Legendary Australian actor Jack Thompson knows there can be no stronger bond than blood.
As a bloke adopted as a child and reunited with his father as an adult, Jack also knows that two people don't need to have met for them to share unconditional love.
On that note, Channel Seven is proud to announce Jack Thompson as the host of its brand new program, Find My Family.
Find My Family shares Jack's sentiment as it reunites lost souls and mends hearts that have been broken for a lifetime.
So many Australians have grown up without a mother, father, brother or sister, and often that absence leaves a gaping hole in their identity.
On Find My Family, long-lost loved ones are reunited and that hole is filled with tears of joy.
The hardest heart will be moved by the mother, pregnant too young and forced to bravely give her baby up for adoption, when she is reconnected with her son, grown up and with a child of his own.
Or there's the elation and devastation when a young woman looking for answers about her absent father, finds both a devastating truth from her long-lost uncle and a whole other family she never knew existed.
"When I was invited to host Find My Family I recognised immediately that in reuniting families I would be involved in something very dear to my heart," says Jack.
"I was adopted by a wonderful family, The Thompsons, but the reunion with my birth father that occurred after 42 years was an important moment of resolution in both his life and mine."
Channel Seven's Director of Programming and Production Tim Worner says Thompson's personal experience adds empathy and authority to these emotional moments.
"Find My Family is intensely human. It's deeply moving, joyous, sad, but enormously uplifting, all at the same time," says Tim.
Thompson's warmth and career-long association with distinctly Australian stories of trial and triumph, such as the films Breaker Morant and The Man from Snowy River, offers a welcome tender touch as the show deals with the repair of fractured family relationships.
"Above all, this show is a hero. The bonds that it has already created and will create for many years to come are something that makes Channel Seven immensely proud," Tim adds.
Find My Family is produced by Quail Television for Channel Seven. Executive Producers are John Rudd (Channel Seven) and Greg Quail (Quail TV).
Media Man Australia Profiles
Jack Thompson
Channel Seven
Social and Community Entrepreneurs
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Newman planned for charitable legacy after death, by Susan Haigh - AP - 29th September 2008
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Paul Newman broached the subject of his philanthropic legacy several years ago while fishing with friends Robert Forrester and David Horvitz off the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
Even though he was a Hollywood icon — a 10-time Academy Award nominee known for his performances in such classic films as "Cool Hand Luke" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" — it was a rare moment in which Newman reflected on how he would be remembered after his death, Horvitz recalled Sunday.
"Most of the time he didn't think about legacy," he said. "He was pretty much in the moment."
But Newman, who died Friday of cancer at age 83, told the men he wanted to be remembered for the "Hole in the Wall" camps he helped to start across the world for children with life-threatening illnesses and to make sure that 100 percent of the profits from his popular food company, Newman's Own, would continue to benefit such camps and thousands of other charities.
Horvitz is chairman of the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps, which has 11 camps across the globe. Newman told him that he had been lucky in life, born with piercing blue eyes and gift for acting, and how it was unfair that so many innocent children were unlucky to have been burdened with devastating diseases such as AIDS or leukemia.
"He felt a need and an obligation to try to give back," Horvitz said.
"He loved the camps. He loved being there. He loved being with the kids," he added. "He loved their smiles and their laughter."
In 1982, Newman and writer A.E. Hotchner started Newman's Own to market Newman's original oil-and-vinegar dressing. It began as a joke and grew into a multimillion-dollar business.
Newman and his food company have given more than $250 million to charity over the years. Last year, $28 million from the sale of pasta sauces, salad dressings, popcorn and other products was distributed to a variety of social causes, including the Safe Water Network, which Newman helped start to provide safe drinking water to impoverished communities in places like India and Africa.
Until two years ago, Newman had the task of personally distributing the company's profits. But he and Forrester set up a private, independent foundation, known as Newman's Own Foundation, to carry on the work without Newman.
"Really, everything is in great shape," Forrester said of the foundation and the company after Newman's death.
"He said, 'When I'm not here, this foundation is to continue the tradition of giving all of this money away,'" Forrester said.
Forrester joked how such planning wasn't part of Newman's nature. A sign famously hangs in Newman's Westport, Conn., offices that reads, "If I had a plan I would be screwed."
Newman welcomed the opinions of others as he pursued the business and his philanthropic efforts. Forrester explained how the actor believed in the benefit of "creative chaos," where, as in a movie set, different people offer ideas about how a scene should be handled.
