Social Entrepreneur blog for the world changers
Archive for July, 2009
Jolkona Foundation: Measuring Impact
Jul 22nd
Jolkona Foundation has some great ideas about how to measure donor impact. I had a great opportunity to meet the founders Adnan and Nadia Mahmud (see photo below by Photo by Trevin Chow Photography, www.trevinchowphotography.com) a couple of weeks ago and I was so encouraged by their vision for young philanthropists. Today and tomorrow I’ll be interviewing Adnan, if you have any questions feel free to leave them as a comment below or connect with Jolkona through their website or with me.
What inspired you to start the Jolkona Foundation?
Couple of years ago, I was at a cemetery in Bangladesh paying respect to my grandfather. When I was leaving, I came across a gentleman bringing in his dead son who was probably 6 or 7 years old. Muslim tradition requires a dead body be wrapped in a white cloth for proper burial. It was clear the gentleman did not have the means to afford such a cloth, which was probably no more than a few cents. I realized I could have given him that cloth. By the time I realized that I was back home. So, I decided to look for ways to give back now and not wait until later. I looked for sustainable things I could do within my capacity. After looking through various options and ideas, my wife and I realized there was no existing model for connecting individuals to causes that would show a one-to-one proof – connecting EVERY donation to an impact. After many hours of interviews and conversations, we decided to build a platform that other non-profit organizations can leverage to effectively connect with a new generation of philanthropists who want to give small donations.
What does a “one-to-one” mean and why is that important?
“One to one” refers to the fact that all donations via the Jolkona Foundation website make a specific impact with which the individual donor can identify. Jolkona Foundation focuses on establishing “one-to-one” impact in order to help address this problem. Moreover, because Jolkona Foundation focuses on targeting the youth and young professionals, (15 to 35 years old), one of the best ways to encourage anyone to get into philanthropy is to show the impact that their donations can have. Traditionally, this idea of seeing the impact of your gift was reserved for the “big donors”. They are able to sit on the boards and determine how their donations would be spent. People with smaller donations (less than $500) rarely had this kind of control over how their donation was spent. We are very committed to measuring impact and providing our community with as much transparency and feedback as possible. We are trying to push this transparency idea beyond just a personal impact. In our Impact section, we show the aggregate impact the whole Jolkona Community is having.
How is technology changing philanthropy?
We use technology to effectively show our donors the impact every donation is having. Traditionally, only few organizations like World Vision or Save the Children were able to set up programs that would send the photo of the child you are supporting. We believe technology can really allow almost any nonprofits to set up these programs. Couple of trends today are 1) digital cameras are very easily accessible and 2) Internet is spreading to more remote places every day. Those 2 trends alone allow us to build a richer donor experience than just getting one printed photo and a letter, at a very low cost.
Are you looking for more nonprofits to join your work?
We are constantly looking for new partners. One of the things we enjoy is learning about the wonderful and highly effective work that folks are doing around the world and figuring out the best way our platform can help them. Our website provides some good details about how to become our partner. Some benefits include, increased funding to provide more services, increased visibility for their organization, partner tools for tacking and monitoring funding, new source of potential donors, a web portal to easily report back to donors, and more.
Related posts:
- Next Generation of Philanthropy: Jolkona Foundation
- The Wellspring Foundation: Org of the Month
- Measuring the Un-measurable
- The Multi-Year Gift
Marketing That Pops
Jul 21st
Magnetic 3D is cornering the market on high definition, 3-D advertising
Improving your plugin – Changelogs
Jul 21st
We’ve recently made some changes to help improve the communication between plugin authors and plugin users about the changes that are made between versions.
We feel that all software should have a changelog that details, at a high level, what changes have been made in each version so that the user can make an informed decision about when to upgrade and how much testing they should do with their site.
In order to make this an easy and open communication channel we have added support for a Changelog section in the plugins readme.txt file. This changelog information is then displayed as a separate tab in the plugin directory and also in the back end of your WordPress blog when you view the details on a new version of a plugin.
The new section is formatted as follows:
== Changelog == = 1.0 = * A change since the previous version. * Another change. = 0.5 = * List versions from most recent at top to oldest at bottom.
We would also like to recommend that you also provide meaningful log messages when you commit changes to the subversion repository for your plugin so that people who want to dig further into your changes can see why things are changing (At the moment is seems a large number of plugin authors leave this field blank which isn’t very helpful).
Free Clinics Struggle as Demand Soars and Donations Fall
Jul 21st
With the recession swelling the ranks of the uninsured, community clinics offering free care are facing rising demand just as the downturn is prompting major supporters to reduce their commitments, reports the Associated Press.
