The New York Restoration Project is a non-profit organization headed by Bette Midler, and aims to reclaim and restore New York City parks, community gardens and other open spaces using star power at its most benevolent. Since the organization’s founding in 1995, Bette Midler and the NYRP have enlisted the help of community, corporate and celebrity volunteers to restore and help maintain six New York City parks and save 114 community gardens from commercial development. To date, the organization has removed over 1,905 tons of garbage from the city’s green spaces.

The online auction celebrates the organization’s 15th year anniversary. Among the lots being auctioned off are VIP tickets to a live taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live, the opportunity to visit the set of Fox NFL Sunday in LA, a meeting with Rod Stewart and a VIP tickets to his show at the O2 Arena London, and many more. Other participating celebrities include John Stamos, Rob Thomas, Cher, and Kristin Chenoweth from Glee.

The organization also provides community oriented workshops for health and wellness, green living and family concerns. Picnics, galas, and other events held by the organization are also well attended by celebrities.
Celebrity and philanthropy have a long history of going hand-in-hand. Aside from being able to provide a positive role model for fans, celebrities have the power to draw support from other members of society.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about philanthropy.

According to a non-profit organization called Deworming the World, deworming reduces school absenteeism by 25 percent. As a result, this can lead to a significant increase in literacy rates in developing countries.

Worms can cause children to experience anemia, malnutrition, insomnia and other sicknesses that make them too tired to concentrate in class. Their solution to the problem is a mass deworming campaign at schools, which can be administered by school teachers.

The solution is relatively cheap, as the cure for parasitic worms is a simple pill that can be taken orally. The dosage is as low as one to two pills a year, and the pills cost only a few cents each.

Deworming the World, which was founded in 2007, has already dewormed 1 million children in Ethiopia, 3 million children in Kenya, and 2 million children in India among, many others. Last year alone, 13 million children were dewormed by the organization, which signed an agreement in 2008 to use 300 million tablets to treat children in 19 countries.

The organization struggles to keep costs low in order to be able to treat more children. Their original goal was to keep it down to $0.50 per child, but the children treated in Andhra Pradesh in India were dewormed for merely $0.18 each.

The efforts of the organization solve both health and education problems, two problems that are often major concerns in poverty-stricken countries. Through its efforts to deworm the world, the organization is innovatively helping to alleviate poverty itself.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about innovation.

In order to have a maximum impact, the Quixote Foundation has chosen this opportune period of time to go all-out and give everything over a short period of time, as opposed to releasing small amounts to the organizations that rely upon it year after year. This is in line with founder Stuart Hanisch’s belief that a donor’s role only becomes relevant with the efforts of the people and organizations that deal with the issues from day to day.

According to representatives of the foundation, the next few years present unique chances for each of their advocacies to really gain momentum. The organization wants to make the most of them by financially supporting those areas quickly. Simultaneously, debates are being held, decisions are being made, technology is being purchased and investments are being made to ensure that this is the right decision.

“The point is to become the most effective change agent we can be, even if that means not being a foundation any more in the institutional sense,” says Lenore Hanisch, co-executive director of the Quixote Foundation.

In this economically difficult time for practically all charitable organizations, the Quixote Foundation has decided to spend more instead of less. It has not yet decided on the complete set of grants that it will spend on, but decisions and amounts will be decided as the months pass.

The Quixote Foundation is actually following a growing trend among some organizations that see the next few years as the best time to support change-making to the fullest of their capabilities.

Founded in 1997, the Organization will be 20 years old when it makes its biggest sacrifice.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Philanthropy.

After laying out the problems, the article essentially says the problem will require money and active engagement by governments both in the areas being affected and those abroad that are in a position to help, noting “It’s too important to leave to the market.” And while I understand that wrapped up in that final sentiment, is the idea that private enterprise, particularly in the case of these small businesses that are themselves trying to make ends meet, are essentially only interested in preserving their own bottom lines, I respectively disagree. I feel they can play a vital role in confronting these problems.