"That was Paul's enduring philosophy, and it worked," Forrester said. "It sounds awful, but it was part of Paul saying everybody had a voice."
At Forrester's request, Newman came up with what he wanted the Newman's Own company — he hated the word "brand" — to stand for. Newman listed quality food, fair labor practices, a mission focused on philanthropy and not profit, and an open environment in the workplace, not a bureaucratic one.
Forrester said that mission will continue, even though Newman is gone.
Also, his smiling face will still appear on bottles of marinade and boxes of frozen pizza, and his wife, actress Joanne Woodward, will still sit on the Newman's Own Foundation Board of Directors. Newman typically sat in on all the board meetings, with the exception of the most recent one, about a week ago.
Forrester said Newman's friends at Newman's Own — some who have worked there from the early days of the company — plan to look for ways to expand the business in order to carry out the actor's wishes and give away even more money.
"We're stewards of this legacy," he said.
On the Net:
* Newman's Own: http://www.newmansown.com
Media Man Australia Profiles
Social and Community Entrepreneurs
Even though he was a Hollywood icon — a 10-time Academy Award nominee known for his performances in such classic films as "Cool Hand Luke" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" — it was a rare moment in which Newman reflected on how he would be remembered after his death, Horvitz recalled Sunday.
"Most of the time he didn't think about legacy," he said. "He was pretty much in the moment."
But Newman, who died Friday of cancer at age 83, told the men he wanted to be remembered for the "Hole in the Wall" camps he helped to start across the world for children with life-threatening illnesses and to make sure that 100 percent of the profits from his popular food company, Newman's Own, would continue to benefit such camps and thousands of other charities.
Horvitz is chairman of the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps, which has 11 camps across the globe. Newman told him that he had been lucky in life, born with piercing blue eyes and gift for acting, and how it was unfair that so many innocent children were unlucky to have been burdened with devastating diseases such as AIDS or leukemia.
"He felt a need and an obligation to try to give back," Horvitz said.
"He loved the camps. He loved being there. He loved being with the kids," he added. "He loved their smiles and their laughter."
In 1982, Newman and writer A.E. Hotchner started Newman's Own to market Newman's original oil-and-vinegar dressing. It began as a joke and grew into a multimillion-dollar business.
Newman and his food company have given more than $250 million to charity over the years. Last year, $28 million from the sale of pasta sauces, salad dressings, popcorn and other products was distributed to a variety of social causes, including the Safe Water Network, which Newman helped start to provide safe drinking water to impoverished communities in places like India and Africa.
Until two years ago, Newman had the task of personally distributing the company's profits. But he and Forrester set up a private, independent foundation, known as Newman's Own Foundation, to carry on the work without Newman.
"Really, everything is in great shape," Forrester said of the foundation and the company after Newman's death.
"He said, 'When I'm not here, this foundation is to continue the tradition of giving all of this money away,'" Forrester said.
Forrester joked how such planning wasn't part of Newman's nature. A sign famously hangs in Newman's Westport, Conn., offices that reads, "If I had a plan I would be screwed."
Newman welcomed the opinions of others as he pursued the business and his philanthropic efforts. Forrester explained how the actor believed in the benefit of "creative chaos," where, as in a movie set, different people offer ideas about how a scene should be handled.
"That was Paul's enduring philosophy, and it worked," Forrester said. "It sounds awful, but it was part of Paul saying everybody had a voice."
At Forrester's request, Newman came up with what he wanted the Newman's Own company — he hated the word "brand" — to stand for. Newman listed quality food, fair labor practices, a mission focused on philanthropy and not profit, and an open environment in the workplace, not a bureaucratic one.
Forrester said that mission will continue, even though Newman is gone.
Also, his smiling face will still appear on bottles of marinade and boxes of frozen pizza, and his wife, actress Joanne Woodward, will still sit on the Newman's Own Foundation Board of Directors. Newman typically sat in on all the board meetings, with the exception of the most recent one, about a week ago.
Forrester said Newman's friends at Newman's Own — some who have worked there from the early days of the company — plan to look for ways to expand the business in order to carry out the actor's wishes and give away even more money.
"We're stewards of this legacy," he said.
