Design. Charity. Life.

The web is changing. Society is changing. And people are coming together to do something good about it. Net Change Week is full of events that explore how social innovation and social technology are changing our society. The week on “social tech for social change” exists because of this rapid change, and I believe it’s key for social causes to get on board! This is where the MyCharityConnects conference comes in, the sold-out event which I had the opportunity to attend this year.

Over 200 charities and non-profits from across Canada gathered at the well-designed MaRS Centre for this exciting social media and online fundraising learning opportunity, on June 6 and 7 in Toronto. There were opportunities to learn about social media platforms, trends in technology, mobile giving, community building, online fundraising and video, movement marketing, and a lot more. As CanadaHelps describes it, the conference was “by the sector for the sector; it was just the attendees and the experts, including the charities that have done it right”.

By the name of this website alone, you can understand how relevant MyCharityConnects is! For a brief intro to the conference itself, watch this video:

The conference included some incredible presentations, and for someone like me who is constantly online with social media and active in the non-profit world, it was challenging narrowing down which ones to attend.

One seminar that caught my eye was called #Fail – Biggest Online Mistakes and How to Avoid Them, sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Presenter Lee Rose made the session interactive, and displayed the many tweets coming from the conference and its outside followers. Rose posted his presentation online, which you can click-through in full here:

Being really interested in design and branding personally, I found the session on Reaching the Next Generation of Supporters Through Integrated Branding Programs eye-opening. Sheetal Persaud and Matt Barr of a company called HJC lead this session, which included executing branded programs and campaigns for non-profits. The complexity of Passion Branding is very interesting.

“Let’s get real – social media is only one complementary channel for your online programs,” says Claire Kerr, Director of Digital Fundraising at Artez Interactive. I had a great conversation with Kerr during a break and am a fan of her down-to-earth presentation topic, “Oops! You Raised Awareness Without Raising Money (Whatcha gonna do about it?)“.

But what is the real relationship between technology – the online world – and charities? I found a comment by Katya Andresen fascinating when she answered the question of why people contribute to causes: “Technology when used right helps people be generous. People have to feel compelled to give.”

To gain some insight on the conference from an organizer’s perspective, I asked CanadaHelps‘ Fundraising & Business Development Coordinator Katelyn McKeown, and Marketing & Communications Manager Kirstin Beardsley their thoughts.

Of course there’s a huge conference about it, but those who did not attend may wonder how important technology is for non-profits today.

“Technology is hugely important to non-profits for many reasons: donors/volunteers/clients and other constituencies are using technology and non-profits/charities need to be able to communicate with these groups where they are. Technology is a low-cost communications options compared to many traditional communications tactics. Technology tools allow charities to publish their own interactive content without needing to wait for a media outlet to be interested in the cause.”

I also asked how the CanadaHelps’ team feels that a conference like MyCharityConnects benefits the non-profit community overall. They shared that it “levels the playing field in terms of building knowledge about how to use technology effectively.” They added that MyCharityConnects is cost-effective, which isn’t always the case for other tech conferences, and that the content is geared specifically to a non-profit audience.

Since the conference featured so much great content, it’s easy to miss some great presentations. I asked CanadaHelps’ McKeown and Beardsley what they found most memorable, and it was was a case study presented by Sara Falconer.

“Sara provided the audience with some great examples as to how organizations such as World Wildlife Fund-Canada are taking its online communities to the next level. Throughout the presentation Sara highlighted the importance of creating a strategy by looking at three main areas: Goals, Tactics and Metrics. As the audience shared their experiences and ideas we were able to learn as a group the importance of defining what we want to accomplish, how we want to accomplish it and the most effective way of measuring our success in social media.”

All of the 2011 MyCharityConnects Conference presentation slides have been conveniently posted online here.

Thank you to to the teams at CanadaHelps, SiG@MaRS, PricewaterhouseCoopers Canada Foundation, and the many other supporters and sponsors, who put on an inspiring event.

There is a lot of discussion about the world of Corporate Social Responsibility today, and the movement is not slowing down.

Last month, I wrote about the how some corporations take advantage of socially responsible advertising. This month, I had the opportunity to ask a key corporate contact about the relationship non-profit organizations have with corporations, how corporate giving affects public perception, and how others can implement socially responsible practices and initiatives in their businesses.

James Temple, the Director of Corporate Responsibility at PwC and of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Canada Foundation, took some time to answer my questions on this expanding popular topic.

