Archive for the ‘Cause’ Category
Thank You: Ink for @LiveStrong Cancer Research
Thursday, March 18th, 2010
One hundred nineteen of us came together as a community to donate $5329.50 to the Armstrong Foundation. This moment in time meant so much to the immediate family members who are affected by cancer. Thank you, friends. Words are not enough to express my gratitude.
So many of you retweeted or Facebooked the messages. Of course, there are the 119 of us who gave. Most of us have been touched by cancer in some form, yet it was still surprising to see the outpouring across the social networks.
I created a special Twitter List, MySxSWFamily, so I can always follow you. If you donated and are not on the list, please let me know so I can correct this promptly! I may have clicked too quickly or could not find your handle.
Perhaps the best way to thank you is to write up a post on lessons learned. For me, this was my first major fundraising drive surrounding an event. I did use Facebook Causes last year on my birthday to raise $900 for an environmental cause, but it was not quite the same thing. So here you go: Best practices, just in case you decide to do something similar down the road.
Campaign Design
First of all, you need to decide to choose a cause and you have to believe in it. Watching close family members suffer like this has been tough for me, and I felt like I needed to so something. I was already aware of the Armstrong Foundation’s efforts.
It’s important to create a noteworthy event. Birthdays are great. I thought SxSW was a natural given that most of my social network would be there or would be following the events at the conference online. So I chose the interactive conference.
The payoff for the crowd was the tattoo. Obviously, this is a bit freakish and above the usual campaign goal. But in my case it was my seventh, I was considering getting another one already, I had an artist in Austin I had already worked with, and I was looking for a way to make a strong statement of solidarity for my family members. It was a no brainer. Welcome to the geek version of Miami Ink.
Thank God for Eskimos
When you are in the frozen tundra, you can get lost, so when an eskimo shows up to help out, feel blessed. Allyson Kapin, Scotty Hendo and fellow Zoetican Beth Kanter were all there for me at different points, encouraging me when I was tired, making suggestions like crowdsourcing tattoo design (see below), tie in more family stories, make more of an event, etc. to compel my community. They told me what to expect.
There were two points were I almost gave in when I was “punch drunk” from the efforts and general SxSW prep: Thursday and Friday nights last week. My eskimos kept me going through the slog. Thank you so much, Allyson, Scotty and Beth.
Enable the Community
Part of creating a movement is not to dominate the movement as a personality, but to allow community stakeholders to do as they will and participate. It seems such an effort must be a we thing. Consider that many issues affect multiple people, and in the case of cancer, just about everyone knows someone affected.
So you want to encourage people to sound off, for example by choosing tattoo design. Let them RT, say what they will, and share their stories. Special thanks to Ed Shahzade for going above and beyond the call of duty to spread the word. You are a good man, Ed.
Some may even want to participate, as John Haydon did, adding his weight to the movement by agreeing to get a tattoo if we hit $6.5k. Not only let them, but embrace them.
I even created a Facebook event and invited people to the tattooing. Later on Claire Sale, Amy Sample Ward, Beth Kanter (see her photo set here), Andrew Bates, Michael Crider showed up and documented the blood letting, err, tattooing. It was really cool experiencing this side by side with friends, so thanks to all who contributed.
Keep Slogging
You need to keep asking. So create small manageable goals, like $500 marks so the community can feel encouraged. Create a time period where they know the drive will end, so they realize the ask is temporary, then do it often and frequently.
Creating new ways to ask and new stories is hard. It takes energy. There are times you want to quit. Don’t. No matter what, keep going until the end, whether you reach your goal or not. It’s important to see things through.
Say Thank You
This is something we all learn growing up, but it’s still important. Working with Beth Kanter has reinforced this for me. She will take the time to thank and congratulate someone before attending to a business matter or blog post. She puts people first.
In each case, I tried to thank donors as soon as possible publicly on Twitter. It’s important to recognize people for taking the financial plunge with you. It’s the ultimate vote of confidence and support. Recognizing that and making them feel important for it remains important. And it encourages others to give knowing that they, too, will be recognized for their efforts.
Handling Donations
One thing I did was use the LiveStrong grassroots platform. I didn’t want to deal with any contribution issues like David Armano did when he raised money a year ago. Using an approved 501c3 ends issues about what you are going to do with the money.
