StartSomeGood News

Brand New Good! Recently launched campaigns:

The need for literacy training, especially among low income youth, is extremely high. With funds raised through this project, Access to Meaning can collaborate with schools in Southern Berkshire County to offer intensive reading instruction to low-income youth in the region. Raising $2,000 means one student can receive intensive one-on-one instruction this summer. 

Community Boost Consulting is sending 3 recent college graduates on the Social Impact Tour to help inspire aspiring social entrepreneurs. They will travel over 3,000 miles in 30 days, speaking to over 300 social entrepreneurs and thought leaders in the entrepreneurial space. The goal is to create inspiring online content that will capture the attention of aspiring entrepreneurs. $5,000 is the minimum amount these grads need to cover basic transportation and food.

Goddess Graduates with a Vision is combating the lack of female leadership in Australia by giving girls charismatic confidence and possibility thinking to pursue leadership positions in business and politics. This campaign needs at least $5,000 to develop a pilot program for 100 young women graduates.

Eliminating homelessness in the U.S. by 2020 seems like an impossible task, but to Project Homeful it’s an achievable goal. Project Homeful is building an online web portal that will be used to bring providers together to support those in need of places to live. The $11,000 tipping point goal will allow Project Homeful to begin web development.

Progreso y Oportunidades Magazine is a free publication aimed at supporting the formation, growth, and integration of the Hispanic community in the United States. It will provide positive content to improve the quality of life of Hispanic immigrants and give them tools to support and strengthen their families. Linda Coelho, the brains behind this initiative, needs at least $10,000 to launch the magazine and distribute 15,000 copies.

People Pledge is the first and only online fundraising platform that empowers Australians to help a loved one as they endure a medical crisis. They want to run free workshops in Australia to reach families stressed with medical bills and help them fund raise online. They need $3,000 to set up free workshops in Western Sydney and across regional and rural NSW.

Compassionate Earth Walk is a 1,800+ mile pilgrimage along the northern leg of the keystone xl pipeline from Hardisty Albeta, CA to Steele City, Nebraska. This pilgrimage will hopefully encourage others to deepen their relationship with self, community, nature, and divine purpose. This campaign is looking to fund a camp of 25+ pilgrims to complete the walk.

Let’s Celebrate! Recently Tipped Campaigns…

Gearing Up provides women in transition from abuse, addiction, and incarceration with the opportunity to improve their physical, emotional, and social health by riding bicycles. Gearing Up helps women through regular coaching, mentoring, and support, encouraging them to adopt healthy lifestyle changes. Gear Up and Change a Life raised $4,815 to get 12 women through their first 100 miles.  

Kick at the Darkness – A Photographic Journey is a documentary photo essay that will capture the psycho-social impact of humanitarian response on aid workers in Haiti. Amy initiated this project while working in Haiti as part of earthquake response and this campaign will allow her to complete it. The funds raised so far will cover her ten day trip to Haiti. 

Shawn D. Ross 

I am a Northwest Native living in Washington State. A graduate of Washington State University and University of Phoenix with degrees in Architecture and Education I write about social, cultural, and personal improvement on the StartSomeGood Blog and SDRinspire. I am also a filmmaker and owner of Giraffe and Penguin Productions, a single daddy of two beautiful children, avid reader, writer, and hat wearer (Not in that picture but believe me, I wear ‘em). I am currently at work on my first feature length documentary. Follow me @shawndross and visit my websites: sdrinspire.tumblr.com and giraffeandpenguinproductions.tumblr.com.

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What good do you want to create? Visit our site to learn about how to start your own campaign.

This Week in Social Entrepreneurship

• The Elevating Impact Summit, hosted by the Portland State University Impact Entrepreneurs, will inspire you with new ideas for working with purpose. Meet other bold, creative thinkers as they show how they have dared to make a difference in the world. You’ll get to hear keynote speaker Eric Dawson share his inspiring story of how he started the Peace First Prize to eradicate youth violence, watch the Pitch Fest live and cheer on your favorite up-and-coming social entrepreneurs, and speak with hundreds of other groundbreaking entrepreneurs who know what it’s like to overcome the difficulties that go along with starting a business. Register by May 21st for the early bird discount and join a group of amazing changemakers on June 21st for a day of celebrating new approaches to creating social impact across sectors.

• Spend 5 months in Nairobi engaged in holistic, future-oriented training endorsed by leaders across social, business, education, and government sectors. The Post-Graduate Certificate in Social Innovation Management will give you the training necessary to be a effective social change maker and the intensity is the equivalent to that of a 2-year traditional master’s degree. The Amani Institute offers this unique, field-based program and only 15 spots remain for these pioneers of impact. Are you one of them?

