Blogidarity :: A Dollar A Month To Remove Land Mines or Help Other Nonprofits

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.

Link Love :: With a positive purpose

Scott Baradell, Media Orchard, wants some Link Love, so I’m sharing it with him.

This is a wonderful opportunity to revisit a project that I think has promise and virtue for everyone that chooses to participate.

Let us revisit Operation Link Love - PR Bloggers “Pay It Forward” and Give Back. Read that post and the associated links to see what the project is all about. Or, go straight to The NewPR/Wiki page for all the details.

This is a project all about links that can serve a positive purpose. I hope you will get involved. Write about the viability of social media for nonprofits. Find a nonprofit blog that you can add to the wiki list. Link to them, and I bet they will link back. So, everyone wins.

I’m working on a fix for the image code. For now, feel free to hotlink to the image above.

Easter Seals Camp ASCCA Is Podcasting

We have begun podcasting on the Easter Seals Camp ASCCA site. I would appreciate anyone that wishes to listen then provide a critique here, or there. Go ahead, be brutal (well, not too brutal). We have to learn. The podcast is just under 12 minutes and is an interview with ASCCA’s recent Aquatics Director, Angelyn Wilson.

Visit the post and podcast here. There are several ways to listen. The site uses a WordPress plugin from Dan Kuykendall. It offers a Flash player, a popup player and the usual RSS feeds. And, it is free - opensource.

The idea is to create a site offering visitors the voices (literally) of the organization. Further, we are providing a human interest element to the story line with reflections from those that provide the hands on care and support. Their experiences range from instruction and aid in the recreation experiencs to the personal care during the camper’s stay at camp. There are other interviews in the works with all of the stakeholders listed below.

Our main goals are to:

1. interview stakeholders such as counselors, campers, parents, donors, therapeutic professionals, doctors, nurses and volunteers,
2. keep it short and sweet (no more than 15 minutes per interview),
3. do it solely with opensource software (although we are using the $14.95 HotRecorder software),
4. give the site virtually every possible multimedia offering we can, and
5. perhaps encourage the news media to find even more of a reason to check in on our site for story ideas.

Suggestions for interviews we might consider are appreciated, too.

Yes, I am involved with this … you’ll hear my voice on the podcast. I did the interview. In the future, ASCCA’s interns will be conducting them, too. Ah, a learning experience. How fun!

I have just rehabilitated our crashed PR Quest podcasting site and promise to finally (I know) finish all of those podcasts. Just too busy. I apologize.

Time’s “The Good Samaritans”

Too bad they didn’t go with their headline - “The Good Samaritans” - instead of individual billionaires and a millionaire. Still, it is laudable that Time chose philanthropists and activists as their “Persons of the Year” for 2005.

For being shrewd about doing good, for rewiring politics and re-engineering justice, for making mercy smarter and hope strategic and then daring the rest of us to follow, Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono are TIME’s Persons of the Year.

Bill & Melinda Gates: From Riches to Rags
Bono: The Constant Charmer
Interview with the Trio: “We Just Go Off”

I was expecting natural disasters to be chosen. After all, the year started and ended with them devastating the world - from the Tsunami to Katrina (and other hurricanes) to the Pakistan earthquake. Let us not forget the tornadoes and floods, as well.

But, this at least shines the light on those that do good deeds. How much better would it have been to make “The Good Samaritans” the recipient? I think it would give people more realistic role models to imitate. Honestly, how many Bonos and Gates are there? And, collectively, individual “Good Samaritans” have already done more for others than Bono and the Gates’.

Volunteerism would have been a better choice. Individual contributions of time, money and resources reached a record level for individuals as well as corporations in 2005. The collective “Good Samaritans” are more deserving of the praise as it is more difficult - requires more sacrifice - than it does for the Bonos and Gates of the world. Oh, I don’t mean to diminish their good deeds. They are certainly excellent role models, if only by their volunteer and giving practices alone.