In some cases, people paid me in cash or via PayPal. In each case, I promptly entered their donation and amount, then tweeted it. I wanted to be fully transparent to the donor that their money had been donated.
That’s really it. What would you add to the list?
And once again, thank you to EVERYONE who helped. Together, we made a difference.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Posted in Cause | 16 Comments »
RarePlanet Educates, Crowdsources Green Online Best Practices
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
I was recently joined RarePlanet’s advisory board after hearing about their cool vision. The concept puts environmental campaign managers into a social network where they share and learn best practices in online community management. It’s a two year program, and if successful, community managers earn a communications masters degree from the University of Texas – El Paso.
The range of topics is pretty diverse, from more sustainable agriculture and better management of a protected area to water conservation projects and even a 350 group. Though it’s early in the life of RarePlanet, the effort already has 1000 community members.
What I really like about RarePlanet is its focus on extended community of community managers, academics, super engaged conservationists and other hyper engaged people in the green movement. The long term vision is to create a place where campaigns can be dynamically crowdsourced by those who actually have experience doing them. It reminds me a lot of mastermind groups, where executives meet with other executives to drive their business forward.
Each campaign has a description, a theory of change, and a symbol of pride, which allows community members to share the concepts. Additionally, RarePlanet community users to share various campaigns with select social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Delicious.
It will be exciting to see if RarePlanet can become a leading source for collaborative green communications strategy and learning. I hope you will join us there, too.
Geoff Livingston is a regular contributor to the Live Earth blog.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Tags: affect, change, communications, crowdsource, rareplanet, theory
Posted in Cause, Green | 3 Comments »
Tattooing My Body “LIVESTRONG” for Cancer Research
Monday, March 8th, 2010
Updated 3/14 at 10:30 a.m.: WE MADE IT! We have raised $5125. Thank you to the more than 100 donors!
As some of you know, I have a close relative came down with cancer last year (he chooses to remain unnamed, but his cancer is now in remission). It turns out that my Cousin Paula (photo below) also came down with breast cancer last year, too (also in remission). That’s why I have decided to donate a little piece of my body to fundraise for cancer research with the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
If I successfully raise $5,000 by midnight on Sunday, I will literally get the LIVESTRONG brand tattooed on my body in Austin at SxSW on Monday. Here’s the donation page, please contribute today. Further, changeblogger and friend John Haydon has committed to getting his own tattoo if we reach $6500 in donations!
Before you laugh too much (OK, go ahead), I just want explain a little bit. The family cancers caused me to become interested in related charities. . There was a possibility of a three year old toddler without a parent, and how we were all going to help out the surviving parent. After my cousin Paula was diagnosed for breast cancer (early stage), she could not get health care coverage for three months. I believe we can change this.
And yes, I am no stranger to tattoos. This would be my seventh, and yes, I can live with LIVESTRONG on my body. I don’t think this is everyone’s cup of tea (see related post)…
So on to SxSW. And with your help, a nice contribution for cancer research and a new tattoo.
P.S. Check out this blog post about the LIVESTRONG brand, where I discussed people tattooing LIVESTRONG on their bodies!
Popularity: 70% [?]
Tags: cancer, LiveSTRONG, research, SxSW
Posted in Cause | 205 Comments »
Disrupting Philanthropy Report: A Conversation
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
Today, Lucy Bernholtz, Edwards Skloot, and Barry Varela hosted a conversation at the Pew Conference room on their recent Disrupting Philanthropy Report. In attendance where folks from some of the largest foundations and technology companies in the world. The following is a liveblogged account of the conversation.
We opened the panel with a discussion about Haiti. Fifteen of the sixteen roundtable members found out about the earthquake online as opposed to a broadcast or traditional print outlet. The DNA of the way of thinking has changed… Ushahidi is a classic example of our new reality, which is being shared and openly discussed now. Here’s why digital matters as outlined by report co-author Lucy Bernholtz at the event:
We are experiencing a rejuvenated market zeitgeist in resolving societal problems as a result of technology. There’s a whole series of more granular issues from measurement and transparency to data and how can it be used externally. There are four critical aspects the the Disrupting Philanthropy Research.
