Marketing Articles About Non-Profits Search Results

1. Govt Considers Free(ish) Broadband for All. Err....

   Next week sees the release of the Government's National Broadband Plan, in which it briefly outlines a "broadband for all" idea (something that our U.K. readers might remember from the British Government's Digital Britain report of 2009.) The FCC is proposing that free or low-cost wireless spectrum be set aside in an attempt to get the 93 million or so Americans who are currently without broadband in their homes. In an effort to keep the costs low, they're looking to the private, not-for-profit, and philanthropic sectors.

   While admirable--and typically forward-thinking from the Obama administration--there's a small flaw to the plan. No ISP in its right mind would be happy about this, and their lobbyists will kick up a right old stink in D.C.--or squash the functionality of the free service until it's barely useable.

   Given the huge amount of entertainment the Internet now provides, it's becoming increasingly hard to view broadband as a utility. However, you can't argue with FCC Chair Julius Genachowski's warning that, without computer literacy and Internet access, there is a danger of "a new category of second-class citizens."

   Alongside this hot potato, the National Broadband Plan is also proposing measures to combat digital illiteracy, with an Online Skills Portal and a Digital Literacy Corps. Congress gets to hear the plan next Wednesday, March 17.

   [Via Electronista and ZDNet.com]

   
   

   
   (03/10/10 09:00 PM)

2. Eat-onomics: The Ten Most Inspiring People in Sustainable Food.

   

   Additional reporting/writing by Emilia Benton

   The way America eats has to change, that's no secret. Thanks to the efforts of these ten trailblazers, that change might be closer than we think.

   Dan Barber, executive chef and co-owner of Blue Hill Farm

   Barber is the brains behind the "Know thy Farmer" philosophy embraced at Blue Hill Farms. He was recently honored at the USA Network's Character Approved Awards for his achievements in "green" food cultivation and preparation. A passionate advocate for regional farm networks, Barber continues to practice what he preaches at his family owned farms, as well as with the nonprofit Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture.

   Deborah Kane, Vice President of Food and Farms at Ecotrust

   Last month, Ecotrust began allowing Northwest food producers and buyers to utilize FoodHub, an online resource aimed to simplify their connections with each other and increase food trade in the Pacific Northwest. Kane continues to expound Ecotrust's mission to inspire fresh thinking that promotes social equity, economic opportunity and environmental well-being.

   Mike Yohay, CEO of Cityscape Farms

   Yohay's Cityscape Farms continues to work to produce great-tasting fresh food for local buyers with its hydroponic greenhouses. "Hydroponic farming is incredibly innovative and resource economical compared to conventional farming. It's well-suited for cities because you can do it anywhere," says Yohay.

   Gary Hirshberg, CEO, Stonyfield Farm

   In the past 26 years, Hirshberg has taken his organic yogurt company and turned it into an organic yogurt empire worth $340 million. Stonyfield Farm doesn't just deliver high-quality food to consumers, but pays farmers 60-100% more than conventional farmers, to ensure the use of sustainable farming practices. What does he ask of his customers? "When you shop, you're really voting for the kind of world you want. It is power," he says. "We should use that power for good."

   Roger Doiron, founder, Kitchen Gardeners International

   Doiron can proudly take credit for bringing a garden to the lawn of the White House with Eat the View, a campaign that rallied Americans' desire to see a healthier First Family. "I knew this garden had been proposed in the past, and it had its champions--Alice Waters, Michael Pollan," he says. "I wasn't a rock star like them, but thought I could play the role of a roadie, making sure the mics are on and the amps are cranked up to make sure other people's voices were heard."

   Jamie Oliver, chef

   The Naked Chef is on a mission to bring healthy food to every child in America. His campaign, Jamie's Food Revolution, aims to replace junk food and processed snacks with fresh and nutritious meals, in school and at home. ABC will air a six-part series tracking the campaign as Oliver heads to Huntington, West Virginia, which has been called the unhealthiest city in America. If Oliver can make Huntington healthy, he might be able to make America healthy.

   Melanie Cheng, founder, FarmsReach

   San Francisco-based FarmsReach pairs farmers up with buyers for sustainable local food systems, with plans to be nationwide by 2011. "If you look at statistics, farmers markets and Community Supported Agriculture are awesome, growing distribution methods, but they still make up less than 1% of food volume sold in the country," she says. "That's why we're working with the wholesale channel, for distributors and bigger institutions."

   Michael Pollan, author, Food Rules

   Pollan's latest book, Food Rules, offers memorable tips on making wise eating choices. Pollan, who has been described as the nation's most trusted resource for food-related issues, his new book is showing Americans that "eating doesn't have to be so complicated."

   Dickson Despommier, Vertical Farms Project

   The Vertical Farms Project is the brainchild of Despommier, a professor at Columbia, and his students. Envisioning a world of sustainable farms housed in urban skyscrapers, the project proposes paying traditional farmers to simply plant trees on their land, in an attempt to sequester carbon from the atmosphere. Crazy? Maybe. But it's inspiring more thought, more solutions.

   Robert Kenner, director, Food Inc.