In fact a model for how, already exists and I wrote about it over at my Tumblr blog recently. Called ColaLife, the non-profit organization is campaigning for Coca-Cola to open up their worldwide distribution channels and use the empty space in their transportation methods to help deliver essential medicines to areas that need it. It represents a huge opportunity and would require very little effort on soda giant’s part, except they haven’t said yes yet. Although Coke is uniquely positioned, given their iconic brand and global reach, with a bit of innovative thinking, many large corporations could revise their existing operations slightly and find a way to make a difference, no matter what the scale.

So yes, governments will need to be on the same page, but they can’t neglect the potential of private business, instead they need to find ways to utilize it.

[image via André-Pierre]

As noted on Market Watch, Housing 21 saw the move as an opportunity to leverage Claimar’s capabilities and bring the caregiving aspect in-house: “Pushpa Raguvaran, deputy chief executive and commercial director at Housing 21, said the group had already been looking to grow and build economies of scale when Claimar’s advisers raised the idea of a deal in May.”

Obviously, the biggest challenge going forward will be how well the non-profit integrates the company into their pre-existing strategy and finds ways to streamline a model that clearly wasn’t successful in the for-profit world. While I don’t expect this buyout to start a trend within the charitable world, it does set an interesting precedent for other successful organizations ponder in the future, particularly given the extremely unpredictable nature of the marketplace. As in this case, sometimes the price (balanced by risk of course) is too good to pass up.

[image via Diego Cupolo]

CNET examines this question as increasing numbers of charities get on board in the already crowded space, noting that two major concerns begin to surface: a thinning pool of money to go around and too much noise for users to sift through.

Fundamentally, the strategy doesn’t have to change, but it does need to get smarter. In order to ensure lasting success, here are a number of considerations to keep in mind, both for social media and beyond:

1) Message – Regardless of what channel you use to spread the word, that message needs to be abundantly clear. Any good organization needs to have a defined mission statement and reachable set of goals.

2) Audience – Simply broadcasting to the masses without any consideration for who the people are you are trying to target, will result in a call to action that falls on deaf ears. Personalized communications that speak to your audience will show greater returns.

3) Community – Of course, soliciting monetary donations is the lifeline for any good charity, both in achieving its aims and maintaining its longevity, getting people involved, as volunteers and advocates, are the true measure of success. Building a committed cache of members is important, but implementing a culture that can leverage their interest is essential.

4) Diversification – While social media provides a cheap and effective way to reach large numbers of people, it can’t be the only platform through which an organization delivers its message. Traditional outreach methods – events, mailings, and phone calls – exist for a reason, they still work.

5) Scale – Position your organization in such a way that it is able to grow. Keep your expectations reasonable in the beginning, but be prepared to expand to meet demand as more interest is generated.

6) Infrastructure – An intelligent system that enables individuals to give and/or join easily is essential for charities of any size.

For the older, established generation at the helm of myriad philanthropy organizations, appealing to youth audiences and enticing them to a charitable mission can seem like a difficult hurdle, but they need only look to young leaders in the field for valuable lessons.

One such individual is Ian Marvy, founder of Added Value, an organization that has trained more than 85 teenagers in areas of business and agriculture. The group has transformed vacant lots located in Red Hook, Brooklyn, into viable farm land. The produce raised is either sold or donated to the local community, with the proceeds funding the program’s future. In an example of outreach that would make any established businessperson proud, Marvy has managed to obtain sponsorships from over 20 foundations and individuals.

Stoked Mentoring (Successful Teens with Opportunity, Knowledge, Experience, and Determination) takes a different approach. The non-profit action sports organization is geared toward the development of at-risk youth through the use of action sports, mentoring and coaching. Executive Director Steve Larosiliere founded Stoked after recruiting for Mentoring USA in New York City and advocating for youth in foster care by presenting the benefits of mentoring to government officials as well as corporations. With additional background in the business world, Larosiliere knows how to get positive attention for the organization’s programs and create a workable structure primed for efficiency and growth.

