Archive for September, 2009

TP Pyramid Makes Philanthropy Fun

September 19, 2009

Issues like homelessness and poverty are serious. But the truth is, people like to have fun. I thought this was a great idea to get maximum public participation in a simple fundraising event by making it fun. Congratulations to the clever folks at the Oshkosh Community Foundation for a great, attention-getting and fun-for-all-ages event.

Next week, the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation (click here for more details) will attempt to set the Guinness World Record for tallest toilet paper pyramid.

The public is encouraged to participate by bringing packaged rolls of toilet paper to the Oshkosh Convention Center on Thursday, September 24, 2009 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

“We are told that personal hygiene products are among the highest needs at local food pantries,” says Eileen Connolly-Keesler, Oshkosh Area Community Foundation President and CEO. “This is a unique way to assist with food pantry demand, and draw more attention to basic needs in our community.”

The pyramid will be constructed throughout the day on September 24, with the final rolls being placed at the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation’s Donor Appreciation event later that evening. The pyramid will then be measured and submitted for approval by Guinness World Records Limited.

What are some of the fun and unique fundraisers that you’ve created, participated in or heard about?

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Gloria Steinem’s 75th Birthday Wishes

September 17, 2009

Gloria Steinem turned 75 this year (!), and she’s been making a lot of speeches to celebrate her birthday. Good thing, because her birthday speech made for a phenomenal last-minute replacement for Maya Angelou at the Chicago Foundation for Women 24th Annual Luncheon today. (Dr. Angelou was taken to the hospital late yesterday but I have no further information about her condition.) I am grateful to my friends at Shorebank for inviting me as their guest to this fantastic gathering of over 2,000 women from every community around Chicago.

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Here are some of the things Gloria wished for (I hope I captured the spirit of what she said, if not the exact phrasing):

  • A world where any two adults could get married if they want to as long as they don’t hit each other.
  • A world where magazine racks are filled with erotica but missing pornography
  • A world where the child care providers and educators had the budget of the US Military, while the military had the budget of those who care for our children. And they should only be  allowed to use it for peace keeping
  • A nightly news broadcast that talks about everything that went right that day
  • An episode of Oprah on men trying to successfully combine work and family
  • A global understanding that you can’t reach peaceful ends through violent means

Gloria Steinem is doing more than wishing. She’s working every day to break down traditional hierarchical thinking, thinking which damages both men and women. What a phenomenal hero and role model for all who aspire to bring about important social changes. It takes a lot of bravery to challenge the status quo and yet she makes it look so simple, so easy and so common sense. My sincere thanks to Gloria Steinem for taking the years of name-calling that come to trailblazers and pioneers on behalf of all women.

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Chicago Marathon “Footprints for Charity”

September 10, 2009

Here’s an interesting take on the growing trend of letting consumers choose where corporate donations are directed. From an article on examiner.com:

The Bank of America Chicago Marathon launched its first-ever digital fundraising program called Footprints for Charity. You can customize a digital running shoe tread with a personal image and tailored message at www.chicagomarathon.com/footprint. For each submission, Bank of America will donate $1 to your choice of one of 22 charities, up to a maximum total contribution of $50,000. Then, on October 11 (race day), the final results of the fundraising effort will be announced and an additional $10,000 will be awarded to the charity that received the most submissions on its behalf.

You can register and create a footprint here.

Here’s my take on these kinds of “fundraising contests”: it’s not fundraising. Bank of America has presumably committed the funds. Rather, it’s a marketing effort by Bank of America to get people to see and acknowledge its charitable donations by giving them the sense that they’re earning it.

“Design your digital footprint and help make a difference!”

This line plays to the worst kind of slacktivism, where people click a few times on their computer and get a gold star for being philanthropic. Actually donating or raising money for these causes through the Chicago Marathon would be philanthropic. Creating a digital shoe print is not.

I don’t know why this aggravates me. Maybe because these efforts come across as so transparently marketing-driven instead of genuinely altruistic. Maybe I should just be glad they’re giving money to charity and leave them alone. But what I always fear is that members of the charitably-minded public, facing a dearth of good information about corporate social responsibility, will erect a shiny halo around these companies based on highly-publicized if proportionately minuscule contributions to charity.

I’m not suggesting Bank of America is not a fantastic corporate social citizen. Maybe they are, I have no idea. But that’s my point. Savvy consumers need to look at these efforts as an advanced marketing tactic that’s designed to get past our normal critical defenses by pushing the “charity” button in our brain.

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9/11 Philanthropic Birthday Ideas

September 8, 2009

Last year, in an effort to turn the day of my birthday (9/11) from something horrible to something worth celebrating, I participated in the “Born in September” campaign, where  you ask friends and family to donate an amount equal to your age toward building wells in lieu of birthday presents. I was able to raise $750 dollars from friends and family and it made September 11th a very happy day in my household. charity:water is doing the same campaign this year, if you’re a September baby looking for a cause. (Read my post from last year here)

Here are a few other philanthropic birthday options for all of you searching for 9/11 birthday ideas:

