign supports.

7. Organize a Tweetup

You can use online social media tools to organize offline events, which are a great way to gather together like-minded people to raise awareness, raise money, or just discuss an issue that’s important to you. Getting people together offline to learn about an important issue can really kick start the conversation and make supporting the cause seem more real.

Be sure to check out Mashable’s guide to organizing a tweetup to make sure yours goes off without a hitch, or check to see if there are any tweetups in your area to attend that are already organized.

8. Express Yourself Using Video

As mentioned, blog posts are great, but a picture really says a thousand words. The web has become a lot more visual in recent years and there are now a large number of social tools to help you express yourself using video. When you record a video plea or call to action about your issue or charity, you can make your message sound more authentic and real. You can use sites like 12seconds.tv, Vimeo, and YouTube to easily record and spread your video message.

Last week, the Summer of Social Good campaign encouraged people to use video to show support for charity. The #12forGood campaign challenged people to submit a 12 second video of themselves doing something for the Summer of Social Good. That could be anything, from singing a song to reciting a poem to just dancing around like a maniac — the idea was to use the power of video to spread awareness about the campaign and the charities it supports.

If you’re more into watching videos than recording them, Givzy.com enables you to raise funds for charities like Unicef and St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital by sharing viral videos by e-mail.

9. Sign or Start a Petition

twitition

There aren’t many more powerful ways to support a cause than to sign your name to a petition. Petitions spread awareness and, when successfully carried out, can demonstrate massive support for an issue. By making petitions viral, the social web has arguably made them even more powerful tools for social change. There are a large number of petition creation and hosting web sites out there. One of the biggest is The Petition Site, which is operated by the social awareness network Care2, or PetitionOnline.com, which has collected more than 79 million signatures over the years.

Petitions are extremely powerful, because they can strike a chord, spread virally, and serve as a visual demonstration of the support that an issue has gathered. Social media fans will want to check out a fairly new option for creating and spreading petitions: Twitition, an application that allows people to create, spread, and sign petitions via Twitter.

10. Organize an Online Event

Social media is a great way to organize offline, but you can also use online tools to organize effective online events. That can mean free form fund raising drives, like the Twitter-and-blog-powered campaign to raise money for a crisis center in Illinois last month that took in over $130,000 in just two weeks. Or it could mean an organized “tweet-a-thon” like the ones run by the 12for12k group, which aims to raise $12,000 each month for a different charity.

In March, 12for12k ran a 12-hour tweet-a-thon, in which any donation of at least $12 over a 12 hour period gained the person donating an entry into a drawing for prizes like an iPod Touch or a Nintendo Wii Fit. Last month, 12for12k took a different approach to an online event by holding a more ambitious 24-hour live video-a-thon, which included video interviews, music and sketch comedy performances, call-ins, and drawings for a large number of prizes given out to anyone who donated $12 or more.

Bonus: Think Outside the Box

blamedrewscancerSocial media provides almost limitless opportunity for being creative. You can think outside the box to come up with all sorts of innovative ways to raise money or awareness for a charity or cause. When Drew Olanoff was diagnosed with cancer, for example, he created Blame Drew’s Cancer, a campaign that encourages people to blow off steam by blaming his cancer for bad things in their lives using the Twitter hashtag #BlameDrewsCancer. Over 16,000 things have been blamed on Drew’s cancer, and he intends to find sponsors to turn those tweets into donations to LIVESTRONG once he beats the disease.

Or check out Nathan Winters, who is biking across the United States and documenting the entire trip using social media tools, in order to raise money and awareness for The Nature Conservancy.

The number of innovative things you can do using social media to support a charity or spread information about an issue is nearly endless. Can you think of any others? Please share them in the comments.

About the “10 Ways” Series

The “10 Ways” Series was originated by Max Gladwell. This is the second simultaneous blog post in the series. The first ran on more than 80 blogs, including Mashable. Among other things, it is a social media experiment and the exploration of a new content distribution model. You can follow Max Gladwell on Twitter.

This content was originally written by Mashable’s Josh Catone.

Free Rice: Mixing Online Learning and Entertainment with Giving

Have some extra time but also want to engage the brain? Try Free Rice.

Play a simple word game and based on your success, rice will be donated to hungry children.

