Can Your Web Searching Save the World?

Our friends at Worldchanging just turned me on to Ripple, a search engine site that’s fighting global poverty, one click at a time. It’s yet another example of a web 2.0 concept tweaking an everyday action into a force for good, and the brilliant simplicity of the idea has held a smile on my face all afternoon.

Working with their own slate of partners for change including Oxfam, WaterAid, Oak Tree and the Grameen Foundation, Ripple has created two innovative ways of turning clicks into aid for the world’s poor. The first harnesses the pay-per-click economy of affiliate search programs. Ripple’s Google-powered search site allows users to conduct ordinary searches, but with a twist: Ripple donates their portion of Google’s paid search revenue to effect social and humanitarian change. In the second, users who click one of four “Give Panels� on the Ripple home page—dedicated to clean water, food, education and micro-finance—are shown an advertisement. Ripple then donates the revenue they earn from advertisers to address these needs.

Though Ripple earns only a small amount of money per click, it’s clear that the potential impact of such a program is vast. As Worldchanging points out, Americans pose more that 4 billion queries per month. Capturing even a small percentage of that market ads up to a lot, particularly on issues where even a few dollars can make an impact. It’s a provocative example of how the simplest things we do can be used as powerful tools for positive change.

Via Worldchanging.

People You Should Know About, #333: Reware

Do you know these guys? Not the guys in the picture, but the solar powered bag company Reware? We stumbled on them recently and not only is their product incredibly cool, they are smart as hell. And funny. I hope we sound like they do when people read our stuff. As a company trying to do things differently, they struggle with some of the same things we do, from sourcing greener materials to the issue of where to manufacture their goods to how to market their products. Their blog, The Distance Project, attempts to give more insight into these challenges, while touching on some of the less than obvious hurdles behind creating a more sustainable, more environmentally and socially conscious business. So to Zach and crew, we send the love. Keep up the good work.

American Idol’s Instant Karma Repair

For the most part, I despise TV. So many commercials, so much exploitation, so much crap being spoon fed to viewers. One of my least favorite shows is American Idol, a program that insists fame (and “going to Hollywood�) is the apex of accomplishment in life.

I must admit that I’ve watched two episodes of Idol this year. In the first, I witnessed some of the most disturbing exploitation I’ve ever seen on the tube when the panel of celebrity judges ridiculed a string of seemingly mentally challenged contestants, even going as far as telling one wide-eyed kid that he resembled a “bush baby.” As the judges burst out in laughter, I flicked off the television.

The second time I sat through Idol was at a dinner party last week. Drinking wine in my friend’s living room, I watched the show begin in its normal way, replete with oppressive sponsors’ logos and horrible theme songs. Then, the same judges who spewed insults at disillusioned kids a few months ago began to talk about the plight of poor children in Africa who are infected with malaria and young people who starve every year in our own country. Called “Idol Gives Back,” the program featured heartbreaking segments followed by easy ways to donate money.

As I thought about how many people watch the program twice a week, I realized that perhaps they were doing something right for a change. Whether or not this was a contrived way to improve the image of American Idol (from a “spectacle of cruelty” to a philanthropic entity) isn’t important - Fox probably doesn’t even care as long as ratings stay high. But the fact is that it’s necessary to harness mainstream media to capture the attention of the masses. And it seems to be working. As of last Friday, the two shows raised over $70 million and according to Reuters inspired more than 70,000 viewers to join anti-poverty campaigns.

In my mind, on the transcendental scales of good versus bad karma, American Idol has tilted things back toward making the world a better place through their “Idol Gives Back” campaign. But now that their program has reverted to its regular format, I wonder how soon it’ll be before judges go back to lambasting contestants for being overweight or, more importantly, if more viewers will vote for the next American Idol than the next American President again.

D.I.Y. Foreign Aid

It is fitting that Nicholas Kristof, probably one of the most influential and spot-on on-line journalists working today, would stumble across our Partner for Change, Kiva.org.

His March 27 column and video recounts a visit he made recently with two entrepreneurs in Afghanistan—a baker and a t.v. repairman—that he loaned money to using his laptop and Kiva.org, a Web site that provides information in MySpace-like profiles about entrepreneurs in poor countries — their photos, loan proposals and credit history — and allows people to make direct loans to them for as little as $25. When loans are repaid, the lender can keep her original investment or relend it to others.

