By now we are all well-aware of the devastating effects of the earthquake that struck Haiti two weeks ago. You’re also likely aware of the uber successful campaign ran by Red Cross to text 9-0-9-9-9 with the word “Haiti” to auto donate $10 of your next cell phone bill. Genius. As terrible as the event was and is, it’s heart warming to think that the world has come together to support the people who need it most. Sometimes it looks like the world is going to shit but events like this although terrible seems to bring us back together, and that’s a great, needed, thing.

via (drewconway.com)

This graph effectively shows which countries are pulling their weight in the giving category. It measure giving vs. gdp. One of the reasons that the US has done such a great job helping is the grass roots nature of our giving. Yes, it’s the same grass roots giving style that Obama captured during his campaign run. So, how do you contribute to the grass roots effort?

Here is an easy opportunity to lend your monetary support for relief efforts, and have a blast doing it. This Friday at High Tops in Lincoln Park, you’ll be able to spend all that money you probably would spend on booze anyway, and send it to Haiti. All of the Happy Hours proceeds will be donated to Save the Children.

Details:
Date: Friday, January 29
Location: High Tops: 2462 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago [website]
Time: 8pm
Deal: From 8-10pm, $30 all-you-can-drink domestic drafts and well drinks, as well as $2 shots and $5 bombs.  From 10pm to close, its $3 you-call-its with that wristband.  Appetizers will also be served.
Charity: 100% OF MONEY COLLECTED WILL GO TO SAVE THE CHILDREN’s DIRECT EFFORTS IN HAITI [http://www.savethechildren.org/]

Bonus: Anonymous donors will match the first $600 of donations!

How It Works:

Donations will be collected through this page and at the door of the event.  Please print your confirmation email from FirstGiving.com and bring it with you on Friday to collect your wristband. ONLY donations of $30 or more are eligible for the drink special!

Who to contact with questions?
Allen Burt: burtra@gmail.com
Allen Penn: allen.penn@gmail.com

Thursday night I had the pleasure of meeting Charles Adler, one of the founders of Kickstarter, the New York based group funding platform. Kickstarter serves as a way for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, and explorers (as they say on the site) to make their dreams come true, post a project, and collect the necessary funding for it. Similar to others like it, projects much reach their goal in order for any of the funding to be collected upon.

Kickstarter has taken off because of the quality of projects they host and the high success rate for projects that do collect on funding. They’ve also given the power to the people, fundraising on a grand scale is no longer for big non-prof corps. The Kickstarter interface is clean and simple, the concept is one that people understand, and there’s almost always a project that you can identify with and support.

Recently, I contributed to a project call the beta cup project. Check it out and think about contributing…

About this project

We want to find solutions to the enormous problem of disposable coffee cups. The hard part it making something that is still convenient, while ending the waste.

We believe there are lots of people with good ideas – you might have a few yourself. After all, so many of us drink coffee every day, some of us must have thought about this, right?

We’ll ask people to rate and review the ideas and invite the best to create prototypes. We’ll reward the best, with prizes. The prize will help the winners begin the process of getting their ideas to market.

All money raised here on Kickstarter will be used for prize money only (Who will check? We hope you will).

Why is this important? In North America we consume 58 billion paper cups every year, which represents 60% of the worlds total cup wastage.

These cups are not being recycled and most end up in landfill. With less than 2% of us using reusable mugs, we have a serious problem on our hands.

For more information please see http://thebetacup.com or contact me, Toby Daniels, directly.

P.S. Maybe helping fund the prize is not your thing. Don’t worry, there will be lots of ways to help out. Please let your friends and family know about betacup – more than 65% of us are coffee drinkers, so there is bound to be some interest. Who knows, maybe they have already dreamed up the winning idea.

In a recent interview with Peter Kim of the Dachis Group, (one of hundred’s he’s done over the last 2 weeks) Gary Vaynerchuk summed up his hard work and much of his business philosophy by saying, “Talk and things happen.”