How It Works

A word appears and asks you to define it. Every definition you correctly identify donates 20 grains of rice. You’re intriguing the mind, using social media tools AND giving. Talk about collaborative innovation.

There are 55 different vocabulary levels, with customized options for your own vocabulary growth…the site says that most people don’t get beyond level 48. Will you be the one to reach level 55?!?

The words are also constantly evaluated on their difficulty level depending on how many people get the word right or wrong and new words are always being added.

Why

Free Rice also lists many reasons why its encourages the development of vocabulary as part of its mission in its FAQ section of its website. They include:

  • Formulate your ideas better
  • Write better papers, emails and business letters
  • Speak more precisely and persuasively
  • Comprehend more of what you read
  • Read faster because you comprehend better
  • Get better grades in high school, college and graduate school
  • Score higher on tests like the SAT, GRE, LSAT and GMAT
  • Perform better at job interviews and conferences
  • Sell yourself, your services, and your products better
  • Be more effective and successful at your job

Who Finances The Donation?

According to the site, the site’s advertisers are the ones who actually pay for the rice to be donated. And, the site itself does not run a profit. Thus, you play, advertisers pay to be listed on the site, that money funds the rice donation.

Distribution

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) distributes the rice. The WFP works with over 1,000 organizations in over 75 countries, making it the world’s largest food aid agency. When possible, WFP buys the food through the local growers and economy.

Results

From its start on October 7, 2007 to April 27, 2008, the total number of rice grains donated = 29,724,130,370! For a break down of results, click here.

More

To learn more about hunger, visit Poverty.com, an interactive site that teaches about hunger and poverty, and even tracks how many hunger deaths occur per hour through a moving, interactive map…

Other Helpful Sites include:

Be Inspired by this Week's Blogger Neighbor: Stacey Monk @ EpicChange

Continuing my weekly “Blogger Neighborhood Series” in honor of the great Mr. Rogers, who called us to “Get to know our neighbor,” I welcome Stacey Monk from Epic Change, who continues to leave me inspired.

Stacey is an amazing writer, showing both her contagious passion and gracious, sincere personality through every word, so I’ll let her tell you about her journey, mission and how she’s gotten to where she is…

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Blog Name:

The Epic Change Blog

Blog Topics:

The Epic Change Blog is a diary of our experiment in social entrepreneurship and an organization I recently founded called Epic Change. We started it just after we received our 501c3 determination last September, and we blog whatever we’ve experienced on the journey since then, including:

We try to give a complete, transparent picture of what we’re working on so that our supporters can feel engaged in what we’re doing, and so other folks can learn from our mistakes and successes. We also try to provide regular opportunities on our blog for folks to get involved. Last week, for instance, to celebrate National Volunteer Week, we provided daily opportunities for our readers to perform 10-minute volunteer activities.

About the Author:

I’m a nerd, a recovering military brat, a perpetual nomad and a total sap. I believe the world is what we make it. I started my career managing a performing arts series, moved into public sector consulting for Deloitte, then worked in IT strategy & change leadership at Genentech and, finally, launched a small change management consulting firm called Funken Consulting. Last year, I left for Africa, came back, stopped working for money & founded Epic Change, a nonprofit that “helps hopeful people in need tell their epic true stories to acquire the resources they need to create change in their communities.” I have a BA in Philosophy and a grad degree in performing arts management from the public policy school at Carnegie Mellon. I like to think that artsy background helps me be more creative in my approach to social change. You can check out my street cred on LinkedIn.

If you could live on any street, what would that street be named and why?

I’d live where Hope, Audacity, Authenticity, & Gratitude intersect because I know I’d like the other people who live there. [This is my favorite quote of the week!]

Who would be your dream real-life neighbor?

Any man who can sing. For today, let’s say John Mayer. His song Say is stuck on my brain. Or maybe Josh Groban. His voice makes me feel like I’m in the presence of an angel.

If you were in charge of the planning the neighborhood’s block party, what entertainment would you plan?

Ditto, previous question. Or I’d plan a performance by a dance troupe that I love like Alvin Ailey or Momix. Or we’d dance ourselves, which might be the most fun. Despite my chubbiness, I love to dance. I’m certified to teach ZUMBA and Shake Your Soul.