- 1) Data is the new platform for change (Ushahidi). Low cost of organizations, public movements, etc. have created a data deluge.
- 2) There’s a real idealogical battle about who produces social good, including the commons, charities, foundations, businesses, etc. They are all inter-related in a networked way.
- 3) This new networked reality demands new governance models about participation for organizations with authenticity
- 4) The biggest question, what’s the biggest limitations of crowds and clouds? Where does this end? How do we make decisions? How do we share information?
The Conversation on Data
From left to right, Edward Skloot, Lucy Bernholtz, and Barry Varela.
Data can be in a system, and it can be shared in all sorts of ways. Organizations are reporting to a new level of public analysis. Behaviors of organizations are being changed. Public disclosure is forcing a lot of hands, creating a new way of looking at analysis.
The question in the new government becomes how have we incorporated the public will on this. Rendering data against archaic policies has become a tension that the Obama administration is trying to work through.
There’s no common language to interact, no protocol to unify the data transfer. How do you code information to make it universal, but at the same time, in a way that creates power and interpretation battles? Lack of standards, data integrity and information transfer becomes a key aspect of the social web.
Talking New Business Models
Revenue supported social enterprises are adding disruption to the mix, and social investment changes require data and metrics. Market activity and capital behind social enterprises is demanding new standards, which may spread to the larger social cause sector.
We discussed parallels of social enterprise and business-based social good producers involved in the sector. B Corps, L3Cs, etc. have brought code level changes to the social sector. Tax emption and deductability reshape the way people can affect social good changes.
The siloed approach to affecting change is being torn down before our eyes. We are seeing a new networked ecosphere arise with social enterprises, businesses, 501c3s, governments and the public, creating new resources and ways of affecting change. It’s also creating conflict and tension. The internets are lubricating the process.
501c3s are becoming more sustainable by focusing on what they do best within this architecture. A fundraiser can’t dig wells so to speak. Then there’s the public will to create new dynamic architectures and circumnavigate the existing structures.
New Governance versus Old Systems of Power
There’s an anti-organization approach. It’s a moment in time when committees versus action remains a major tension, and there incredible new momentary projects (zeitgeists) occurring. Governance within structures feel threatened, and are being revamped to some extent. At the same time, change is being forced from the outside.
There are new ways of working that are operating outside of the system. Should the new ways of doing things be regulated, and vice versa? The panelists thought there’s a need for institutionalization, and that the new players will be forced into larger accountable governances overtime.
I strongly disagreed (and was talked down). In my opinion, we are seeing the change that we have seen in larger for-profit markets, where innovation is occurring because technology enables people to do things differently. There’s a dissatisfaction with the larger organizations that cannot be quelled.
In the end, we as a group agreed that it seems like the big organizations are not going away, but the new guys won’t either. Technology has enabled the change agent.
There’s a similarity between this and the Catholic Church, and how it lost control of Christian faith in Europe due to the rise of the Gutenberg press and the ability for every man to practice with a bible at home. Today the Catholic Church is still there, but you have so many different types of Protestantism it’s amazing.
It’s the ability to garner large dollars versus the balkanization and destabilization of governance within philanthropy. There are many possibilities. We left our morning session with many more questions than when we walked in. We ended on this note, two general themes (as pronounced by Darin McKever of the Gates Foundation):
1) Technology leads to increased productivity and lower capital requirements
2) Data information availability creates behavioral and attitudinal changes
Into the Afternoon
We then moved into the afternoon sessions with an introduction of Subsidy Scope. This new tool created by Pew will reveal government subsidies to 501C3s, a transparency initiative. We demoed the tool with searches for the American Red Cross and the National Rifle Association.
The first discussion revolved around data and whether it’s widespread availability and the lack of ways to extrapolate could create chaos. Understanding data and mashing it up to make decisions. Once standards are in place, we can analyze it and understand it.
Nonprofits have a capacity issue. Can they extrapolate the data and make intelligent decisions. What can be done to illuminate the story and affect better change? Packaging data goes beyond stories to policy changes.
Data can be a platform for change, yet you need a voice. You need leaders. Data, platforms to talk, pedagogical diffusion, publicity, partnerships, and coalitions: It’s not one or the other, but all.
Resources have changed. Money used to be the old capital, but now there’s data. There was a discussion of this as a foundation model.