I’ve been watching WineLibraryTV for probably about a year. Gary is nuts and I won’t even argue with the more subdued folks who say they don’t like his style, to each their own, personally, I love it! He’s inspiring, honest (authentic) and passionate to no end. His transparent hard work is a great reminder just how tough building a business can be and how you really do have to “hustle” your ass of to succeed. Thanks for the inspiration Gary.

When I heard he was coming out with ‘Crush It’ I thought, I probably won’t buy that book. I’ve heard his story over and over and although it’s a great one, I don’t need to spend $15 bucks to read it. Then I took a step back, realized that 9 months or so ago when Gary came out with his first book on wine, he sent me a free copy just because I emailed and asked. Then when we wanted Gary on ActionsTalk, he happily filmed our interview and was one of our most watched webisodes :) Again, thanks Gary.

So I decided, even if I’ve heard the story, I’m buying the book. I owe it to the guy. He’s bustin’ his ass, inspiring people along the way, and I’m happy to drop 10-15 bones to help him out. Man I’m glad I did. When I dove into the book on my flight this weekend I realized that his background, although I thought I’d heard the whole story, I hadn’t, and it’s a damn good one. His love for his family and his core values that have guided much of his business decision making are rock solid, and it’s clear he’s loyal to those principles.

His story of coming up learning to trade baseball cards for some serious cash is awesome. Then jumping to wine because of his fathers liquor store business and he’s realization that peoples interest in collecting and trading cards was not dissimilar to their passion for collecting and trading wine (can you say insight). Gary’s ability to see what people value and how to extract some of that value as a business is far above the rest.

Many books give you all kinds of philosophy leaving the how-to to be desired. Not this book. ‘Crush It’ is practical and applicable to almost anyone. Whether you hate your current job and are looking for an entrepreneurial option out or whether your running your own business but aren’t enjoying it, Gary shows you how to maximize the enjoyment of your life by focusing on a topic and a business that you can wake up excited for.

I’ve just finished up ‘Crush it’ this morning and it really is inspirational. The biggest surprise is that there really is a ton in the book that is outside of Gary’s normal schpeal. Even for the avid WLTV and Gary fan it’s a great read. It’s original stuff that is very motivating. Please, I encourage you, got out and pick up this quick read that is guaranteed to inspire and be well worth the $15 bones.

(Gary this picture of you should be titled, seduction. :)

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Back in March of this year I made it out to New York City and I had the pleasure of meeting AJ Jacobs for a drink, well a coffee and we met at a vegetarian joint called Blossom. At the time I was planning to write a book (delayed, not canceled) and his advice was remarkable. During our conversation in NYC’s upper west side, AJ was the most humble and encouraging person I’ve met. He was willing to help out with my book and anything else he could.

In January I wrote a post about 12 people that I wanted to meet, and AJ was on that list. I’m so happy that even if I only met 2 of those 12 people, AJ was one of them. When I saw that Samantha Ettus and Gary Vaynerchuck did an interview with AJ I knew that it would be an amazing. AJ discusses his book The-Know-it-all, then The Year of Living Biblically, and his life of writing and as a human guinea pig.

Enjoy!

In an effort to support Blog Action Day’s Climate Change initiative I’d like to introduce you to the SurfriderFoundation.

The Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world’s oceans, waves and beaches, for all people, through conservation, activism, research and education. Being from San Diego I grew up with the Surfrider Foundation sponsoring events and surf contests that I competed in. It’s an awesome organization that is focus on the health of our beaches and oceans. Something that is important to me.

Surfrider Foundation’s unique membership includes ocean enthusiasts of all sorts: Surfers, bodysurfers, bodyboarders, windsurfers, swimmers, divers, beachcombers and ocean-loving families from all walks of life. If you’re interested in becoming a member, go to www.surfrider.org/join or call 1-800-743-SURF.

