Adventures in Candyland

Today I visited a wildlife rescue center. In addition to seeing countless exocitic animals that had been illegally kept in captivity and learning fun stats (Know what the third most popular pet in the US is? You might think its a goldfish or a hamster, but no, its an iguana! Unfortunately, most people buy them when they’re babies and don’t realize how big they will get…), I was also reminded of a brand I’ve been meaning to post about for a few days.

World Wildlife Fund has gotten a lot of exposure this past month - ranging from the results of a study entitled Deeper Luxury that looks at the effects of the luxury market on the environment, to their great holiday gifts ideas like adopting a symbolic penguin. From the trendwatching newsletters I subscribe to, to my local Yahoo! group, I’ve read about WWF several times this month. After my outing today, I decided to finally check out the WWF site and see what they’re all about. Here’s what the World Wildlife Fund in the US is currently up to:

Current campaigns:
Push for an Ocean Protection Treaty
U.S. Activists: Stop Imports of Illegal Wood
Give Thanks to Kansas for Bold Climate Change Action
Take Action to Stop Drilling in Bristol Bay
Help Lions, Snow Leopards and More
Choose Good Wood and Save Our Forests
Say YES to Sustainable Seafood

Visit their site for more info.

Is what someone would typically hear when I call them accidentally on my phone. It actually happened to me yesterday. I almost always lock my phone - but, sometimes I forget and sometimes the silly thing refuses to lock (an aside: does technology advance us or debilitate us?? I mean, really?). At that point am I supposed to turn it off? OF COURSE NOT. So…there is the possibility of me accidentally calling the last person dialed, texted OR the first person on my contact list. So, sorry if you hear me belting out my favorite song of the week (this week it’s Mal Poli by Yelle). We all know I’m not the only one in this predicament. Undoubtedly, someone besides the phone company is taking advantage of this situation monetarily. Thankfully, it’s to help others.

The ingenious, A Blind Call, was developed by this Belgian ad agency, Duval Guillaume, and asks people to add its phone number to your phone list. So everytime you accidentally call “A Blind Call,” a cut of the proceeds go to the League for the Blind Fund. A call never costs more than €.75. Sadly, not in America. But what an innovative and unique idea - to take an annoying everyday occurance and twist it to raise funds for something worthy. Nonprofit creativity is so cool!

Don’t know about you, but the day after Thanksgiving I made my holiday shopping list. I did NOT however take to the malls on Black Friday - can’t say I’m that motivated - and now I’m glad I didn’t. Today I learned about Nonprofit Shopping Mall. It’s a great site that lets you shop for a cause.

What’s unique about it is the huge brands they’ve partnered with and the full transparency about how much these brands will contribute to the charity of your choice - ranging from 2% to 10%. And with brands like Target, Toys R Us, Gap and iTunes participating, I’m sure to make a dent in my list.

Adds a whole new meaning to holiday giving.

Thanksgiving has turned into a two week affair at my house this year as my son spent one week at school learning about the Native Americans and the next learning about the Pilgrims (he also made a handprint turkey placemat and a cornucopia candleholder and we already ate a Thanksgiving feast at his school). We’ve been reading book after book about the first Thanksgiving, and he can tell you all about the horrible boat ride on the Mayflower, the type of granite that Plymouth Rock is made from and a brief biography of Squanto. And despite the fact that he won’t eat any of it, he can recite the traditional Thanksgiving menu of yams, mashed potatoes, turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and pumkin pie as if he’s cooking it this Thursday.

And I know - most kids in the US are doing the exact same things this week, so what’s my point you ask?

Well, its been quite some time since I’ve immersed myself so completely in the history and principles of Thanksgiving…so long in fact, that perhaps a part of me had forgotten what the Pilgrims were celebrating during that first feast. But then I read about their treacherous journey across the Atlantic, the horrible winter they arrived to in New England and how when the Mayflower left to return to England, only half of their original group was still alive and yet no one returned with the ship. I was reminded that in addition to celebrating the first harvest in the new land, what the Pilgrims were truly celebrating was FREEDOM - and more specifically, religious freedom.

Maybe this year I am particularly attuned to the concept of religious freedom as we have been working with an amazing organization in DC that promotes and defends religious freedom around the world. The Institute on Religion and Public Policy is not connected to or funded by any one religion or government, enabling them to work to change policies without outside persuasion. The Institute’s programs work to raise awareness, educate and inspire dialogue so that one day religious freedom will apply to every citizen of the world.

Our work with the Institute reminds me that this Thanksgiving, all Americans should remember that religious freedom is a basic and fundamental human right – it means we have the right to think and believe whatever we want. As Americans, we tend to take this for granted, but we’re lucky to have it. This year, I hope the Institute and other organizations like it, can continue promoting and ensuring not only our religious freedom, but religious freedom for all.

Wishing you a happy and meaningful Thanksgiving.

We’ve been working on some Web 2.0 marketing campaigns for some of our clients, but none of them have been nonprofits.  But we have been talking alot about how more nonprofits can and should be taking advantage of Web 2.0.  The thing is, we haven’t seen all that many good creative examples of this, particularly for smaller organizations.  Even when we scour nonprofit resources, much of what they advise seems pretty basic and formulaic…not much creativity.

BUT…yesterday I saw this article in The Washington Post about how the local Goodwill chapter has created a YouTube fashion show video and a blog with vintage fashion tips.  Now there’s some creativity!

If you know of some smaller nonprofits using Web 2.0 in creative ways, let me know.

I’ll admit it - every once in awhile I need a distraction during the day.  We all do it - read our fave blog that has nothing to do with work (in my case Notes from the Trenches), browse Zappos, IM our friends, etc.  In fact, if you’re reading this, you’re probably looking for a distraction yourself.

A few weeks ago, Lauren had a bad distraction.  She had borrowed her father’s Nintendo Brain Age and was totally addicted.  For two day I heard that beeping little game.  Well today I found my newest addiction - and it couldn’t be more perfect for us!  FreeRice is an online vocabulary game - you guess vocabulary definitions and every time you answer correctly, ten grains of rice are donated to starving children.  As writers, expanding our vocab is always fun for us…and when you put a good cause behind it, how can we resist?  

So how does it work?  Throughout the game, sponsors are listed on the page and the sponsors donate money to the UN World Food Program.  When FreeRice launched on October 7th, they donated 830 grains of rice.  Since then, they have donated 165,000,000 grains of rice. 

Today I donated 1,100 grains of rice and learned three new words.  Now that’s a worthwhile distraction.