Breeding transparency and data sets can bring out trust, change and new efficiencies. There was a great discussion about whether or not it’s really affecting the way to govern.
How do we make it more systematic? Does the movement to fund the social entrepreneurial efforts (L3Cs, etc.) really change with all of the data and tidal waves of change? What can philanthropy achieve with data? How do we archetype strategy in an era of volatile tools, movements and rapid data change. How does data availability affecting change and education of the donor and the financier?
An interesting discussion revolved around the citizen philanthropist. How do we educate them? How do we captivate them? Organizations in the long tail like Global Giving are succeeding. Can we better examine the individual donor to help change? The data boom and the desire to play with it is creating a demand for measurement, and useful and replicable programs.
The real challenge for change advocates is to stop challenging human nature. Use data with emotion to channel human nature and move towards an evolved, better result. Data can be used as an organizing tool. Donor advised funds such as community foundations are a great example.
Popularity: 16% [?]
Tags: Barry Varela, Disrupting, Edward Skloot, Lucy Bernholtz, Philanthropy
Posted in Cause | 14 Comments »
Can a Villain Become an Antihero?
Friday, February 26th, 2010
In a great ongoing conversation with Amy Sample Ward about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and whether companies can authentically engage, we discussed whether they can simply create marketing fanfare or tell a genuine story. Authenticity must be something that truly reflects a culture, not some mechanized program designed to bluff stakeholders. This is particularly true of companies who have been publicly decried for great wrongs. It’s not easy to turn a villain into an antihero.
Not all companies are villains. But the point can be seen the same way. Trust in corporations hit an all time low last year. No one believes that companies — particularly public ones — wants to do more than turn a higher profit for their quarterly earnings statements. The resulting tensions with corporations’ burned communities — employees and customers alike — has resulted in the recent cause marketing turn to revamp and boost tarnished images (See David Conner’s 2nd CSR Internet Revolution post).
Makes sense to me. But to do so branding oneself as an angel doesn’t seem like an authentic path. If one considers the archetypal antihero, they are flawed, and lacking some of the attributes that make a heroic figure, as nobility of mind and spirit… But we love them anyway. Perhaps the best post I’ve read on the archetype is Jocelyn Harmon’s Dirty Harry story.
Perhaps a great example of flawed fanfare can be seen with Pepsi’s Refresh efforts. Surely $20 million in a free-for-all contest would impress many, but contest flaws have marred the efforts. Without a rudder or stated Theory of Change, the campaign seems to be marred.
As Zoetica CEO Beth Kanter said in a post last night, “This strategy is more appropriate for selling products, not social change. Let me say this. If brands want to be authentic in their social media for social good effort, they need a fusion approach that balances marketing with social change.”
Now authenticity isn’t showing flair or a rock song or even dropping $20 million. It’s about demonstrating a little heart and passion, even flaws. Be real, and that’s the problem with many corporate social responsibility programs. They lack a frank pragmatism about business and its internetworked ties to the community. To build trust, people need to believe you’re authentic. Thus over-glossed CSR programs without substantive cultural acknowledgment — even flaws — fail to compel people.
There’s no greater example of flawed CSR — of a villain bound to stay a villain — then WalMart’s current efforts (see Joe Waters: Ten Reasons Why CSR Programs Fail). As I discussed on Wednesday, the primary thrust of WalMart’s CSR effort is its green initiatives.
The big issue with WalMart isn’t the green contributions, which are substantive, albeit new. These are great and in the end are smart for the community… and the bottom line. The problem lies in its continued labor practices, it’s detrimental impact on local economies, and it’s terrible healthcare programs. When you read WalMart’s CSR page, you get no insight that the companyhas these flaws or is even trying to address them.
I wouldn’t like it if WalMart said we hire cheap to keep prices down, but I would respect it. Just like Dirty Harry may be abrasive, but does the right thing (sort of, in a very violent way). I would respect them even more if they invested in creating a more vibrant local economy and universal healthcare initiatives (WalMart does have healthcare initiatives, they just don’t directly address their own employees, just their customers).
Instead I get this, “We’re proud to be a “store of the community” for all of the communities we serve.” Still selling, still promoting. All of the local charity and foundation work does not really address WalMart or its problems. Thus for many, in spite of the fanfare, Walmart remains a villain.
