Hives For Lives: The Sweet Side Of Giving
By Jenn Breckenridge
Filed Under Conscious Commerce, Modern Philanthropy | 1 Comment
According to the American Cancer Society, one out of two men and one out of three women will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives. These are chilling statistics which have personally touched the lives of almost every person’s family in the US. Carly and Molly Houlahan were 9 and 11 years old when their grandfather died of esophageal cancer. He was their best friend. Devastated by their loss, they wondered how they could help keep other families from dealing with the horrors of cancer. Continue reading Hives For Lives: The Sweet Side Of Giving…
Posted on June 23, 2008 |
Myanmar Cyclone: Time to CARE
By admin
Filed Under Modern Philanthropy, The Big Picture | Leave a Comment
We often go about our daily activities - consumed with our careers, family obligations, and entertainments of every kind. It’s easy to exist in the bubble of our own lives. But there are moments that by their sheer awfulness, jolt us out of our insulated reality. Catastrophic events like Katrina, 9/11, the 2004 Tsunami have forced us to take pause and become aware of our greater global community.
According to the UN, the Myanmar Cyclone has killed as many as 100,000 people, and left hundreds of thousands of people without food and water. From so many miles away, we can not fix it all, but we can definitely help. We can CARE. Continue reading Myanmar Cyclone: Time to CARE…
Posted on May 8, 2008 |
Farm To School: Ecotrust Keeps It Local
By Lizbeth M. Brown, Esq.
Filed Under Modern Philanthropy | 3 Comments
The coastal Pacific Northwest is referred to as the Salmon Nation. As a self-proclaimed “Citizen Of Salmon Nation,” Portland-based non-profit Ecotrust is committed to improving the economic, ecological, and social conditions of this region. They actively coordinate a number of extremely progressive initiatives, including their Food & Farms program.
Michelle Markesteyn, Ph.D. is a major force at Food & Farms, as the Farm To School and School Garden Program Coordinator. Farm To School programs enable schools to provide students with healthy, locally-sourced meals, incorporate nutrition-based curriculum, and provide experiential learning through farm visits, gardening, and recycling. eCo Times caught up with Michelle to get the inside scoop on her mission…
How would you describe the main impacts your organization is attempting to have on the world ?
I work in the Food & Farms Program within the larger organization Ecotrust. Within my program, we are working to make sustainable regional agriculture the norm rather than the exception. To do that we work through bottom up and top-down approaches - changing behaviors of individuals as well as the policies and the environmental and political contexts in which individuals live, work and play.
How far have you come along the path of success in your mission?
Because there is a lot of momentum among educators, health advocates, agriculturalists and environmentalists for farm to school programs, we’ve been able to come a long way in a short amount of time. For example, in Oregon, in the last 14 months, we’ve gone from one school district with an integrative farm to school and garden program to 40 school districts that have at least shown serious interest in starting a program of their own. These 40 districts have listed themselves as potential purchasers in our regional Guide to Local Seasonal Products.
Talk about changing social norms! Just this past February, the Oregon State Legislature signed into law the creation of a farm to school and school garden program within the Oregon Department of Education, the agency that oversees school food. In that moment, Oregon became the first state in the nation to create such a position, demonstrating our serious commitment to local agriculture and our awareness of its clear relationship to our children’s health. Continue reading Farm To School: Ecotrust Keeps It Local…
Posted on May 5, 2008 |
Philanthropy 2.0
By Greg Berry
Filed Under Modern Philanthropy | 4 Comments
The decentralizing power of the Internet and social media has changed the philanthropic world in a big way during the past couple years. Once the province of older, wealthy donors on one side of the ledger and hard-working, under-financed idealists on the other, philanthropy is very different these days. Before we get into some details, it’s probably a good idea to define our terms.
Philanthropy 2.0 borrows more than the jargony, buzz-word-laden, faux-hipness from Silicon Valley’s latest incarnation of web-based mashups, social networks and blogging tools. Philanthropy 2.0 is about participation. It’s about using the Internet to connect people. It’s about open collaboration and a higher flow of smaller donations. Philanthropy 2.0 could possibly be a demonstration of the evolution of our species. An optimist might even see a very early start in the shift towards social justice driven from the ground up on a global scale, building a powerful yin to the yang of the centralized giving based in national aid agencies and huge, old, conservative foundations.
If you’re looking for some examples, and places to participate, Philanthropy 2.0 is exemplified by many recent initiatives which have gained significant attention:
Sean Parker and Joe Green, co-founders of Facebook and Napster have created Facebook’s Causes application, which lets you add philanthropic messages and fundraising to your profile. Contribute, a media company focusing on next-generation philanthropists recently profiled their work, highlighting over 3 million Facebookers who have Contribute widgets on their personal pages.
