Task: Help determine where TripAdvisor should donate
Effort level: Super Easy.
Investment: 5 secs.
Who: Anybody old enough to use the internet.
Super easy. Visit Tripadvisor and choose your favorite cause to determine how TripAdvisor should divvy up $1 million dollars.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Good Search/Shop : Redirect ad revenues
Task: Use search engine and website to shop at your favourite stores.
Effort level: Super Easy.
Investment: Normal activities.
Who: Anybody old enough to search the internet and/or old enough to shop.
So we all use search engines to navigate the internet. Last year $6 billion was raised through the ad revenues of search engines. Well, Good Search donates a portion of their ad revenue (1 cent) to a charity of your choosing. Yes it is just pennies but for something that requires no effort should we quibble? And how many times do you search in a day?
Now onto shopping. Visit Good Shop, enter your favourite charity and then choose a store from the 700 listed. A percentage of your purchase is then given to your charity. Take a look at their list . The numbers are pretty impressive - shopping at 1-800-flowers results in 5-6% donation, gap 2.8% and ebay gives 25-30% of their revenue. Again just going about your daily life, albeit with a little change..
Effort level: Super Easy.
Investment: Normal activities.
Who: Anybody old enough to search the internet and/or old enough to shop.
So we all use search engines to navigate the internet. Last year $6 billion was raised through the ad revenues of search engines. Well, Good Search donates a portion of their ad revenue (1 cent) to a charity of your choosing. Yes it is just pennies but for something that requires no effort should we quibble? And how many times do you search in a day?
Now onto shopping. Visit Good Shop, enter your favourite charity and then choose a store from the 700 listed. A percentage of your purchase is then given to your charity. Take a look at their list . The numbers are pretty impressive - shopping at 1-800-flowers results in 5-6% donation, gap 2.8% and ebay gives 25-30% of their revenue. Again just going about your daily life, albeit with a little change..
Featured Charity: Free the Children
I hope to occasionally highlight special charities that we can help in the more traditional ways. This is the first charity and I'm sure you will see why.
Free the children was started in 1995 by 12 year old Craig Kielburger and a group of his grade 7 friends after he read about a murdered small Pakistani kid who had been sold into child labor. They have inspired and engaged young children to help other children and have had a remarkable list of successes (Built more than 500 schools, shipped medical supplies worth more than $15 million). They have been recognized by various awards including the 2006 World Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child (Children's Noble Prize). 91 cents of every dollar donated goes directly to programs benefiting children and more than 60% of their donations come from or are raised by youth.
Please forward this to the youth in your life (Get Involved website is built for kids) and help in any way you can.
Free the children was started in 1995 by 12 year old Craig Kielburger and a group of his grade 7 friends after he read about a murdered small Pakistani kid who had been sold into child labor. They have inspired and engaged young children to help other children and have had a remarkable list of successes (Built more than 500 schools, shipped medical supplies worth more than $15 million). They have been recognized by various awards including the 2006 World Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child (Children's Noble Prize). 91 cents of every dollar donated goes directly to programs benefiting children and more than 60% of their donations come from or are raised by youth.
Please forward this to the youth in your life (Get Involved website is built for kids) and help in any way you can.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Eat so they Can - Child poverty
Task: Organize a meal fundraiser to feed children.
Effort level: Involved but can be made easy with the right attitude.
Investment: Party planning time, Money for a meal.
Who: Adults but children would add atmosphere.
So this is as easy as getting your friends together for a meal, except, everybody donates the cost of a meal. Join with thousands around the world in raising money while eating, so those less fortunate than us can eat - Eat so they can.The official dates are Oct 18-19, but according to the administrators we can do this anytime of the year. They (part of the Global Volunteer Network) will even send you the necessary organization materials.If the donations are postmarked by Nov 3rd you can be eligible for a grand prize (Trip to Africa to help distribute the money raised). Details of money distributed are listed on the website. There is no minimum though one should should consider the goal of being profitable. Is'nt this a great reason to get your friends together? And how easy would this be as a potluck? We're hoping to set one up at my school next month..