Everyone understands business is business, but if you want CSR to work, a company needs to acknowledge its own place in the world, and its positive and negative impact in the ecosphere. An amends cannot be received if there’s no acknowledgment of wrong. Instead of selling and posturing all the time, simply try to be a part of and contribute, too. Show us who you (a.k.a. the employees and culture) really are.
Popularity: 18% [?]
Tags: @kanter, Amy Sample Ward, authenticity, Beth Kanter, coethica, David Conner, Jocelyn Harmon, Joe Waters, Pepsi, Walmart
Posted in Cause, Rants | 7 Comments »
SOBCon NonProfit Give Back Day
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
On Sunday May 2nd, SOBCon 2010 will highlight four charities (501c3) that have volunteered themselves for a social media coaching session from its attendees. I have the great honor of serving the conference as the NonProfit Give Back facilitator.
Each of our four charities — Anixter, Ashoka, InvisiblePeopleTV and Vitamin Angels — will discuss their strategy, current social media efforts, and online hopes. From there the room, comprised of some of the brightest minds in social media, will match the mission and goals of the organizations with the tools, with the end game of providing meaningful social media strategy that can impact the world.
Like my Zoetica colleague and CEO Beth Kanter likes to say, “Even better, what if we all learned from the process?” In addition to group sharing, we will have break-out sessions where each table
Sounds like a plan to me. The following is a brief description of each of our four participants. I hope to see you at SOBCON!
Our Participants
Anixter: The mission of Chicago-based the Anixter Center is to enhance the ability of individuals living with or at risk of disabilities to live, learn, work, and play in the community. Each year, at dozens of locations across greater Chicago, Anixter Center provides an array of effective, innovative services to more than 5,000 children and adults. These services include education, employment, life skills, communication, recreation, health care, counseling, and support.
Ashoka: The global association serves the world’s leading social entrepreneurs—men and women tackling system changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems. Since 1981, more than 2,000 leading social entrepreneurs have become Ashoka Fellows, providing them with living stipends, professional support, and access to a global network of peers in more than 60 countries. With its global community, Ashoka develops models for collaboration and design infrastructure needed to advance the field of social entrepreneurship and the citizen sector.
InvisiblePeopleTV: Mark Horvath (@hardlynormal on Twitter) will come and discuss Invisible People. For years mark used the lens of a television camera to tell the stories of homelessness and the organizations trying to help. The reports were produced well and told a story, but the stories Mark produces now on Invisible People are much different. These are the real people, telling their own, very real stories… unedited, uncensored and raw. The purpose: To make the invisible visible.
Vitamin Angels: This socially-savvy charity seeks to mobilize and deploy private sector resources to advance availability, access and use of micronutrients, especially vitamin A, by newborns, infants and children in need. Vitamin Angels reduces child mortality worldwide by connecting essential nutrients, especially vitamin A, with infants and children under five. Essential nutrients enable young immune systems to fight infectious diseases, helping children attain good health and the opportunity to lead meaningful and productive lives.
Popularity: 17% [?]
Tags: @hardlynormal, Anixter, ashoka, Beth Kanter, InvisiblePeople, Liz Strauss, Mark Horvath, SOBCon
Posted in Cause, social media | 1 Comment »
Authenticity in Corporate Social Responsibility
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
Social media continues to impact businesses and nonprofits in unforeseen ways. Perhaps the greatest trend of the moment is the fusion of corporate and philanthropic interests, which in turn is producing growing pains and change. It’s likely that the requirements of online transparency will demand a new era of authenticity in corporate community investment efforts.
This trend results from demands for better corporate citizenship and community participation, transparency digressions, and frankly, very public cause marketing and corporate social responsibility programs that have exposed weaknesses in the social media realms.
It’s a problem that keeps coming up, and won’t go away. This will force organizations and companies to become much more mindful about how they invest in their communities.
This discussion is one that I’ve been having piecemeal with many people, in and outside of Zoetica, from cohorts Kami Huyse and Beth Kanter to change-minded folks like Alex Bornkessel, Allyson Kapin, Dan Morrison and Amy Sample Ward. I want to thank each of them for our ongoing dialogue, and directly or indirectly helping synthesize this post. My purpose in publishing this is soliciting feedback to evolve this authenticity theory. Please sound off.