On the Net:
* Newman's Own: http://www.newmansown.com
Media Man Australia Profiles
Social and Community Entrepreneurs
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Social Entrepreneurship Awards Announced, by Heather Joslyn - The Chronicle of Philanthropy - 25th September 2008
Grass-roots programs focused on helping homeless people, rebuilding hurricane-devastated New Orleans, and rescuing girls from the sex trade are among the winners of the eighth annual Social Entrepreneurship Awards, given by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a think tank in New York that focuses on free-market issues.
The award focuses on groups whose work either replaces or complements existing government efforts, says the institute. “At a time when both major party presidential campaigns are emphasizing the importance of national and community service, these award winners underscore the fact that the impulse to serve—and creativity about how to do so—runs deep in America,” said Howard Husock, the institute’s vice president of programs and director of its Social Entrepreneurship Initiative, in a statement announcing the award winners.
The institute’s William E. Simon Lifetime Achievement Award, which carries a prize of $100,000, goes to George T. McDonald, founder of the Doe Fund,in New York. Created in 1990, the charity works to develop and implement programs that attack the problems of homelessness, addiction, and criminal recidivism.
Prizes of $25,000 each will be given to the following Social Entrepreneurship award-winners:
* Richard Grausman, founder of Careers through Culinary Arts Program, commonly known as C-CAP, a New York group created in 1990 to give high school students preparation for careers in the restaurant and hospitality industry, via home-economics courses and afterschool and summer programs.
* Rachel Lloyd, founder of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, or GEMS, a New York group created in 1999 that works to rescue girls as young as 11 from the prostitution and pornography industries. The charity serves more than 1,200 girls per year through a variety of programs.
* Susan McWhinney-Morse, a co-founder of Beacon Hill Village, a Boston membership organization started in 2001 that helps elderly local residents reamin in their homes. More than a dozen similar groups have sprung up around the country, following Beacon Hill’s model.
* Zack Rosenburg, co-founder of St. Bernard Project, a New Orleans group started after Hurricane Katrina that has rebuilt more than 140 homes with the help of more than 8,000 volunteers.
* Robert L. Woodson Sr., founder of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, a Washington organization created in 1981 whose Violence Free Zone program aims to link adults in a troubled neighborhood with local schools to prevent school violence. The program has expanded to cities across the country from its pilot effort in Washington in 2004.
The awards will be given out to winners at an event October 27 in New York.
The Manhattan Institute Social Entrepreneurship Initiative, created in 2001, is supported by the William E. Simon and JM Kaplan foundations, both of New York.
Greg Tingle comment
Sometimes just giving is reward enough in itself. Mind you, recognition also has its rewards. I know a great many people who have done some wonderful work in society, their names you will never hear about in the news, and that’s just the way they like it. Some of the world’s most worthy work often goes unreported, but the community whose lives are changed for the better are well aware of their gifts. Of course the scale of the hurricanes to hit the U.S did see some good deeds reported. It appears that the U.S government has realised the benefits in working closely with society and corporates. One doesn’t require a trophy or formal award to be a hero or world beater however there’s strong merit in the accolades. It also serves to remind us that we can always do more and to reach for the stars.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Social and Community Entrepreneurs
The award focuses on groups whose work either replaces or complements existing government efforts, says the institute. “At a time when both major party presidential campaigns are emphasizing the importance of national and community service, these award winners underscore the fact that the impulse to serve—and creativity about how to do so—runs deep in America,” said Howard Husock, the institute’s vice president of programs and director of its Social Entrepreneurship Initiative, in a statement announcing the award winners.
The institute’s William E. Simon Lifetime Achievement Award, which carries a prize of $100,000, goes to George T. McDonald, founder of the Doe Fund,in New York. Created in 1990, the charity works to develop and implement programs that attack the problems of homelessness, addiction, and criminal recidivism.
Prizes of $25,000 each will be given to the following Social Entrepreneurship award-winners:
* Richard Grausman, founder of Careers through Culinary Arts Program, commonly known as C-CAP, a New York group created in 1990 to give high school students preparation for careers in the restaurant and hospitality industry, via home-economics courses and afterschool and summer programs.
* Rachel Lloyd, founder of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, or GEMS, a New York group created in 1999 that works to rescue girls as young as 11 from the prostitution and pornography industries. The charity serves more than 1,200 girls per year through a variety of programs.
* Susan McWhinney-Morse, a co-founder of Beacon Hill Village, a Boston membership organization started in 2001 that helps elderly local residents reamin in their homes. More than a dozen similar groups have sprung up around the country, following Beacon Hill’s model.