  • This year, I’m having friends and family over for a BBQ. In lieu of birthday presents, I’ve asked everyone to bring either gently-used work clothing that I can take to the Cara Program here in Chicago (which helps people who are homeless develop job skills, interview skills and life skills to move them onto  a long-term career track and into a stable environment) or some canned goods that we’ll take to the local food pantry.
  • Got Fuse? If you have Fuse TV (check here) watch Jay-Z in a special benefit concert on September 11th. Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit the The New York Police and Fire Widows’ and Children’s Fund. According to the information posted by this charity on Guidestar, they distribute $25,000 immediately following the death of a safety worker and provide an annual distribution to each family of around $13,000 every year after that.
  • Perhaps you want to make your own donation to the Widows’ and Children’s Fund or to your favorite charity in celebration of the many gifts in your life. You can easily find a reputable, vetted projects through Global Giving, such as the Safer World Fund. “Created by family and friends of 9/11 victims, the Safer World Fund supports education and health care in poor communities vulnerable to extremism and terrorism. Give now – donations are being matched 50%!”
  • Is your child having a birthday party? One of my favorite funny moms on Twitter, Kelly Phillips Erb, said that for her girls’ last party, they had other kids bring books to donate to the school library. You could also have them  bring stuffed animals for the hospital or art supplies for an after-school project, etc.
  • If you need a project to keep children busy during the party, set up a table where they can make pictures of their homes and their lives to send to children in some other part of the world. Maybe make thank-you notes to send to local police or fire departments?  These don’t have to be heavy conversations and depressing subjects, at younger ages just raising awareness, instilling a sense of gratitude and making connections among kids who live differently from them is a pre-cursor to later involvement. (Note that for security reasons you need to be a friend or family member to send care packages and mail to service members overseas.)
  • How about celebrating your birthday with a day of service? What better way to express your gratitude for life and liberty than working to provide someone else with those same blessings.

Other ideas and suggestions? Please share them!

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Where Are You Wearing?

September 4, 2009

I’m excited to have just found a helpful, practical resource for philanthropically-minded souls who care about labor rights, conservation and environmental stewardship and generally speaking, social justice via economic empowerment. It’s a blog called “Adventures of the Engaged Consumer.”

The title of this post “Where are you wearing?” is not a typo. It is the question author Kelsey Timmerman asks us to consider. This question is part of a larger stream of consciousness about the things that pass through our everyday lives; Where (geographically) do these things come from? What are they made from and who makes them? How do they get into our hands or our houses and where will they go after we don’t want them or need them anymore? Being a conscious consumer means taking a moment to consider the answers and make informed buying decisions.

Here’s an excerpt from his latest post on Fair Fashion, which provides some “quick and dirty” guidance to buying clothing:

1) Avoid department store labels. I would rather go with an established brand like Levi’s than JCPenney’s signature label or Wal-Marts ironic label Faded Glory.

2) Nothing from Wal-Mart or Wal-Mart-like stores unless it’s a T-shirt and it’s hilarious (I have my weaknesses).

3) If given a choice between something made in China or somewhere else, go with somewhere else. What’s [considered by the government to be] right in China is what grows the nation’s economy and for the most part this makes labor rights wrong. It’s okay to buy shoes made in China because it’s tough to find any that are made elsewhere and going barefoot stinks. (I’m not calling for a boycott of China, it’s just how I feel.)

4) Reference the pocket-sized book The Better World Shopping Guide by Ellis Jones. The guide grades products, retailers, and brands on their social and environmental practices. Patagonia gets an A but none of their products are found at our mall. But Levi’s, GAP, and Eddie Bauer get Bs and are.

In a pinch, these are my quick and dirty standards. They aren’t perfect. What I would really like to see are the major retailers providing ethical options that cost a little more. We have organic/natural aisles in all of our local grocery stores, so why can’t we have a few racks of socially and environmentally conscious clothing?

(Take a few minutes and write to your favorite retailer and ask for an ethical option.)

Thanks, Kelsey, for doing the hard work for us by teaching us how to be engaged consumers. Here’s are links to reach some of Chicago’s most popular retailers to share your support (I recommend the corporate office because individual stores may have little incentive to pass on your suggestion):

Target

Macy’s

JC Penney

Nordstrom

Neiman Marcus

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Find a Social Entrepreneur

September 3, 2009

“What if social entrepreneurs could easily find peers in their issue area or region and unleash creativity, connections, capital, and collaboration to fulfill their world-changing missions?

“What if foundations could showcase their social entrepreneurs contextually on a variety of related websites, and help them be found by funders and media?

“Civic Ventures (sponsor of The Purpose Prize), The Draper Richards Foundation, ideablob, PopTech, TheSchwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, and The Skoll Foundation have pooled their data to create an open database of information about vetted social entrepreneurs.”

What is a Social Entrepreneur?

Depending on who you ask, a social entrepreneur could be anyone from a person who starts a nonprofit to fill a need in their community to someone who starts a for-profit to fill that same need using a market-driven, sustainable business model. For example, a company that sells organic fruit juices with a commitment to sustainable farming and fair labor practices might be considered a social enterprise. Whether their legal structure is nonprofit or for-profit, a social entrepreneur puts the social benefit ahead of any profit motive.

What is the Social Entrepreneur API?

In its most basic form, it’s a searchable database of social entrepreneurs that have already been screened by a well-regarded organization and found to be outstanding. There’s a basic search function available here, right now.

For example, entering the term “Chicago” into the basic search interface returns 16 results, ranging from the highly lauded and internationally famous founders of Shorebank to the relatively unknown documentary film producerShakeela Hassan.

But what does that API part mean? In my limited technical understanding, it basically means it’s “open source” data that any developer can use to build their own interface, widget, sidebar, whatever. If you want to take the database and create your own custom interface that’s available from your own web site, go ahead. That’s what it’s there for.

Who Built It?

The group behind this new API, Social Actions, is comprised of some of the most giving, committed, collaborative people I know. They aren’t trying to “own” or “control” data, they’re just trying to get information out there, figuring the more we can share knowledge, the more everybody wins. Congratulations to Peter Dietz and Christine Egger and the whole crew for making this happen.

For more information on the Social Entrepreneur API, see the official announcement with links to other relevant documents and resources.

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