Young people often take a multidisciplinary approach to their careers, which serves them well in the field of philanthropy. Knowing how to instill business sense into a charitable mission while appealing to younger generations is a tough job, but it’s inspiring to hear that it can be done well.

Affiinity marketing allows an NPO to partner with for-profit organizations which, through their own business models, provide a “give-back” on the proceeds of every purchase made by the organization’s membership base. Even everyday items like wireless phone service and insurance can generate a significant amount of revenue.

So why is this market so untapped?

Non-profits have misconstrued the platform and its effects. Affinity marketing is a viable tool, as long as its best uses are understood and implemented. For example, NPOs must take an active role in communicating any new marketing program to its constituents. After all, the last thing one would want is to alienate supporters when trying to alleviate their financial pressure.

Whatever role affinity marketing takes, it should of course tie into an organization’s mission, and that message should be clearly communicated in the quality and widespread appeal of the chosen product or service. With broad appeal to a large cross-section of their membership, the marketed product both makes sense and creates a built-in test audience. And most importantly, while this type of marketing may seem like an easy solution, it can never completely replace other methods of fundraising like capital campaigns, annual pledge drives, and fundraising galas. Instead, it complements them in a results-driven manner that has potentially long-lasting effects on the fiscal health of a non-profit organization.

A perfect example of this sea-change in philanthropic thinking is the FXB group, run by Swiss Countess Albina DuBoisrouvray. Named after the countess’ son, Francoise Xavier-Bagnoud, who died piloting a rescue helicopter during the Paris-Dakar rally in 1988, the organization’s model is based on the premise that charity cannot simply be a handout, but must enable those receiving aid to help themselves.

Essentially, FXB works with villages in Burundi, Bangladesh, Uganda, and in many other impoverished nations, to help families torn apart by AIDS, regional conflict, and sickness, to come up with ways of creating income. FXB provides the seed money and helps to form a business plan for a family or village to become self-sufficient. After the first year, the funding is reduced by 25%, then 50%, until the business can sustain the family or region without outside financing

In a Forbes Magazine article titled It Takes A Business, we see the sad picture of the Vanlalhneha family, living in North India. Both mother and father had been laid off from jobs because of contracting HIV, left without any source of income to feed their 17-month old child. FXB provided the father, a tailor, with the startup money to begin a small boutique tailoring business, while teaching him additional skills. FXB also provided the wife, formerly a hair stylist, enough capital to open up her own small salon.

After only three years, the family is able to support themselves fully. An inspirational tale and innovative model of philanthropy that provides insights into a new future of global philanthropy: helping those in need to help themselves.

As further evidence of this fact, a recent piece over at Internet Revolution, discovered that only 4 out of the top 10 charities by revenue in the US currently display links to popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace on their homepages. This is rather staggering, considering that these aren’t merely start-up charities with a few employees, operating on shoestring budgets, but well-established organizations. Which is not to say that creating a successful effort of this kind need be cost prohibitive, on the contrary, it’s virtually free.

And while the opportunities to use these networks are surely there: fundraising, education, and outreach to name a few, there appears to be a disconnect. In light of this and given my own interest in philanthropy, I was excited to learn about a new project titled Social by Social that offers practical, scalable advice on how to implement these networking tools into furthering the aims of your organization.

Here’s a bit more about the endeavor in their own words:

“Social by Social is a practical guide to using new technologies to create social impact. It makes accessible the tools you need to engage a community, offer services, scale up activities and sustain projects. Whoever you are, it shows you how to take technology and turn it into real world benefits.

We want to help people in the public and third sectors do more good, by showing them the power of these technologies and how to access them. In the process, we hope we can also educate funders and policy workers about the huge shift of mindset and expectations needed to commission these projects successfully, to give the innovators more space to work.

Whether you’re a small charity wanting cheap web tools to support your work, a large organization seeking to engage more effectively with your community, a civil servant charged with making public services more efficient, or just a concerned citizen on a personal mission, we hope there’s something here for you.”

As a starting point and some added inspiration, I suggest you begin by looking into the project’s case studies.