In this final post of 2013, I asked a few people for their tips on keeping generosity alive in 2014. These are real people with really practical ideas.

Here are my two favorite.

Easy ways to keep Giving Tuesday generosity alive in 2014

1. Explore payroll deduction

   “If your employer has a program setup, make charitable contributions through payroll deductions. The advantages of this are:

   • It is much easier than having to write a check or enter your credit card online
   • It makes it easier to consistently donate, once you set it up, you don’t have to worry about it anymore
   • It makes your contributions more valuable if your employer has a matching program
   • At the end of the year, you have a record of exactly how much you gave for tax purposes
   • You can typically choose from a variety of organizations (both local and national) to give to

   Click Here for more information on how to give through payroll deductions.”

   Jay Kelly, VP-Operations, Social Media Explorer

2. Don’t wait for “influencers”

   “Be generous with your invitations; everyone has something to offer.

   “In this social media realm of experts, followers and Klout, it’s tempting to only extend opportunities and partnerships to certain ‘influencers.’ But this year, I’ve been amazed and humbled by what less ‘established’ people offer when invited to contribute. Be open to giving everyone a chance; the potential rewards are worth it.”

   Marlene Oliveira, Founder and Managing Editor, Nonprofit MarCommunity

What will you resolve?

Those are a couple ideas for helping keep generosity alive in 2014. What will you resolve to do?

Tell us in the comments!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Tell Social Media Explorer about My Donation for Aggregated Reporting Purposes Here

Read more about Social Media Explorer’s #GivingTuesday program.

The post Keeping Giving Tuesday alive all year – #GivingTuesday appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Donations doubled this year compared to last, and many nonprofits around the world saw a typically quiet Tuesday become a fundraising day!

Keep Giving Tuesday going all year, $1 at a time

Many of us aren’t the philanthropists we’d like to be. But we can still make a difference.

One easy way to keep the Giving Tuesday spirit alive is the One Today app by Google. (Download it at the Google Play Store.)

This simple app alerts you each day about a cause that you may be interested in. You can learn more about it or search for other causes.

The best part? Google makes is ridiculously easy to donate $1 to the cause (or more). It even helps you rally your friends if you want to (but that’s not required). They even make it incredibly easy for you to challenge your friends by matching their gifts.

As you give to projects on One Today, the app learns what projects interest you and will show you more and more causes in line with your values.

For a fundraising guy like me, this app is pretty cool.

Make a gift today

To get started, just download the app at the Google Play Store.

Giving has never been easier!

If you’re a nonprofit, you can learn more about registering for One Today at http://www.google.com/onetoday/nonprofits.html.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Tell Social Media Explorer about My Donation for Aggregated Reporting Purposes Here

Read more about Social Media Explorer’s #GivingTuesday program.

The post One Today – #GivingTuesday appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

The Haitian Kreyol word for “hope” is “espwa.” And that’s exactly what Project Espwa does for the children in the community of Leogane, Haiti. One of the reasons I’m impressed by Project Espwa is their staying power. Their initial projects were in 2010 in direct response to the earthquake, “doza janvie.” Most groups would’ve stopped there, trusting some other entity to fill the long-term needs. But not Project Espwa. They kept going back.

Each time, they learned more and more about the community and adjusted their response accordingly. Over the years, they’ve determined that healthy bodies and strong minds are foundational to a solid future, so now they focus on projects that promote good health and quality education. They started with projects securing clean water systems, reliable power, and permanent shelter. They have earned enough trust that they were recently granted property to build a school and orphanage in a town called Gracie! Their current projects include:

1. Build and equip a top-notch private school in the Leogane area of Haiti – to serve up to 200 children.
2. Partner with medical professionals to establish a health clinic in close proximity to the school.
3. Establish a “Sponsorship” program to help fund the cost of education for at least 100 students.

Make a gift today

You can make a gift today to support their work by clicking on the “Donate Now” button or going directly here on PayPal. Your donation will continue the ongoing work in Haiti!

