Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of Shiloh’s Kitten Corner! My name is Shiloh and I work on the Impact team at Causes.com. I start my workday by putting together a news brief for the rest of the office that highlights what’s new in the world of social media, nonprofits, marketing, and social good. Here are a few of our favorite reads from the past week…plus a kitten puppy.
Social Media
Puppy Corner: Shanti
1. Check out this comprehensive list of 45 hashtags nonprofits can use to promote social good on Twitter. (Socialbrite)
2. It will probably come as no surprise that the most-searched term of 2011 is ‘Facebook.’ (Mashable)
Nonprofits
1. What are some of the nonprofits to watch in 2012? (The Chronicle of Philanthropy)
2. Here are a few tips that will help amplify your nonprofit’s social media success. (Mashable)
Marketing
1. The 2012 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report has full of great information of great information and insights for nonprofits and marketers. (Kivi’s Nonprofit Communications Blog)
2. In “The Dawn of the Relationship Era” it is important for nonprofits to look inward and understand why they matter. (Katya’s Nonprofit Marketing Blog)
Social Good
1. YourGood has put together an infographic on where and why people donate. (Network for Good Blog)
2. What does the future hold for corporate philanthropy? (TriplePundit)
Welcome to our series, “Great Nonprofits,” where we highlight a Nonprofit Partner that changes the world and uses Causes to tell their story. This week our Great Nonprofit is Carol’s Ferals.
Over the last year, Amazon Watch has accomplished a lot with the help of the Causes community – from supporting Ecuadorian activists in standing up to pollution caused by Texaco (now Chevron), to continuing the fight against the Belo Monte Dam in Brazil. This holiday season, Amazon Watch is teaming up with TV personality Layla Kayleigh for a special year-end campaign, declaring December 28th “Stand for the Amazon” Day.
Amazon Watch is working to create a wave of online support on the 28th, through Facebook posts and tweets with the hashtag #Stand4TheAmazon. What’s more, leading up to that date – and through the end of the year – every dollar donated will be matched by other Amazon Watch supporters, up to $25,000!
By joining this cause, you can support future Amazon Watch campaigns and help fight on the front lines of the battle to save the rainforest and preserve the rights of indigenous communities.
You can “Stand for the Amazon” by joining Amazon Watch on Causes.com today and making a donation (that will be matched!) at causes.com/stand4theAmazon.
This post was written for Craig Newmark’s CraigConnects initiative in response to this blog.
Watching Google Zetigeist’s 2011 in Retrospect video yesterday reminded me that we’ve had a rough year. A really rough year. The recession and its effects have shaken the American dream to its core. Crackdowns on protesters worldwide have shown how much injustice has been inflicted just beneath our consciousness. From child abuse to animal cruelty to human rights abuses, we have work to do. And while I maintain rock-solid optimism for 2012, it is only because I’ve been inspired by the promise of passionate activists combined with revolutionary technology. This is why I’m so excited – giddy, really – for what’s ahead on Causes.
Over the past year, we’ve seen passionate activists use the tools on Causes for real, off-line impact. Eric Ding funded his first cancer research study from donations through the cause he started from his med school dorm room. The Cove campaign turned the Empire State Building red to raise awareness of the bloody slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan. Causes users sent over 1350 “Welcome Home” messages to our troops coming home from Iraq. We’re on to something.
In 2012, we want YOU to change the world. The people who are building the most powerful movements on Causes are people just like you. But you really do have the ability now, like never before, to create movements for the change you want to see. Causes has always been a platform for bottom-up grassroots movements to take form and gain teeth. But in 2012, we’ll take this to a whole new level. If you’ve been on Causes.com or any cause in the past month, you’ve seen that we’ve already started updating the 600,000 causes on our platform. From the Campaign for Cancer Prevention to Keep the Arts in Public Schools, we’re working hard to make each community a more effective tool to create change. You can see a sneak preview of our new pledge feature at www.causes.com/itcanwait, and this is just the beginning.