* Zack Rosenburg, co-founder of St. Bernard Project, a New Orleans group started after Hurricane Katrina that has rebuilt more than 140 homes with the help of more than 8,000 volunteers.
* Robert L. Woodson Sr., founder of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, a Washington organization created in 1981 whose Violence Free Zone program aims to link adults in a troubled neighborhood with local schools to prevent school violence. The program has expanded to cities across the country from its pilot effort in Washington in 2004.
The awards will be given out to winners at an event October 27 in New York.
The Manhattan Institute Social Entrepreneurship Initiative, created in 2001, is supported by the William E. Simon and JM Kaplan foundations, both of New York.
Greg Tingle comment
Sometimes just giving is reward enough in itself. Mind you, recognition also has its rewards. I know a great many people who have done some wonderful work in society, their names you will never hear about in the news, and that’s just the way they like it. Some of the world’s most worthy work often goes unreported, but the community whose lives are changed for the better are well aware of their gifts. Of course the scale of the hurricanes to hit the U.S did see some good deeds reported. It appears that the U.S government has realised the benefits in working closely with society and corporates. One doesn’t require a trophy or formal award to be a hero or world beater however there’s strong merit in the accolades. It also serves to remind us that we can always do more and to reach for the stars.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Social and Community Entrepreneurs
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Clinton Global Initiative - Philanthropy's Faults - The Chronicle of Philanthropy - 26th September 2008
A panel at the Clinton Global Initiative on philanthropy in rural areas sparked a broader discussion — and complaints — about charitable giving.
The discussion’s moderator, Steve Gunderson, president of the Council on Foundations, struggled to keep the speakers focused on the main topic when one of them, Wangari Muta Maathai, said that not enough is done to help Africans lift themselves out of poverty.
“You have to help these people rise up and walk,” said Ms. Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement, a charity in Kenya.
Rick Warren, pastor of the Saddleback Church, which does antipoverty work in Rwanda and elsewhere, agreed. “So much of what we do in philanthropic development robs people of dignity, removes initiative, destroys their own economy. It’s actually counterproductive,” he said.
Good giving works like an injection of yeast into dough — a relatively small amount can have expansive results with the right ingredients, he said.
“There’s a way to give that sustains and there’s a way to give that makes people dependent,” he said.
For Native Americans, however, that type of positive contribution has been hard to come by from the government and philanthropy, said Elsie Meeks, president of First Nations Oweesta Corporation, a charity in Rapid City, S.D.
“Native American tribes are really under the radar for most folks. There’s poor in the United States, if we can’t solve that issue in the United States, how are we going to do it in any other country?” she asked.
“One of the largest foundations in this world has a new CEO and was getting educated by some of his program officers about some of the poorest people in the United States — Native American women — [and] he said, So what? His point was there’s not enough of us,” she said.
Concerned that the session was getting too negative, Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Prize-winning founder of the Grameen Bank, said, “The message I think we don’t want to give as a panel is, Don’t give money for philanthropy. That’s not the message. The message is, Please do give, but it could be used much more powerfully.”
“Let’s not confuse things,” he said to the business executives and philanthropists in the crowd, “we need to share the wealth.”
— Ian Wilhelm
Greg Tingle comment
Wise words from Muhammad Yunus. As the old Chinese proverb goes, Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime. It also sounds like he was getting at giving a hand up, not a hand out. If a hand out is required to help get someone to the stage of a hand up, I think its generally the way to go. It's the old crawl, walk, run scenario.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Muhammad Yunus
Social and Community Entrepreneurs
The discussion’s moderator, Steve Gunderson, president of the Council on Foundations, struggled to keep the speakers focused on the main topic when one of them, Wangari Muta Maathai, said that not enough is done to help Africans lift themselves out of poverty.
“You have to help these people rise up and walk,” said Ms. Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement, a charity in Kenya.
Rick Warren, pastor of the Saddleback Church, which does antipoverty work in Rwanda and elsewhere, agreed. “So much of what we do in philanthropic development robs people of dignity, removes initiative, destroys their own economy. It’s actually counterproductive,” he said.
Good giving works like an injection of yeast into dough — a relatively small amount can have expansive results with the right ingredients, he said.
“There’s a way to give that sustains and there’s a way to give that makes people dependent,” he said.
For Native Americans, however, that type of positive contribution has been hard to come by from the government and philanthropy, said Elsie Meeks, president of First Nations Oweesta Corporation, a charity in Rapid City, S.D.