The Current Authenticity Situation
Many companies blur the lines now between cause marketing and corporate social responsibility, which in turn creates problems. One is not the other, but unfortunately, the current business environment will likely continue blurring the definitions rather than adhering to form. In that sense, this reminds me of the personal brand vs. reputation debate.
Ninety percent of companies cannot discern the difference between cause marketing and corporate social responsibility. Altruism often fails or is not thought out. In reality, most companies think, “Yeah, we’ll give some money to charity,” and let their executives figure out which ones. In the social media world, now they just outsource it to their communities (in both good and bad ways).
We must accept this level of understanding and approach CSR/cause marketing in a manner that raises the general level of ethics at play. In either case, social media continues exposing weaknesses in cause marketing, which will force such initiatives to become more CSR-oriented.
Moving forward, regardless of purpose, companies need to become much more authentic in their community investments. Authenticity means instead of simply throwing money at a cause or contest, they would directly address their missions, or the problems directly/indirectly created by their business. A third category — family — would be the causes that impact their employees, such as healthcare.
By being much more mindful in their cause initiatives, companies become better community citizens. And frankly, their online communities of interest will start demanding it.
Three Forms of Authenticity in Community Investment
Mindful authenticity in corporate community investment manifests itself in three ways:
Mission: Every company tries to market something. In doing so they have a mission and a product or service that fulfills a need. As such, authenticity dictates that the company invest in a community in a manner that relates to their core competency and also their marketing initiatives.
This is much more important for cause marketing initiatives. For example, if a company’s mission is information technology oriented, then literacy and education are obvious investments. So is poverty, and ensuring that the digital divide gets conquered. But investing everything the company had in cancer research makes no sense as an IT company’s strategic investment. It would for a healthcare oriented company.
Problem: In life we all create wreckage, both directly and indirectly. Some do less, some do more. In the environmental sense, every person has a carbon footprint. Thus it’s safe to say every company impacts the community in some negative ways.
Authenticity here dictates acknowledgment of impact, and actions to address the damage. For example, Exxon Mobile may want to make a greater investment in green energy than a trifle $100 million investment. Or instead of allocating $20 million for Pepsi Refresh, Pepsi would take a few million dollars to support causes addressing obesity issues as well as investing in reusable container technologies.
Family: Right now I would classify 90 percent of corporate community investments in this category, and that’s a mistake. Many of the crowd-sourced contest initiatives go wayward in this sense, too… Why? Because most of the investments are not thought-out and represent haphazard donations. They don’t acknowledge the corporate mission or the problems the company creates.
That being said, we all have or are employees. Companies represent big families, and in that sense it’s right to take a portion of donatable funds, and invest in real human issues like autism research or homelessness.
The right formula of mission, problem and family needs to be weighed intelligently by each organization. But that’s where the growth comes. Because blindly investing in family causes, or solely focusing on mission based initiatives causes an organization to stray from its community. Given today’s social media environment, at some point a cry will come for more balanced investment approaches.
What do you think about authenticity in corporate social responsibility?
Popularity: 33% [?]
Tags: Cause, cause marketing, change, community, corporate social responsibility, ethics, investment, nonprofit, pepsi refresh
Posted in Cause, Pop Philosophy, Reality | 46 Comments »
The Ecological Crisis Creates More Homeless People
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
I saw this homeless man in Montreal, Canada last summer. He was enjoying the shade!
The invisible face of the homeless comes from many places, job losses and economic hardship to mental issues and alcohol/drug addiction. But there’s a new cause rising, that of climate change.
According to the International Organization for Migration, 20 million people were made homeless last year as a result of sudden-onset environmental disasters. From more frequent and stronger hurricanes to rising sea levels, even the most secure people are threatened. In the next 40 years, this number could rise to a total of one billion people.
Just today an astounding 3.1 percent of the world (again the IOM) is in a migratory state. The extent of homelessness just shocks me.
How can we continue to justify our excessive use of resources, from food and materials to energy and fuel while turning a blind eye to homelessness? Further, isn’t worse knowing that this consumption — which causes climate change — is actually worsening the problem? The interconnectedness of our societal problems amazes me.