You can see pictures of their work in the gallery on their site at, http://www.projectespwa.com/gallery/.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Tell Social Media Explorer about My Donation for Aggregated Reporting Purposes Here

Read more about Social Media Explorer’s #GivingTuesday program.

The post Project Espwa – #GivingTuesday appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

(See what I did there?)

Started 10 years ago, VisionQuest 20/20 is best known for it’s making eye exams available for all school age children in the USA. I personally know the need. My wife and I had no idea our first child had vision problems until we took him for an eye exam when he was 6 or 7. It turns out that he needed strong glasses!

Making sure kids can see

Misdiagnosed vision problems can lead to behavior and learning issues. According to the VisionQuest 20/20 site, 1 in 4 school aged children have undetected and untreated vision disorders! They claim this leads to societal costs of more than $50 billion!

Creatively using tech

A cool aspect of VisionQuest 20/20 is their use of technology to make these exams incredibly affordable and fun! Their innovative EyeSpy 20/20 video game allows kids to “play” while detecting vision problems.

This test is completely scalable (unlike the traditional letters projected on a wall test) and is sophisticated enough to test each eye individually! You can read more at: http://www.visionquest2020.org/thetechnology.asp.

Like my son, if vision problems are discovered early enough, they can be corrected. Some of the benefits are increased grades, increased self esteem, and being able to fully participate in sports.

All from corrected vision!

Make a gift today

Your donation to VisionQuest 20/20 helps make vision screenings available for free. You can sponsor tests, with a little banner that will also be printed out and sent home on the test results. Or you can just donate to make these tests open to more kids.

To learn more, listen to the founders talk about VisionQuest 20/20:

Tell Social Media Explorer about My Donation for Aggregated Reporting Purposes Here

Read more about Social Media Explorer’s #GivingTuesday program.

The post VisionQuest 20/20 – #GivingTuesday appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

You can go through the process of checking financials on a site like GuideStar.org, interviewing board members and staff, and checking news stories. But that takes a lot of time.

An alternative is to let your local United Way.

Let the United Way do the vetting

The nearly 1800 local United Ways work in 45 countries and territories to better their communities. Each United Way collaborates with thousands of volunteers to vet nonprofits so you don’t have to. These volunteers are

• Creating framework for assessing the needs in their community
• Convening the nonprofits to help them seek funding
• Working with employers to help make it easy for employees to contribute
• And work to assess the nonprofits are stewarding the gifts well.

All so you don’t have to!

Make a gift today

There are lots of ways you can take action. You can volunteer for local causes, you can advocate for them, and you can donate. Simply go to http://www.unitedway.org/take-action/ to find out more about supporting your local United Way!

There are lots of videos on the United Way YouTube channel. Here’s one:

Tell Social Media Explorer about My Donation for Aggregated Reporting Purposes Here

Read more about Social Media Explorer’s #GivingTuesday program.

The post United Way – #GivingTuesday appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

As we’ve seen from other #GivingTuesday posts like Love146 and Tiny Hands International, slavery is flourishing today. Unfortunately, it’s also thriving in the production of chocolate. In a post called Chocolate: the industry’s hidden truth (and the easy stuff we can do to still enjoy it), the author Tsh shares that “The far majority of chocolate is in our stores because of forced child labor.”

My 11 year old daughter actually started researching this with me. It’s kind of ironic because she’s the age of the girls sold to the cocoa farms. Girls are typically 11-12; boys 12-14. Kind of changes the way we see trick-or-treaters.

Fortunately, there are lots of ways to buy ethically produced, slave-free chocolate. Some of the simple ways are to look for the “Fair Trade” or “Rain Forest Alliance” labels. These systems aren’t perfect, especially because they are often expensive for farmers qualify for. But it’s a start.

Making our voice heard

Voting with our wallets is definitely a place to start. But we can do a lot more. Nonprofit organizations like STOP THE TRAFFIK have ways to tell the big manufacturers to stick with ethical practices. On their chocolate page, they say:

Since 2006 STOP THE TRAFFIK’s campaign message hasn’t changed. We want ingredients like violence and exploitation taken out of the chocolate.