“Native American tribes are really under the radar for most folks. There’s poor in the United States, if we can’t solve that issue in the United States, how are we going to do it in any other country?” she asked.
“One of the largest foundations in this world has a new CEO and was getting educated by some of his program officers about some of the poorest people in the United States — Native American women — [and] he said, So what? His point was there’s not enough of us,” she said.
Concerned that the session was getting too negative, Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Prize-winning founder of the Grameen Bank, said, “The message I think we don’t want to give as a panel is, Don’t give money for philanthropy. That’s not the message. The message is, Please do give, but it could be used much more powerfully.”
“Let’s not confuse things,” he said to the business executives and philanthropists in the crowd, “we need to share the wealth.”
— Ian Wilhelm
Greg Tingle comment
Wise words from Muhammad Yunus. As the old Chinese proverb goes, Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime. It also sounds like he was getting at giving a hand up, not a hand out. If a hand out is required to help get someone to the stage of a hand up, I think its generally the way to go. It's the old crawl, walk, run scenario.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Muhammad Yunus
Social and Community Entrepreneurs
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Tanzania set to host 2008 Travelers’ Philanthropy Conference
By Apolinari Tairo
22nd September 2008
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (eTN) - Tanzania will officially be the second host of Travelers Philanthrophy Conference, which is scheduled to take place in Northern tourist town of Arusha early December this year.
The Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) has announced its acceptance to sponsor part of the conference and participate in the conference that will take place from December 3 - 5 this year with high expectations to attract over 300 participants, most from tourism business and environmental partnerships.
Ethiopian Airlines has been named the conference’s “preferred international airline.” It is providing a 50 percent discount on tickets for journalists covering the conference, as well as complimentary tickets for the US-based conference organizers. Ethiopian Airlines has an active travelers' philanthropy program, including Greener Ethiopia, which is aiming to plant two million trees in Ethiopia.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), together with the Jane Goodall Institute, is supporting the plenary session on “HIV AIDS: Responses from the Travel Industry” and the workshops under the stream “Travelers’ Philanthropy: Contribution to Conservation.”
Another conference sponsor will be the Conservation Corporation of Africa (CC Africa) is hosting the December 4 cocktail reception which will feature the company’s Ngorongoro Lodge Choir and will showcase the company’s educational outreach programs on HIV AIDS prevalence in Africa.
The regional offices in East and Southern Africa of the Ford Foundation are supporting the conference by providing several dozen scholarships for attendees and speakers, while the ProParques Foundation in Costa Rica and Basecamp Explorer Foundation will finance a new documentary on travelers’ philanthropy projects in East Africa and Costa Rica. The documentary by two young filmmakers from Stanford
University will be premiered at the conference.
Other co-sponsors and active supporters of the three-day event, which is being held at the Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge outside Arusha in Northern Tanzania, include Country Walkers, Spirit of the Big Five Foundation, Thomson Safaris, Virgin Unite, Asilia Lodges and Camps, Africa Safari Lodge Foundation, and Honeyguide Foundations. International travel, airport transfers, and hotel bookings at the Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge, the conference venue outside Arusha, is being handled by Safari Ventures, a Tanzanian-owned travel agency which supports community projects.
Under the banner “Making Travelers’ Philanthropy Work for Development, Business, and Conservation,” the conference will focus on the growing trend among responsible tourism businesses to support community and conservation projects in the host countries where they operate.
The opening keynote speaker is Nobel Peace Laureate Dr. Wangari Maathai, founder and leader of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya. Biologist Dr. David Western, who is founder of the Africa Conservation Centre and former director of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), will give a keynote address on "Ecotourism,
Conservation and Development in Eastern Africa." Other speakers and the full conference program are listed on the conference.
Arusha is a vibrant tourism town near the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Meru that serves as a gateway to Tanzania’s world renowned game parks. The conference also features eight outstanding safaris that combine wildlife viewing with visits to community projects supported by tourism businesses, as well as visits to Zanzibar and a trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro.
“This conference marks the most comprehensive examination to-date of travelers’ philanthropy – the growing global initiative by which tourism businesses and travelers are helping to support local schools, clinics, micro-enterprises, job training, conservation, and other types of projects in tourism destinations around the world,” said Dr. Martha Honey, co-director of the Center on Eco-tourism and Sustainable Development (CESD).
