When it comes to international aid and development, we are all biased. It doesn't matter if you're a donor reading pamphlets, a celebrity or YouTuber endorsing your favorite NGO, a journalist interviewing villagers, an academic outside of the ivory tower, an experienced aid professional talking about "good aid", or even a free agent trying to be a bridge-maker.
There is nothing nefarious about this fact. We as human beings, while capable of untold capacities for empathy, will never have a complete verstehen and fully imagine the complexity of others. This is important because the arbiters of what is and is not ...
5 Steps for NGOs to Move from Guilt to Empowerment
My thoughts on how charities need to drop the guilt is getting tons of views. But the question remains: how does a charity drop the guilt? Can they do it overnight? Cold turkey?
As I mentioned some charities, like the US-branch of Save the Children, have already stopped using "poverty porn". I'd like to share something I've talked to them about behind closed doors.
I guess you can call it a 5 Step Program for NGOs using guilt:
3 Reasons Charities Need to Drop the Guilt
[caption id="attachment_3629" align="aligncenter" width="473" caption="A Charity Guilt-Ad Currently Airing in Canada"][/caption]
It's 2011 and we still live in a world where many charities think that the best way to raise funds to help those in need is by using guilt.
This needs to stop and here are three reasons why:
How Come the Poor Can’t Video Blog? Thoughts on the Digital Divide
This year I’ve been talking a lot about the “Digital Divide”. But what is that? And why does it matter?
The “Digital Divide” is basically a term to describe the technological gap which prevents the poorest of the world’s poor from participating in global online conversations that are occurring on the internet.
This is important because what we are doing on the internet is starting to have the power to shape our politics, our governments, our economies, and our own personal priorities, opinions, and tastes.
If the poorest of the poor are excluded from these global conversations, we can only use the internet ...
One Million Views. And, as of a few hours ago, this project is more popular on YouTube than even The ONE Campaign. I think we just pwned Bono
I said before that I like to focus on one difference at a time and I’m not doing this to become a celebrity. So why does it matter how many views this project gets or how popular this project is?
That’s because – even though I don’t like to play the numbers game – there are organizations that do play that game. And we just sent a big message to them.
You don’t need big PR dollars to engage people on the issue of global poverty, you don’t need to guilt people to get them to donate, and you don’t need big name celebrities to get people interested in your work.
Let’s continue to change the conversation. I’ll need your help every step of the way.
Following-up on my blog post about the Tour de Nerdfighting – here’s my video from that event. There is also lots of deleted scenes and bonus footage from this event up on my secondary channel. Hope you check it out!
[UPDATE: The Project 1010 guys took the video down but I'm told the a new version will be up soon. I'll fix the video link in this post when that happens.]
I recently stumbled upon this charity in Kenya called The 1010 Project. I just had to share this with you. Why? Just look at the video:
I also want to get in touch with these guys because I want to know how they were able to get permission to use Sigur Ros’s music. A while back I tried to get permission but I never heard back from those guys…
Save the Children does amazing work – that’s why I love using this project to highlight the good work that they do. One of the reasons for this is because they are very much on the same wavelength as me on a lot of issues.
If you’ve been following this project for a while, you know I want to change the conversation about global poverty. Coming back home I’ve found charity-related commercials full of sad images, sad music, and guilt-inducing please for donations.
What I admire about Save the Children is they haven’t resorted to those kinds of tactics. I’ve seen a lot of commercials and promo materials from Save the Children and I have yet to find a single one that is a guilt-trip or portrays the poor as objects of pity.
Save the Children is also willing to try new things when it comes to interacting with people over the internet. I’m really thrilled that when I came up with Challenge Poverty – Save the Children jumped on board and even made a video response:
This project is less about me and more about the online community that is supporting this journey every step of the way. Here’s a new video from a friend of mine by the name of Matt. He votes for the pond sand filter part of Challenge Poverty in a really creative and passionate way. I have to admit I never thought of the issue like that until I saw Matt’s video.
Hello from Plano, Texas! I’ve got some great news. First, I got to meet Hank & John Green. They are even more amazing in real life than they are online. If you want to see them, they are going on a Cross-America trip called the Tour de Nerdfighting. Check this map to see when and where they will be next – you can even RSVP by clicking on the city location.
Second, if you’ve ever wanted to make a donation but 1) Can’t or don’t want to use PayPal and 2) Don’t like how PayPal takes a cut of every donation – than there is a great opportunity for you to get involved in this project in a way that guarantees 100% of your donation is used. And best of all? I don’t ever have to touch a dime.
Hank and John will be accepting donations at every stop of their tour up until November 12th. On November 12th, they’ll be in Westport, Conneticut – the home town of Save the Children USA. If all goes according to plan – they’ll be handing over the donations directly to Save the Children. That money will be spent based on how you guys vote in my Challenge Poverty video. Voting is still open – so please do get involved!
I don’t have to touch your money, 100% of the funds raised go straight to helping the poor, you get to decide how it’s spent, and it all helps one of the world’s greatest international charities. How more awesome can it get?
Click the jump for some photos from the Plano event…
This is not a charity, organization, or anything formal. It’s my journey to try and make the world a better place - one meaningful difference at a time. To learn more click here.