If you customized your own license plate, what would it say and why?

FEARNOT, URHOPE or THANKU

What would you gift to a new neighbor as the perfect welcoming gift?

Blueberry Pie. Despite 1950s connotations, pies = love.

What’s your favorite blog post and why?

I’d like to point to something brilliant by someone else, because I’ve taken so much as inspiration. Right now, today, though, I’m really wrapped up in what’s unfolding as a result of my recent, totally random, guest post on the Go Big Always blog of Jive CMO Sam Lawrence. I met him totally randomly on Twitter, and last Wednesday after midnight, when he was tweeting that he didn’t feel like posting to his uber-popular marketing blog, I offered to take his place. He, probably in jest, wrote back “Go for it ;)” and I did. That single post has led to a flurry of others, including one on ZDNet, a tweet by @Scobleizer, and a connection to social media giant Jeremiah Owyang, as well as a drastic increase in the number of people interested in our cause. So for today, the Go Big Always post is surely my fave, despite the fact that it begins with a reference to feces.

What’s one lesson you’ve learned from blogging?

Be authentic.

Past Blogger Neighbors Include:

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This continuous weekly series highlights different blogs and their respective bloggers in the blogosphere neighborhood. Following the great Mr. Rogers, who tells us to ‘Get to know your neighbor,’ this series introduces us to our blogger neighbors, making for a more unified, collaborative voice for the social sector. Like to nominate someone or be featured yourself? Contact me @ socialbutterfly4change@gmail.com.


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An Early Thanks.Giving…Carnival Style

Welcome to the Carnival. The theme for this week was “Give Thanks!” by taking a moment and sharing the tools, resources, mentors, etc. that you appreciate.

  • UPDATE: Guy Kawasaki just posted on “10 Tiny Apps I’m Thankful For.” In this post, Kawasaki writes about 10 lesser-known Web applications that he uses almost every day including Adjix, MarsEdit, SmartyPants, and others! Kawasaki says these applications help his productivity. What’s your experience? Have they increased your individual productivity or that of your non-profit or organization?
  • UPDATE: Jocelyn Harmon at Marketing for Non-Profits shares the “3 Things I’m Thankful For” in her latest post. I appreciate how Harmon brings us back to the basics and what really matters in life: friends, family, freedom, community and good health. I’ll cheers to that Jocelyn!
  • UPDATE: Chris Brogan, on Thanksgiving, cleverly finds a way to tie Batman into the day of Thanksgiving while also giving a shout to numerous friends, colleagues and talent. Most interesting I thought, was Brogan’s shoutout to “The Next Generation.” Being one of those people, thank you….for paving the road and making more opportunities possible. Happy paving in the new year!
  • Avi Kaplan wrote a wonderful thank you to Stacey Monk for her mentorship and for the hard work she is accomplishing through Epic Change. To those not familiar with Monk’s work, I too will vouch for not only her hard work, but for her genuine passion and firm conviction in Epic Change’s mission. Monk is definitely, as Avi says, a true inspiration to our sector.
  • Steve Cunningham took time to offer a personal note thanking both his life and business mentors. Steve also made a point to refer to these mentors as heroes, a label I think well-deserved. For often, being a mentor takes extra time, a longer email, a phone call back or the extra support that only a mentor can offer.

“To my heroes in business and in life – thank you for teaching me that if you never stop learning and believe in yourself, great things are possible. You have made more of a difference than you could ever imagine. I owe you a lifetime of gratitude.

  • As for myself, I have many people to thank who have made my dream of moving, living and working in Washington D.C. a reality. This includes:
  • My employer and my boss – who I continue to admire and learn from everyday.
  • My graduate professor Fritz Cropp who allowed me flexibility in my graduate research scope, the tools and knowledge to bring it together, and believed in the vision I set before myself. Plus, he reminded to live a little every now and then.
  • My friend Lacey, for without you, I know I would not have survived the practical joys (and challenges) that come along with moving from Kansas to Washington D.C.
  • All the amazing, social media, social marketing and non-profit minds that exist within the blogosphere, Twitter…it is you all who propel the conversation and demand more of us practitioners everyday, and I love every minute.
  • To the new friends I’ve made, you rock. You are solid, supportive, and good people.
  • To my beloved fiance, I love you. Each and every day. Who would imagine we’d go from running hurdles on the track together to fast forward, living our dream in Washington, D.C.
  • And finally, my parents. Words cannot express. At the very least, thank you for teaching me to 1) always believe in your dreams and 2) always believe in working hard to achieve them. And that along the way, you can never be too gracious.

