Filed under: Give to Children, Giving | Tags: Easy Giving, giving guide, health aid, SHARED Inc.
by Anis Salvesen
Elizabeth Ziemba, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Giving Back and founder of SHARED, Inc. shares her story with us in the following interview.
You wrote “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Giving Back.” What first got you thinking about writing the book?
It was actually a confluence of variables. First, I had years of experience as an attorney, and was a long-time volunteer and donor. A few years ago I got a masters in public health and set up SHARED, Inc. In running that organization, I discovered that I could not find one central place to send people interested in giving back. So I took my knowledge of the law, understanding the law and how nonprofits run, and I put together a book to provide people with guidance and to identify topics that they would find useful.
Great. You mentioned SHARED, Inc. What first inspired you to found it? Any specific event?
Well, it was not the result of a grand epiphany. It came out of my feeling burned out from a busy law practice. I needed a break and was planning to take a sabbatical of some kind, not quite sure what I was going to do. One evening I came home from a typically long day and found someone else’s mail in my post box. One of the pieces of mail was a sort of pamphlet from Boston University for a 12-week course called “Management Methods in International Health.”
I thought well, management skills sound useful and the course is only 12 weeks, so why not sign up? I took the course and ended up falling in love with the topic of international health. So I decided to get a master’s degree, focusing on the issue of access to medicine. I learned so much not just from the coursework, but from the other people in the class, many of them middle management from various ministries of health. It became clear to me that there was a big issue here, people needlessly dying from lack of access to existing inexpensive and effective medicines, and it made me very angry. When I get angry, I get going.
Wow! What a great story. You started SHARED,Inc. back in 2002. Since then we’ve entered some very challenging times. How do you find yourself dealing with the economic downturn at SHARED, Inc?
We have a dedicated team supported by a wonderful group of interns from various institutions, including the Boston University School of Public Health. Also, we are focusing on more specific, smaller asks. For example, for Valentine’s Day, we had a project called “Love Listens.” For a modest amount ($41), donors could participate in this project to buy stethoscopes for nurses at Scott Hospital, Morija, Lesotho. It was incredibly successful. We were just blown away. The original scope of the campaign had been to just supply a stethoscope for every nurse, but thanks to the enthusiastic response of donors, we were able to buy one for each and every nurse and doctor and nursing student in the hospital – 165 in total! And we had funds left over, which we will share with another hospital.
I was going to say that was heart-warming, but I’ll refrain from doing so. It is so wonderful that so many people are still excited about giving, and that you are finding more ways to facilitate their giving back. Which brings me to my next question: What are some of the greatest milestones you’ve achieved, and what do you envision for the future?
In September of 2007, we hosted Archbishop Desmond Tutu at a gala fundraiser in Boston. It was just a remarkable evening. He is just such a fascinating and inspiring individual. He is funny, intelligent and so down-to-earth. It was definitely one of the most amazing evenings of my life – truly humbling.
It’s pretty hard to beat that evening. After you host Desmond Tutu, it’s like Where do you go from here? But we do still have a lot of good work ahead. For example, we are currently working on project called Seeds of Change, which is a project to fund community gardens where individuals plant, tend, and harvest fruits and vegetables that feed HIV/AIDS children and adults. By funding gardens, hundreds of families grow food for themselves and sell excess produce in the community, contributing to the self-sustainability of the garden. We also are currently conducting a gadget drive to raise money for medicines for children in Africa. It’s called Technology for Tots, and it’s a great way to turn your unwanted electronics into much-needed medicines.
Elizabeth, thank you so much for being so generous with your time. Your values are right in line with those at UniversalGiving. We also focus on helping others give back, by connecting them with volunteer and/or donation opportunities from a pool of select charities.
For more information on current projects at SHARED,Inc. just click on the link below. http://www.healthshares.org/about/projects/index.shtml
Filed under: Fun Ways to Give, Give to Children, Inexpensive Ways to Give | Tags: take action, children, community, education
By Cheryl Mahoney
When I was still in school, especially elementary school, I always bitterly resented anyone who started discussing “Back to School” when it was only midway through the summer. But I’m afraid that’s my topic today. It’s mid-July, so the schoolbooks aren’t looming in the immediate future…but that last month until the end of August and the beginning of the school year flies by. That means it’s time for getting new uniforms, buying pencils, figuring out class schedules…and also a good time to give back, whether you’re a student or no.
I recently read an article in The New York Times about Do Something 101. DoSomething.org and Staples are partnering together for the second year to help low-income students get the school supplies they need. I love the idea of empowering kids to help kids, and doing it in a way that makes sense. If kids are getting school supplies for themselves, they can easily understand what it means to give school supplies to another kid.
For the campaign this year, DoSomething and Staples have added a social media element, using Facebook to help spread awareness. There’s a Facebook page, from which you can get a virtual backpack, to encourage the donation of real supplies. Good angle–almost every student I know is on Facebook!
DoSomething is a great organization (and a UniversalGiving partner, by the way) which I believe we mentioned a few posts ago. DoSomething is designed to motivate teenagers to get involved, by using the power of the internet. You could say that they’re making giving easy! If you go to their website, right there on the homepage you can search for action opportunities, based on cause, who you want to work with (alone, family, sports team…), where you want to work (online, at school, at home…) and, my favorite, how long you want to spend–from one minute to a year. I did a search on one minute options–225 of them. As a perpetually busy person who was always busy in high school too (I attended a Catholic college-preparatory school for young women, and have rarely had so much to do), I love the idea of one minute ways to give back.