And they’ve seen some change. They say top five manufacturers–Verkade, Swiss Noir, Cadbury, Nestlé and Mars–are now creating some chocolate bars certified as slave-free.

But that means the typical chocolate we get still isn’t.

Join the Thunderclap

One easy way to help raise awareness is to join STOP THE TRAFFIK’s Thunderclap. If they reach their Thunderclap goal by October 18, hundreds of us will simultaneously have a tweet, Facebook post, or Tumblr post posted encouraging Toblerone maker Mondelez asking when Toblerone will be traffik free.

Get educated

You can learn more about the awful statistics about child slavery in the chocolate industry by watching the documentary The Dark Side of Chocolate.

The BBC also did a series exposing traffiking. Here’s the first of that series:

Tell Social Media Explorer about My Donation for Aggregated Reporting Purposes Here

Read more about Social Media Explorer’s #GivingTuesday program.

The post Stop The Traffik – #GivingTuesday appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

This week is different. This week’s featured group asks for giving expertise and time.

Whether you call it a makerspace, hackerspace, a backspace, or a hacklab, around the country libraries and communities are pulling together resources to make it easy for people to create. The flexible term allows for activities as varied as soldering circuits or welding metal and computer programming or wood carving. These community workshops are popping up across the country, bringing together skills and tools for people who might not have access to them otherwise.

Some Makerspaces are even offering affordable access to 3-D printers.

Find one near you or start your own

The folks at Makerspace are pulling together a worldwide directory of Makerspaces. While their list is impressive, getting a directory for a grassroots movements is never easy. So if one isn’t listed near you, be sure to do a Google search. Many, like the group in Maine, are blogging about their process as they look to start these spaces.

In true creative fashion, the Makerspace site offers a free Makerspace Playbook to guide you through the process of starting one in your community!

Learn more

We often hear both about the “digital divide” and about the low number of people going into traditional trades. Makerspaces seem a perfect bridge between the two.

As a fundraising coach, I’m surprised to not see any way to give money through the Makerspace site! Apparently that option is left up to the local groups. (To give to the Maine Makerspace, go to http://mainemakerspace.com/contribute/.)

You can learn more about Makerspaces at http://makerspace.com/home-page.

And before you go, check out this great video of Mythbuster’s Adam Savage talking about “Why We Make” at last year’s Maker Faire.

Tell Social Media Explorer about My Donation for Aggregated Reporting Purposes Here

Read more about Social Media Explorer’s #GivingTuesday program.

The post Makerspace – #GivingTuesday appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Why are you doing this?

In 2002, a small group of people were on a trip in Southeast Asia to figure out how they could help fight child sex trafficking. A few years later, when the Brains on Fire team asked them, “Why are you doing this?” one of those guys, Rob Morris told them a story about being on that first trip and seeing a girl trapped in a brothel looking at them with defiance in her eyes. Pinned to her dress was the number 146.

Because their trip was gathering evidence to bring the brothel to court, they couldn’t rescue her. When the brothel was raided later, she was no longer there.

They now fight to make sure no other kids are lost.

Holistic approach

Now they do everything from teaching kids to avoid exploitation and the tricks of pimps and traffickers to helping survivors journey back to normalcy. They also have programs and resources to empower a grassroots movement against slavery.

Love protects. Love defends. Love restores. Love empowers.

Will you join them? Your monthly or one-time gift to Love146 will help rescue and protect kids all over the world. It’s easy to do on Love146’s Donation Page. (I love Love146’s transparency. They make it really easy to see their financials right on their site.

You could also support their work by visiting their Take Action page. There they help equip you to host events, share the story, or even fundraise through things like giving up your birthday or giving up shaving for a year. (Really!) Check it out at: http://www.love146.org/take-action/.

Learn more

To learn more about modern-day slavery, go to http://www.love146.org/slavery/.