With that, I hope this Carnival session encourages you to share the love. Extend a hand. And tell someone the difference they’ve made in your life.

Thank You. And an early Thanks.giving to you and yours.

Carnival Time: What are You Thankful for?

It’s about that time of year again. And instead of just going through the motions “again” this year – the Carnival for Non-Profit Consultants and SocialButterfly are asking those in the non-profit sector to take time for reflection and pause. Often times, we get too caught up in the deadlines and the thrill of the moment, that we overlook giving ourselves…a moment. After all your hard work and dedication, at the very least, you deserve a moment.

Do you know anyone else who deserves a moment? Tell us about them. In fact, it doesn’t even have to be a person. This edition of the carnival asks submitters to “Give Thanks!” by taking a moment and sharing the tools, resources, mentors, etc. that you appreciate.

This is your opportunity to give a shout-out. Even if it’s a quick e-mail blurb, all messages of gratefulness will be shared.

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Theme: “Give thanks! Tell us which tools, resources, menotrs, etc. have aided you or what you are thankful for this past year.”

Deadline: Monday, November 17, Midnight

To Submit: Submit your permalink to npc.carnival@yahoo.com or use the BlogCarnival submission form. If you are sending to Yahoo directly, please include the edition date in your subject line.

Liked what you read? Feel free to share with others: Bookmark and Share

See the Good this Week’s 11-year old Blogger Neighbor is accomplishing in every 25-Day Challenge

That’s right. 1-1. 11. Eleven young and beautiful years of age. This week’s newest addition to the Blogger Neighborhood reminds us that we can all do good – no matter what our age….even my 70+ grandparents sent me an invite to join Plaxo. Now, how hip are they? Enjoy! =)

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Blog Name: 25 Days to Make a Difference

Blog Topics: Online charity project, Service work, and Kids making a difference

About the Author: Laura Stockman is 11 years old. She likes to read, do arts and crafts, and write. She has earned a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and enjoys playing baseball, swimming, and running. When she is older, she would like to be a veterinarian, a chef, or an artist. She loves helping those in need and meeting other kids who like to do the same.

Curious about how Laura started blogging?

Click here to see how Laura’s grandpa gave her the lesson of giving, and how she’s continuing to share his message with others. What started as a 25-day challenge to make a daily difference, with a promise to donate money she earned through her allowance, recycling and odd jobs, to the participant who made the most difference, is now a monthly movement! Read about how Laura raises the money and how she and her readers choose where to donate the funds.

If you could live on any street, what would that street be named and why?

Family Road because my family means a lot to me.

Who would be your dream real-life neighbor?

Our friend Frank Milkowski, who is in his eighties. He has lots of stories and is very interesting. I love him.

If you were planning the neighborhood’s block party, what entertainment would you plan?

Dancing, carnival games, relay races, and kick ball.

What first prompted you to blog?

The New York State PTA Reflections Contest. This year’s prompt was “I can make a difference by…” So I started a blog to make a difference.

If you customized your own license plate, what would it say and why?

CatzPajamaz like my aunt and uncle’s because I think it is cute.

What would you gift to a new neighbor as the perfect welcoming gift?

I would bake something like cookies to give them.

What type of communication channel do you most and least prefer since the burst of social media?

I like Artsnacks, which is a NING and I like using Skype. I dislike AIM instant messaging. It’s kind of boring.

*Parental consent was obtained to publish this post with Laura’s name and age provided.

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Past Blogger Neighbors Include:

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This continuous weekly series highlights different blogs and their respective bloggers in the blogosphere neighborhood. Following the great Mr. Rogers, who tells us to ‘Get to know your neighbor,’ this series introduces us to our blogger neighbors, making for a more unified, collaborative voice for the social sector. Like to nominate someone or be featured yourself? Contact me @ socialbutterfly4change@gmail.com.