“We have chosen to hold the conference in East Africa because there are many fine examples of responsible tourism businesses,” she added. “The conference also features eight outstanding safaris that combine wildlife viewing with visits to community projects supported by tourism businesses, as well as visits to Zanzibar and a trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro.”
The conference is being organized by the US-based nonprofit organization, the Center on Eco-tourism and Sustainable Development (CESD), and a three-person team is in Arusha to coordinate the conference programs.
22nd September 2008
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (eTN) - Tanzania will officially be the second host of Travelers Philanthrophy Conference, which is scheduled to take place in Northern tourist town of Arusha early December this year.
The Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) has announced its acceptance to sponsor part of the conference and participate in the conference that will take place from December 3 - 5 this year with high expectations to attract over 300 participants, most from tourism business and environmental partnerships.
Ethiopian Airlines has been named the conference’s “preferred international airline.” It is providing a 50 percent discount on tickets for journalists covering the conference, as well as complimentary tickets for the US-based conference organizers. Ethiopian Airlines has an active travelers' philanthropy program, including Greener Ethiopia, which is aiming to plant two million trees in Ethiopia.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), together with the Jane Goodall Institute, is supporting the plenary session on “HIV AIDS: Responses from the Travel Industry” and the workshops under the stream “Travelers’ Philanthropy: Contribution to Conservation.”
Another conference sponsor will be the Conservation Corporation of Africa (CC Africa) is hosting the December 4 cocktail reception which will feature the company’s Ngorongoro Lodge Choir and will showcase the company’s educational outreach programs on HIV AIDS prevalence in Africa.
The regional offices in East and Southern Africa of the Ford Foundation are supporting the conference by providing several dozen scholarships for attendees and speakers, while the ProParques Foundation in Costa Rica and Basecamp Explorer Foundation will finance a new documentary on travelers’ philanthropy projects in East Africa and Costa Rica. The documentary by two young filmmakers from Stanford
University will be premiered at the conference.
Other co-sponsors and active supporters of the three-day event, which is being held at the Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge outside Arusha in Northern Tanzania, include Country Walkers, Spirit of the Big Five Foundation, Thomson Safaris, Virgin Unite, Asilia Lodges and Camps, Africa Safari Lodge Foundation, and Honeyguide Foundations. International travel, airport transfers, and hotel bookings at the Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge, the conference venue outside Arusha, is being handled by Safari Ventures, a Tanzanian-owned travel agency which supports community projects.
Under the banner “Making Travelers’ Philanthropy Work for Development, Business, and Conservation,” the conference will focus on the growing trend among responsible tourism businesses to support community and conservation projects in the host countries where they operate.
The opening keynote speaker is Nobel Peace Laureate Dr. Wangari Maathai, founder and leader of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya. Biologist Dr. David Western, who is founder of the Africa Conservation Centre and former director of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), will give a keynote address on "Ecotourism,
Conservation and Development in Eastern Africa." Other speakers and the full conference program are listed on the conference.
Arusha is a vibrant tourism town near the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Meru that serves as a gateway to Tanzania’s world renowned game parks. The conference also features eight outstanding safaris that combine wildlife viewing with visits to community projects supported by tourism businesses, as well as visits to Zanzibar and a trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro.
“This conference marks the most comprehensive examination to-date of travelers’ philanthropy – the growing global initiative by which tourism businesses and travelers are helping to support local schools, clinics, micro-enterprises, job training, conservation, and other types of projects in tourism destinations around the world,” said Dr. Martha Honey, co-director of the Center on Eco-tourism and Sustainable Development (CESD).
“We have chosen to hold the conference in East Africa because there are many fine examples of responsible tourism businesses,” she added. “The conference also features eight outstanding safaris that combine wildlife viewing with visits to community projects supported by tourism businesses, as well as visits to Zanzibar and a trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro.”
The conference is being organized by the US-based nonprofit organization, the Center on Eco-tourism and Sustainable Development (CESD), and a three-person team is in Arusha to coordinate the conference programs.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Charities and non-profit groups set for shake-up, by Daryl Passmore - The Sunday Mail - 21st September 2008
When you pop a box of Weet-Bix into your trolley during the weekly supermarket shop, do you feel like you are doing your bit for charity?
Sanitarium Health Foods is one of the country's biggest breakfast cereal companies, with a turnover of more than $300 million and about 1500 staff. But it pays no company tax on its profits.
