Can you spare $10? It’s a dumb question because I know you can.
Beth Kanter, friend and blogger, is raising money for the Sharing Foundation, which supports kids in Cambodia. Watch the video Beth did with her son:
Now, if you give $10 you can help Beth raise $50,000 through a competition called America’s Giving Challenge. The fundraising page was set up on GlobalGiving by Michele Martin. Go to THIS PAGE right now and donate and make a big difference.
Parade magazine and the Case Foundation are partnering with GlobalGiving to launch America’s Giving Challenge — an initiative to inspire and reward greater giving through online technology. $500,000 will be awarded through the challenge to charities whose supporters have attracted the most unique donors to their cause using new and innovative online tools. The Challenge begins December 13 at 3pm EST and will close January 31 at 3pm EST.
Our new site Global Development Matters has launched and I want to share with you some of the videos on the site. The goal with this project is to engage US citizens during this election year on issues of global development. The main point of the project is to convey to Americans that “what happens here, matters there” or as the tag line of campaign says “Our Choices, Others’ Lives.”
The video below is called “The Problem with Subsidies” and it is a look at how US farm subsidies impact farmers in Africa.
What I am struck by in this video is how, with world markets, you have a woman picking cotton by hand in Africa competing with a Texas cotton farmer with giant fields and giant equipment. Add to it government subsidies for the Texas farmer and you have no way these Africans can compete.
Most nonprofits are thinking about how to reach younger audiences. Here is an insightful video about their behaviors. Many of you have already seen this video called A Vision of Students Today, added to YouTube over a month ago and now the 94th most discussed video of all time on YouTube with over 6,000 comments. For those who haven’t, I recommend it (be patient through the first 90 seconds of premise).
The site and corresponding outreach campaign are designed to educate the American public about why US engagement in the world and the alleviation of global poverty is critical. As we say on the site, it’s the right thing to do and the smart thing to do.
The site includes lots of video (with more coming), quizzes on global development and extensive Q/A on a variety of global development topics. A marketing campaign is launching this month. We would love feedback on the site and we are interested in having groups that share our agenda promote the site as well as grab and embed the media materials for their own use.
The site’s sponsor is the Center for Global Development (CGD), the leading think tank on US policy toward the developing world. Because CGD is not an advocacy organization, the asks on the site mostly come from other organizations working for the same goals, such as Oxfam, Mercy Corp and One. There are many possible areas of cooperation with other groups, including a push soon to do home screenings of a documentary series on global development issues.
As Lawrence MacDonald, Director of Communications and Policy at CGD wrote:
“Why has CGD launched this initiative? Like you, I believe that the United States can be a powerful force for good in the world. Polls consistently show that Americans want the U.S. to become more effective in helping to end global poverty. Yet elected officials often tell us that voters don’t seem to care about development. This happens partly because we in the development policy community have not yet done a good enough job of communicating with Americans who care deeply about poverty reduction but are not policy experts.
The 2008 election is our chance to change that. Several national groups are already working to make global development a part of the national debate. With the election now just one year away, CGD is supporting this effort by offering new media—including short, compelling online videos—that tell the stories of people in developing countries whose lives are being shaped, for good or for ill, by decisions made in rich countries half-a-world away.”
Please visit the site and sign up, tell your friends and lets make a difference this year.
