After World War II, a group of charities, with support from the US government, established the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe, which sent supply packages to civilians throughout western Europe in an effort to help them rebuild. The CARE packages were successful not only in helping millions of Europeans survive the immediate aftermath of […]
#PublicPolicy: Battle Over Federal Budget Puts Nonprofits In Firing Line
We have not seen much love in Washington DC recently, and the presentation of President Obama’s budget for 2012 is not likely to be taken as a gesture of friendship. As soon as the dust settled after last November’s midterm elections, both political parties and numerous commissions began to draw up agendas to discuss the […]
Far More Developers Than Users of Location-Based Social Media
We shared with you last week a story published by The Wall Street Journal about how mobile applications draw our personal data from our devices in ways few of us understand. We would expect our social-media apps to do such (Facebook, our myriad of Twitter-based software, FourSquare, etc.), but The WSJ found that information-based apps […]
Google.ORG struggles to Live Up to its Early Self-Promotion
Stephanie Strom and Miguel Helft have recently written a superb story for The New York Times about how Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org (or ‘DotOrg’), has struggled to live up to its early self-promotion. The story serves as a useful reminder that success in the business world – especially success redefining what success can mean in […]
Charities Must Increase SM Outreach As Email Becomes Obsolete
Most of our readers (and certainly this writer) can probably well remember our first forays into email. Mine began on the blue-and-grey screen and terminal command line of my university’s PINE email system. The development of graphical interfaces via AOL, then Yahoo! and the like meant (pretty) free and (fairly) instant communication across the street […]
#Aging: Oldest Baby Boomers turn 65: Whose Generation?
People try to put us down Just because we get around Things they do look awful cold Yeah, I hope I die before I get old The Who, “My Generation“ (1965) Even if a single song could define a generation, the sentiment did not come true for many born in 1946. As of 1 January, […]
All I Want For Christmas Is A New iPad…
Ah, the magic of Christmas. Children laughing, people passing, meeting smile after smile. Makes you want to break out in song. This blog tries to draw some attention to those who are doing good for others, be they charities or politically engaged organizations. We plan to do so throughout 2011 as well. But it’s Christmas […]
Smarter Cities: Opportunity For Corporate And Community Cooperation?
I had a late night out last night (No, nothing particularly entertaining to report; just a late night) and had to drive home along much of the length of a major urban road in northern Baltimore city. Twice I sat at red lights for over a minute while the non-existent traffic on the small cross […]