From the Surfrider site:

Volunteering for the Surfrider Foundation

Volunteerism is the life blood of the grassroots Surfrider Foundation USA with its 60+ volunteer-driven chapters located along the East, West, Gulf, Puerto Rican, and Hawaiian coasts. See our “Volunteering” Menu Book” for how to volunteer at a Surfrider Foundation Chapter. Go to our Surfrider Chapters page to find the closest chapter near you. At the chapter-level, there are all kinds of volunteer activities to do, from beach cleanups to water testing to educational presentations to writing newsletters to attending city council meetings to many other things.

At the Surfrider Foundation National Office in San Clemente, CA, summer internships are available. Also, volunteers are always needed. Call 949-492-8170 or email membership@surfrider.org about volunteer opportunities at the national office.

This is a guest post by social entrepreneur Bobby Srivastava. I’ve known Bobby since college and he’s been focused on the social services since then. Bobby was the founding COO of  a KIPP school, and heavily involved in CPY4Youth, College Summit, and the Taproot Foundation. His insights to what it takes to be a successful social entrepreneur are right on. As he humbly calls himself a “fly on the wall”, he’s much more hands on as a board member and founder than he’ll admit. He’s one of the guys who are making big things happen with little resources, and making the world a better place.

Enter Bobby…

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I’ve realized after working with so many individuals within the nonprofit sector that we have encountered an unprecedented era where individuals are not waiting around anymore to start ventures that will soon change the world. Social Entrepreneurship is booming – people are putting their dreams into action, and scouring the community and the world to try and find ways to add value.  People are leveraging their skills and talents to literally reverse some of the issues that we only seem to be talking every four years around election time – poverty, hunger, education, healthcare, etc.  Social Entrepreneurs started yesterday.  How do you do it?  Throughout my exposure working with colleagues from Teach for America, KIPP, College Summit, and The Taproot Foundation, I’ve noticed several consistent trends amongst these social enterprises that will consistently validate the success and failure of future social entrepreneurs.  This is less about me “imparting wisdom”, and more about me being a fly on the wall, watching amazing people do amazing things and being a part of the movement firsthand.  All of this has been fueled by the very few drivers below. lanjut →

Fantastic week of fundraising!  Thank you for donating and helping us spread the word about the LibraryForLaos.org campaign!

Unfortunately we did not hit our lofty goal of $5,000, but we were still able to raise a substantial $1,500 that will fund reading programs and book purchases in the rural villages of Laos!  With a village reading program costing $250, our campaign will bring the joy of reading to approximately 500 rural impoverished children!

Although the OFFICIAL fundraiser is over, we will keep the donations button on the website up and running over the next week to accommodate any stragglers.  If you have any family or friends who did not have a change to contribute,  ITS NOT TOO LATE TO DONATE! - http://libraryforlaos.org

Stay tuned to our Updates page for coverage of the FIRST reading program (”book party”) funded by LFL.org campaign donations – COMING SOON!!

Again, Allen Burt and I sincerely want to thank all of you for contributing to this fantastic cause.  Together we are helping to shape the future of literacy in Laos!

Let me first just say…

ONLY ONE DAY LEFT.

Make your donation now and JOIN HUNDREDS OF OTHER PEOPLE in fighting illiteracy in Laos.

So, we’ve gone 4 strong days of fund raising and you guys are awesome. The total is at $1212 and we have about 24 hours to go. My expectation is that there will be a bit of a surge at the end of people who were waiting to donate until the end.

We should probably acknowledge at this point that our bold goal of $5,000 will be tough to hit unless some significant donation come in at the end. However, with that said if we can get to $1,800 by tomorrow night we will be able to provide 1000 books for children, and that’s nothing to belittle. That picture above is about 300 books and the idea that we’ll be able to provide 3-4x that amount is AMAZING!

We’re very excited to see what people com up with in this last day! Again, any help that you can provide by donating and/or emailing http://libraryforlaos.org out to your friends and colleagues is very much appreciated! See you tomorrow night at the final bell.