In the video below, Love146‘s Rob Morris shares the story of the girl with the number 146:

Love146 History from Love146 on Vimeo.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Tell Social Media Explorer about My Donation for Aggregated Reporting Purposes Here

Read more about Social Media Explorer’s #GivingTuesday program.

The post Love146 – #GivingTuesday appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

BUILD stands for “Broader Urban Involvement & Leadership Development.” They started in 1969 in one neighborhood to get kids out of gangs and stem the flow of kids susceptible to getting into gangs.

Starting with 200 youth centered in one neighborhood, they now serve thousands of young people. And they’ve expanded to 11 of Chicago’s neighborhoods!

Talking to young people. Sharing my story

BUILD has been in existence for over 40 years. That’s long enough for them to now be staffed a couple generations of people who’ve benefitted from their program. If you watch the BUILD video, you’ll hear them constantly saying they share their story with the kids. And those stories are continuing to change lives.

So often, schools are overwhelmed with simply trying to get done all the things they need to accomplish in the education process that there’s little time to hear people’s stories. BUILD provides a place for that.

One thing that strikes me about BUILD is that rather than focusing on “Don’t do what I did” stories, they focus kids on what they can do. BUILD breaks down their program into three strategic areas:

• College prep
• Career readiness
• Youth leadership development

One BUILD participant who has seen kids go through this program says:

“They start out as sluggish snails but they turn into these phoenixes.”

Invest in BUILD

You can help kids turn into phoenixes too. Your gift to BUILD will help change the future for over 3500 people from ages 6 to 27. To make a donation by credit card or PayPal go to BUILD’s Donation Page. You can make your donation go even further by choosing the monthly giving option.

If you live near Chicago, you could also support their work by volunteering in one of their strategic areas.

Learn more

To learn more about BUILD, check out this inspirational video on their YouTube channel:

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Tell Social Media Explorer about My Donation for Aggregated Reporting Purposes Here

Read more about Social Media Explorer’s #GivingTuesday program.

The post BUILD Chicago – #GivingTuesday appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Two people who are passionately transforming the entire sector are Hildy Gottlieb and Dimitri Petropolis. They’ve been in what most of us call the nonprofit sector for decades. And they are good. Their organizations and their clients thrived. But over they years, they realized that the communities their clients were in weren’t really changing.

That wasn’t “ok” with them. They, and the growing number of consultants trained through their organization called Creating the Future, cause the members of these organizations to question their base assumptions and help them to see the scope of their mission in a bigger light.

Community benefit

Hildy and Dimitri recognize the power in words. They don’t describe the organizations they work with using negative language like “not-for-profit” or “non-govermental.” Instead, they created the term “community benefit organizations”. After all, who wants to be defined by what they’re not?

But starting from the premise of community benefit, organizations can look at the scope of their work in a whole new context. As Hildy describes in her post 6 reasons to use the term community benefit organization, the term is inclusive enough to embrace other entities not normally thought of as “nonprofits.” As I see them work, this alone seems to help board members to a powerful discovery that they aren’t alone. Lots of groups are working for the benefit of the community and they can collaborate with those groups. There is no longer a need to protect their turf. Since they exist for community benefit, they can involve other partners without “losing.”

Not some insipid ivory tower rhetoric

This may all sound heady and theoretical. It’s not. Creating the Future expressly wants it’s tenants to lead to intensely practical, day-to-day applications. They are committed to “infusing the DNA of social progress” into regular habits like decision making and planning. Part of the power in their emphasis is envision what is possible, rather than what they’re against.

They’ve embodied these “what they’re for” statements into the Creating the Future’s core values. I love that they call them The Pollyanna Principles!

One practical application of their desire to be a “living lab” for social change, they publicly broadcast all of their board meetings on YouTube using Google’s Hangouts on Air. But they aren’t simply intending to “broadcast.” These hangouts are for inspiring conversation. So they created the #ctfuture hashtag and regularly refer to any comments given, incorporating them in the meeting’s agenda.

A person using the #ctfuture hashtags recently tweeted something many say about Creating the Future:

…Never have I seen an org practice what it preaches so closely…

Neither have I.