Recently, the foundation put together a report on Capacity Building, which contains content from the community discussions they organized.

The project wasn’t without some necessary friction – there were some big opinions, passionate debates and lot of talk about the fact more of these roundtables need to happen.  Suffice to say, we’re excited about continuing this important project.

How do we do this at PwC? To ensure we make a significant impact in our community involvement, we developed a measurement tool called the Volunteer Continuum, which we’ve recently made available for other corporations and not-for-profits to use as a resource. The Continuum helps individuals and businesses become more strategic in their volunteer efforts and was developed in collaboration with some of Canada’s largest charitable organizations, including Volunteer Canada, Imagine Canada and the Toronto Community Foundation.

Not only are we focused internally on our own approach to CR, we’re also actively engaged with the not-for-profit and corporate communities to help evolve charitable partnerships to become more effective.

The question remains on how organizations will stay focused on what’s really important – having measureable impacts and outcomes in the community vs. driving competition in such a non-competitive space. The first step is for not-for-profits and corporations to have more candid, honest conversations about how support needs to evolve to help not-for-profits achieve their missions. You can read more about our Capacity Building paper at pwc.com/ca/capacitybuilding.

You’ll feel free, the “opposite of heavy” if you do!

Ask yourself: does money buy happiness? Sure shopping and new gadgets bring you excitement. But we should know that you can still be sick, lonely and depressed while rich.

After thinking of it that way, would you be surprised to see this news heading:

“Millionaire gives away fortune which made him miserable”

Well it’s true, there you have it. Having money doesn’t buy you happiness. This millionaire from Austria, Karl Rabeder, is giving away every penny of his £3 million fortune. Why? He said he realized his riches were making him unhappy.

The story definitely caught my attention. In Graphic Design class I actually just finished a Propaganda Poster assignment, and the issue I chose was “The Influence of Affluence – Are We Really Happy?”. So, this piece of news was perfectly relevant!

Rabeder is selling his luxury 3,455 sq ft villa with lake, sauna and spectacular mountain views over the Alps (£1.4 million), his beautiful old stone farmhouse in Provence with 17 hectares overlooking the arrière-pays (£613,000) and has already sold of 6 gliders (£350,00o) and a luxury Audi A8 (£44,000).

The incredible thing is that he wants to have NOTHING left, and in a Telegraph article he boldly stated:

“Money is counterproductive – it prevents happiness to come.”

Clearly he came to a tipping point in his life, was sick of consumerism, and just wanted to be happy.

The best part, I find, is that he’s giving ALL of the money to charity. He has his own microcredit charity that offers small loans to Latin America and builds development aid strategies to self-employed people in developing countries.

Do you think you’ll ever get to the point where you feel you’re slaving for things you really don’t even need? Will you live modestly, make a difference in other’s lives and be satisfied? Will you re-think your goals and money-hungry attitude? Or will you get out there and make big bucks (but perhaps be lonely or feel empty later)?

I’m not saying money is bad, someone else said that already. But I’ll definitley encourage us to take Mr. Rabeder’s life-changing story seriously!

I wasn’t around yet in 1985 when the original “We Are the World” video was released, but have definitely heard about it’s impact and the attention it received. Why? Because it’s not every day that nearly 100 celebrities come together to record one video! It never happens at all. Even at huge award ceremonies, they’re not performing together but instead just sitting in the same room – never mind different generations of celebrities coming together for a cause. This year’s song is aiming to raise funds for earthquake relief in Haiti.

The “We Are The World 2010″ video debuted at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics Opening Ceremonies, which I think was a perfect setting considering the ‘world’ is together at this time and the Games draw record television audiences worldwide. Here is the video:

We Are The World 25 For Haiti song and video was directed and produced by Paul Haggis and Quincy Jones. Over 80 artists had a part in it, including Pink, Miley Cyrus, Barbra Streisand, Jonas Brothers, Jackson Family members, Justin Bieber (why?), Snoop Dogg, Kanye West, and Tony Bennett. Yes, a very random combination but of course it is a great display of how the world can come together in times of need.

I personally purchased both the Song and the extended Video on iTunes. You can do so here.

Official description of the recording:
The 25th Anniversary recording features over 80 artists and performers. The recording of We Are The World 25 For Haiti embodied the same enthusiasm, sense of purpose and generosity as the original recording 25 years ago. Every one of the artists who participated, regardless of genre or generation, walked into the room with their hearts and souls completely open to coming together to help the people of Haiti.

