Archive for the ‘Good’ Category

Step Right Up! Get Your Volunteers!!

16 Mar 2010
by MjM

Disney announced an exciting volunteer program for 2010.  In partnership with the HandsOn Network of “action centers” that link volunteers with local projects, Disney offered a free pass to one of its happiest places on earth in exchange for a day of volunteering.  They promised a million – one million – passes would be given away in hopes of promoting volunteerism and the spirit of giving back for the year of 2010.  And, by golly, they gave away a million passes.  In three months.

The program was abruptly ended last week when the million volunteers goal was reached.  It caught a lot of the benefiting projects off-guard as they had the unpleasant task of informing volunteers who had signed up but not yet completed their assignments that they were no longer eligible for a pass to a Disney theme park.  No doubt there will be some fallout from the cutoff.  After all, no good deed goes unpunished. WhatGives!? Read more »

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Posted in General, Good, Tips & Tools | 5 Comments »
MjM

Hardly Normal in the Beacon – Day Three

15 Mar 2010
by MjM

For his final show from the Beacon at South by Southwest, Mark Horvath from invisiblepeople.tv spoke with influential nonprofit blogger and author Beth Kanter on crowd sourcing and Causemedia Group (WhatGives!? parent company) CEO Chris Noble on how to gain the support of local businesses for local charities.

[Note: to see the interviews in their entirety, go to the WhatGives!? Ustream channel.]

Kanter jumped right in with the excellent reminder that people don’t write checks to buildings or programs, they write checks to people. “It’s a long-term relationship. Your first interaction with someone is not to ask them for money or to help your cause or to pitch them,” said Kanter.  “Get to know them and along the way there’ll be some opportunity for that.”  Horvath agreed, adding, “Every moment is a VIP moment.”  Then Kanter reminded the audience of something Peter Dietz once said – “Your donors are not ATM machines!” WhatGives!? Read more »

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Posted in General, Good, South by Southwest, social media | No Comments »
MjM

Hardly Normal in the Beacon – Day Two

14 Mar 2010
by MjM

Today in the SXSW Beacon Lounge, Mark Horvath had the opportunity to speak with people who come from different arenas in the social media world, but share a single purpose: to find and build communities that are involved at the local level.

[Note: to see the interviews in their entirety, go to the WhatGives!? Ustream channel.]

Kari Saratovsky is Vice President of Social Innovation for the Case Foundation and publisher of the Social Citizens Blog.  Unlike many other “traditional” foundations, the Case Foundation has opened up their process to try and reach people who might not have had access to grant opportunities in the past.  With their Make it Your Own awards, they let the public be part of the nomination and voting process.  Hoping for 1,000 applicants, they received nearly 5,000 – the majority of whom had never felt able to seek a grant before.  That kind of accessibility is difficult for some more-structured foundations, but Saratovsky noted that this kind of “flexibility” is spreading with campaigns like the Pepsi Refresh nomination/voting/rewarding model, saying, “If we can spend more time really helping people see themselves as being able to apply for these grants and to get this help, then I think we’re in a better position.” WhatGives!? Read more »

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Posted in General, Good, South by Southwest, social media | No Comments »
MjM

Why Go to a Conference? Especially SXSW?

14 Mar 2010
by Noble

Here’s the simple answer.

These are two of my favorite people.  I see one or both of these faces almost every day, like this:

And only a few times a year can I see them like this:

Got it? OK.  Here’s the longer explanation. I started writing it this morning, before seeing my friends.

(Go ahead and skip it if you want, you already get the point)

Why go to a conference?  Especially a conference devoted to interactivity and social media?  We’re all connected 24/7 anyway, and most of the good panels and presentations will show up eventually on the web.  You might not be able to get all the content, or the exact answer to a question you always wanted to ask Chris Brogan.  But most of the ideas presented will be out there somewhere and, after all, Brogan is a pretty accessible guy. WhatGives!? Read more »

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Posted in General, Good, South by Southwest, social media | 1 Comment »
Noble

Hardly Normal in the Beacon – Day One

13 Mar 2010
by MjM

This morning we kicked off Mark Horvath’s star-studded, live-streaming, straight-talking, Beacon-Lounge-ified talkfest at SXSW.  Jeff Pulver and Chris Brogan each took a chair on stage and shared their insights about how nonprofits need to embrace transparency and the art of listening in order to raise money and awareness.

Jeff Pulver (founder of Pulver.com; producer of the 140 Characters Conference), reminisced about the hours he spend as a kid talking to people around the world on his ham radio set, comparing it to the connection people get with Twitter.  He would pass along radio messages to others in a kind of radio “retweet”, allowing people to connect on a personal level at an incredible distance.  WhatGives!? Read more »

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Posted in General, Good, South by Southwest, social media | No Comments »
MjM

Foursquare Check-in for Charity Begins Today at SXSW

12 Mar 2010
by JoeWaters

Joe Waters is the Director of Cause Marketing for Boston Medical Center and a prolific blogger in the “Cause Marketing” field.  Joe has developed and executed cause marketing programs with several local and national companies, and is a well known speaker on the intersection of business, philanthropy and marketing.  Joe has cross posted this story on his blog, SelfishGiving.com.