Visit DoSomething.org for fun and easy ways to make a difference–for instance, donating school supplies through Do Something 101! Even if you’re not a teenager, I’m sure you can find a good opportunity. Maybe one that takes just a minute.
Filed under: Give to Children, Social Change | Tags: change, resources, take action
By Cheryl Mahoney
Just yesterday I was talking about one great organization UniversalGiving is in partnership with, Clodagh Cares, and today I’m going to write about another. There are so many different ways to take action for social change: you can volunteer, you can attend an event, you can sign a petition… We all know that UniversalGiving is the perfect place to go if you want to give or volunteer to quality international projects. But suppose you decide you also want to find an opportunity to support a campaign or add your voice to a pledge? You can find all that and more at SocialActions.com.
As Social Actions puts it: “You make a difference. We make it easy.” I have to acknowledge that that sounds very much in line with our tagline: “Giving is easy, when you know how.” Social Actions is another site to help you find out about the how.
Social Actions brings together opportunities from more than fifty different sources, including, we’re proud to state, UniversalGiving. With their “Advanced Search” feature, you can search by type of action, date added, action source, and, of course, keyword. So I decided that maybe I’d like to sign a petition relating to children in Africa. I filled in the relevant values, and found a petition by Care2 about ending child slavery in cocoa farms on the Ivory Coast–I signed. And that was just one of a number of options that came up.
If you’re all about using technology to spread the word, Social Actions also provides a long list of widgets and plug-ins and add-ons and so on that you can use to tell your friends about ways to take action. Or if you’re more about connecting in a community and maybe making new friends, you can join the Social Actions community too. Come friend us!
So how do you want to make a difference? Social Actions can help you find a way. They have more than 80,000 options. One of them must be right for you!
Filed under: Give to Children, Inexpensive Ways to Give | Tags: children, education, generosity, take action
By Cheryl Mahoney
When I’m not writing posts on here, I also do all kinds of other work with UniversalGiving, much of it involving tracking news on philanthropy, or spreading the word of UniversalGiving’s services, or working with other exemplary organizations–some of this work then leads to blog posts. That’s the case today. Lately I’ve been communicating with Clodagh Cares, an organization UniversalGiving is proud to be in partnership with.
Clodagh Cares is a website where you can buy a camel–and use it to change a family’s life. Clodagh Cares is dedicated to alleviating poverty by giving impoverished families the tools they need to thrive. Education is a particular focus, and wisely so–we’ve discussed the power of education to improve an entire community before. Clodagh Cares supports two schools, The Azama Project in Ecuador and The Thorn Tree Project in Kenya. Both projects have been fully vetted through UniversalGiving’s unique QualityModel, so you know they’re places where your money can have the most impact, if you choose to give. In fact, you can see exactly what impact your dollar can have, if you click to “Learn More” about each project. A mere eight dollars will buy a school uniform (I don’t remember my uniforms being that cheap when I was in school–another advantage of international giving!) and ten dollars will buy a mattress–that’s barely the price of a movie ticket. If you have a little more to share, you can send someone to college for just $600 a year.
Clodagh Cares was founded by Clodagh, a designer (of everything from make-up packaging to hotels) and bestselling author, known for her belief in design promoting well-being, with an emphasis on Feng Shui, sustainability, and green design. You can find out more about her at Clodagh.com, and also about her book, which emphasizes home as sanctuary. I love that idea.
I also love it that you can buy a camel for just 200 dollars. Who knew they were so reasonably priced? Or that it was so easy to have a real impact on the world?
Filed under: Give to Children, Inspirational Thoughts | Tags: charity ideas, children, future, resources, take action
By Cheryl Mahoney
I love inspirational stories about people doing great things to serve others, and I really love stories about kids doing great things. Is that just me? I’m guessing not, which is why I wanted to share this wonderful website I found with all of you.
KidsAreHeroes.com is a website dedicated to highlighting amazing kids doing incredible things. The premise is simple–honor kids who are making a difference, inspire others to do the same, and then offer resources to do it. There’s pages for kids, parents and schools.
The “Lily’s Heroes” page is where you can read about kids who are getting involved to help others. Lily is a beautiful big dog, and the mascot for the site. I found my favorite stories down at the bottom of page one.
I love to read, and I love to reread books I enjoyed as a kid, so there’s lots of space in my heart for My Own Book, founded by Kyle and Brady Baldwin. With My Own Book, teenage volunteers go into K-3rd grade classrooms, read to the children and tell them about the library, then let each of the kids pick out a book to keep. They target schools with disadvantaged students; for many of the kids, this is the first book they’ve ever owned. More than 17,000 books have been given out! Get involved at My Own Book’s website, or click here for another way to give books to children.
My other favorite story is about Kennedy Kulish, who founded Kisses for Kaeden. Kaeden is Kennedy’s little brother, who was born with heart defects that required surgery before he was a year old. Kennedy (age six at the time!) wanted to help “other ‘Kaeden’s’ and their families.” That’s what struck me most about this story–concern for an individual expanding into a widespread concern for others, because everyone is ultimately an individual. Everyone matters to someone, just as Kennedy’s little brother matters to her. How beautiful. Kisses for Kaeden was founded five years ago. As far as I can tell, Kaeden is doing great, and the organization has raised close to 60,000 dollars! Check out Kennedy’s website (still under construction), and here’s another option to help children in need of life-saving surgery, heart surgery included.
It’s easy to look at all the problems of the world and say, what can we do? But stories like this make me answer that question with–we can do ANYTHING. It’s a cliche to say kids like this make me hopeful about the future…but they do.