• Vibewire is calling for ideas that could change the future. All changemakers (30 and under) who are looking to launch creative projects with social impact are welcome to apply and compete for  $2,000 in seed funding and a membership to the Vibewire Innovation Lab co-working space. If selected, you’ll have the chance to pitch your idea at the Pitch the Future Event at the Vivid Festival of Ideas in front of Sydney’s creative and changemaker communities on May 30th.

• Walkability is about destinations. If you live in a walkable neighborhood, walking becomes a part of life and not merely an optional leisure activity. WalkDenver is helping enhance the walkability of cities and raising awareness to the fact that people will walk when there is somewhere to walk. Join the Better Block Event in Five Points on May 11th to highlight this neighborhood in an effort to enhance its walkability. 

• May 17th is Food Revolution Day! Join the Food Revolution and take a stand for good food and essential cooking skills. This is a chance for people to come together and share their kitchen skills, food knowledge, and resources as a way to raise awareness of the importance of good food and better food education. Cook it, share it, live it—take a stand against processed foods that are helping fuel today’s obesity epidemic and help us get back to the basics.

Shawn D. Ross

I am a Northwest Native living in Washington State. A graduate of Washington State University and University of Phoenix with degrees in Architecture and Education I write about social, cultural, and personal improvement on the StartSomeGood Blog and SDRinspire. I am also a filmmaker and owner of Giraffe and Penguin Productions, a single daddy of two beautiful children, avid reader, writer, and hat wearer (Not in that picture but believe me, I wear ‘em). I am currently at work on my first feature length documentary. Follow me @shawndross and visit my websites: sdrinspire.tumblr.com and giraffeandpenguinproductions.tumblr.com.

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Do you have a social entrepreneurship news story or an event you’d like to see on the StartSomeGood Blog? Email Nicole (Nicole @ StartSomeGood.com) or find her on Twitter @nricchio to connect with us.

Women Cycling Their Way to Recovery

The benefits of cycling are innumerable—both physically and mentally. Cycling not only burns calories like crazy but it also helps to make people happier. Exercise helps produce those lovely little chemicals called endorphins that boost people’s moods and trigger happy feelings. Studies show that regular exercise can reduce stress and anxiety, tackle depression, and improve self-esteem. In addition, group exercise can give individuals suffering from feelings of isolation the chance to feel supported.

Gearing Up provides marginalized women—those recovering from abuse, addiction, or incarceration—the chance to ride bikes to improve their physical, mental, and social well-being. This gives them a chance to identify with a community and feel like they are supported by creating their own social ties with a group of women going through the same process. Gearing Up not only uses the bicycle as a tool for recovery, but also as a way to create lifelong connections and support for these women. Braking Cycles, a short documentary about Gearing Up, profiles this recovery process by telling the story of three women who used Gearing Up to break free from seemingly hopeless situations.

Each woman in the program can earn her very own bike by pedaling her first 100 miles. It costs Gearing Up about $380 to provide incentives for each woman during this process. In 2013, Gearing Up has a goal to graduate 36 women as bicycle owners. To get 36 women to 100 miles pedaled on their way to a brand new bike, it will cost $13,680. Gearing Up aspires to raise half of this via StartSomeGood and support 18 women with $6,840. Every little bit counts on the way to changing a life—the $4,560 campaign tipping point goal will support 12 women through their first 100 miles.

So, let’s Gear Up and Change a Life today through cycling! 

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What good do you want to create?  Visit our site to learn about how to start your own campaign.

StartSomeGood News

Brand New Good! Recently Launched Campaigns…

Children’s Health International (CHI) and Kids H.O.P.E. Project have collaborated to spread hope and love through children’s art kits. Through this project, a Kit of HOPE will be created for each child served by CHI. Each Kit of HOPE will include basic arts and crafts supplies such as crayons, markers, scissors, construction paper, and a special journal. This project is all about kids helping other kids pursue excellence through the arts. MJ, a fourth grader, began this project to focus on creating a positive impact through creativity, which is recognized around the world. Help MJ start doing good—$1,375 will allow her to purchase and ship HOPE kits for over 100 children at the Anum preschool in a Ghanaian village.

There is an exciting global movement to support girls’ health and education in Africa. Girls for Girls USA, an organization committed to sustainable solutions to empower girls, is helping drive this impact. They want to empower girls with knowledge, tools, and access to products and infrastructure to generate sustainable income which will allow them to create futures they used to only dream about. Founded by 40 amazing women across the globe, Girl for Girls USA seeks at least $2,000 to register for 501(c) status and cover other various startup costs.