Kiva
Kiva.org is a peer-to-peer lending platform that lets anyone loan (generally small amounts of) money to people in the developing world. In 2007, the site gained so much attention in North America that is sometimes found all loans subscribed, and more donors than people in need. While this may point to the disconnect between need and internet access in the developing world, it’s a testament to the power that the web is having on philanthropy.
The Case Foundation
Steve Case, founder of America On Line (AOL) launched “America’s Giving Challenge” in late 2007. Working with both Parade Magazine (Sunday magazine of many of the country’s top newspapers) and Facebook, The foundation arranged cash prizes for non-profits who received the highest number of donations (not the most money) during their 6-week campaign, emphasizing participation over wealth.
eConscious Market
Of course, there’s our own initiative –eConscious Market — which donates 50% of our profits to a huge variety of non-profits that customers get to choose from. All the products are chosen for their eco-conscious manufacturing or operations practices.
Global Giving
Like Kiva, GlobalGiving lets you choose individual projects to support. Unlike Kiva, at Global Giving you are donating, not lending the money. They connect you with 450 pre-screened grassroots charity projects around the world.
Want to take action?
- Lend money as a micro loan to Kiva
- Donate at Global Giving
- Shop at eConscious Market
- To create a micro donation widget for your own organization, learn more at NTEN or connect directly with developers at Techfinder.org
- Use Facebook Causes to raise money for your favorite charity
- Donate to GlobalGiving
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Posted on April 28, 2008 |
The End Of Money?
By Daniel Pinchbeck
Filed Under Modern Philanthropy, The Big Picture | 4 Comments
What if the current crisis in the financial markets was not just a typical economic meltdown, but the beginning of a shift from an economy of quantitative exchanges to one based on qualitative values?
The current crisis of the financial markets is rapidly taking on gargantuan proportions. Last month saw the emergency sale of Bear Stearns, the fifth largest financial institution on Wall Street, to JP Morgan for the comparatively paltry sum of $250 million, including its flashy corporate headquarters and thousands of employees. Even this sale only came about because the US Federal Reserve agreed to cover the risks of exposure to creditors, ultimately, in all likelihood, pushing the financial costs onto US taxpayers. An attempted federal bailout of the financial system now seems increasingly unavoidable, as commentators such as Paul Krugman have noted.
At the same time this fire-sale was being arranged, I was at the Left Forum at Cooper Union in New York, an annual gathering of Leftist academics and organizers from around the world. The Left Forum featured over 100 panels on a range of subjects, from water privatization, CIA torture, to the leftward shift of South America, and many other topics. I had been invited to speak on a panel about indigenous cultures, consciousness, and social transformation, the only place at the Left Forum where social movements were even summarily discussed in relation to indigenous cultures who live “with” the earth, and not “on” it, as my fellow panelist, Tiokasin Ghosthorse, a radio host at WBAI and a Lakota, put it, and non-ordinary states of awareness were given a nod.
During a panel on the “Decline of the Dollar,” I was struck by a comment from David Harvey an eminence grise among Leftist academics, the esteemed author of Limits to Capital and other works who noted that Wall Street bonuses in January amounted to an astounding $36 billion, despite the heedless actions of the traders and investment houses that caused the implosion of the financial markets. At the same time, due to the subprime mortgage meltdown, over a million people have already seen their homes foreclosed, with nearly two million more foreclosures coming in the near-future, leading to more than three million US citizens deprived of their largest and most central asset. What Harvey noted is that, if we ignore the “fetishized mystical language” of the financial elite, “the loss of assets of those three million people is where those $36 billion of bonuses came from.” Continue reading The End Of Money?…
Posted on April 24, 2008 |
Modern Philanthropy: The New American Dream
By Lizbeth M. Brown, Esq.
Filed Under Modern Philanthropy | 1 Comment
There is a new form of philanthropy brewing. The traditional forms of giving have been phenomenal, but today’s colossal issues require an evolution of this art. Today’s philanthropy requires a collective response. It’s about pooling our distinct abilities as individuals and addressing ecological crises, corporate encroachment, and warfare as a group. If we were each working alone, these tasks would be daunting, and even paralyzing. The recognition of the modern philanthropist is that together, “Si, Se Puede.” Yes, we can.
Common Ground Health Clinic is a community clinic, founded in Louisiana in the immediate wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. It’s one of eConscious Market’s non-profit partners. I love their slogan “Solidarity, not charity.” This notion exemplifies Modern Philanthropy because it is participative. It forms a collective of humans who care to improve their community and in doing so, their own lives, and the world. It brings people together in a common cause and movement towards the vision of a better imminent tomorrow.
Continue reading Modern Philanthropy: The New American Dream…
Posted on April 21, 2008 |
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eCo Times reports the latest on sustainable lifestyle choices and the new green economy. This online magazine brings you the best in cutting edge green media, organic and Fair Trade product reviews, and insights into viable planetary solutions.
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