You can watch the Behind the Scenes Videos here:
Interviews Part 1 | Interviews Part 2

The official website of We Are the World is
www.wearetheworldfoundation.org.

You can also contribute and learn more using this tool:

While there are countless online groups for causes and ones that claim to donate per click or per member, here’s one case where an unsuspecting yet ambitious American high school student challenged Facebook users to support his personal donation to Haiti.

Shortly after the recent disaster in Haiti, Raja Salti of Sugar Land, Texas created a Facebook group called “For Every Person That Joins This, I Will Donate $0.01 To Haiti Relief”. He began describing his mission with, “I am ready to donate a sum of money to help the innocent victims of the massive earthquake that struck Haiti. I have been grown up on the notion that donating is the best thing one can do for the world around us.”

Raja explains that his Facebook group has allowed him to expand on simply donating, by raising awareness at the same time. “I’m just doing my part, hopefully, you will do yours too.” Then,  a simple message of “Invite all of your friends”, and it went viral.

He decided that on January 25, 2010, he would take the final member count and donate the total (one penny for every member of the group). And, he did. Inspired by his story and impressed at the power of social media for true fundraising and charitable results, I took the opportunity to interview the founder of this group!

Interview with Raja Salti

By Daniel Francavilla

Hey Raja, thanks for taking the time to answer some question. Tell us, how would you describe yourself in one sentence?
I’m what you call an ambitious as well as interesting person who loves to succeed and be the best in whatever I do.

What was the first thing you heard about the Haiti Earthquake?
Well I saw the utter chaos in the streets on the breaking news report while the reporter was mentioning that it will take a while for Haiti to get back on their feet.

What triggered you to choose such an ambitious goal for fundraising?
Well I always loved to give, but I realized many of my peers in school didn’t. So I decided to go against the current and send an urgent message of awareness to the youth.

Why and how did you decide on $0.01 per member?
1. I am a sophomore in high school.
2. This is mainly to raise awareness about the state Haiti is in, not so much about the money.
3. 100,000 people=$1,000= more practical
I was expecting it to get fairly large, that’s probably why I made it $0.01 per person.

And risky, no? Did anyone doubt you specifically?
Yes, well I think in order to get successful you must be willing take risks. Some people in the group doubted me, but you can’t let those people affect you. When I finally posted the screen shot of the online receipt they all deleted their discussion posts.

Exactly. Taking a risk is the only way to grow, I learned that on my exposure trip to the Dominican Republic in high school. That’s when I started ACCESS Charity. Have you had a personal connection with anyone in Haiti?
Actually yes, my neighbor is an orthopedic surgeon who went to the Dominican Republic/Haiti border for a week. As a matter of fact he gave a generous donation to my group which really helped me out.

How long did you give yourself for the fundraising challenge? And how many people did you invite at first?
I started it on January 19, the final count was taken on Jan. 25 at 8:00 P.M. I invited all 920 of my friends at first.

Raja, have you ever been active in a fundraiser before? Were you generally an activist? Do you recall any other fundraisers in which you took such bold action?
Actually no, this is a first-time for me. I’m the president of the Teen Outreach at my Orthodox Christian Church. What we do is we go to a soup kitchen once a month, and do whatever we can to help our city. But, other than that, it’s pretty much all I do.

Raja, do you think your fundraising efforts and ambition has had an impact on other students?
Oh yes, the amount of comments and personal messages I received in my inbox from friends as well as non-friends are astonishing. It’s humbling how honored I feel to have inspired so many people.

Where was the money sent?
I sent the donation to Hope For Haiti Now which is a combination of many 4 star rated charities. Total was $1,143.09.

After your January 25 deadline, people continued to join the group. There are now over 1.5 x the initial 100,000. What are your future plans?
My friend and I created group t-shirts, the proceeds will be sent to Haiti. I hope to sell at least a thousand of them. I hope to pursue my cross country running due to the fact that it forms mental discipline and allows me to live a well balanced life. After college I am planning on going to medical school to become a doctor.

What would you like to tell people?
Anything is possible, just set your mind to a specific goal that engages you. See the opportunity in it from your personal view. Then follow through and act upon it.

Thanks Raja, for sharing your story! I’ll watch in amazement as your group continues to grow.

At the time of posting this, the group membership had already increased to 158,410 members.