Klongdinsor designs and provides effective, user-friendly, low-cost special educational tools and toys for children with disabilities. Theier Lensen drawing kit is designed for children with visual impairment. Based completely on tactile response using wool and Velcro to draw, children will be able to trace lines with their fingers. Klongdinsor needs at least $5,000 in funding to manufacture and deliver the first 250 sets for 11 schools for the blind in Thailand. 

Gearing Up provides women in transition from abuse, addiction, and incarceration with the opportunity to improve their physical, emotional, and social health by riding bicycles. Gearing Up helps women through regular coaching, mentoring, and support, encouraging them to adopt healthy lifestyle changes. Gear Up and Change a Life seeks to raise at least $4,560 to get 12 women through their first 100 miles. This will cover the costs of program incentives which include water bottles, t-shirts, gift cards, and staff members to teach skills and lead the bicycle rides.  

Let’s Celebrate! Recently Tipped Campaigns…

The Enterprise Learning Projects (ELP) is working with remote Australian Aboriginal communities to develop inclusive, creative, and sustainable enterprise initiatives. Established in late 2012, ELP is working to fill the support gap in these remote communities. Working with local entrepreneurs, ELP helps to develop online marketing plans and assist them in selling their products. They have quickly surpassed their $7,500 tipping point goal and  will now be able to set up and manage an online store and develop a marketing strategy to promote the store throughout Australia.

Shawn D. Ross

I am a Northwest Native living in Washington State. A graduate of Washington State University and University of Phoenix with degrees in Architecture and Education I write about social, cultural, and personal improvement on the StartSomeGood Blog and SDRinspire. I am also a filmmaker and owner of Giraffe and Penguin Productions, a single daddy of two beautiful children, avid reader, writer, and hat wearer (Not in that picture but believe me, I wear ‘em). I am currently at work on my first feature length documentary. Follow me @shawndross and visit my websites: sdrinspire.tumblr.com and giraffeandpenguinproductions.tumblr.com.

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What good do you want to create? Visit our site to learn about how to start your own campaign.

Interview with Yanti Turang, Founder of LearnToLive

LearnToLive brings healthcare to the people of North Sulawesi via three-week traveling clinics with teams of doctors, nurses, and medical students from the United States and Australia. The clinics provide basic healthcare, teach preventative strategies, and initiate follow-up care with local health facilities, when needed.  The main goal of LearnToLive is to provide healthcare to people living in remote areas so that they can live long, healthy lives.  The secondary goal is for medical and nursing students to use these clinics as a means to gain the experience they need to jump-start their careers.

To date, LearnToLive has successfully funded two projects on StartSomeGood: Let’s Get LearnToLive Off the Ground and the 2012 Indonesian Health Initiative, raising close to $7,000 during each campaign. Recently, I had the chance to catch up with Yanti, who shared her experiences during the 2012 Indonesian Health Initiative as well as an exciting update about a new project for July of this year. 

To date, LearnToLive has successfully funded two projects on StartSomeGood. What’s the secret to your success?

Our campaigns have always begun a week or two before we start our project. It is great for donors to see results and I believe people seeing results instantly really helps your campaign. I also believe a clever video is essential. People want to give, but they want to feel good about giving. You need to make this a priority. You need to make your project accessible on many levels.

The funds raised on StartSomeGood helped you officially launch LearnToLive and it has grown so quickly since then. What can you tell us about the ups and downs of starting a business and helping it grow?

I must admit that when I envisioned LTL I didn’t take into account that I need to simultaneously run a sound business. I quickly realised that in order to have LearnToLive come to life it needs to have a strong business model behind it. So the last year and half has been a huge learning curve. The only way I could learn about this was to immerse myself with people who had expertise in this. I have tried to learn all I can and apply to LearnToLive.

Last year you raised almost $7,000 for your 2012 Indonesian Health Initiative. How did that trip turn out?

In July, 2012, I took a team of physicians, nurses, public health practitioners, teachers, and architects to 4 different villages in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. For three weeks, the team provided traveling health clinics, public health outreach, and a water program in the villages of Sapa, Beringin, Likupang, and Bunaken.

The clinics provided basic health care, preventative screenings, and established a critical care patient follow-up procedure. Our water team evaluated the availability of clean water for residents in each village and gathered important information pertaining to rain water collection. Finally, our public health program connected with all of the local residents of the villages and developed a greater understanding of the politics and how the villages conducted their day-to-day living.