In 2012, we’re going to launch new tools that better enable organizers to get things done. We’re going to continue supporting the activists and nonprofits organizing campaigns that will change the world. And in 2012, we will continue the fight for a more open and transparent democracy where anyone can change the world. You can join us at www.causes.com. By this time next year, I hope we can all come together and talk about the big wins that were accomplished in 2012 by the biggest world-changer of the year…you.
Do you text and drive? I do too, but I know I shouldn’t. Just last week a school bus in Missouri was hit by someone texting and driving, killing innocent kids. Texting and driving is all over the news and we couldn’t stand by and watch it happen.
That’s why I’m proud to announce the Pledge Not to Text and Drive, a partnership between the National Organizations for Youth Safety, AT&T, and Causes. For every person that takes the pledge AT&T will donate $2 (up to $60,000) to support NOYS’ community-based youth safe-driving programs. I took the pledge and I am proud to say I will no longer text and drive. Will you join me?
In the first 5 days of the campaign over 8,000 people have taken the pledge, written over 650 heartfelt comments, and sent thousands of invitations to their friends and family asking them to take the pledge too. Later this week we will be launching a second campaign with AT&T to raise awareness about cell phone recycling. In partnership with the Nature Conservancy, you will have the chance to you’re your sustainability IQ by answering a quiz question. Each person who takes the quiz will trigger a $2 donation from AT&T to the Nature Conservancy (up to $60,000).
You can join AT&T’s Connect for Good cause to find out more ways to generate donations to fantastic nonprofits by doing simple actions. We look forward to engaging members of this community to make big impacts across a number of different issues. Spoiler alert: if you want to stop the high-school drop out rate, there’s an action coming up for you with Teach For America, Communities in Schools, and KIPP!
Guest blogger Debbie Hall is the Board Chair of Village Enterprise, a nonprofit that specializes in lifting people out of extreme poverty through sustainable businesses and entrepreneur trainings.
As we wrap ourselves in the spirit of holiday giving, sometimes our slightly cynical selves can’t help but wonder: What will my dollars really do?
Every year at about this time my husband and I sit down to evaluate what organizations merit our charitable giving. Sometimes there is an emotional tug to support something run by a close and trusted friend. Sometimes there is an intellectual pull to a group with well-documented, fact-based results.
While traveling in Uganda with Village Enterprise, a humble woman named Susan answered this question for me with a tug on my heart AND my head. Let me share her story with you.
Village Enterprise equips those living in extreme poverty with the resources they need to create sustainable businesses. Through seed capital, business and savings training and on-going mentoring and support Village Enterprise helps entrepreneurs start sustainable businesses, generating incomes and savings that forever change their families’ lives. Their track record is significant: they have started over 23,000 businesses and trained more than 115,000 entrepreneurs. (For more, see: www.VillageEnterprise.org).
This year, I invite you all to help me run a very special race. It’s a bit unconventional – it is not a 10K, or a political race, or even the usual-holiday-rat-race! It is a race to raise the funds to lift 500 people out of extreme poverty.
My goal is to raise $10,000 by December 31st, which will help lift 500 people out of extreme poverty. Please watch the short video above and visit our project at www.Causes.com/RaceToEndPoverty to learn how BIG an impact a modest gift will have.
Here are some examples of what your support can do:
• $50 supports business training session
• $150 funds the seed capital for a business
• $250 finances the training, mentoring, and seed capital for one Village Enterprise business with 3 new entrepreneurs
Among the 1.5 million nonprofits in the U.S., this isn’t one that has attained “brand-name” recognition. But if poverty alleviation is a cause that you care about, Village Enterprise deserves your support. Their program is unique in reaching the extremely poor in rural East Africa and in delivering a program that works. Your heart will feel good for providing food and education, and your head can know that your dollars are lifting a family out of poverty for good. And I will offer praise and thanksgiving this season for the hope and joy you bring to someone in dire need. To me, that is the best Christmas present I could give or receive!
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