Philanthropy for unCommon People – Giving U™
October 6, 2009 – West Marin, California The thing about “philanthropy” is that it sounds like it belongs to a certain class of people – you know, rich people. But philanthropy can be really accessible. In fact, you can participate in philanthropy even without giving away money or volunteering your time. All it takes is a few keystrokes…
Here are 3 ways to easily engage:
Google’s Project 10^100
Google has identified a list of the 16 “biggest ideas” (narrowed down from more than 150,000 nominations from 170 countries). They will now fund 5 of these projects and you get to help choose which ones will help the most people and share in the $10 million the company is donating. Voting ends on Oct. 8 – so participate today! I voted to create a genocide monitoring and alert system that will help build and refine tools capable of disseminating genocide-related mapping and related information in order to save lives. How cool is that?!
Intrepid Travel Foundation’s 1-1 match
Intrepid Travel is an Australian travel agency promoting adventure travel excursions. Donations to the Intrepid Community Project Fund (part of the firm’s sister foundation) go to grassroots non-government organizations that are making valuable contributions to the local communities where Intrepid tourists travel. Most important, all donations made to The Intrepid Travel Foundation will be matched by Intrepid Travel dollar for dollar. (Note your donation is in Australian dollars, so check out the exchange rate first.) I chose to donate to the Old Goreme Restoration Fund in Cappadocia, Turkey since I was unable to volunteer (like I like to do!) when I visited the country in July. The Old Goreme Restoration Fund works to protect, preserve and restore Cappadocia’s cave architecture as well as the unique environment and cultural heritage of Goreme village.
Social Networking embraces Social Entrepreneurs
Last week Twitter added numerous social entrepreneurs to its all-powerful Suggested User List, which normally features celebrities and media outlets (as well as some funny irreverent sites like Icanhascheezburger.com). Last week, Skoll Foundation’s Social Edge promptly published an even more extensive list of social entrepreneurs to follow: Twitter for Social Entrepreneurship: The Top 100 Tweeps to Follow, outlining the 100 most essential and eclectic people and orgs. So tune in and get informed! You can get inspired by simply following a few of these people. You might even consider joining a social entrepreneurship twibe – I did!
This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 and is filed under The Giving Guide.