malaria no more

Charity can take many different forms and mean many different things. As the year draws to a close it is a time many of us take to reflect on acts of charity and how we may help others.

What do you think of when it comes to charity? Is it dropping some change into the cup of someone in need on the side of the street? What about performing acts of volunteer service to help others? Does purchasing a good or service that supports a cause or nonprofit organization count as charity?

It is a word with many complex layers. On the one hand, it is a personal matter tied to how we as individuals relate to one another and to those in need. It is also a public issue that impacts our society and is fraught with many implications. The two sides of charity are linked together, but how we leverage and build upon that foundation is up to us.

New Forms of Giving

For the “next generation”, these issues are highly relevant. Looking to Millennials we see that they want more than a “transactional relationship”—they want engagement. According to a study on Millennial donors, 91%of 20 to 40 year olds noted that they were at least somewhat likely to respond to a face-to-face request for money from a nonprofit. Moreover in the Cone Cause Evolution Study, 94% of 18 to 24 year olds find cause marketing acceptable (vs. 88% average), and 53% chose to purchase a product that supported an issue or cause in the past year. This group will play a key role not only as the next generation, but also in forming and shaping the next generation of charity.

Getting from Giving

I recently attended the NextGen:Charity conference with my colleague Sokunthea Sa Chhabra to hear how leading non-profit and social media experts, CEOs and innovators from various sectors are helping to shape the philanthropic space and approach these very questions.

The goal of the conference was to help “inspire revolutions in efficiency and innovation in non-profit work, [to] help more people, more effectively.” With more than two dozen renowned presenters, including: Scott Harrison of Charity:Water; Jonathan Greenblatt of Ethos Water and All for Good; Adam Braun of Pencils of Promise; Pamela Haas of the IBM Foundation; Melissa Kushner of Goods for Good; and Ami Dar from Ideaslist.org, the conference highlighted different areas of expertise, experience and learning.

Learning by Giving

Each of the presentations contributed to a larger discussion about how the next generation will impact charity. The end result was a day of lessons learned, anecdotes, reflections and inspiration.

Highlights from the sessions included:

If at first you don’t succeed…

Early on in the day Nancy Lublin, DoSomething.org’s CEO and “chief old person” (as she referred to herself) explored the concept of charity and how it will evolve within the next generation. She believes that the younger generation possesses a special talent and ability to attempt things, push things and pursue things that others will not. It’s a characteristic that must be cultivated among youth and celebrated by all.

Which one are you?

Seth Godin, founder of Squidoo.com asked the audience a single question (made famous by Zig Ziglar) that one could spend a lifetime searching for—are you a wandering generality or a meaningful specific? That is to say are you focused and dedicated, passionate and engaged, or just the opposite? Many in the audience took this question to heart and I think it’s worth asking yourself as you read this and contemplate how you want to embrace the next generation of charity.

It doesn’t take much.

Numerous speakers took the stage to share stories of how they started with nothing but a vision or a dream and turned it into successful projects like Charity:Water and Goods for Good. Speakers acknowledged that one of the greatest challenges and deterrents to taking that big leap is money. However, Nate Westheimer, founder of AnyClip.com was there to shatter this myth about financial obstacles and shared his methodology for starting an organization with less than $60. In fact, Adam Braun started Pencil of Promise by opening a bank account with only $25. In the end, Braun reflected that the critical element for him was his decision to “say yes to possibility.”

Rethink generosity.

Sasha Dichter of the Acumen Fund shared details of his generosity experiment where he spent 30 days giving to anyone and everyone who asked. While he didn’t want to imply this was the “smartest way to give,” he did want to change his mind set when it came to generosity. Rather than saying no, he chose to say yes and this helped him to better understand not only acts of philanthropy, but himself as well.

Since when does going out of business equal success?

Scott Case, co-founder of Priceline.com and CEO of Malaria No More explained that the end goal for all of us in the philanthropy world should be to put ourselves out of business. Case proceeded to clarify that essentially it’s what everyone wants. This mentality will help prioritize the cause before the organization, free up resources and creativity, and provide a great excuse to celebrate once the goal is met.

Each of these speakers gave of themselves and in the end received much in return. They shared their best practices for creating positive change now we want to hear from you. How do you plan to embrace charity, generosity and philanthropy as we move into the “next generation of charity?” How do you think these ideas may inspire or “reboot” our current framework for philanthropy?

Americans know how to give, and in this day and age of social media we are identifying countless ways to better support nonprofits and cause related issues. Take for example, this video (with more than 1 million views already) for GE's "Tag Your Green" contest. The campaign encourages people to suggest eco-friendly ideas through online multimedia sites in an effort to get people to rethink how to be green. As programs such as this one highlight the potential of social media for social good, we see how the application of social media is creating a shift within the American service culture.

What Do the Numbers Show?

The Corporation for National and Community Service released a report earlier this year showing the largest increase in volunteering in the last six years. Despite the economic downturn and other hardships of 2009, 63.4 million Americans—of which 10.8 million were Millennials—volunteered with an official service organization. Cumulative efforts totaled more than 8.1 billion hours of service that was worth an estimated $169 billion. The top four service activities reported by respondents included: fundraising, collecting/distributing food, providing general labor or transportation, and teaching or tutoring—in that order.

Noticeably absent from this volunteer report is any reference to online service, acts and support. What would a breakdown of contributions look like if social media and online activities were included in the survey? I can understand why they aren’t referenced in this particular report though, for there are still many questions and validation issues with which to contend. I can’t imagine however, that these benchmarks are too far down the road...