That's because Sanitarium – Australia's first health food company, established 110 years ago – is owned by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and donates all its profit to the church for charitable activities including hospitals, educational facilities, indigenous programs and aid to people in developing countries.
In Sydney's western suburbs, a soccer club runs a used-car sales lot. It does not pay tax on its profits, either, because Australia is unique in the developed world in not taxing charities or non-profit organisations on this type of "related business income".
On the flipside, a community centre that starts running bus trips for lonely old folk could jeopardise its status as a Deductible Gift Recipient, with donations tax-deductible, because that is viewed as a "social", not "benevolent", activity.
All are part of a massive not-for-profit sector that includes everything from your child's local footy club to the Catholic Church, which turns over $15 billion a year from insurance companies through to funeral services.
The sector includes about 700,000 organisations – 150,000 of them incorporated – turning over more than $74 billion a year, according to the National Roundtable of Nonprofit Organisations.
It employs more than 884,000 paid staff and about 2.5 million volunteers. Nearly 90 per cent of Australians are members of a non-profit group and a third of adults have volunteered with one.
Much of the money is public funding – either through direct donations or government contracts to deliver services.
But despite it enormous size, the sector is characterised by a bewildering, almost chaotic array of laws, regulations, standards, governance models and methods of accountability.
A review is in progress, which could lead to the biggest overhaul of the sector in decades.
The Senate's standing committee on economics is holding an inquiry into the disclosure regimes for charities and not-for-profit organisations which, among other things, will examine the legal structures for registering and running groups, reporting requirements and improving transparency in the use of public and government funds.
Submissions closed last month and the committee will report by the end of November.
The inquiry was initiated by Democrat senators Lyn Allison and Andrew Murray, both of whom have since left Parliament, following a study by consumer group Choice in March.
What they found was that existing and potential supporters often faced huge challenges in finding out how money was used, how much made it to the intended target, how much was dwindled in administration and fund-raising costs, and how effective charities are in achieving their goals.
Choice spokesman Christopher Zinn said nearly nine out of 10 adults give to charity, with an annual average of more than $400.
"But despite such widespread support and high trust in the charitable sector, donors have concerns," Mr Zinn said.
"The problem is getting and comparing the information. Our research, including a survey of charities, found wide variability and inconsistency in the way they communicate key information to donors.
"That's if they communicate it at all. Sometimes, the information simply isn't publicly available.
"This absence of transparency means that the 90 per cent of us who want to donate have an almost impossible task in comparing charities and ensuring our money has the best effect.
"It's important not to have to rely on faith and trust keeping charities going."
Gina Anderson, chief executive officer of Philanthropy Australia, agrees greater scrutiny is essential to ensuring the continued growth in support from charitable trusts, foundations, corporations, families and individuals.
"Philanthropists, donors and social investors are asking for greater transparency to understand who is doing a good job and who isn't," she said.
She argues that the term "non-profit" has negative connotations and should be replaced with "Community Benefit Entity", and advocates a financial reporting system that differentiates between those established for charitable purposes and those with community purposes such as sporting groups and private clubs – with the level of public accountability varying according to size.
"The vast majority of not-for-profits turn over less than $500,000. Do we really want them to provide a full annual report? Probably not."
Most organisations welcome the inquiry, saying regulatory reform is well overdue.
"We now have the first opportunity for a generation – the first chance, perhaps, since Australia has been a nation – to consider the goals and needs and structures of the community sector from the ground up," said Rhonda Galbally, chief executive officer of Our Community, a resource centre for the sector.
Professor Myles McGregor-Lowndes, director of the Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies at Queensland University of Technology, said: "There are quite a number of problems, particularly the outdated and archaic laws.
"When I was an articled clerk 25 years ago and went to register a company, it would take three weeks. Now I could walk in with my $300 and 10 minutes later, walk out with the certificate of incorporation and get on with business. But it still takes months to register incorporated associations."
Prof McGregor-Lowndes has devised a standard chart of accounts which could be adopted across the whole charity and non-profit area and for which there is virtually unanimous support. The issue, according to most in the sector, is not a lack of controls – but an excess. National charities have to register in each state, under nine separate pieces of legislation.
Anglicare Australia, in its submission to the inquiry, highlights the problem of overlapping jurisdictions "with 93 state, territory and Commonwealth bodies able to make a determination about an organisation's charitable status".