Bookmark and Share

Carnival of Non-Profit Consultants: Cha-Cha-Chaaange

Hello and welcome to my first time as a host for the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants! This week was an open call, with a personal preference for social change and social marketing type posts.

The posts listed below largely discuss and point to current nonprofit marketing trends and potentially future marketing trends. Though this might not reflect social marketing per say, it is a reflection of social change….how trends surface, alter, flourish, downsize and in essence, change. So enjoy this week’s carnival!

  • ***Inserting my special ‘bonus host post’ here, as it follows up well with Mr. Viator’s idea. In my post Consumerism. What’s Your First Reaction?, I too coin my own term ‘optimistic consumerism,’ explaining that with changing media and times, the consumer is becoming more empowered than ever by having a choice. In particular, not only do we have a choice of what products or services we consume, but we also have a choice in the place we consume our information. *Props to choosing the Carnival, 😉
  • Rebecca Leaman at Wild Apricot continues the discussion of change in her post titled 5 Keys to Effective Knowledge Transfer for Nonprofits, where she outlines how effective communication can transfer through each phase of a message. No matter how the times and technology change, Ms. Leaman’s insights and download-able resource is priceless.
  • Bryan Miller at Giving in a Digital World maps out the technology hype cycle in his post titled Online Fundraising and the Hype Cycle. Mr. Miller points out how web 2.0 is making the way for community fundraising 2.0 and that knowing where your nonprofit’s fundraising efforts are will put you and your organization ahead of the curve.
  • Jason Dick at A Small Change-Fundraising blog outlines three core values of traditional nonprofit fundraising in his post: Cultivation, Solicitation and Stewardship. However, Mr. Dick points out that while the traditional model is good, the big umbrella term that deserves attention is relationship. According to Mr. Dick, a good relationship means good fundraising and “all bets are off” on the traditional process.
  • J. Karlin at Marketing and Fundraising Ideas sets the stage on how to implement change in the post Powerful yet Reasonable Goals. Karlin says that before change can even be accomplished as was in the case study given of Tufts University, one should dream big, and not overlook setting reasonable, attainable goals.

Thanks for tuning in to this week’s carnival. Thank you for all of the submission’s this week, as I’ve found new blogs and bloggers to follow, along with some great ideas about cha-cha-chaaaange!

Keep track of the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants, no matter which blog is hosting, by subscribing to the Carnival feed.


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Another Turn on the 29-Day Giving Challenge

The 29-Day Giving Challenge movement was started by Cami, when she was faced the diagnosis of the chronic illness multiple sclerosis during a major move. A spiritual teacher of hers, Mbali Creazzo, suggested that she give away 29 things in 29 days in an effort to get outside her own struggle each day.

According to Mbali, the 29 gifts originated as an African tradition. Today, over 2,000 people have participated in the challenge so far. And, I am joining them.

The challenge focuses on giving, anything – from clothes, to money, to smiles, hugs, compliments, time and energy, love, compassion, empathy or an extra hand – any way to GIVE. The challenge does come with a set of rules, mainly, to have fun, relax and reflect.

I joined this challenge for a variety of reasons.

First, I connected to Cami’s story as my best friend has multiple sclerosis. Secondly, that same friend continues to teach me, and give to me, AND give to others on a daily basis. She is continually reading and sharing her joy for life, her keen insight into the human spirit and her enthusiasm and love for life.

So, I’m taking the challenge, and taking it another turn: I want to concentrate my giving on those that are close to me, to show appreciation and love for what they do. Often time, I think it’s easy for us to focus on trying to help others, especially in the nonprofit and social marketing fields. Sometimes, we overlook those right in front of us in the process. (Note: It’s still important to give to others, but u pickin’ up what I’m putting down, right?) Thus, I plan on doing the 29-Day Giving Challenge:

  • With my boyfriend. My mom. My best friend. My roommate.
  • And groups of people including coworkers, friends who live far away, the homeless, nonprofits, etc.

Imagine what we could do if we TARGETED not only our financial giving, but the gifts that take extra time, extra thought and that extra step…to say thank you, you are loved, and I care.

I invite you to join us! The 29-Day Giving Challenge also has an online community here.

I will share my reflections on my experience at the end of each time period.

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If you’ve participated in the 29-Day Giving Challenge, share your experiences with us in the comments section, =).


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