Blogidarity :: A Dollar A Month To Remove Land Mines or Help Other Nonprofits
April 17, 2006 by Robert
For one dollar a month, anyone with a credit card or Paypal account can help a cause.
Blogidarity’s Mission and Mantra are pretty straight forward:
Mission: We are committed to raise funds for non profits working in the third world from bloggers all around the world.
Mantra: 1$ can save a life.
Further, they promise “In our activity we will respect a ZERO CONFUSSION principle. This means that every dollar we get will be donated to the Non profit we are working for in that month. This we believe is an indispensible rule of clarity and honesty for all parts.”
So, I have one question. How do we know you will honor that promise?
I don’t know much about Clear Path International, Blogidarity’s first beneficiary of funds. They do have a video endorsement from U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy.
They have a blog, too. But, what does that tell me about Blogidarity? I know even less about them. Why not just give to Clear Path?
The site (well, one of them) for Clear Path International has an interesting history. cpi.org was the home page of the Competition Policy Institute for several years. Sometime between January 28, 2003 and September 19, 2004 the site became Clear Path International. That’s not too strange. People abandon domains and others pick them up. CPI has another domain - their original home, I believe - clearpathinternational.org. The first discoverable sign of CPI life there was March 02, 2001. A post at Blogidarity seeks to provide some history and clarity regarding their use of online activities and social media / WOM (blogs):
Our first blogs started in late 2001…. I think… or early 2002 with the Clear Path News page.
So thanks to Jason and Scott, we blog… in addition to our “archival blogs” of news and case studies, we also started a “conversational” blog last year. Although, it is mostly a one way conversation as we do not get many comments… unless you count comment spam.
However, the post isn’t signed. We have no idea who is attempting to represent CPI through Blogidarity. There is more irony here. The author of the post, whoever it is, attempts to explain how they know what has to happen first, when establishing ethos, with the statement that “…one must first RAISE AWARENESS of the cause and then GAIN TRUST in a potential donor.” But, the post doesn’t accomplish that. Their own site does a better job.The author of that post also offers this postscript: “…the next and last blog post from me for blogidarity will outline our future plans… and I’ll have some great news to share!” Here’s a thought. Write your name in there, too.
The team of volunteers putting together Blogidarity are Felix, Trevor, Rocky, Steve, Troy, Rosa and Phil. Guess we’ll just have to get to know these people and see if their ethos is significant and justifies a donation.
OK, I imagine you think I’m being snarky. I’m actually not. What? You don’t think that people surfing up on Blogidarity won’t be skeptical when asked to fork over money? Even a dollar. The project doesn’t even have their own domain and site. It is a sub-directory of the blog run by Felix. Does it need one? I don’t know. Just a question. There are lots of questions here.
Please understand, I’m not questioning their veracity, but wonder how casual observers will judge the program. I want legitimate programs like this one to succeed. But, there are none of the usual indicators of affiliation at Blogidarity to give donors any indication that the group is on the up and up. They need that. People will do this kind of researching - and a lot more, too. So, any online practice like this one needs to be well thought out. I realize that 3rd party endorsements by bloggers can help. But, why not help them by giving all the credibility boosting information you have at your disposal.
For example, the Network for Good was established to answer these concerns.
Network for Good is the Internet’s leading charitable resource—an e-philanthropy site where individuals can donate, volunteer and get involved with the issues they care about. The organization’s goal is to connect people to charities via the Internet—using the virtual world to deliver real resources to nonprofits and communities.
Founded in 2001 by the Time Warner Foundation and AOL, Inc.; the Cisco Foundation and Cisco Systems, Inc.; and Yahoo! Inc., Network for Good is an independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in Bethesda, MD.
Hey, this project may blossom and grow into a very successful venture for third world nonprofits. I hope it does. Blogidarity is a good idea. It just needs work.
Best of luck to Felix Gerena’s project - Blogidarity.
Hat tip to Eric Eggerston for his email and blog post about the project. I agree with Eric’s statement, “Before setting up a donation, I’ll want to do a bit more checking up on the people behind Blogidarity.” I think we both respect the effort and the idea. But, the group needs to provide more information, in my opinion, if they wish to gain a financial following. Links are one thing. Dollars? Euros? Well, people are tighter with those. Show me the credo before asking me to show you the money.
This will be an interesting project to watch. I do wish them luck.
Hey there-
Thanks for mentioning Clear Path on this site. I am James Hathaway, one of the founders of Clear Path and the author of the post in question.
My bad for not signing the blog entry myself. I had forgotten that the this blog does not post my name… but, in my defense, I did enter my name on the first post there and made the incorrect assumption that others would have read that post first, which is a silly assumption, I admit.
But please do read it here:
http://felixgerena.typepad.com/blogidarity/2006/04/clear_path_inte_1.html
A couple comments on your post regarding Clear Path (the comments about blogidairty I shall leave to them):
1) You wrote: “The site (well, one of them) for Clear Path International has an interesting history. cpi.org was the home page of the Competition Policy Institute for several years. Sometime between January 28, 2003 and September 19, 2004 the site became Clear Path International”
Right, we used to have just http://www.clearpathinternational.org as our only URL. It was too bulky. So I typed cpi.org one day into my browser and got a 404 error… contacted the gentleman in who’s name it was registered and he DONATED the url to us. A big thing as he had cash offers for it at the time.