LTL is in the process of preparing for our return trip to North Sulawesi in July 2013. The organization acquired a trained epidemiologist, who is developing tools to measure and evaluate each program’s impact. In addition, LTL is planning to bring a civil engineer to help build and develop infrastructure for rain water collection. We are also planning to bring an ophthalmologist and dentist.

LTL is committed to improving health outcomes in North Sulawesi. Our program prides itself on our respect and understanding of Indonesian culture. Moreover, we are dedicated to providing environmental and economically sustainable solutions to the residents of North Sulawesi. LTL looks forward to the future and continues to be committed to improving health, one step at a time.

I hear LearnToLive is planning another campaign this year. Can you give us a preview of what we can expect from your next project?

LearnToLive’s campaign this year is going to be a great one! We are going for a different edge this year, music will be involved for sure. Can’t wait to launch. We will be launching in July of 2013. Stay tuned.

Check out our website at www.learntoliveglobal.org.

Photos courtesy of LearnToLive

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Are you inspired by Yanti’s drive and success?  Do you have a world changing idea, but need a way to fund it?  Learn more about funding a project on StartSomeGood here.

Interview with Anais Tuepker of Preciva

Anais Tuepker is the co-founder of Preciva, an organization developing electronic screening tools to give every woman an equal chance to live free of cervical cancer. Deeply embedded into the mission of Preciva is the idea that it is everyone’s right to have equitable and affordable access to quality healthcare. This screening tool will provide accurate and immediate results to women at a very affordable cost—less than $2 per test kit. It will also link the screening to follow-up care and expert consultation so that women can be connected to the necessary next steps for maintaining their health. In their quest to fight cervical cancer, Anais and her husband needed the necessary funds to develop a working prototype. That’s when they decided to turn to StartSomeGood. During their campaign, they raised over $11,000 that will go toward developing this prototype. How were they able to raise so much? Below, Anais shares the Preciva story and some valuable tips on how to succeed at crowdfunding. 

Can you share Preciva’s story with us?

Preciva was born out of my husband’s past work as an engineer in the medical device industry, where he had been centrally involved in developing new commercial methods for cervical cancer screening. He saw the potential of an electronic screening method, but he also saw that traditional business models that focus only on profit, coupled with shareholder pressure, can push companies away from a focus on solving social problems. He was interested in finding a way to make screening both more accurate and affordable so that women everywhere would benefit. My background is in health program planning and evaluation, and I’ve had a longstanding interest in how you improve care for marginalized populations, like those living in remote areas, so I quickly became just as committed to this idea as he was. We went through a period of really thinking about what we wanted to do, and somewhat naively Preciva was born with the mission of dual innovation: innovating on the technology used for cervical cancer screening, and innovating as a social business, to find a way to fund the lengthy and expensive process of developing a medical device while remaining true to a primary goal of creating positive social impact.

What brought you to choose StartSomeGood as a funding option versus more traditional funding options?

Our commitment to, and excitement about, social entrepreneurship has us always looking for ways to grow the field and the community. We felt StartSomeGood was a better fit for us than any other platform, because part of our mission is about how we do what we do, not just what we’re trying to make.

In terms of deciding to try crowdfunding at all, when we have approached investment funds, even social impact funds, there’s always a lot of interest in terms of our potential impact, but we’re too early stage to fit with their investing criteria. At the same time, we’ve talked to probably hundreds of individuals at this point, at meetings and presentations and one on one, and we’ve always gotten a great response—women get why this would be better, doctors get why this would be better. So often people would say, “I wish I had a lot of money and could invest.” It’s too complicated to allow people to invest small amounts—though I hope the crowdfunding legislation and regulations will change that in the near future, but it hasn’t been an option in the past. We really only wanted to raise the absolute minimum amount of money needed for the work we need to do now, that is, complete the prototype and gather data on a very small number of patients. We believe that once we’ve done that, we will be a much more attractive investment to social impact funds, and can raise larger amounts on better terms at that point. So we thought, why not see if that small-scale but very sincere enthusiasm can generate the amount of funding we need? And it did.

How did you prepare for your campaign ahead of time?

We went back through all of our old contacts and gave a fair amount of thought to how to approach different people and groups, and we made spreadsheets to help us keep track of who had been told about the campaign, when to send a reminder about it, and so on. We also timed the campaign to happen during a period when we would have a lot of exposure at conferences and other gatherings that we could talk to people about it. I think both of those things helped.

