Kiva is one of my favorite nonprofits as it makes microloans to developing country entrepreneurs and I fully support the notion of encouraging “Trade not Aid” whenever possible.  I checked their blog today to see what if anything they were saying about Haiti.  The following is an update from the Kiva Blog, dated 1/13/2010.

“As you may have seen in the news, a terrible earthquake struck Haiti yesterday afternoon. The earthquake, 7.0 in magnitude, struck about 10 miles outside Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. The devastation has been enormous, with many buildings destroyed and thousands of people presumed dead. This is the worst earthquake to hit Haiti in 200 years.

Kiva currently supports borrowers in Haiti through our field partner, Esperanza International. Esperanza is based in the Dominican Republic, but has an office and provides loans in Haiti. About 1/3 of the loans Esperanza posts to Kiva are for borrowers in Haiti. In addition, a large percentage of the loans posted from the Dominican Republic are of Haitian migrants who still have family in Haiti. Esperanza has told us that as of now, Esperanza staff are safe though they have several employees with family in Port-au-Prince who have not been able to contact their families and are very concerned. Esperanza’s clients are located in the North, while the earthquake struck the capital in the south. Most of their clients live close to their offices in the north. However, many of them have businesses that require them to travel to and from Port-au-Prince to buy merchandise to sell in the main markets. Their businesses may have been affected and it is possible that some of them may have been in Port-au-Prince at the time and been injured.

It is impossible for Esperanza to give us any exact figures at this time as information is only slowly trickling out of Haiti. As Kiva learns more about the effect of the earthquake on Esperanza and their Kiva borrowers we will update lenders.”

Right now in the immediate aftermath of this disaster , support for basic services including water, food, health care, and shelter is essential.  After the initial response and clean-up phases which will likely take quite some time considering the current conditions in the country, support for rebuilding will be critical.  We must stay mindful that Haiti will need assistance for years to come – even after the focus of the international community has faded away and onto whatever disaster is next.  Kiva will play a really important role in helping entrepreneurs get back on their feet and begin to again find ways to support themselves and their families through commerce.  Please keep your eyes open and when loan requests have been processed for Haitians and there is enough structure to begin making loans again, remember your support of even a few dollars can make a HUGE difference in someone’s life.

On June 10th in the Denver Post, there was an announcement in the Fashion Calendar about the Riverfront Park Fashion Series.  There are three fashion shows scheduled this summer: June 12, July 17, and August 14th for Riverfront Park in downtown Denver.  Clothes for June 12th were by Garbarini and hair and makeup by Luxe Salon.  Ticket prices were $30 or $40 and the proceeds benefitted Railyard Dogs.

That caught my attention.  What the heck is Railyard Dogs?  So after my Google search, I learned on the Railyard Dogs’ website, “In July of 2004, a group of downtown Denver residents joined together with the Denver Health Department to educate dog owners in Commons Park about Denver’s leash laws.”  Railyard Dogs major contribution to the community will be the construction of a dog park in downtown Denver.

My first thought was this effort not my idea of a critical social problem…then after a bit more thought I realized that having a controlled place for dogs to play off leash was a needed component of public health in the urbanscape.  I took my own dog, Kiwi, to the Chatfield Reservoir dog park this morning and I am always amazed by how many pet owners do not pick up after their pets.  Not only is it gross when Rover poops in the middle of the path and I have to walk around it, it is can be a health issue as the poop from thousands of dogs piles up!  I hope they will “police” the new park heavily and force owners to do the right thing.  I got lucky with a dog that will only pee and poop in her own backyard – never on a walk.  Phew!    

This weekend, I attended Christine Comaford-Lynch’s first Rules for Renegades Summit in Irvine, CA.   It was an inspiring event with world class trainers and over 200 business people in attendance.  One of the trainers that I most appreciated was Alex Mandossian – a marketing guru with many fabulous tips and strategies.  As a trainer myself, I enjoyed his energy, presentation style, and use of visuals and handouts in addition to the content.  As a new member of his “fan club”, I bought his Stick Strategies Program to learn how to develop new ways to engage prospects and customers in my business.  Alex also has a teleclass program on Virtual Book Tour Secrets that started yesterday that I was lucky enough to get in to learn cutting edge ways to promote my book, Business Philanthropy: How Smart Companies Give Back, which will be published this fall. 

I first heard about Alex from Christine Kloser, of Love Your Life Publishing and the Get Your Book Done Program.  Christine is my book coach and will be publishing my book.  Christine’s will be promoting her new book, the Freedom Formula, through a Virtual Book Tour that Alex is helping her with. 

Doing some research, I learned about Alex’s SmartStartGiving micro-giving program to benefit Kiva. According to the email I received after signing up for notification about future SmartStartGiving calls, “SmartStartGiving (SSG) is a consortium of micro-fundraisers with the objective to become the organization that funds the most Kiva small businesses in 2008.  The collective aim of SSG is to utilize the leverage of micro-fundraising to empower entrepreneurs in developing countries to uplift themselves out of poverty forever!”