2) You wrote: “There is more irony here. The author of the post, whoever it is, attempts to explain how they know what has to happen first, when establishing ethos, with the statement that “…one must first RAISE AWARENESS of the cause and then GAIN TRUST in a potential donor. But, the post doesn’t accomplish that. Their own site does a better job.”
Actually… the post was not meant to accomplish that… I was asked to post about challenges for Clear Path and how we address them…. Our challenges are raising money and awareness, and gaining trust… as I said…. I provided links to show how we address those concerns… but in the context of the requested content, to go much further would not have been appropriate.
I am THRILLED you checked out Clear Path’s site, Robert! I appreciate the feedback… and duh, I should have signed my post.
We are very honored to have the team at Blogidarity support us. It is great for us to get our name out there, and it certainly has been a success in that!
I only have one more post to go in the blogidarity experiment… and I will take your comments to heart.
Have you seen our video on YouTube?
My very best to you,
James Hathaway
Co-Founder
Clear Path International
http://www.cpi.org
Hello, Robert.
Thanks for your comments in your post above. You are right, I should have signed my name in the post! In my defense, I did sign my name in the first post here:
http://felixgerena.typepad.com/blogidarity/2006/04/clear_path_inte_1.html
A couple of quick responses:
No real intrigue on our URL. We initially had http://www.clearpathinternational.org…. and for obvious reasons, I didn’t like it. Way too long and easy to screw up when typing. On a lark I typed in http://www.cpi.org one day and received a 404 error. I contacted the gent who’s name was on the whois report and he kindly donated the URL to us… a very nice gesture as he had some offers of cash.
As far as what you said here:
“The author of the post, whoever it is, attempts to explain how they know what has to happen first, when establishing ethos, with the statement that “…one must first RAISE AWARENESS of the cause and then GAIN TRUST in a potential donor.” But, the post doesn’t accomplish that. Their own site does a better job.”
Right… mission accomplished. I was asked by the Blogidarity folks to post on our challenges as an organization… so… I posted on such challenges. I gave links to our website which is (hopefully) doing the job of raising awareness and gaining trust… .
and seeing how you did click to our site…
and seeing how you viewed Leahy’s endorsement (did you see McCain’s on our Vietnam project page?)…
perhaps it all worked
As far as your valuable critiques of the Blogidarity crew, I am sure they will be glad to get them. A nice bunch of folks. I cannot respond for them though as we are simply just an organization that is fortunate enough to have their attention.
My very best to you… and please drop me a line if you ever have any questions abotu Clear Path International!
My very best to you
James
Robert - You’ve made some very interesting points, and I understand your needing to understand the legitimacy of Blogidarity. None of us on the Blogidarity team are looking for fame, glory, or anything other than to help people out, $1 at a time.
As for the fact that our blog resides as a “sub-blog” of Felix’s site, this is because we are trying to plow 100% of our proceeds back into Blogidarity and the charities selected.
Your question about whether or not we are legitimate is really a personal question for you, and anyone else, who decides to donate to anything online. I think we all should do our own digging, and find out for ourselves whether the group is worthwhile or not. All we ask for is a chance to change lives, $1 at a time. Whether or not you do that is entirely up to you, and we appreciate your well wishes and your starting the conversation here.
Just to ensure there is no confusion as to my identity, this is Phil Gerbyshak from http://makeitgreat.org and I appreciate the opportunity to discuss Blogidarity.
Hey James and Phil. Thank you both for commenting.
I like and respect both of your programs and efforts and appreciate our kind and thoughtful remarks in response.
My purpose is not to be a nay-sayer or unfriendly critic. When I post here, I quite often try to do it as if I’m sharing it with my students. I want them to think critically about these issues and use the examples I find online to try and spark their thoughts.
I’m wondering if either of your sites has considered something like Verisign or Give.org - in association with the Better Business Bureau (BBBOnline)- to provide some assurance to your potential donors? I think that is one way you could each allay some of these concerns. Now, I do not know what is involved in getting those seals of approval, but it seems worthy of investigating.
I’m sure there are likely other 3rd party organizations providing assurance to donors in online giving activities.
Clear Path International certainly has some stellar endorsements. I just saw a post at TomPeters! that certainly helps Blogidarity, too. All of those instances have varying levels of shared credibility coming your way. I wonder if it is enough? Or, is it worth investigating other tactics to further reassure potential donors.
That’s really all I’m suggesting.
Best of luck with your endeavors. I will watch with interest and hope for continued success.
Hey Robert…
I was not at all offended by your post, my friend! I will gladly take up space on any screen for CPI…you just gave me an opportunity.
Good feedback too…
I am going to look into getting a BBB stamp or some other such thing…. good idea….
Thanks for your interest in Clear Path!
James