More human beings today have access to a cellphone than the United Nations says have access to a clean toilet

Posted by on April 13, 2010 No comments

A nice article on cell phones and the part they are playing to close the great tech divide:

The number of mobile subscriptions in the world is expected to pass five billion this year, according to the International Telecommunication Union, an intergovernmental organization. That would mean more human beings today have access to a cellphone than the United Nations says have access to a clean toilet.

And because it reaches so many people, because it is always with you, because it is cheap and sharable and easily repaired, the cellphone has opened a new frontier of global innovation.

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A cellphone app called CauseWorld has figured out a way for advertisers to turn their marketing dollars into charitable donations

Posted by on March 3, 2010 No comments

The CauseWorld app offers users several ways to donate.
The CauseWorld app offers users several ways to donate.
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The Tech Awards 2010 Call for Nominations

Posted by on March 3, 2010 No comments

The Tech Awards is an international awards program that honors innovators from around the world who are applying technology to benefit humanity.

The Tech Awards program inspires global engagement in applying technology to humanity’s most pressing problems by recognizing the best of those who are utilizing innovative technology solutions to address the most urgent critical issues facing our planet. People all over the world are profoundly improving the human condition in the areas of education, equality, environment, health, and economic development through the use of technology. It is the goal of The Tech Awards to showcase their compelling stories and reward their brilliant accomplishments.

To submit a nomination, click here.

Seven groups with different approaches to evaluating philanthropies

Posted by on February 15, 2010 No comments

BusinessWeek reviews seven organizations that provide tools and services to analyze charities.

Here’s an excellent post on why you should not judge charities by their “administrative costs.”

Posted by on January 21, 2010 No comments

Good Intentions are Not Enough.

hat tip to Marginal Revolution

Analytics X Prize – Enabling social change through analytics

Posted by on January 7, 2010 No comments


Enabling social change through analytics

Reading about Analytics X and thought I’d share here:

The Analytics X Prize is an ongoing contest to apply analytics, modeling, and statistics to solve the social problems that affect our cities. It combines the fields of statistics, mathematics, and social science to understand the root causes of dysfunction in our neighborhoods. Understanding these relationships and discovering the most highly correlated variables allows us to deploy our limited resources more effectively and target the variables that will have the greatest positive impact on improvement.

Current Contest – 2010 – Predicting Homicides in Philadelphia

Philadelphia is a city with 5.8 million people spread out over 47 zip codes and, like any major city, it has its share of crime. The goal of the Analytics X Prize is to use statistical techniques and any data sets you can find to predict where crime, specifically homicides, will occur in the city. The ability to accurately predict where crime is likely to occur allows us to deploy our limited city resources more effectively. Full rules can be found on the Rules & FAQ page.

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Browse For A Cause

Posted by on December 15, 2009 1 comment

Browse For A Cause is a browser add-on that collects affiliate revenue (usually 3-5%) from sites like Amazon to help charities. For example, if you buy a $20 DVD, the affiliate revenue equates to about $1 which is donated to the charity of your choice. You can support as many charities as you’d like, and revenue will be split between them.

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Sites to bring in billions in holiday donations

Posted by on December 8, 2009 No comments

In the United States, cumulative online donations to charities could hit more than $4 billion during the holidays, according to a survey released Tuesday by marketing firm Convio. More than than 63 percent of those surveyed said they plan to donate money via the the Internet over the holiday season (November 1 through December 31, 2009), up from 51 percent in 2008.

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Vittana- “Ultimate Game Changer in Philanthropy”

Posted by on December 5, 2009 No comments
Vittana, which beat out such well-known charities as DonorsChoose and people like Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, is building a student loan business for microfinance institutions that cater to poor people in the developing world.

It uses a model similar to that of Kiva.org, a nonprofit organization that funnels loans to individual borrowers through microfinance institutions. The method is to solicit individual lenders for money that will back loans to young adults seeking college educations.

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Philanthropedia is unique because we rank nonprofits based on expert’s recommendations

Posted by on November 24, 2009 No comments
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This definitely solves a problem for a lot of charity minded folks:
Philanthropedia is unique because we rank nonprofits based on expert’s recommendations. You can now feel confident in your donations.
Philanthropedia is also a better way to give because you can donate to an entire social cause. Our 261 experts suggest collections of top nonprofits to support as “expert mutual funds.” Now your donations get shared across many top non-profits within a social cause.