Effort level: Involved but can be made easy with the right attitude.
Investment: Party planning time, Money for a meal.
Who: Adults but children would add atmosphere.
So this is as easy as getting your friends together for a meal, except, everybody donates the cost of a meal. Join with thousands around the world in raising money while eating, so those less fortunate than us can eat - Eat so they can.The official dates are Oct 18-19, but according to the administrators we can do this anytime of the year. They (part of the Global Volunteer Network) will even send you the necessary organization materials.If the donations are postmarked by Nov 3rd you can be eligible for a grand prize (Trip to Africa to help distribute the money raised). Details of money distributed are listed on the website. There is no minimum though one should should consider the goal of being profitable. Is'nt this a great reason to get your friends together? And how easy would this be as a potluck? We're hoping to set one up at my school next month..
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Hungersite : Click to give food
Task: Click to give food
Effort level: Super Easy (save as homepage).
Investment: A mouse click
Who: Anybody old enough to use the internet.
So this is just too easy and too simple. Simply visit Hungersite
and click once a day so the sponsors of the site can pay for food. You can simply set as your homepage or sign up for a daily reminder email.100% of the advertising money is given to Mercy Corps and Feeding America which then goes to feeding people in over 74 countries. Additionally if you buy any item from their store it will further fund the cause. Do I need to say anything else?
Effort level: Super Easy (save as homepage).
Investment: A mouse click
Who: Anybody old enough to use the internet.
So this is just too easy and too simple. Simply visit Hungersite
and click once a day so the sponsors of the site can pay for food. You can simply set as your homepage or sign up for a daily reminder email.100% of the advertising money is given to Mercy Corps and Feeding America which then goes to feeding people in over 74 countries. Additionally if you buy any item from their store it will further fund the cause. Do I need to say anything else?
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Free Rice : Power of learning
Task: Answer multiple choice questions to donate 20 grains of rice per right answer.
Effort level: Easy (you can always choose the lowest level!).
Investment: Fun time
Who: Anybody old enough to read and use the internet.
So this is a really fun way to engage my competitive streak, my love for learning AND to help feed the hungry - Free Rice. The goal is to answer questions from a range of subjects (art, science, math, language) and for each correct answer you help donate 20 grains of rice. Questions are as simple as matching synonyms, or choosing the grammatically correct sentence.. A running score on the bottom keeps track of how well (or bad) you are doing. You can change levels depending on how much you want to be challenged or your progress can determine the level. I seem to hover between a level of 39 and 45 and on occasion have gone upto to 50!!! And answers that were matched incorrectly are recycled back to encourage learning. Brilliant!
Any time I feel like stopping, the bowl of rice on the side (filling up with grains that I helped donate) eggs me on..And there are all those levels to conquer. Would'nt this be a fun way to practice for the SAT's?
The rice is paid for by the sponsors listed on the bottom of their screen and they are partnered with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and the United Nations World Food Program.
Any other fun and useful ideas?
Effort level: Easy (you can always choose the lowest level!).
Investment: Fun time
Who: Anybody old enough to read and use the internet.
So this is a really fun way to engage my competitive streak, my love for learning AND to help feed the hungry - Free Rice. The goal is to answer questions from a range of subjects (art, science, math, language) and for each correct answer you help donate 20 grains of rice. Questions are as simple as matching synonyms, or choosing the grammatically correct sentence.. A running score on the bottom keeps track of how well (or bad) you are doing. You can change levels depending on how much you want to be challenged or your progress can determine the level. I seem to hover between a level of 39 and 45 and on occasion have gone upto to 50!!! And answers that were matched incorrectly are recycled back to encourage learning. Brilliant!
Any time I feel like stopping, the bowl of rice on the side (filling up with grains that I helped donate) eggs me on..And there are all those levels to conquer. Would'nt this be a fun way to practice for the SAT's?
The rice is paid for by the sponsors listed on the bottom of their screen and they are partnered with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and the United Nations World Food Program.
Any other fun and useful ideas?
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