Cause marketers and Foursquare fanatics take note: some great stuff is kicking off today at SXSW 2010 in Austin, TX. Get your notepads out and sharpen your pencils because the folks at StudioGood will have some great lessons to share over the next few days.
And I’ll be the one reporting the news! Although I won’t be doing it alone because Boston needs me too much with the Red Sox home opener less than a month away.
Kerrie LeBourveau from StudioGood is on the ground in Austin and promises lots of details, pics and video so I can share with all of you just how this first in location-based cause marketing unfolds at SXSW.
Here are the details of the Check-in for Charity to bring you up to speed.
  • Starting today every time you Check-in on Foursquare in Austin, Microsoft and PayPal will donate $0.25 toward Save the Children up to $15,000.
  • There will be check-in locations around SXSWi.
  • You don’t need to be in Austin to help. Just use the hashtag #sxswHaiti on Twitter and Save the Children and Microsoft and PayPal will make the same donation.
Stay tune for my updates on Check-in for Charity, its progress and my insights on how we can all learn how to combine Foursquare and cause marketing to raise more money for causes.
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Posted in General, Good, South by Southwest, social media | No Comments »
JoeWaters

The CauseLab, ‘Cause You Should…

11 Mar 2010
by MjM

One of the most exciting opportunities at South by Southwest this year is Scott Henderson’s CauseLab on Monday, March 15th.

I got hooked on his WeCanEndThis.com campaign for no other reason than Okie loyalty.  Currently, Oklahoma and Vermont are in the lead in this virtual canned food drive to receive truckloads of food for local Feeding America food banks courtesy of Tyson Foods. The drive continues through March 18th, so there’s still time for you other states to catch us if you can.  (The top 10 states will each receive a share of enough protein for 1.5 million meals.)

But there’s a bigger goal.  They’re not just giving people a fish, they’re trying to reinvent the fishing pole all together.

On Monday, whether you’re in Austin or not, you can participate in one of two sessions that will focus on ideas.  Practical and rose-colored; immediate and long term; logical and wildly improbable.  Any and all ideas that might just lead to a solution.  People are hungry, what can we do about it?  They’ll be pondering three central questions.

WhatGives!? Read more »

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Posted in General, Good, South by Southwest, social media | No Comments »
MjM

Your SXSW Wish is Our Command

10 Mar 2010
by MjM

Load up the station wagon, we’re heading east to South by Southwest!  This weekend a bunch of the Causemedia Group gang will be invading Austin along with a few thousand others, determined to see absolutely everything before they collapse from exhaustion and too much barbecue.  (Is there such a thing as too much barbecue?)

Chris Noble, Joey Leslie, and Kerrie LeBourveau will be there along with our pal, Mark Horvath who’ll be chatting with social media types in the Beacon Lounge every morning.  If you’re going to be in town, give us a tweet and say hello.  Stop into the Beacon Lounge and join us for a cup of coffee.  Or, if you can’t make it this weekend, drop us a line here at WhatGives!? and tell us what you want us to check out for you.  Friday through Monday there are dozens of great interactive media-related panels and seminars.  Which ones do you want to hear about?  Net Wits Think Tank has a great post on some that are directly related to nonprofits.  Any of those interest you?

And don’t forget Mark.  You may know him as @hardlynormal and the driving force behind invisiblepeople.tv, but this weekend he’ll be the charming host of a morning conversation (10:30-11am, CST) with some great social media influencers.  Whether you’re in Austin or half-way ’round the world, you can watch on our WhatGives!? Ustream channel. WhatGives!? Read more »

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Posted in General, Good, South by Southwest, social media | 3 Comments »
MjM

Using Social Media for Social Good – A Case Study

07 Mar 2010
by Genuine

When I heard about the earthquake in Haiti I was filled with despair as I saw the images come out of that country showing people’s lives changed forever.  I wanted to do something more than send in my check or give my standard donation.  I wanted to do something more and I wanted to use what I did in my job as a place to start.  The result was the Haiti radio show, which was able to raise funds for Haiti and spread some good in the world.

Joseph Jaffe a marketer and pioneer in the world of social media had the same idea.  He took what he knew and what he could do to help and used that to make a difference in the world. He explains more in his video:

Jaffe works for a company called Crayon, that recently merged with Powered, a company that was very generous in donating to that 24 hour radio show benefiting Haiti earthquake victims.  I join Mr. Jaffe in his call for social media people to do something more than preach to the choir.  I want them to take what they do and find a way to leverage that into a campaign for a cause.  The work we do everyday is easy enough, but it is hard to make a choice to take what we do and give that to others.  Thanks to Joseph Jaffe for making a difference in the lives of those who need it.

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Posted in Good, disaster relief, social media, video | No Comments »
Genuine

Mark Horvath & WhatGives!? at SxSW!!

05 Mar 2010
by MjM

What’s that hum in the air?  It’s all the buzz about South by Southwest, kicking off next week in Austin, Texas.  What began in 1987 as a music festival now includes film and interactive tracks that draw many of each discipline’s most influential people to town for panels, presentations, discussions, and good, old fashioned conversations.

This year, WhatGives!? will be smack in the middle of all the action at the Beacon in Room 8BC on Level 3 of the Austin Convention Center.  This self-proclaimed “Lounge with a Conscience” will kick off each day with our pal, Mark Horvath of invisible people.tv interviewing some amazing people in the social media for social good world. Opinions about social media’s impact on efforts to increase support for charities and causes are sure to be flying fast and furious every morning.  We’ll be streaming on UStream on the WhatGives!? Channel.  Join us in Austin or online between 10:30 and 11:00am! (Central Standard Time*)  You can also follow along on Twitter or through the Beacon website. WhatGives!? Read more »

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Posted in Good, South by Southwest, social media | No Comments »
MjM
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