Alex’s email also stated “In 2008, the final Friday of each month will be designated as “Kiva Micro-Fundraising Day”.  I’ll donate a minimum of $500 out of my own pocket and request micro-donations of $10, $20 and $50 from entrepreneurs on our SSG subscription list … just like YOU.”

The “micro-fundraising” calls start at 8am Pacific (11am Eastern) and will be 40 minutes in duration.  Here’s the remaining 2008 schedule is: June 27th, July 25th, August 29th, September 26th, October 31st, November 28th, and December 26th. Alex extends an open invitation to join in and pass on the word to as many entrepreneurial friends and colleagues as possible.

What a great idea!  Alex is helping raise the visibility of Kiva, an organization with the mission ”to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.  Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.”  He is also raising dollars from his broad network to support his efforts with the developing country entrepreneurs Kiva assists.  And, by choosing Kiva as the organization to support, the donated resources go to specific entrepreneurs, not into some big black hole.  Cool, eh?

I plan to be on his next teleseminar for SmartStartGiving and will make a donation – I like Alex and what he is up to…AND microfinance is the cause I selected a couple years back as the primary focus for Business Nonprofit Connections, Inc.’s philanthropic efforts.  Join us!

I was at Metafolics Salon in Denver today for a hair cut with owner Jason Linkow.  I am a big Jason fan – he gives a fabulous hair cut AND he a smart, insightful business person.  I interviewed him for my forthcoming book, The Business Handbook of Strategic Philanthropy, because I felt he was a great example of a small business committed to doing good in the community and at the same time growing the salon’s business.  Metafolics sponsors an annual event to raise money for melanoma which is very impressive.  But I digress – I’ll write more about that in another post. 

While I was “in the chair,” Jason and I got into a discussion about Oprah’s Big Give Show.  Because I really value his perspective, I now will go to http://www.abc.com and watch the two episodes I did not watch as I was underwhelmed with Show One.  Jason told me several things about the Big Give that I had not gotten from watching the first show.  He watches the Oprah Show regularly so he saw the episode where Oprah set the stage for the Big Give and gave more details about who the judges are and their amazing personal philanthropic activities.  I wish I also had seen that Oprah Show to give me a better context when watching the Big Give. Had there been a few more of those details given during the Big Give premier show itself, I probably would have been a little less harsh in my critique.

Jason felt the “tapestry of the show” was being woven with each new episode exanding and deepening the overall message of the series.  I trust him to get such things “right” – he has never steered me wrong on a big screen production and always adds a layer of analysis that I somehow missed.  So I’ll write more after I watch the next episodes.  Check back later this week! 

I ‘d love to hear what your thoughts are about the Big Give, as well.  Is it just another tear jerker way to get viewers or is it really moving us all to more heartfelt and generous action?

Yesterday I went to Safeway on Colorado Boulevard in Denver to buy groceries.  A sign on pink paper near the register about donating to Easter Seals caught my eye.  Easter Seals is a nonprofit, community-based health agency dedicated to helping children and adults with disabilities attain greater independence. When it was my turn in the checkout line, the cashier told me my total purchase price and then asked if I would like to round up to the next dollar as a donation for Easter Seals.  For me it meant adding $0.96 to my bill.  Of course I said yes and told her I appreciated Safeway doing this. 

I mentioned I am always on the look out for examples of how companies support local nonprofits.  Turns out she was the front end manager and shared with me that initially she had thought the round up idea that another employee had proposed wouldn’t work well.  She had thought asking people to donate a dollar when they were checking out would be a more effective way to raise money from customers.  The store tried both approaches and, to her initial dismay, the round up model raised a lot more money.  So now the store uses the round up “ask.” She is very pleased how well it works and is proud of the dollars they are raising to support this good cause.

If you are a retail business, could a round up checkout promotion be a strategy to enlist your customers as partners to support one of your company’s causes?  For nonprofits, if you approach retail stores for a donation and they have already allocated their budget, perhaps you can negotiate a similar checkout promotion to raise dollars from their customers?

I decided right before Christmas to get involved in the blogging world as a way to get more engaged in conversations related to my passion which is gratefully also my work – business involvement in communities and business philanthropy.  When I set up the blog, I was immediately drawn to the Regulus template by Binary Moon.  Today when I was trying to research a few things I have not yet figured out, I found a section on the Binary Moon website, “Want to say thanks?”  It says, “I’ve been asked about a Paypal button for people who make use of the theme who want to say thanks. Well I didn’t make the theme to earn money but if you want to say thank you then you can do one (or more?) of the following.

• Post a comment on the latest Regulus Post saying thanks
• Post a comment on YOUR blog saying thanks and linking to me (I like links )
• Give some money to charity
• Donate some money towards my web hosting charges (uses paypal) – if I make more than I need to cover my server costs then I will give the remainder to charity
• And finally – if you really want to give me something, you can head over to Binary Sun – and buy one of my games. That way I won’t feel bad about taking your money and you get a game to play. “

I really liked that two of the ways to say thanks to Binary Moon for offering a free template were to either make a direct contribution to charity or to donate money toward their web hosting with any remainder being given to charity.  Now I feel even better about my new blog.  Is there something like this your company could do?  Thanks Binary Moon!!