Celebrating Some Wins
MeForYou is not just selling backpacks. For every backpack that is sold, one full of school supplies will go to a student in need—“Buy One. Bless One.” For every backpack sold, MeForYou will donate one full of school supplies to another student in need around the community where it was purchased. This campaign, Lauch MeForYou, is supporting this student-led non-profit so it can officially get off the ground. Closing out the campaign, MeForYou has raised $3,647 and will be able to help 200 students receive backpacks.
One Can Grow educates the youth about social entrepreneurship and the many possibilities that it brings. It is launching an 8-week pilot program to educate high-school students about social enterprise and the many career opportunities that it offers. One Can Grow ran a successful campaign, Educate Young Social Entrepreneurs, to officially begin its pilot program on June 8th. One Can Grow raised $5,005, which will help One Can Grow build a curriculum, recruit mentors, search for partnerships, increase marketing efforts, and further develop its website so that it is fully functional.
ConstruCycle provides sustainable and affordable housing for citizens who couldn’t otherwise afford to own a home. ConstruCycle makes panels for homes, but the panels are made out of locally available recycled raw materials. Thanks to his supporters, Ricardo, the founder of ConstruCycle, can now attend the Dell Social Innovation Lab this summer because he can now afford to purchase his plane ticket. He was chosen as a fellow this summer to work on ConstruCycle as part of the program and will now be able to fly from Nicaragua to Boston, where the Dell Social Innovation Lab is held. The campaign, Help Ricardo Attend the Dell Social Innovation Lab, raised $865 for his round trip ticket.
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Social entrepreneurs, have these successful campaigns inspired you to start your own good? Do you have a social enterprise, a non-profit, or an amazing idea that needs some momentum to take off? Visit our site to find out how to start your own campaign today. Still have questions? We have answers—check out our FAQ section.
Buy One. Bless One.
With millions of students living in poverty in the United States, more often than not, a family’s first priority on its hierarchy of needs is not school supplies, but rather providing food to fill stomachs and a safe place to live. Proper school supplies, however, are essential elements that make up a well-rounded education. Many of us grow up very lucky—I remember trips with my mom to the store at the beginning of each school year, filling my cart with notebooks, folders, highlighters, and pens, never having a second thought about price. These supplies are not cheap and students living in poverty whose families cannot afford them are immediately placed at a disadvantage relative to their classmates.
MeForYou, at its heart, has a very simple mission: do some good. How is it achieving this good? For every backpack it sells, MeForYou gives a backpack full of school supplies to a student in need living near the community where it was purchased. MeForYou is taking the popular buy one get one model and putting its own spin on it: Buy One. Bless One. This mutually beneficial model allows customers to feel good about the high-quality, stylish bags they purchase while also creating a world of opportunity for students who would otherwise struggle to purchase supplies.
In addition to the Buy One. Bless One. model of MeForYou, it is also a primarily youth-run organization, providing volunteer and (one day) employment opportunities to students in the community. Not only will these jobs teach students hands-on skills that they can take with them throughout their lives, they will also give students the opportunity to be involved with an organization that contributes to a double bottom line, in hopes of inspiring them to think of a world beyond profit.
Now is your chance to help Launch MeForYou. This campaign will jumpstart MeForYou’s official launch in Mankato, Minnesota. The goal for the year is to help at least 1,000 students in and around Mankato who are living below the poverty line. This means MeForYou must sell 1,000 backpacks. Start-up inventory isn’t cheap—the $3,500 tipping point goal will allow MeForYou to purchase 200 backpacks and the $13,000 total funding goal will cover the cost of 1,000 backpacks. With just under two weeks left in the campaign, MeForYou has already raised $1,756 from 18 backers, well on its way towards its goals. Will you be the one to bring this campaign over the edge?
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Has MeForYou’s campaign inspired you to start your own good? Visit our site to learn about how to start your own campaign.
StartSomeGood News
nutreats addresses malnutrition in developing countries by selling a great-tasting, nutrient-fortified snack to parents and children living in tough to reach areas of Sub-Saharan Africa. The snack will be a bar, similar to a granola bar, that is fortified with micronutrients such as Vitamin A, Vitamin C, iron, and iodine. In A Taste Test to Fight Malnutrition, nutreats is raising funds to purchase prototypes of its nutritious snack bars. These bars will be used to conduct market tests in Tanzania. Data collected during this market test will go into product formulation later this year.
Everyone benefits from acts of kindness. Big Random Acts of Kindness (BRAK) exists to help unleash the kindness within you. This is an initiative through The All Hearts Alliance which is dedicated to making the world a kinder and more connected place. BRAK strives for a future where every person, through acts of kindness, feels connected and important and feels empowered to contribute to the greater good of humanity. Help start a ripple effect of kindness with a cup of coffee. This campaign allows you to pre-pay for a cup of coffee for a commuter at a train station in Australia. The goal is to raise enough funds to pay for coffee for 250 commuters on June 1, 2012.
Balls of Steel will help cool your drink while contributing to a good cause. Cooling your drink can now help men struggling with testicular cancer. The goal of Balls of Steel is to help fuel the research for the treatment and cure for testicular cancer in men. In addition, it hopes to build a community where patients can share their experiences and struggles with each other and also be connected with a community of survivors. The Balls of Steel campaign is raising funds to cover manufacturing fees for 500 initial units and create a website to start an online community.
MeForYou is not just selling backpacks. For every backpack that is sold, one full of school supplies will go to a student in need. “Buy One. Bless One.” For every backpack sold, MeForYou will donate one full of school supplies to another student in need around the community where it was purchased. Help Lauch MeForYou—this is a student-led non-profit that is trying to officially get off the ground. MeForYou’s goal for year one is to help 1,000 students locally.
The Living Philanthropic Project is a web series that highlights the joys of volunteerism. It will produce 12 episodes, highlighting one non-profit organization each week. This campaign will help to fund the filming of at least three episodes of this web series. The total funding goal will support the filming of ten episodes.
Haiti Circle of Friends (HaitiCoF) helps Haitian children that are in danger of being sent to orphanages because their families can’t afford to feed them. HaitiCoF wants to create a small farm to help feed these children so they can be kept out of orphanages and stay with their families. In addition, this provides a way for mothers to be sustainably and healthfully self-sufficient. Women who participate in this program are given the opportunity to run the farm and sell the produce at a local market. Farming for Families in Haiti is raising funds to start the mini farms. Funds will go towards purchasing and housing livestock, in addition to various farming tools that are needed.
With still a few days left, EcoRise has reached its tipping point, raising over $9,000 from more than 100 backers to inspire a new generation of green leaders that will design a sustainable future for everyone. EcoRise is trying to fully launch its green education program in seven schools in Austin for the upcoming school year. Funds raised so far will aid EcoRise in developing a curriculum, create an EcoRise toolkit, and produce these toolkits for seven schools.
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Social entrepreneurs, have these campaigns inspired you to start your own good? Do you have a social enterprise, a non-profit, or an amazing idea that needs some momentum to take off? Visit our site to find out how to start your own campaign today. Still have questions? We have answers—check out our FAQ section.
