News

TED ‘Ads Worth Spreading’ Winners Announced: Rethink Breast Cancer Takes Social Good Category

TED, the now-legendary group that popularized short-form talks on innovative ideas in Technology, Education, and Design, announced the winners of their annual contest.

Ads Worth Spreading 2011, which opened submissions last fall, recognizes creative work that inspires people to watch, share and learn. This year, judges included industry experts, TED speakers and other adland advocates. They were charged with looking for work that broke the mold of traditional advertising through more involved storytelling, reported Creativity Magazine.

This year’s winner in the Social Good category was the Rethink Breast Cancer campaign (see Osocio coverage “A new spin on sexualizing breast cancer marketing”).

Twitter for Non-Profits

Claire Diaz Ortiz, head of social innovation and executive leadership at Twitter, Inc has just released her book “Twitter for Good”,  showcasing several cases on how people, brands and organizations are using the microblogging service to support non-profit initiatives.

You can follow @ClaireD on Twitter or Tweet about the book using the #Twitter4Good hashtag.

New Crowdblog: 101fundraising

A few hours ago a new fundraising blog started: 101fundraising.
101fundraising is a crowdblog on fundraising, serving both the international and Dutch fundraising community.
This blog is for fundraisers who don’t have time to run their own blog, but want to blog once in a while. For the starting period they will publish a new Dutch blog post every Monday and an English one on Thursday.
So far in total 23 bloggers from 9 countries agreed to participate. Check out who they are on their Bloggers page.

101fundraising is a project from Reinier Spruit and Jeroen Beelen. I know Reinier from the time he was working as a fundraiser for Médecins Sans Frontières Holland. He is working now for Greenpeace International (GPI). Jeroen Beelen started his career as fundraising fort SOS Children’s Villages Netherlands. He is now working for the Dutch Red Cross.

Homeopathic ‘Overdosers’ Announce Global Challenge

If there’s any news where an overdose is a good thing to report, this might be it, as consumer rights activists worldwide are being challenged to participate in a global ‘overdose’ on homeopathic pills, in order to raise public awareness that the remedies are in fact worthless.

The ‘10:23 Challenge’, a worldwide event this February 5th at 10:23am, is a follow-up to the protest staged by the 10:23 Campaign in the UK, which saw almost 400 demonstrators take to the streets across UK to voice their concern at the sales of the pills in leading pharmacy ‘Boots’, and the support for such ‘remedies’ on the NHS.

With over 60 cities all over the world already confirmed, the global overdose is also the prelude to the demonstration in Manchester on February 6th, with over 300 protesters participating the largest ever single demonstration against homeopathy.

The 10:23 Campaign is an international movement headed by the Merseyside Skeptics Society, which aims to raise awareness of homeopathy, a multi-million pound industry based on a long-discredited 18th century ritual, selling remedies to the public which have no scientific basis and no credible evidence for their efficacy beyond the placebo effect. You can find out more about the campaign at www.1023.org.uk/ or become a fan on Facebook.

Mad Men on Sale

Well, at least part of it, namely the old Sterling Cooper set. And for a good cause, as a Celebrity Charity Auction on eBay.

From the vintage furniture to Betty Draper’s dress, and even a chance to play a small part in season 5 on a walk-on role. Part of the profits will be donated to City of Hope, a science research organization exploring new therapies in Cancer Treatment, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening diseases.

Should Tate Britain continue to accept BP sponsorship?

In the UK a group of artists have protested that Tate Britain is still sponsored by BP. They think that the logo of the troubled company has a negative impact on Modern Art as a whole.

But let’s look at it from another perspective. BP has sponsored cultural life in the UK for more than 20 years now. Museums like the British Museum, Tate Britain, the National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Opera House got millions and millions during these years. And in a time wherein cultural sponsorship is in decline this is no sinecure.

$50,000 for Invisible People TV

I critized the Pepsi Refresh campaign last month but today I’m thrilled to hear that Mark Horvath won the contest. Mark known as HardlyNormal on Twitter is a tireless advocate for the cause of homelessness. In a way he is my hero in the social change landscape. He is doing an amazing job with Invisible People TV where he portraits homeless people. Gary Vaynerchuk, a social media celebrity champion, helped this cause win the contest and receive a grant of $50,000 for Invisible People TV.

Congrats Mark!

Creative minds from Arnhem put in overtime

On March 26th, ‘8 Uur Overwerken voor het goede doel’ (8 Hours Overtime for charity) will start in the city of Arnhem (NL). In eight hours time, five teams – consisting of five creative minds and a coach, will work on different projects for five charities. These creative teams will come up corporate identities, communication strategies, logos, merchandise, websites, ad campaigns and other immediately applicable concepts.

