Upcoming Webinars: Crowdfund Some Good! Crowdfunding for Social Impact.

With 100 projects (and counting) now successfully funded on StartSomeGood, it’s pretty safe to say we know a thing or two about crowdfunding. We are passionate about helping social entrepreneurs and changemakers succeed and because of this we’re excited to share what we’ve learned over the past year about what it takes to succeed on StartSomeGood.

Therefore, we are hosting a series of three FREE Crowdfund Some Good! webinars between December 5th and December 7th where Tom will share important crowdfunding lessons and walk participants through the decisions they will need to make before launching a fundraising campaign, including the fundraising goal, the benefits of different fundraising platforms, what rewards to provide, and who to focus on in their outreach.

We know there are so many great ideas out there with the potential to make a positive social impact and we want to ensure they are all in the best position to succeed. We will teach you how to share your idea with the world, raise the funds, and rally the community you need to make a difference.

Those who have succeeded in crowdfunding know that it’s not a “build it and they will come” exercise. Like any form of fundraising it takes hard work and perseverance. In these webinars you will work through the key steps to develop a StartSomeGood campaign, including:

• Developing a realistic financial target for your campaign
• Understanding how StartSomeGood’s unique Tipping Point dynamic works, and how to use it to your advantage
• Identifying your community and understanding how to target them
• Developing rewards people will value
• Developing a video with no budget
• Using social media to support your campaign
• Identifying the stories which will inspire support

We hope you can join us! Please visit the Crowdfund Some Good Eventbrite site for specific dates and times and to RSVP today!

Cheers!

Tom and Alex, co-founders, StartSomeGood

SocEnt Book Club: Call with Deborah Frieze on Wednesday

By Brooke Parker

StartSomeGood’s SocEnt Book Club is pleased to host Deborah Frieze, co-author of Walk Out Walk On: A Learning Journey Into Communities Daring to Live in the Future Now on our monthly book club conference call. Our call will be held next Wednesday, March 7^th at 2 pm PST/5 pm EST.

Are you interested in creating social good in your community, but you’re concerned about how or if you can actually make lasting changes? Join the call to hear Deborah discuss how you already possess everything you need to start some good! You will have the opportunity to ask Deborah questions about her book and about the incredible change that happens when you stop feeling limited by your financial situation, lack of power, and few connections to outside aid, and make the choice to embrace the resources you have and your community to take action immediately. Walk Out Walk On affirms Margaret Mead’s quote, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” After the call you will feel inspired and empowered, and you will recognize that you are an agent of social change just as you are. Her book, written with Margaret Wheatley, was announced on our blog earlier this month.

Deborah succeeded Margaret Wheately as the co-president of The Berkana Institute (http://www.berkana.org/). However, in 2009, The Berkana Institute was declared a self-organizing system, so now she serves as a board member. The fundamental premise behind the Berkana Institute is “whatever the problem, community is the answer”. Deborah is currently leading numerous projects for The Berkana Institute, including, Feeding Ourselves Sustainably, Swaraj University, and several Sharing Our Learning projects. Deborah is an advocate of trans-local learning, a concept that encourages sharing solutions around the world, but modifying them based on the culture and experiences of a particular community. Learn more about Deborah at: www.deborahfrieze.com.

To RSVP and for information on joining Wednesday’s free conference call, please email Aaron(at)startsomegood.com

SocEnt Book Club: Shift and Reset

We are excited to announce the December installment of our book, Shift and Reset: Strategies for Addressing Serious Issues in a Connected Society by Brian Reich. Shift and Reset is a guide to navigating our rapidly changing communication tools to affect meaningful social change.

Reich’s book is a must for anyone who is interested in social entrepreneurship. He points out that many of the most successful social good ventures are organized by individuals or small teams. The way you use social media and other new forms of communication can determine the degree of success for your venture, and Reich’s book will help you use them.

Reich uses interviews and examples to teach you about using social media. The book contains interviews from twenty-five experts who have valuable insight about using social media.

About the author: Brian Reich is currently the senior vice president-global editor at Edelman, a global public relations firm. He is also the chairman of the board of Investigate West, a nonprofit that encourages investigative journalism. Reich was briefing director for Vice-President Gore for two years and worked on his presidential campaign. Besides Shift and Reset, Reich also authored Media Rules!: Mastering Today’s Technology to Connect with and Keep your Audience.

Want to win a free copy of Shift and Reset? Visit our facebook page and respond to this question on our wall: Why do you think individuals and small organizations were often more effective in organizing charity ventures after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti than large corporations?

If you are reading along with us use #socentbc on Twitter to share your thoughts. If you are interesting in joining our team of reviewers or in having your book featured please contact Aaron at Aaron(at)startsomegood.com.

Book Review: We First

Editor’s Note: below is a review of the Social Enterprise Book Club book for October, We First: How brands & consumers use social media to build a better world by Simon Mainwaring. We’re excited to by hosting Mr. Mainwaring for an open conference call on November 8 to discuss his book. Stay tuned for more information and your opportunity to RSVP.

By Aaron Lesser

Which side of the Occupy Wall Street Protests are you on? Are you for the movement? Against it? Are you part of the 99%? The 1%? How about the 53%? Do you support the inertia behind the movement but not its expression? Do you think those people should just get a job?

Simon Mainwaring’s book, We First: How Brands & Consumers Use Social Media To Build a Better World, offers a way forward in the debate about our future. It’s not about separating people into opposing groups or blaming sections of society—it’s an examination of where our society is and how we can steer it towards where we want it to be.

The book opens with a simple question: Is this the world you want? Regardless of where we are in relation to the past, chronic food shortages, disease, poverty, and inequality are still powerful negative forces in modern society. We First outlines what Mainwaring calls The New Capitalist Manifesto. It is not a revolution against our system, but an evolution into an economic system that takes its impacts on society into account.

The movement, We First, is in opposition to the thought process historically associated with capitalism, Me First. Although capitalism is motivated by self-interest, Mainwaring argues that its true strength is not its ability to serve the individual, but in its ability to make individual self-interest benefit society. By changing the standards by which corporations judge success, from purely bottom line profit and loss to social impact, we can use the engine of capitalism to create the world we want.

But why, after hundreds of years of Me First capitalism, would the whole system change? The answer, for Mainwaring, lies in social media. Social media allows corporations and consumers to interact in a new way. Consumers can give instant feedback on products or marketing campaigns and corporations can interact with consumers at all times. Consumers can let corporations know what they want, what causes they are interested in, or in what direction they want the company to go. This allows corporations to engage in social good endeavors without affecting their bottom line. They can find causes their consumers are interested in and build a loyal base of followers by pursuing actions that benefit that cause. This interaction is the innovation in this book: with the rise of social networks, the social capital a company can generate by being environmentally friendly or starting social ventures is just as valuable in the long term as traditional capital.

A few forward thinking companies are already implementing Mainwaring’s vision. The Pepsi Refresh project is the best example of the budding We First movement. Pepsi selects 1,000 social good ventures, initiated by individuals or organizations, to compete for funding from Pepsi. These ventures are posted on Pepsi Refresh’s website and anybody can vote for them. The top vote getters receive funding. PepsiCo not only gets goodwill and brand loyalty, but according to Mainwaring the Pepsi Refresh website now gets more visitors than many of the sites Pepsi advertises on. In other words, the cost of giving money to the social ventures is offset by the social capital PepsiCo is earning.

We First is the kind of philosophy we need in a time of division, in a time where the only thing most people can agree upon is that this is not the world we want. We First is about eliminating the barriers between us and using our human qualities in capitalism to create the world we want.