It's a Question of Value

Aside from the quantitative value of social media, we must also look at how these acts might be weighted when it comes to evaluation metrics. Ask yourself… Does downloading a cause’s Twibbon to my Twitter profile photo or “donating” my Facebook status to a nonprofit’s message for a day constitute service? What about a $5 donation to a cause via text, is that person a donor or a philanthropist? Does checking in at a volunteer event via Gowalla make my support any more important of valuable than that of someone who is standing right next to me, but chooses not to use the location-based application?  

Essentially, how should we classify these new forms of action and are they creating a positive change? Are these examples of activism 2.0, or just more forms of slacktivsm as referenced in a previous Social Citizens post?  

It’s difficult to say how these new applications will ultimately impact and shape the service sector. One thing is clear though, we are moving beyond the integration of social media tools into an existing campaign and towards the creation of full-fledged, independent social media campaigns that place value on the individual’s online “service” and “contribution” to an issue. This is of particular relevance when looking at how best to inspire citizen-led engagement among the Millennial generation and digital natives.

Here are several examples of creative campaigns and initiatives that focus on acts of service online:

Tag Your Green: GE is hosting a multimedia eco-challenge unlike any other to encourage people to think of “green” in an entirely new way.

• Photo: In partnership with Flickr, GE invites people to upload photos representing water, light or wind. The best part is, in return for your photo, GE will donate a form of energy to a group in need. 
• Video: As part of GE's ecomagination campaign, Howcast invited some of the most popular YouTube stars to get develop innovative “eco-themed” videos challenging viewers to submit creative green ideas that the stars could bring to life and tape. The goal is for the videos to reach a combined 10 million views and inspire viewers to rethink how to be green. The program will benefit charity: water, a nonprofit that brings clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations.

One Tweet or Text at a Time: The Case Foundation partnered with Twitter, Malaria No More and TwitPay earlier this year in honor of World Malaria Day. Simply by retweeting a message with specific hashtags (including #endmalaria) or by texting a special code, tweeters could make a $10 donation to Malaria No More. In addition, when you added these special hashtags to your tweets, it would trigger the addition of a clickable mosquito icon to further raise awareness about this life threatening issue.

Cat Nap with Friends for a Cause: Purina Cat Chow recently invited consumers to visit its Facebook page, become a Fan and register to take a “cat nap” with their cat to raise awareness for breast cancer. For every registered “napper,” Purina made a $2 donation (up to $150,000), to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. 

I see the rise in popularity of social media as a wonderfully effective tool for nonprofits that will never replace traditional forms of civic engagement or acts of service. Instead, these evolving applications offer us a new standard for service engagement that will help reshape the identity of the modern day social citizen. 

What do you think about the trends focusing on online engagement in service? Does this shift in our culture take away from or help traditional campaigns? What value do you place on online campaigns?

Every 30 seconds a child dies of malaria. Nets save lives. So do retweets. RT2Give $10 http://rt2give.com/t/425

The messaging is so powerful, so clear, and so tweetable – and with the World Bank’s bold announcement yesterday that they are stepping in to fill half of the 50 million “bed net gap,” the Case Foundation together with Malaria No More and Twitter thought there was no better time to launch a citizen driven campaign using the powerful force of the 100 Million users on Twitter.

Let’s take a look at the numbers:

• At present 200 million mosquito bed nets have been delivered across sub-Saharan Africa, affording protection to half of the world's population at risk of malaria.  
• 100 million more bed nets are in the process of being produced and delivered, leaving a 50 million bed net gap to meet the United Nations Secretary-General's goal of universal coverage by year's end.  
• Every thirty seconds a child dies from malaria in Africa. However, malaria is a completely preventable and treatable disease.
• There are approximately 50 million "tweets" sent across the twitterverse each day
  

On Wednesday, the UN Envoy for Malaria Ray Chambers, appointed a group of 50 Social Media Envoys dedicated to utilizing their social profile to keep online and offline media audiences focused on the movement, milestones and resources required to achieve the Secretary-General's goal of providing all endemic African countries with malaria control interventions by the end of 2010. From Kim Kardashian and Shaq to Bill Gates and Steve Case, these social media influencers are stepping up to use their collective 50 million person following for social change.

We saw the recent power of "texting to give" to the tune of $35 million raised through a variety of campaigns related to the tragic earthquake in Haiti.  These campaigns were a game changer for how we use mobile to respond to crises.   Now together through the powerful combination of tweeting to give and texting to give - we can educate, raise awareness, and help eradicate Malaria for the world’s most vulnerable.

So what can Social Citizens do to show their support and become social media envoys among their own networks? Please visit hope140.org/endmalaria and:

•  Tweet this message to make a $10 donation to Malaria No More: Every 30 seconds a child dies of malaria. Nets #endmalaria. So do retweets. RT2Give $10 http://rt2give.com/t/425 ( If you already have an account through Twitpay, you’ll receive a direct message from @Twitpay asking for confirmation. If you don’t have an account, @Twitpay will send you an @reply message with simple instructions on how to enroll).
• Text ‘NET’ to 85944 to make a $10 donation to Malaria No More. (A $10 donation will be charged to your mobile phone bill. Messaging and data rates may apply)
• Add hashtag(s) #endmalaria, #malaria, #malariaday and/or #worldmalariaday to your tweets and the hastags will trigger the addition of  clickable mosquito icons to the tweet that will take you to hope140.org/endmalaria

The Case Foundation will be matching every ten dollar donation now through April 27 up to $25,000.  The “End Malaria” effort is an extension of last year’s World Malaria Day Twitter challenge between Ashton Kutcher and CNN for a race to 1 million followers. Kutcher’s pledge of $100,000 to Malaria No More catapulted him to success and helped provide Senegal with 89,724 life-saving mosquito nets.