Four million New York City residents — half of the city — experience difficulty affording food. That’s twice the level in 2003. And that’s why Robin Hood is partnering with FreshDirect to deliver Food for Good: 15,000 meals to feed 120,000 New Yorkers who might otherwise go hungry this holiday season.

Continued…

Great profile of charity: water in the New York Times– the personal story of the founder is interesting:

Five years ago, Mr. Harrison was a nightclub promoter in Manhattan who spent his nights surrounded by friends in a blur of alcohol, cocaine and marijuana. He lived in a luxurious apartment and drove a BMW — but then on a vacation in South America he underwent a spiritual crisis.

Mr. Harrison, now 33, found an aid organization that would accept him as a volunteer photographer — if he paid $500 a month to cover expenses. And so he did. The organization was Mercy Ships, a Christian aid group that performs surgeries in poor countries with volunteer doctors.

He went on to found charity: water, which is essentially a marketing organization:

Armed with nothing but a natural gift for promotion, and for wheedling donations from people, Mr. Harrison started his group, called charity: water — and it has been stunningly successful. In three years, he says, his group has raised $10 million (most of that last year alone) from 50,000 individual donors, providing clean water to nearly one million people in Africa and Asia.

The article deserves a read, so check it out here.

BH2O+ Day of Recap Video from Nuru International on Vimeo.

More than 950 students at 11 college and university campuses joined forces the week of April 20 to raise awareness of the need for clean drinking water in Africa. With the generous support of Dry Tears, Living Water International, Radiata Investments and The Franklin and Catherine Johnson Foundation, they raised nearly $37,000, which will enable Nuru International, in partnership with Living Water International, to drill four deep water wells at schools in the Kuria district of Kenya.

The students were part of a nationwide effort called BH2O+, or “Be Hope to Her”, sponsored by Nuru International, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, public benefit charity committed to pioneering holistic, sustainable solutions to end extreme poverty in partnership with the poor.

To learn more visit http://www.bhope2her.org/ and http://www.bhope2her.org/bh2o-photos/

StartingBloc is currently seeking a talented and dynamic new Executive Director to lead a small and highly mission-driven organization into its next phase of growth and to ensure StartingBloc’s continued and sustainable recognition as a leader in the fields of social innovation, social entrepreneurship, cross-sector partnerships, and sustainability. Working closely with the Director of Programs, Board of Directors, and an engaged group of StartingBloc alumni, the Executive Director will have primary responsibility for all management and leadership functions, including fundraising and partnership-building, strategic planning, financial management, infrastructure and growth development, board of directors’ development, as well as programmatic impact.

Please see PDF here.

Jacqueline Novogratz tells a moving story of an encounter in a Nairobi slum with Jane, a former prostitute, whose dreams of escaping poverty, of becoming a doctor and of getting married were fulfilled in an unexpected way.

How Businesses Can Develop Trust on a

Global Scale Through Corporate Service

(Technology + Entrepreneurship) ^ Corporate Service = Δ Social Impact Today, the Internet has made global flows of information, capital and innovation possible as never before. How do we use technologies, economies, entrepreneurship and corporate service to make organizations smarter and build trust on a global scale across borders, time zones and cultural expectations? A distinguished panel of experts will examine how governments, NGOs, educational institutions, and private corporations have increased social capacity by successfully applying technology and entrepreneurship to public service. In addition to improving society, the panel will discuss the unique benefits their organizations derive by fostering innovative public service. PANEL: – Stanley Litow, Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Corporate Responsibility, IBM - Dr. Augustine Mahiga, Permanent Representative of the United Republic of Tanzania to the United Nations. - Sally Susnowitz, Director, MIT Public Service Center - Harris Wofford, Former US Senator (D-PA) MODERATOR: Bruce Bachenheimer, Chapter Chair, MIT Enterprise Forum of New York City & Clinical Professor of Management, Pace University

The Fifth Annual Pace Pitch Contest will be held on Thursday evening, December 4th. The event will be held in the Schimmel Center, a 750-seat theatre on Pace’s campus in downtown Manhattan, across from City Hall.  Directions here.

However, for those budding entrepreneurs who wish to participate,  November 21 is the deadline for applications.

For more information, go here.

Presented by: Entrepreneurship@Lubin and the in association with: The Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship

Thursday, December 4th, 2008 5:00 p.m.- 7:45 p.m. Schimmel Center, 1 Pace Plaza, NYC

EA’s new casual games boss discusses why titles aimed at wider audiences offer designers greater opportunities to innovate. Nashak also talks about Games for Change, a festival uniting do-good nonprofits with game makers.

Link

A tree-mendous month! Due to all of our upcoming events we are extending our inaugural MillionTreesNYC Month through May 18. Find out the latest events.

About A Million Trees:
MillionTreesNYC, one of the 127 PlaNYC initiatives, is a citywide, public-private program with an ambitious goal: to plant and care for one million new trees across the City’s five boroughs over the next decade. By planting one million trees, New York City can increase its urban forest—our most valuable environmental asset made up of street trees, park trees, and trees on public, private and commercial land—by an astounding 20%, while achieving the many quality-of-life benefits that come with planting trees.

The City of New York will plant 60% of trees in parks and other public spaces. The other 40% will come from private organizations, homeowners, and community organizations.

Hat tip to City Room blog.

From NYWSE:

Please join New York Women Social Entrepreneurs (NYWSE) every fourth Thursday of the month for engaging discussions.

NYWSE is proud to present a special guest who will be speaking at our March 27 meeting. Lara Galinsky is VP of Strategy at Echoing Green and co-author of Be Bold, which is “a call to action for a new generation of social leaders.”

“Echoing Green is a nonprofit organization that identifies and supports emerging social entrepreneurs and the launch of their groundbreaking organizations. Since its launch in 1987, Echoing Green has invested nearly [US]$25 million in seed and start-up grants to over 400 social entrepreneurs and their innovative organizations, to spark social change.”

For more information on Echoing Green, you can check out their website at www.echoinggreen.org.

NYWSE is also in the process of starting up a book club. New members and book suggestions are welcome!

Finally, don’t forget our February 28 meeting. Please confirm to receive directions.

To confirm your attendance to the events, sign up for NYWSE’s book club, and for general information please email: natalia.oberti_noguera@aya.yale.edu