Filed under: Uncategorized
Posted by Today’s Parent: 10 great charitable gifts for the holidays. Check it out!
Filed under: CHAMPs News
It’s been a long while since my last post. Rest assured that the time diverted from this blog has been put to good use on working on the CHAMPS application itself, which is now available as a Beta in Facebook! If you have a few spare minutes, please check it out at http://www.charitychamps.org/facebook/. It’s still in its early stages, but any feedback and questions would be greatly appreciated (please send to info@charitychamps.org).
In the meantime, I promise to be better these next few months with this blog!
Filed under: Uncategorized
Mike Bright, founder of Help From Home, was interviewed this week by the Mumbai newspaper MidDay. The article is a great read if you’re looking for some fresh ideas on how to do good online in your spare time. Thanks Mike for sharing!
Filed under: Microphilanthropy
I haven’t quite jumped on the daily deal bandwagon like some of my friends who religiously check out TeamSave, TeamBuy, RedFlagDeals and similar sites every morning. But I do check the deals every once in a while, and I was pleasantly surprised the other day to find one for Kiva on Groupon. That’s the first time I’ve seen a charity related deal. It’s neat – allows you to get a $25 microloan for $15. All you have to do is buy before Dec 1st and redeem the coupon before May 31st of next year on Kiva’s site. It’s too bad it’s only available in the US or I would have definitely purchased one already.
So far over 8000 people have purchased – not bad!
Filed under: Microphilanthropy
A great supporter and partner of Charity CHAMPS, Mike Bright, has been short listed for the Digital Heroes Award this year. Mike is the founder of Help From Home, and is a great champion of microphilanthropy. On his site you can choose micro-volunteering actions that take from 1 minute to 30 minutes of time to complete. The whole idea, of course, is that you don’t need a big chunk of time to make a difference.
The prestigious UK Digital Heroes competition seeks to recognize people who are using digital technology to do social good. The competition is now in its public voting phase, so if you have a second to spare, please hit the site and cast a vote for Mike!
Filed under: Microphilanthropy
Facebook users, now’s the chance to do some easy fundraising! For every ‘like’ on We Day, sponsors will donate $1 to Free The Children. ‘Like’ We Day and help Free The Children raise one million dollars!
Filed under: General Charity Musings | Tags: Ashley Furniture HomeStore, city of hope, facebook fanpage
The Ashley Furniture HomeStore is supporting the City of Hope with a Facebook campaign for the next two months. For every “like” that they get on their Facebook fanpage, they’ll donate $0.25 to City of Hope, up to a max of $10k. Making a donation doesn’t get easier than a click, so why not do a good deed today? City of Hope is a cutting-edge research and treatment facility for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases – a truly worthy cause. Kudos to Ashley Furniture HomeStore for donating $4M to City of Hope already!
Filed under: General Charity Musings, Microphilanthropy, social media | Tags: canadahelps, online giving, stats, video
Charities are harnessing the power of social media to gain awareness, build communities and raise funds. Just how much has online social media enabled charities to reach out to donors? Check out this video prepared by CanadaHelps. It has some great stats surround what people do online, how they interact with charities, and what charities should be doing:
There’s no time like now for charities to start their presence in the online world, if they haven’t already done so!
Filed under: Microphilanthropy | Tags: cambodia, kiva, micro lending, social actions
A while ago I wrote about the big debate going on about micro-lending and its impact on communities in third world countries. I cross-posted the article on SocialActions and got the following comment from Ingrid Vercruyssen, who’s seen first hand the impact of micro-lending in Cambodia. It’s very interesting to get a personal perspective from the ground level!
Hello Sylvia,
I realize this is an old post, but I just came back from Cambodia and had a chance to see micro-lending for myself during my visit. While Kiva and the others may say one thing, the reality is a stark contrast: People are loosing their homes, their lands in the worse case. In the better cases, they borrow what they can’t pay back, and so begins the cycle of borrowing to repay previous loans.
I have seen Kiva’s micro-lending field partner in action, touring the villages with their moto and befriending the villagers. When I spoke to weavers, they said they often can’t repay their loans because they don’t make enough money selling their silks. The micro lender knows that, I know that and it’s even been written about in the Phnom Penh Post! In fact, most borrow money for personal things completely unrelated to this “enterprise myth”.
This is something that really angered me, as there is absolutely no difference between what I witnessed and the sub-prime predatory tactics recently denounced in the West. I will blog about it shortly and I can assure you I am never making another micro-loan.
Ingrid’s promised that she’ll share more details later, so when I get that info I’ll be sure to share!
Filed under: General Charity Musings | Tags: better the world, charity mother's day, global giving, huffpost, mother's day, war child
Mother’s Day is coming up this Sunday and as usual I don’t have anything planned yet! But part of my procrastination this year is because I’m off the hook for buying a gift. My mom has behaved quite out of character and purchased a handbag for herself 2 weeks ago that she’d like me to pitch in for, instead of buying her something new.
But still, I’d like to do something meaningful for mom, and having signed up to newsletters from a host of nonprofits, all I had to do was look at my inbox for ideas. Unfortunately there are too many ideas to write them all here, but here are some:
- Treat mom to a nice meal. War Child Canada is running a high tea at the King Eddy. It’s $65, and there will be speakers and an auction, with proceeds going towards War Child’s programs.
- Give the gift of helping women around the world by choosing from GlobalGiving’s Mother’s Day Menu. For $10 you can give learning materials for an adolescent girl, or for $65, give delivery kits for safe home births in Tibet.
- Recognize your mom by writing about how great she is! During May, HuffPost Impact will be featuring remarkable stories focused on motherhood. Send your stories to impact@huffingtonpost.com and make the subject line “My Inspiring Story.”
- Buy something for mom online while having a portion of the purchase go towards charity using BetterTheWorld’s new shopping application. For more details and gift ideas, see their Mother’s Day blog post.
For all the moms out there, Happy Mother’s Day!
Charity CHAMPs - get involved with microphilanthropy now! 