Allen is at Big Brother Mouse

I just received this picture of Allen (co-founder of LibraryforLaos.org) at Big Brother Mouse HQ in northern Laos.

Allen had the opportunity to go to a BBM book party and watch and even help out with handing out the books THAT YOU”RE GOING TO DONATE FOR to the kids.

After chatting with him it was clear the affect that the experience had on him was profound and that our efforts towards this cause and helping the children of Laos were worthwhile!

Our Progress

So far we’ve raise about $813 bucks. We’re realizing that it may be difficult to hit our goal by the end of the week without a significant surge! We want to sincerely ask beg you to get out there and help us spread the word. I only have so many emails I can email but we’re relying upon the power of the social web to help spread this effort around the world and reach hearts to make a huge difference. I’ll be posting again the morning of the last day (Friday) with a last update of our progress. Go out there and fund raise!

Our Thanks

I do want to be very clear how grateful we are for the people who’ve donated already. In a tough economic climate donating is not easy and makes a much more significant impact peoples person lives and personal finances. We want to take our hats off to you to for maybe stepping out of your comfort zone and helping out.

Follow the progress on Twitter!

Repost from Rolf Potts’ Vagabonding blog

author Scott Gilbertson

Most of us have seen things in our travels that make us want to help the people and places we visit. Whether it be extreme poverty, oppressive governments or even slavery, the world is not always a pretty place.

Traveler Allen Burt went a step further than most of us and set up a small nonprofit to address different social causes while he was traveling around the world.

Burt’s current project is Library for Laos which is kicking off a fundraising drive this week to raise $5000 in 5 days. All of the money will go to Big Brother Mouse, a literacy organization that’s trying to get books in the hands school children around Laos.

Rural Laos is full of remote villages, many accessible only by long and grueling bus rides over some truly horrific road (I loved Laos, I spent two months there, but I have nothing positive to say about the roads). Other villages can only be reach by riverboat and only then when the water is high enough and still others are reachable only on foot.

Because many people in Laos live so far from what we would call civilization, books are a rarity, which what Big Brother Mouse and the Library for Laos fundraiser are trying to change.

The fundraiser kicks off today and runs through May, 1st. If you’d like to donate, head over to the Library for Laos site and click the donate button. You may donate any amount you’re comfortable with and keep in mind that a mere $50 can supply over 25 books to a school that currently has none.

All money raised will be donated to the local Laos based charity, Big Brother Mouse to fund children’s book purchases and reading programs. Big Brother Mouse writes, publishes, and distributes children’s books written in the native Laos language (a rarity, especially in rural areas of Laos). For more info, check out the Big Brother Mouse website (also see Matador’s excellent write up for some background on Big Brother Mouse).

It only takes about five minutes, and even donating just a few dollars can change the life of a child forever. For those of you on the road, Big Brother Mouse has offices in Vientienne and Luang Prabang where you can buy some books and pass them out as you travel around the country.

[image courtesy of Big Brother Mouse] [originally posted here]

Give A Poor Child the Gift of Reading – In Just 5 Minutes!

LibraryForLaos.org is an ONLINE campaign to raise $5k in 5 days for children’s books in rural Laos? It only takes 5 minutes!

Dates: Monday, April 27 – Friday, May 1!!!

Donate here.

Friends,

Through LibraryForLaos.org & The $5K in 5 Days campaign, books will be purchased through the non-profit Big Brother Mouse, at an average cost of only $1.80 per book. With your help, we can provide thousands of books and fund reading programs for schools in rural Laos. Simply, contribute your lunch money or inspire 10 of your friends to contribute and share with 10 of their friends. This will take you only 3 minutes and YOU can help change the landscape of literacy in Laos!

When

During the final week in April we are going to launch a web wide effort to raise $5,000 US towards the children of Laos. Mark your calendars for Monday, April 27 – Friday, May 1. We’ll be accepting donation starting that Monday at 12:00am and going until Friday at midnight.