Mark Horvath talks about the invisible faces of the homeless, the people we consciously pass on the streets without helping. We don’t want the difficulty of trying to change their plights… It would simply be easier to tune them out, mindlessly engaged in our iPhones or daily difficulties. That’s a shame because they are real people.
I’ve had various brushes with homelessness in my life. When I lost a job in the dot com bubble on ‘99, I ended up moving back to DC with the shirt on my back and the computer in the trunk. I lived in a friends basement for two months until found a job. I was lucky the situation didn’t devolve causing me to live on the street, but it was through the grace of friends and family that I made it. Believe me, I was afraid for the worst.
More recently, I’ve had the great fortune of doing some work and fundraising for DC Central Kitchen. The Kitchen does a wonderful job providing training and opportunities for the city’s homeless. Working for a day with these people you see how wonderful they are, their smiles and their new found lives. It reminds me that no matter what there remains hope.
I’ve also cooked for the homeless at Miriam’s Kitchen. And that my friends was so sad. It was early in the morning, and you can feel the anger and the hurt of the homeless as they waited outside for their food. Pain penetrated the air.
Writing this as I wait out yet another major snow storm — an unprecedented third major storm for one winter (hello, climate change) — I have to wonder how the city’s citizens, the ones who are forced to live on the street will do. And then there are those who may become homeless because of this ongoing winter crisis. Isn’t it time to stop and really pay attention to this problem?
Geoff Livingston is a regular contributor to the Live Earth blog.
Popularity: 17% [?]
Tags: environment, homeless, homelessness, International Organization for Migration, Invisible TV, Mark Horvath
Posted in Cause, Green, Pop Philosophy | No Comments »
NonProfit 2.0 Rescheduled for June 25
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
NonProfit 2.0 has been rescheduled for June 25. The following letter and blog post was sent to attendees this afternoon. I want to express my personal regret that we could not make the event happen. It just kept snowing.
Feel free to leave feedback here if you’d like.
Thanks for understanding,
Geoff
Thank you to everyone who registered for NonProfit 2.0. We need to let you know about a series of developments that have occurred in the past 24 hours.
• A second major storm is descending on Washington, DC today and tomorrow with expected snow fall of 10-20 inches
• Even before this second storm, the federal and local governments still deem our local roads to be too dangerous for major commutes, and have remained closed.
• Given the prior two factors, and a conversation with our event facility host SEIU, we decided this morning that we cannot guarantee a top-notch quality event on Friday.
As a result, we have rescheduled NonProfit 2.0 for Friday, June 25. We hope you can still join us then. However, we know that things change and if the new date is an inconvenience for you, please let us know. We do have a wait-list of 100 people and would like to give them an opportunity to attend in your absence.
We are so sorry that weather did not permit. We were thrilled to spend this day with you, and look forward to June 25.
Thank you again for your support,
Allyson Kapin, Geoff Livingston and Shireen Mitchell
Popularity: 14% [?]
Posted in Cause, DC | 5 Comments »
Pepsi Refresh Campaign Critique
Monday, February 8th, 2010
Today on the Buzz Bin I wrote a piece on Fragmented Branding that breaks down the Pepsi Refresh corporate social responsibility campaign as an example. Five points that should be noted in that piece:
1) Brand distortion creates a situation where communicators attempt to paint the abstract. In the case of fragmented branding, some pieces are issued by corporate, others are the expressions of stakeholders, positive and negative.
2) Both Richard Laermer and I dubbed the campaign an instant success on our podcast, simply because of the many conversations it has created.
3) What was notable about Pepsi Refresh project was the size of the purse, as well as the opt out of the Super Bowl. Copy cat marketing efforts are sure to arise, and less successfully so.
4) Corporate social philanthropy needs to be authentic to the core of the company. Customer-centric efforts with crowdsourcing efforts are cool, but ultimately represent a novelty, especially for niche brands that are not serving mass markets. Companies will be better served building programs around the corporate culture or strategy.
5) Contest fatigue is setting in. And criticism of cause-based contests is also on the rise. Make sure this is the right tactic as opposed to engaging your community in a different, more sustainable way.
You can read the whole post on the Buzz Bin, where I blog every Monday about social media communications.
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