Archive for the ‘Cause’ Category

Give to the Max

Posted on: November 9th, 2011 by Geoff Livingston 3 Comments

After five months of planning and hard work, Give to the Max Day is here. Today, 1300 Washington area nonprofits will be fundraising, and experimenting with social media tools in a collective training exercise and contest. More than $140,000 in awards are available.

If you are interested in a capacity building oriented contest, check out the site. You will see a wide variety of creative tactics and approaches to winning, all using social media tools.

Please browse the participating nonprofits and donate or share about your favorites. If you live in the Greater Washington Area, this is your chance as an individual to make a statement to the country about our region’s compassion. We are expecting tens of thousands of citizens to donate and spread the word.

K Street Taken by @Give2Max

The event is part of Digital Capital Week or DCWEEK, the current festival bringing together the region’s designers, developers, entrepreneurs, technologists and social innovators. In fact, we are holding a rally tonight to close out Give to the Max Day. The rally is also the after party for the DCWEEK Keynotes at the Warner Theater. Please join us!

Finally, a special word of thanks to organizing partner Razoo for allowing me to serve as general manager of the event. It’s been a real fun and meaningful experience, from flash mobs to training hundreds of nonprofits on how to be more successful online. Today will be a great day!

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CForward: There Is No Profit without Nonprofits

Posted on: November 4th, 2011 by Geoff Livingston 2 Comments

This week marked the launch of CForward, a 501c4 — a Political Action Committee (PAC) — committed to better inclusion of nonprofits in political economic agendas. In spite of nonprofits vital role in the nonprofit sector in every community across the country — representing 10% of the overall U.S. economy and workforce — the economic contributions of the sector are an afterthought… A way to address cut social services programs.

In fact now, the nonprofit sector is endangered by our local, state, and national politicians clamoring for their jobs bills, economic stimulation, and government cutbacks. Part of the agenda includes cutting vital nonprofit services, the same services that create social sector jobs (usually low paying ones), invigorate a community’s health, and stimulate its economy.

CForward is not a cry for hand-outs. It is a demand to be listened to during the critical 2012 election year. It is an acknowledgment that politicians need to start partnering with the nonprofit community to strengthen the economy, not simply slashing and overtaxing it at every opportunity.

Robert Egger, the genius behind the job creating DC Central Kitchen (and its sister Campus and city kitchens across the country), started CForward. In his Huffington Post piece announcing CForward, Robert stated:

Through grants or government contracts [nonprofits], like Boeing or Lockheed Martin, bring significant outside investment into every community to create jobs, generate taxes and spur the economy through their and their employee’s daily commerce. Any candidate who cannot provide detailed plans for how they would channel that economic and entrepreneurial energy isn’t worth a vote.

What CForward does differently is it offers politicians money for their campaigns — in a non-partisan fashion — IF they will consider the nonprofit sector in their economic plans. It plays the Washington insider game by educating candidates about the economic contributions of the nonprofit sector, and supporting those that play ball. And right or wrong, that’s how DC’s K Street crowd works.

I have joined CForward’s board as the nonprofit sector has been an important part of my entire personal life as well as a critical part of my professional life. To demonstrate my commitment to this effort, I donated $1000 to CForward. I hope you’ll support CForward, too. You can also follow CForward on Twitter.

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Women Rock It!

Posted on: October 25th, 2011 by Geoff Livingston 4 Comments

Women Rock It

This Thursday night is the Women Rock It event in San Francisco highlighting inspiring women and conversations about how they became successful. Speakers include Deborah Lindholm, whose foundation has helped over 300,000 women work their way out of poverty.

“The event is both inspirational and practical, and will be the first of many Women Rock It’s we will be producing around the country and beyond to encourage women to start businesses and pursue what they love to do,” said online marketing wizard Evan Bailyn, one of the co-producers of the event. “Eventually we will be getting even more deeply practical to complement the inspirational nature of the event by partnering with high-level mentoring programs and granting scholarships to women.”

In a revealing post, Evan discussed who he and co-producer Hyla Molander both shared how their failures and fears inspired their successess: “When you get into a room with people and one person admits it, suddenly all the walls come down. Suddenly it’s OK to admit that you’re scared.”

This event is spot on. In working with many people and supporting several women’s causes over the years (such as the NextGen Tech Women Fundraiser), fear, self valuation and failure are huge detractors. Working through those real issues — issues that every human being faces in business and life — are critical to success. Talking about how common these problems are, and how others have worked through them can make a huge difference.

There are so many brilliant women out there, and many have walked along the same path, from my grandmother and mother and their entrepreneurial successes to recent business partners Beth Kanter and Kami Huyse and current co-author, Gini Dietrich. It only seems natural to give this San Francisco and soon to be national movement a big thumbs up. Because women really do rock it!

Please support this valuable event and cause if you can.

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