   Kenner's documentary Food Inc. did its fair share of grossing viewers out by exposing the heinous slaughter practices (and eating habits) found across our country. More importantly, the film, which showcased leaders like Hirshberg, showed that it is possible to eat healthy and enjoy it.

   
   

   
   (03/08/10 09:00 PM)

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4. This Week’s Links.

   Bloomberg on for-profit companies acquiring nonprofit colleges. The Big Picture on how municipalities are responding to grievances about property assessments. ReadWriteWeb covers the explosive projected growth of touchscreen devices. The... Read more

   (03/05/10 09:00 PM)

5. Corporate social opportunity. NYT had a great article a couple days ago called Solving A Social Problem Without Going the Non-Profit Route.What to call these innovative businesspeople is the subject of some debate. The terms “social entrepreneur” and “social businesses” are generally used... (03/11/09 09:01 PM)

6. Referrals From Great Sites.

   Every once in a while I take a look at the Google Analytics reports for my website. These reports provide detailed statistics about the number and type of visitors to a site, where they came from, what pages they visited, etc. The reports contain a lot of data and take a while to review, which is why I only look at them occasionally.

   But one of the reports I do like to look at is the Referring Sites Report, which indicates which sites referred people to my site via a link. And if you are interested in grants (both government and non-government grants), grantwriting, or grant research, you'll want to take a look at some of the websites that send the most visitors to Proposalwriter.com . Among my top 10 referring sites are:

   • The Grants Information Collection at the University of Wisconsin. This fabulous site has a wealth of information on grants, funding, and other related topics. I'm delighted to say that they link to my site on four different pages. They have consistently been my #1 referral site.
   • My #2 referral site is The Foundation Center, which sends visitors to my site via links on 3 of their many pages. If you want grant-related information from the nation's leading authority on non-profits, The Foundation Center's site is one of the first places you should investigate.
   • The third site that sends the most visitors to my site is the US House of Representatives. Somewhere among the its many pages there has been a link to my site for several years. Except I don't know where it is, and oddly enough the link is to my Guestbook. I've never taken the time to try to figure out how people get to my site from this site.
   • #9 on the list is the University of Michigan's Proposal Writing Help Page, which of course contains info and links on proposal writing.

   In addition to Google Analytics, I use Google Webmaster Tools to find out how many other sites have links to mine. At present, Webmaster Tools shows that there are over 4,100 external links from other sites to the various pages on my site. But this number seems to include quite a few dupicates, so it's hard to tell what the real number is.   

   Nevertheless, I'm pretty satisfied.

   (03/06/08 09:01 AM)

7. Disruptors Video: One Laptop Per Child. In this week's episode of the New Disruptors, I visit One Laptop Per Child, the non-profit building $176 laptops for children in the developing world. I think they are disruptive for many reasons, but foremost is that by trying to design a laptop that initially was supposed to be under $100 they had to rethink many things about computers that most of us take for granted, like the display, the networking, the power consumption, and the durability. (There's no hard drive in this thing). It's also one of the greenest computers on the planet. CTO Mary Lou Jepsen explains to me in the video how getting the power consumption down to a fraction of what a normal laptop needs was one of the main challenges. (It turns out they do this by turning things off when they are not in use to a greater degree than conventional computers do). Don't be surprised if you start seeing many of these features copied in regular laptops soon. Watch the video. (09/14/07 09:00 PM)

8. Learn, Earn, Return. I've just joined my first Board of Directors, what an honor. The organization, eBizITPA, is a non-profit focused on increasing IT investment in small and medium sized businesses in the state of Pennsylvania. I have my first board meeting next month - I'm sure I'll be boring you with stuff about this in the coming months...... (04/06/07 09:01 AM)

9. Free one-pager for non profits (org2.0). Courtesy of Npower New York and Squidoo. Download pdf Feel free to share.... (12/12/06 08:47 AM)

10. I Know You're Out There.

    I don't know the names of most of the subscribers to this blog. Many people don't submit any name at all, and many use personal e-mail addresses and not the e-mail addresses of their companies and organizations. That is fine with me -- I don't have a need for names or e-mail addresses (except to send my update notifications). My mailing list is never used for any other purpose; it is secure and is never given out to anyone.

    However, I do look at the list occasionally, and when I do, I am always surprised at the number of subscribers who are government employees (quite a few of them do use their government e-mail addresses). I am curious to know why they have subscribed to this blog, since it is geared to the "other side" -- writing proposals as opposed to reviewing proposals or preparing solicitations. Perhaps they are just curious themselves, or maybe they are preparing for a career change into the private or non-profit sectors. Or maybe they just want to learn what it's like to be on the other side.

    Whatever the reason, I think we could learn a lot from these folks. So, government subscribers, I invite you to speak up! Make comments to some of the blog posts. Or if you have a topic that you'd like to write about, send me an e-mail and I'll arrange for it to be posted on the blog. In either case, you don't have to give your name, e-mail address or agency if you don't want to.

    I know you're out there. So give us your thoughts from the government perspective.

    (12/12/06 08:42 AM)