Two birds, one stone
Initiator Gerjanne Tiemens explains: ‘We kills two birds with one stone. Charities get beautiful designs and wonderful ideas; young creative minds get the opportunity to add products to their portfolio and make an important contribution to society. Besides that, everyone connects with interesting people and finds inspiration!’ 
 


SocialDesignSite launched their Ning community

SocialDesignSite, the non-profit organisation aimed to create awareness on social design, recently launched a community platform on Ning. This platform was created in response to the valuable feedback of their participating projects. Through this platform they seek to offer a convenient and lively communication environment, enhance connections between the members of the community and provide opportunities for sharing, participation and collaboration.
Members can share any kind of information, network with the people you like, provide content, engage in discussions, join and create groups.

Check the SocialDesignSite Ning

This is my badge:

Visit SocialDesignSite Community

DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards open for entries

See3 Communications and YouTube announced today the launch of the 4th Annual DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards. The contest will award a total of $10,000 in grants, funded by the Case Foundation, to the best videos of 2009 found in the YouTube Nonprofit Program—a special program that YouTube designed to help nonprofits achieve their missions. The winners will be featured on the YouTube homepage, and receive prizes from Flip Video and Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN).

Webdesigner depot has 8 tips to design a Charity website

Lee Munroe published last week at Webdesigner depot a useful post on webdesign for non-profits.

Do check the article for more about the 8 tips that make a good charity website:

1. A mission
2. How sponsors will be helping
3. Photos of people the sponsors will be helping
4. Donate button
5. Donations to date
6. A funding goal
7. Keep in touch
8. How can people help

Drop a few comments if you know of any more tips on how to create a sucessful non-profit website.

Beth Kanter, Kami Huyse and Geoff Livingston: Zoetica

Nonprofit blogger Beth Kanter, PR expert Kami Huyse, and author Geoff Livingston started a new Communications Consultancy last week named Zoetica.

Zoetica serves nonprofits and socially conscious companies with top-tier, word-of-mouth communication services. A social enterprise, Zoetica provides communication consulting, training, and strategy to help mindful organizations affect social change. The company will provide its clients market and assessment research, marketing communications strategy, communications training, formulation of guidelines and structure for campaigns, and implementation support for word-of-mouth campaigns. The focus will be on assisting clients with building solid relationships with their online communities. 

Read more at zoeticamedia.com.

Canada shut down parody websites

In the last week of December the Canadian government has shut down two parody Web sites criticizing the Great White North’s glacial policy on global warming.
The two sites, developed by Yes Men, announced that Canada would reduce greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 40 percent from 1990 levels, and 80 percent by the year 2050.

The websites, enviro-canada.ca and ec-gc.ca, are “directly connected to a hoax which misleads people into believing that the Government of Canada will take certain actions in relation to environmental matters,” wrote Mike Landreville from Environment Canada in an email to the German Internet Service Provider (ISP) Serverloft.  “We trust you appreciate the importance of avoiding confusion among the public concerning Canadian governmental affairs and that you will assist us in preventing this hoax from spreading further.”

Make sharing your public service at My Ad Council

The Ad Council recently change it’s Ad Council Creative into My Ad Council.
Utilizing the most popular social networking tools, the site enables visitors to easily share and comment on Ad Council PSAs Visitors can learn about campaigns and the people who bring them to life and view “Bonus Feature” videos to get a behind-the-scenes look into campaign development.
My Ad Council highlights the pro bono efforts of their ad agency partners and gives passionate Ad Council supporters another opportunity to join Ad Council’s mission. By simply emailing a link to a friend or sharing a favorite PSA on a social network, vistors can make a difference!

SheSpotter.com Blog Launched

The “She Spot” is the sweet spot for organizations working for the public good, according to a new blog launched today by veteran public interest communications strategists Lisa Witter and Lisa Chen.

Shespotter.com is devoted to the art and science of marketing effectively to women. According to Witter and Chen, co-authors of the book, The She Spot: Why Women are the Market for Changing the World and How to Reach Them, women are the not-so-secret-secret to making political and cultural change because they give, vote and volunteer more than men do. Witter and Chen are also senior strategists at Fenton Communications, the largest full-service public interest communications firm in the country.

“In these tough economic times, it’s more important than ever to be intentional about your outreach, whether you’re fundraising or growing a movement to support your cause,” said Lisa Witter, Fenton’s Chief Operating Officer.  “We created this blog to continue the conversation we started in our book and to encourage others to become ‘Shespotters.’ Because the smarter we are about connecting with women, the more effective we’ll be at creating the change we want to see in the world.”