As we researched and got to know Kiva last fall, we began to see many parallels with Nau. It was founded a little more than two years ago by entrepreneurs seeking social change and wanting to do business in a different way. Matt and Jessica Flannery came away from time in Africa seeing that even small amounts of working capital could transform lives. Their challenge: how to make that opportunity available and easy for people seeking to make a difference? Working with a keen group of colleagues recruited from Silicon Valley successes PayPal and TiVo, Kiva.org was born. Today anyone with an internet connection and credit card or PayPal account can lend money to those with no or little access to credit, allowing the lender to start or grow an existing business.

Kristof, who also credits another Partner for Change, Mercy Corps, which itself is also a major player in the microfinance world, reminds us that microfinance is an important tool against poverty. Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his pioneering work with microfinance in Bangladesh. Read on »

Pretty Darn Swell

A site founded by people who believe that art can save the world. A place where artists can submit their work to be sold as prints or notecards for $20 each and where $5 from every sale goes to a charitable organization chosen by the artist. That’s Pretty Darn Swell.

A Word From Our Sponsor: Nau Open

I always wake up early in the mountains. Whether in a tent, a cabin or a condo, there’s something about the promise of the coming day that sets my synapses to firing. I roll over, and through the mesh or glass, watch the light play on stones, on snow. I love these moments of possibility, when the as-yet unformed day lies open to be imagined.

I woke up early this morning too, to the gray light of a Portland dawn. After a few weeks of winter rain, the skies cleared this weekend: an auspicious backdrop to the adventure we’re launching on here today. It’s an exciting moment, when you shake off the covers and begin something you’ve planned for months – for years. And while what lies in store today isn’t quite a bluebird powder day, it’s pretty cool.

So check it out. Nau is open for business.

Patagonia Launches Blog

Patagonia unveiled their blog “The Cleanest Line” this week and we’d like to be the first to welcome them to the blogosphere. And one of our favorite artists, Geoff McFetridge contributed some killer art for the banner. Bravo!

What’s $25M Got to Do With Global Warming?

Richard Branson is the consummate entrepreneur. Perhaps that’s why he announced the Virgin Earth Challenge, a $25 million prize for viable solutions to carbon sequestration. A meaningful prize can direct and focus rigorous inquiry and unleash entrepreneurship for the benefit of the common good. A comparatively small prize can generate significant change.

Given Sir Richard is known for his airline, there is some historical irony in his announcement. Back in 1919, the Orteig Prize offered $25,000 for the first non-stop transatlantic flight from New York to Paris. Eight years of breakneck aviation development passed before Charles Lindbergh made the flight. Raymond Orteig’s philanthropic gesture spurred significant progress. Here we are almost 90 years later. Let’s hope adding a few more zeroes to the prize will yield similar results.

Redefining the Debate

Social Edge, a program of The Skoll Foundation, is running a new question-and-answer feature. The current question is trying to generate an alternative to the terms “nonprofitâ€? and “not for profit.â€? Why? In their words, “because it’s humiliating to describe one’s favorite universe in negative terms.â€? Leave your thoughts here or engage in the dialogue at Social Edge.

By the way, Jeff Skoll’s a pretty cool guy. He was the founding President of eBay. In 1999, he created The Skoll Foundation, which takes an entrepreneurial approach to philanthropy by supporting social entrepreneurs. In 2004, he founded Participant Productions, which is a media company that possesses a public interest focus. Participant Productions has brought us films like Syriana, Good Night and Good Luck, Fast Food Nation and An Incovenient Truth.

Global Giving

Interesting people tend to hang out with interesting people. While at the recent Net Impact conference in Chicago, I met a ton of interesting people including an MBA student who previously had worked with environmentally conscious business woman Allison Koch. He suggested Allison and I should talk and a few days later, she gave me a call. Following a marketing oriented career path that included stops at Mossimo, Netflix and Stone Yamashita Partners, she founded Vibrant Planet, which provides strategy and communications for companies and non-profits focused on environmental and social innovation.

I sensed we could have dug in deep on a variety of topics, but our conversation quickly turned to one of Allison’s clients, GlobalGiving. It’s true that the internet has revolutionized many aspects of our lives – the way we learn, the way we communicate, the way we conduct business, the way we engage in social activism – but I wasn’t aware of the way Global Giving is using the internet to revolutionize the way international philanthropy is conducted. Global Giving creates an online marketplace, enabling large numbers of people to have direct and transparent access to grass roots projects around the world.

Prior to Founding Global Giving, Mari Kuraishi and Dennis Whittle were heads of strategy and innovation at the World Bank, so they presumably know a thing or two about making economic investments in the developing world. What intrigues me is that their model of giving disintermediates the middleman, draws on the power of competitive markets and creates a very efficient model of giving. It will be interesting to see how traditional philanthropic organizations respond.