Category: Weekend Reading

Behavioral Economics Exploration Into Doing Good

Here’s some interesting weekend reading for you– The WSJ Blog points to research by Dan Ariely of MIT, Anat Bracha of Tel Aviv U, and Stephan Meier of the Fed on “how extrinsic incentives (such as cash or gifts) influence the effects of “image motivation” (looking good in public).” In one experiment they called “Click… Continue reading Behavioral Economics Exploration Into Doing Good

WSJ: A New Generation Reinvents Philanthropy

The Wall Street Journal offers a nice piece on web based tools to help make the world a better place: Young donors and volunteers, snubbing traditional appeals such as direct mail and phone calls, are satisfying their philanthropic urges on the Internet. They’re increasingly turning to blogs and social-networking Web sites, such as MySpace and… Continue reading WSJ: A New Generation Reinvents Philanthropy

Microfinance Reading- CGAP

Check out CGAP’s Portfolio newsletters for some great microfinance reading material and resources. CGAP is a consortium of 33 public and private development agencies working together to expand access to financial services for the poor in developing countries. CGAP was created by these aid agencies and industry leaders to help create permanent financial services for… Continue reading Microfinance Reading- CGAP

New York Times On The Digital Divide

Here’s a great article in the New York Times detailing the lack of internet infrastructure in Africa: Attempts to bring affordable high-speed Internet service to the masses have made little headway on the continent. Less than 4 percent of Africa’s population is connected to the Web; most subscribers are in North African countries and the… Continue reading New York Times On The Digital Divide

Catching Up Links

This has been a busy summer for me so here’s a collection of relevant links from the past week. Posting will be light for the next few weeks. Wal-Mart extends financial services to low-income customers. The world’s largest retailer will sell prepaid payment cards at over 3300 of its discount stores in the U.S. Link.… Continue reading Catching Up Links

Weekend Reading: PR for Philantropy, Societal Value of Corporations

From Business Week: Philanthropic outfits increasingly are adopting PR programs to achieve their goals. Here’s why some old PR objections are no longer valid Link. From Conde Nast Portfolio: Indeed, the likes of Robert Barro, writing in the WSJ yesterday, go one further. Never mind Bill Gates’s personal philanthropy, he says, the real good that… Continue reading Weekend Reading: PR for Philantropy, Societal Value of Corporations

Weekend Reading: Small Companies That Try to Bring Innovative Technology to Teaching

“A revolution is needed in education — students exist in a world where technology is pervasive but classroom teaching hasn’t basically changed in 50 years,” said Mona Westhaver, a founder of Inspiration Software, a Portland area firm that developed a visual learning system for kindergarten through 12th grade. Link to NY Times.

Weekend Reading: How To Set Up A Non-Profit

Via Guy Kawasaki’s blog, here’s a story about how a non-profit, FROG, was created using online resources. Here’s the short list of resources used: PBWiki, Gmail, Google Apps, YouSendIt, LiveMeeting, Skype, GoDaddy, Blogger, WordPress, FormAssembly, Craigslist, Upcoming.org, Eventful, Idealist, Reactee, Flickr, Facebook, Technorati, Feedburner, Change.org, and Paypal.

Weekend Reading: What Does Africa Need Most: Tech or Aid?

Here’s an article in the New York Times covering the TED conference in Africa. But beyond this Panglossian message, however much a corrective to the common images of African misery and however flattering to the pride of TED’s African attendees, was something that everyone at the conference knew (and which I saw every morning on… Continue reading Weekend Reading: What Does Africa Need Most: Tech or Aid?