“People in poverty are championing the way out of poverty,” declared Daphne Nederhorst, Ashoka Fellow and founder of Sawa Global, an organization highlighting local changemakers in their home communities. Four Sawa Global employees, including Nederhorst, recently flew to Haiti from their home base in Vancouver, British Columbia. Once on the ground, they didn’t bark orders [...]
The following post is from the beautifully articulated TBD email by All Day Buffet. New digital tools like Chatroulette, Twitter, and Foursquare are incredible new ways to connect people, but sharing info like location and identity can compromise safety – even landing you in jail (or worse) in countries that restrict free expression. Nonetheless, the [...]
On the subject of charities, comedian Ben Stiller has come a long way from his days of “Derek Zoolander Center For Children Who Can’t Read Good and Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too” to arrive at something quite possibly even funnier: STILLERSTRONG. His organization to ameliorate poverty in Haiti proudly boasts the slogan: [...]
The zyOzy Foundation announced a global initiative to raise much-needed funds for Haitian relief. Amy C. Wolff, an Indiana University graduate student specializing in non-profit management, zyOzy collegiate advisory partner and song composer, is calling upon choirs all over the world to help raise money by video recording her composition “A Brighter Way,” an inspirational, [...]
The fact that I’m finding it difficult to begin this post pales in comparison to the difficulty aid workers are facing on how to begin the relief effort in Haiti. As we all know by now, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on Tuesday, just south of the nation’s capital, Port au Prince. It was [...]
Much has been made of the emergence of Twitter in the last few years as a bona fide, if flawed, source and distribution channel for news – urgent, on-the-ground information that reaches us before traditional organizations have a chance to convene an editorial meeting, much less dispatch reporters and, you know, do journalism. [...]
Australia will make AUS$60 million (US$55.5 million) available over four years to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) for cooperation in a wide range of areas of special mutual interest. These include climate change, disaster risk reduction and emergency management; regional integration including trade facilitation; education, including in the fields of science and technology, provision of scholarships [...]
I have to give a holla back to my hometown, Madison, Wisconsin this week. Madison has never let me down in terms of being at the forefront of progressive movements – like microfinance. This time, “Seeds of Change” is coming to the Pyle Center, a new photography exhibit that highlights the work of Working Capital [...]
Since this is my first official article for SocialEarth, I wanted to set the premise for what I hope most of my writings will feature: community development efforts done with excellence. My hope is to contribute to the discussion on how to effectively impact lives of people who need help through analyzing organizational methodology, leadership, [...]
This week Ashoka announced their new fellows elected during the December 2008 — April 2009 session. I am especially excited to read about the system-changing work that these social entrepreneurs are doing after reading David Bornstein’s book, How to Change the World. As I profiled in an earlier post, How to Change the World takes [...]
ACCION International, a pioneer and leader in microfinance, announced last Thursday that it has been awarded the Inter-American Development Bank’s “Juscelino Kubitschek Award” for its contributions to economic and financial development in Latin America and the Caribbean. ACCION was recognized by the IDB specifically for its work in microfinance – the provision of small, working-capital loans, savings [...]