Investing in transforming a sector

If you want to go beyond supporting a single cause or organization, please make a donation to Creating the Future. They are transforming organizations, and consultants who work with these organizations, in ways that are 100% sustainable. They are actively changing the DNA of groups, not making them something else, but making them more wholly what they intend to be.

You’re one time or monthly donation will be investing in transforming communities around the world.

To make a donation, or to participate in other ways, go to:
http://creatingthefuture.org/PARTICIPATE_.htm

You could also support their work by buying a copy of The Pollyanna Principles: Reinventing ‘Nonprofit Organizations’ to Create the Future of Our World!

Learn more

To learn more about Creating the Future, listen to Hildy’s talk from TEDxTucson:

Tell Social Media Explorer about My Donation for Aggregated Reporting Purposes Here

Read more about Social Media Explorer’s #GivingTuesday program.

The post Creating the Future – #GivingTuesday appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

And the kids get to go for free.

Helping parents too

Their mission goes beyond the kids. For most parents, knowing their child is safe at a camp with the most advanced medical care allows them to relax for the first time since their child’s diagnosis. And the skills the children learn at Camp, and the friendships they create, help them increase their independence even after they get home.

Summer camp…in the hospital

As if this weren’t enough, with their Hospital Outreach Program, they even take the “camp experience” to kids who aren’t able to leave the hospital. You can see the joy this brings kids in this video.

Not covered by Newman’s Own

Since Paul Newman was the founder, I was shocked to discover that Newman’s Own doesn’t simply fund the Camp. They do give each year. But their contribution amounts to less than 1% of what it costs to run the Camp. The other 99% comes from people like you and me.

It costs $2500 for a kid to go to camp for a week. And people do all sorts of things to make that happen. Some participate in Hole in the Wall Gang Camp events. Others join TEAM Hole in the Wall and create their own event or run a marathon or help their kids with a lemonade stand.

Of course, you can simply make a donation! Even if $2500 isn’t in the cards today, a one time gift of $10 helps with art supplies. Or a monthly gift of $25 helps support one camper for an entire day at Camp.

Learn more

For a more complete picture of the Camp, and the clip from the movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” that gave the Camp it’s name, check out the longer but equally moving video Genesis – The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp.

Here is a camp sing-a-long with Natalie Merchant and campers singing “Wonder”

Tell Social Media Explorer about My Donation for Aggregated Reporting Purposes Here

Read more about Social Media Explorer’s #GivingTuesday program.

The post Hole in the Wall Gang Camp – #GivingTuesday appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Impact and Efficiency

In my fundraising trainings, I see thousands of nonprofits struggling to hit the right balance between having impact and being frugal. This is never an easy dance. Sometimes you simply need to make a large investment, and risk looking less frugal, to have a longer-term impact.

Tiny Hands International seems to dance the dance with agility. They appear to be building a nonprofit that can scale well. Originally started to fight human trafficking in Nepal, they’ve since expanded into India and Bangladesh.

Tiny Hands runs multiple children’s homes and is building a multi-faceted Dream Center that will, in part, educate both indigenous children as well as have a rigorously academic “School of Injustice” to educate college students on the roots of injustice and what has, and hasn’t, worked in fighting it.

Get Involved Today

You can help keep kids out of trafficking by making a donation to Tiny Hands International on their donate page. And you can check out their Freedom Store, featuring products made by women in their restoration homes and other products designed to raise awareness about the reality of trafficking.

Or, for just $10, you can join the One Girl Prayer Initiative. You’ll receive a handcrafted bracelet that you can wear to remind you to pray for the release of the more than 10,000 Nepali girls trafficked into sex slavery each year. Girls as young as six.

To learn more about Tiny Hands International, watch their video called “Trafficked”.

Tell Social Media Explorer about My Donation for Aggregated Reporting Purposes Here

Read more about Social Media Explorer’s #GivingTuesday program.

The post Tiny Hands International – #GivingTuesday appeared first on Social Media Explorer.