Collective Heart

Wellsphere: Let the online community help you reach your goals

A great new site that harnesses the online community to help individuals achieve their goals. Here is a little excerpt description from their site:

A Wellsphere is a page where you can share your journey toward achieving your goals and get support, advice and tips from the community; or share your advice, tips and success stories with the community to help others achieve their goals. Each Wellsphere consists of postings and comments related to a specific goal (tips, questions, comments, advice, ideas, success stories), so you can find and share the personalized solutions that work best for you.

It would be great to see a site like this really take off and expand into large scale goals. Perhaps even add the ability to donate? Check it out and explore for yourself....

Freecyle: Recycling via Gifting

Happy New Year! It's been a while since I last posted. The holiday and a whirlwind of work projects have kept me from after hours blogging. I have continued to look for and seek out websites/videos/portals that inspire me, so hopefully I will have more time to share them.

I really love this site. The title pretty much says it all. It's local, it's easy to use, and it is good for both people in need and the environment. I would love to find more websites like this that drive people to interact locally and make a difference in their communities.

Teen Truth: students say “Stop the bullying!”

Jen over at Ebb&Flow sent me an interesting link again  (thanks Jen!).  A project called  Challenge Day-- a day when high school students get together to talk about how to find love and connection through "the celebration of diversity, truth and full expression."  It is really wonderful to watch the videos and see what an impact this program is making on students.  At one point a "school bully" gets up and apologizes for everyone he has ever picked on.  Very touching.

This site also got me thinking about the real issue kids are facing in schools these days:  Violence.  The video above is a small trailer from an amazing project called Teen Truth:  a documentary created for students and by students.  You can read more about the project and the story behind the creation here.

What is comes down to is that schools need to listen closer to what their students have to say,  rather than just putting them through metal detectors.  Check out the Challenge Day site and watch the video above.  And if you are an educator, purchase a DVD for your school,  or get Challenge Day to come to work with your students.  It seems like teens are more than ready to talk if you are ready to listen.

DoGooder TV plans for individual participation

I emailed Michael Hoffman, the founder of DoGooder TV, to ask about individual participation on the site. Here is his response:

"Thanks for the inquiry. We will have individuals! We are in the process of building a system that is part MySpace and part YouTube for nonprofits. We will have organizations' videos, but also allow individuals to upload video responses, videos of their volunteer activities, videos on issues, etc... We should have the way for nonprofits to sign up, create their pages and upload video in about 1 month. The other functionality is taking a little longer to develop. What you see online is really just a taste..."

This is great news! And thank you Michael for responding.

DoGooder TV: A Video Hub for Nonprofits

I came upon DoGooder TV back in early September, and have watched it slowly grow. The idea is wonderful, here is a description in their own words:

"DoGooderTV enables nonprofit organizations to present new videos and existing media assets to new audiences. Once site visitors see the compelling stories of nonprofits, DoGooderTV gives them a direct way to donate to the organization, join, volunteer or simply find out more information."

So far there are about 15 videos posted on a wide range of topics, all worth watching. I do wish there was functionality on the site to allow for easy sharing. And it would also be great if it were open to individuals, not just nonprofits. But overall, a really fantastic site that I hope continues to grow.

Free Hugs Korea

The Free Hugs Campaign has officially spread in a big way. Korea's own version launched on YouTube yesterday and already has over 60,000 views, placing it in the Top 10 videos viewed today. It's interesting to see what the YouTube community gravitates toward. I love the idea of free hugs. We all have to start somewhere, and maybe that's what this world really needs right now.

But then I question: why doesn't a video like this one become more viral and inspire YouTubers? Is it because the Free Hugs Campaign is user-generated, and the later is brought to you by the Ad Council? If that is the case, then I think advertising agencies should put the same viral effort into their charity cases that they do into their client work. Or, perhaps the Ad Council needs to rethink how they are reaching their audience and change their media buys...

WFP FIGHT HUNGER VIRAL VIDEO CONTEST

 

The United Nations Food Program and partners just launched a video contest in the hopes to virally spread the message to "end child hunger by 2015."  What is interesting about this campaign is that it is not tapping into the YouTube community,  but rather using new video community platforms like Blip.tv and Ourmedia.org.  What's wonderful about this approach is that it taps into the vlog-centric community,  allowing posters to more easily post and be viral from their own sites through RSS,  rather than always driving back to YouTube. I applaud this method,  and it will be interesting to see the results.

But more importantly,  please visit their site to find out more details and participate (deadline is December 15th). I know I plan to!

Don't Forget to Stand up against poverty this weekend

Stand Against Poverty recently reached out to the YouTube community to help promote this fabulous campaign. In addition, their site offers different ways to participate and join the cause--from posting a blog, to starting a forum, to simply just adding a button to your website--it's easy to show your support.

Visit their site today to find out more and what events are happening in your town. And at some point over the weekend, Stand Against Poverty.

I wish there were more posts on YouTube like this!

I was really touched by this.

Givemeaning.com offers services to US residents

This past month, Givemeaning.com announced the expansion of their services (tax breaks) to include all US residents. Read the full press release from CSRwire here.

This Canadian based charitable foundation, whose slogan is "The Power of Plenty," offers a wonderful platform and array of tools to make your charitable causes a success. Offerings are open to individuals and corporations alike--anyone can propose a project and create a community. Best of all, 100% of the funds raised go to the charity involved!

If you haven't been to this site, check it out today. Browse the causes, dig through the communities, find something that interests you--or propose something new that is in need of funding!

(oh, and check out the CEO's blog.)