How can you help?

Easy…just go to LibraryforLaos.org and either go to the donate page to contribute monetarily. Or, use these links to share LibraryforLaos.org with all your friends, listservs, Twitter followers, or even stalkers on the web! Again, this sharing will only take you a minute so please help us spread the awareness of this cause!

– Email Library for Laos to friends!

– Share Libary for Laos with Twitter followers!

- Update your status on Facebook to recruit friends to help!

A Fistful Of Dollars: The Story of a Kiva.org Loan

A few months ago I wrote about the micro-financing organization Kiva.org and my donation/investment to Kiva. I think it’s a phenomenal organization. I wrote about my investments in some third world entrepreneurs through Kiva.org a few months ago here. I also found out today that a few friends of mine are planning an 8 month investment of their lives to help out in Peru with a Kiva.org site. This experience is very high on my list and may very well be something that I do in my life. This video above shoes the end-to-end affect that a Kiva investment can have on someones life.

Below is a touching testimonial of Kiva.org donor Justin Watt. This testimonial was found at Justinsomnia.org
and is one of the best I’ve read. This is being shared with Justin’s permission using Creative Commons attribution. Thanks Justin!

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I am a bank

Back in May I created a Kiva account, and funded it with $100. At the time I was feeling especially fortunate, and wanted to give something back.

Kiva is this really amazing non-profit organization that makes it possible for anyone to make microloans to people in developing countries. The best part is that I get to choose who my $100 goes to, in as small as $25 increments. So I chose four different applicants, two in Cambodia, one in Tanzania, and one in Vietnam. I didn’t realize it at the time, but all four were women. (In retrospect I consider this just retribution for all the unspeakable violence that has been, and continues to be, perpetrated against women around the world.)

One woman needed a loan to purchase a cow to reduce farming costs. Another needed a loan to buy a motorbike to commute to work more easily. And two others needed loans to further expand their poultry businesses. I didn’t fund their requests in full, but I didn’t need to. Many other Kiva members contributed a portion of the loans. You can check out all the details on my lender page: who I’ve lent to, who else has lent to them, the status of repayment, etc. It’s really quite engrossing.

With the money that’s been paid back so far, including one loan in full, I was able to lend $25 each to two women in Peru to purchase animals. Which means I’ve been able to make $150 worth of loans, even though I’d only “invested” $100. Put another way: my $100 has done $150 worth of good in the world. This makes me really happy.

One of the things I’ve heard people say about Kiva is that it’s addictive. It’s true, I didn’t want to stop at the two Peruvian women. So I decided to add another $75 to my account so I could lend to three more people, an aspiring restaurateur in Peru who buys and sells scrap iron, another Peruvian woman’s poultry business, and a couple in Cambodia who want to buy a cow for breeding.

Here’s what my loan portfolio looks like:

I am so proud.

Source: Justinsomnia.org

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If you have an experience with Kiva, I would really appreciate you sharing it hear and please get in touch. Cheers.

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For my Blog Action Day post I decided to make a loan on Kiva.org. I’ve talked about Kiva.org a bit before. Kiva.org is an organization that facilitates micro-financing in (predominantly) 3rd world countries. Think of Kiva.org as a place that allows you to be a VC with only $100 bucks!

Kiva.org has a selection of entrepreneurs that you can choose to finance. I decided to finance Komlavi Kini who has been an auto mechanic for 3 years in Lomé, the capital of Togo. Komlavi is 39 years old, married, and the father of 3 children. With this first loan with FECECAV, he wishes to outfit his garage and buy work tools to better meet customer demand. Komlavi hopes  this opportunity will enable him to improve his living conditions. I will be able to follow up with my investment in Komlavi through Kiva.org. If you’d like to help Komlavi too just click here to go directly to his site! I definitely encourage you to take action to give back today whether you’re a blogger or not!