I think a more nebulous but important aspect of preparing is that you have to be at the right stage in your own comfort with asking people for money. I don’t think two years ago I would have been able to do this, because I would have felt too shy about asking people I know to contribute. Even though I completely believed in my idea, it just wasn’t something I knew how to do without feeling uncomfortable, and worrying that I would feel indebted if someone gave me money and a little hurt if they didn’t. That’s not how I feel now. Being a social entrepreneur has taught me to think differently about money. It’s funny because spending so much time with developing business plans and so on, you would think this would teach you to take money very seriously, but I’ve found the opposite is true - money has become much more neutral for me. The point is, I think you have to be at a place where you can focus on building relationships with people and not let discomfort about talking about money get in the way. 

Can you describe what your experience was like during your campaign? What were some strategies that worked or didn’t work?

I was completely surprised by how much I enjoyed the campaign. It’s exciting and also humbling to get the support of other people and to see that they are excited about the project and willing to pitch in.

I think we did a couple of things that aided our success:

1. we had let people know we were planning on this for a couple of months ahead of time—while you might argue this takes away some of the urgency, I think it just gave people more time to move from intention to action (whenever I am asked to donate money, it takes me weeks to get around to doing it, so for people like me, the lead time helps);
2. we asked people for support in an individualized manner (be prepared that this is labor intensive—think of hundreds of personalized emails);
3. we asked repeatedly, whether via email, on Facebook, or in person…
4. but if someone told us they couldn’t give, we didn’t pester them (and then, in some cases, they ended up making a pledge after all); 
5. we sent an update email to people who’d already pledged money and asked them to help us expand the circle of supporters (that definitely got us some new supporters);
6. we were both realistic and ambitious in the amount we wanted to raise—our tipping point was a little higher than most campaigns on StartSomeGood, but we thought if we pushed hard we could do it, and we conveyed that message to people, saying we really need everyone to pitch in to make this happen. People like helping overcome a challenge!
7. we have been around for a while and had a large circle of potential donors to begin with. I had thought that we’d reach more strangers, and we did get some donations that way, but the majority of support came from people we had a connection with in some way, sometimes remotely. Casting a wide net is important. Don’t be afraid to ask - people will surprise you.

Now that you were successful raising the funds that you needed, what are the next steps for Preciva?

Completing the prototype—we hope to have that done in the next three months. Then meeting up with our clinical partners and moving ahead on gathering preliminary data.

source: Preciva.com

To learn more about Preciva and keep up to date with its progress, visit preciva.com today!

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What good do you want to create?  Learn more about running a campaign on StartSomeGood here.  

StartSomeGood News

Life Booster’s mission is to help people become healthier, happier, and more productive as individuals and as employees. This venture utilizes modern technology to create an innovative health benefits package for people who have full time jobs. As part of its program Life Booster provides a mobile app that encourages people to set healthy goals for themselves in terms of hydration, exercise, and sleep and then allows them to share this information with friends. Life Booster is raising funds to help support its official launch by developing the mobile app and taking on beta customers.

The Network for Economic Education is putting together a free basketball camp for kids in low-income areas of Los Angeles to teach them basic personal finance lessons. This innovative camp not only promotes physical, but also financial health. This basketball camp to teach youth financial literacy needs $800 to cover the costs associated with renting a full-size basketball court and an extra $800 for miscellaneous costs such as t-shirts, lunches, hourly pay for coaches, and marketing materials.

Surviving and Making Money in a Down Economy—we probably could all use this advice. Percy Kwong, author of this book, was very successful with the first book’s go-around but many people contacted him asking for more information. Therefore, he plans on expanding the book and giving it away to as many people as he can who need or want it. In order to accomplish this, Percy needs at least $20,000 to rewrite and publish the book in addition to creating a website and an ebook version. Any funds raised beyond the tipping point will go towards printing costs.

Yanti Turang and her LearnToLive team are back on StartSomeGood with their second campaign! The first time around, they raised $6,925 to officially launch LearnToLive in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. You can read all about that experience in Yanti’s interview with the StartSomeGood Blog. Now her team is back for a second campaign to undertake their 2012 Indonesian Health Initiative in four villages of North Sulawesi. The $6,400 tipping point will help cover any programmatic costs for this initiative, including supply costs for 4 villages, transportation for the team, translators, and self-sustaining medical kits for each village.

Better Alternatives for Girls’ Survival (BAGS) wants to provide human trafficking victims in Kolkata, India with dignified employment opportunities. These women create handmade, fair trade textiles that will now be sold to Western consumers. This will provide them the opportunity to live independent lives away from the brothels in Kolkata. The campaign, Support Human Trafficking Survivors with BAGS, is raising funds so that BAGS can act as the Western Distributor for its partner non-profit organization, Destiny Reflection, that hires and supports these women. Funds raised beyond the tipping point will be donated to Destiny Reflection so that it can grow and therefore hire more women.

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Social entrepreneurs, have all these new 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