Archive for the ‘charity’ Category
A New Kind of Social Entrepreneurship
In July, I went to Indonesia to meet one of the world’s leading experts on wild orangutans. Since 1971, Dr. Birute Galdikas has been struggling to maintain her population of 6,000 wild orangutans in a national park in Borneo. Her staff of 220 mans guard posts and feeding stations throughout the park, educates the local population on the value of the rain forest and maintains an orangutan rehabilitation facility containing 330 baby and juvenile orangutans.
Tech Networks has created a new program to help Dr. Galdikas protect orangutans and their rain forest habitat. The program is called Hutan, which means “forest” in Indonesian. The word Orangutan in Indonesian literally means, “people of the forest.” Our goal is to raise $50,000 for Dr. Galdikas’ non-profit, Orangutan Foundation International, by the end of 2009. 20 percent of the gross receipts of the Hutan program will go directly to Orangutan Foundation International.
Although this form of social entrepreneurship is a new concept for IT services, it has worked in other industries, such as Dancing Deer Baking Company’s Sweet Home program. We are looking for companies and non-profit organizations who would like to cut costs, increase the quality of their IT service, and green their IT infrastructure to participate in this program.
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If you like this then please subscribe to the Back to Basics for 2009
Here are three basic New Year’s resolutions for 2009:
1. Stop killing people
2. Stop destroying the planet
3. Make sure that everyone has enough to eat.
That’s all. Let’s not make it more complicated than it is.
Here’s how I’m doing my part:
I don’t support war.
I only eat plant-based foods
I have a small carbon footprint and it’s getting smaller all the time
and, new for 2009, I plan to give away half of my income.
Are Americans myopic when it comes to charitable giving?
The American Express Members Project allows American Express Cardholders to vote for a $2.5 million donation to one of 25 “inspiring projects.” Last year, the money went to providing safe drinking water to children in Africa. This year’s project list is equally inspiring:
- Feeding one million children a day
- Help women and children survivors of war rebuild
- 6,000 girls scholarships in the developing world
- End human trafficking: Sustainable livelihood
Of the twenty-five projects, only one does not target the disenfranchised (I’m including the environmental causes here, because plants and animals have no voice.) This project is Early Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease, with the goal of allowing those who had previously been undiagnosed the time to make financial arrangements and to “cherish special moments.” Read the rest of this entry »
The Truth About Fundraising
A WBUR pledge drive during “This American Life.” Ira Glass gets down to brass tacks: “The majority of listeners have never contributed.” The rational listener has learned that even if he ignores the fundraising appeal, public radio will survive. “This is probably the only time you will ever hear this on public radio,” he intones. “Even if you do not donate, the pledge drive will come to an end, and you will still be able to turn on your radio and hear NPR’s Morning Edition, Here and Now, and Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.”
So, why does public radio stay on the air? It’s because some people–regular, everyday people–contribute year after year. It’s those same people who vote in every election, pickup litter on the sidewalk, and adopt animals from shelters. What makes these people different? It’s because they ask themselves: What would the world be like if everyone behaved like me?”
Staff Meeting Philanthropy
At our last staff meeting, I asked the staff to determine together which environmental charity would receive our end of the year donation. Of the five charities, one received more than half the votes. This was Sustainable Harvest International, by far the smallest of the organizations in the selection. We are looking forward to working with SHI in the Smaller World Business Program.