Nicole D. Lamoureux, executive director of the National Association of Free Clinics, said the facilities “have seen patient load increase by 40 to 50 percent” in the past year. Some 4 million Americans are expected to use the nation’s 1,200 free clinics this year.
The Cigna Foundation, which supports clinics in Philadelphia and southwestern Connecticut, has seen funding requests jump by 50 percent since last year, but Gloria Verrone, the grant maker’s spokeswoman, said its spending is down 15 to 20 percent. She said Cigna is maintaining existing ties to clinics but reducing individual allocations and not accepting any new grantees.
(Free registration is required to view this article on the Washington Post site.)
Washington Budget Cuts Have Charities Scrambling
Jul 21st
Nonprofit groups in Washington are poring over their books in search of new reductions on the heels of Mayor Adrian Fenty’s revised fiscal 2010 budget, which eliminates $13-million in earmarks for the groups, The Washington Post reports.
Mr. Fenty reduced the allocations from $21-million to $8-million amid a growing deficit and rising public anger over the noncompetitive grants, which critics claim are used to reward political backers rather than support effective service.
But nonprofit leaders say the reduction in earmarks for youth, arts, and social-service charities will further limit their effectiveness in a time of reduced donations and rising demand for their programs. “The word that comes to mind is ‘devastating,’” said Ed Orzechowski, leader of Catholic Charities, in a statement yesterday.
(Free registration is required to view this article.)
Advocate Uses Online Tools to Share Stories of the Homeless
Jul 21st
Mark Horvath, who has become a prominent online advocate for homeless people using new-media and social-media tools, is profiled by the Los Angeles Times.
Mr. Horvath, a recovering alcoholic who lived on the streets for several months in 1995, posts stories, photos, and videos on Twitter, the storytelling site Whrrl and his own blog, mixing his commentary with direct, often raw testimony from the homeless about their lives.
(Free registration is required to view the Times article.)
Opinion: Cultural Organizations Left Themselves Open to Huge Endowment Losses
Jul 21st
Major cultural institutions left themselves open to huge endowment losses by pursuing risky investment strategies before the recession, according to a commentary in Forbes.com.
James Panero, managing editor of The New Criterion, writes that money managers and organizations such as Commonfund encouraged arts organizations to move “away from the safety of fixed-income instruments … to the volatility of domestic and foreign equities and even to ‘alternative investments.’”
As a result, he writes, institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and New York’s City Opera lost 30 percent or more of their endowments when they could have limited losses to around 10 percent with more diversified investment strategies.
Housing Charity Leader Named to Lead Big New York Social-Services Group
Jul 21st
The Children’s Aid Society announced yesterday that Richard Buery Jr. will take over the venerable charity when its president, C. Warren Moses, steps down in October after 40 years of service at the New York organization, reports Crain’s New York Business.
Mr. Buery, 37, co-founded Groundwork, a nonprofit group that serves families in public housing in his native Brooklyn, N.Y. He will be the first black leader of the Children’s Aid Society and its youngest leader since it was founded by a 27-year-old in 1853.
Society trustees said Mr. Buery was chosen in part for his ability to modernize the charity, which employs 1,200 and operates 45 schools, camps, and other sites for disadvantaged children across New York. “He takes a social entrepreneurial approach to finding solutions for tough issues,” said Angela Diaz, the charity’s board president.
Scottish Charity Warns of Mass Layoffs Without Union Concessions
Jul 21st
Quarriers, a large Scottish charity serving homeless and disabled people, has warned its 2,000 employees they face dismissal unless they agree to proposed wage and benefit reductions, the British newspaper The Times reports.
Unison, which represents Quarriers workers, said the organization canceled a planned July 10 meeting, then notified the union that all staff members would be let go and rehired under new terms unless they meet the charity’s demands.
Unison’s Stephen Brown said the union “recognizes Quarriers is feeling the financial pinch” and is prepared to negotiate, but he decried the charity’s “gunboat diplomacy” in threatening mass firings.
Quarriers ended the last fiscal year with a nearly $2-million deficit, which it cut to about $820,000 by dipping into reserve funds. “We are looking at potentially a bigger deficit this year and next year unless we can achieve savings and cut costs,” said Phil Robinson, the charity’s chief executive.
Government and Politics Watch: House Committee Cuts Obama’s Spending Plans on National Service
Jul 21st
A key House committee has voted to cut $90-million from President Obama’s proposed 2010 budget for the Corporation for National and Community Service — including trimming the Social Innovation Fund from $50-million to $35-million, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.
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