Depending what they do, groups have to comply with a raft of laws covering employment, insurance, child protection, aged care, environment, land ownership, privacy, food preparation and occupational health and safety.
It's time-consuming and expensive.
Rodney Brady, chief financial officer with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, said that while people were concerned about funds being chewed up by administration, regulatory requirements meant more and more money had to be used that way.
"A few years ago, we were able to run our overseas aid programs using other resources to cover overheads. The burden of requirements now means we have to use 10 per cent from the funds to cover the overheads."
Professor Mark Lyons from the University of Technology said: "Current regulatory arrangements encompassing non-profit organisations are a dreadful mess, they are costly to governments and non-profit organisations and disadvantage the public."
So complex and muddied were they that only a completely new, purpose-built system would work, he said.
"Tacking non-profits on to corporations and requiring ASIC (the Australian Securities and Investments Commission) to regulate them is certainly not appropriate," said Prof Lyons.
There is widespread support for a dedicated national regulator for the sector and one possible outcome of the inquiry is a Charity Commission.
Britain has had one for more than five years and New Zealand established one this year.
Strong supporters of the concept include Mission Australia and Oxfam Australia. They say that such a body should be responsible not only for registering and monitoring charities, but also for advocating to government and raising awareness and profile among the public.
Oxfam Australia executive director Andrew Hewett said an Australian Charity Commission would need to be well-resourced to avoid the risk of it becoming "a toothless tiger".
Prof McGregor-Lowndes said a Charity Commission would be the "Rolls-Royce" response – with a price tag to match.
With the UK body costing $75 million a year to look after 190,000 organisations and the New Zealand version costing about $15 million for 25,000 groups, an Australian commission would require about $60 million to handle up to 150,000.
Prof McGregor-Lowndes suspects the Federal Government would baulk at that and hand the job to ASIC.
Mr Brady, of the Adventists, said one of the strengths of the New Zealand commission was that it was a voluntary registration system.
"You don't have to join, but if you do then you get the benefits of having charitable status," he said.
And they include tax rebates on all donations. New Zealand has also joined other countries such as the US and Canada in removing an upper limit on the rebate allowed.
"People bemoan the fact that Australia is one of the lowest-giving countries in the world. But we do not have a tax regime that encourages donations to charity."
Mr Brady said the assumption by many people that charities, and churches in particular, did not pay any tax was inaccurate and frustrating. While they did not pay income tax, if profits went to charitable activities they were taxed "at many stages along the way", including GST.
Mission Australia is calling for current tax concessions to remain – and for charities and non-profits to be exempted from state taxes such as stamp duty.
Some of the major players – the Salvation Army and St Vincent de Paul among them – are unconvinced by the need for a commission, however.
"I think you would need to question whether we need another bureaucracy. Our preference would be to make the current regimes simpler and more effective," said Ms Anderson, of Philanthropy Australia.
Dr Ted Flack, who has 32 years' experience in the sector including periods as president of the Fundraising Institute of Australia and Volunteering Queensland, sees a danger of overkill in redesigning the regulatory regime and said it would not necessarily do anything to increase accountability.
"About 80 per cent of incorporated associations already comply and send their annual returns to the regulator. I'm not sure what that accomplishes because they are just filed, so apart from creating some public service jobs I'm not sure what difference it makes."
Dr Flack, now Queensland state director of communications and fund-raising for St Vincent de Paul and a part-time lecturer at the Centre for Philanthropy, said what mattered was that the people who were interested could find out about particular non-profits, and that would differ from large national charities and small fishing clubs with a handful of members.
He advocates different approaches for "public" non-profits which seek public money through donations and government grants, and "private" non-profits which don't.
"All we need to do is require those seeking some tax-exemption status ("public" non-profits) to prepare an annual report which includes a full financial statement and put it on a website," Dr Flack said. "It's the simplest and easiest way. It does not involve new bureaucracies or new forms of legal identities. The information is there for those who want it."
(Credit: News Limited)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Charity
Social and Community Entrepreneurs
Sanitarium Health Foods is one of the country's biggest breakfast cereal companies, with a turnover of more than $300 million and about 1500 staff. But it pays no company tax on its profits.
That's because Sanitarium – Australia's first health food company, established 110 years ago – is owned by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and donates all its profit to the church for charitable activities including hospitals, educational facilities, indigenous programs and aid to people in developing countries.
In Sydney's western suburbs, a soccer club runs a used-car sales lot. It does not pay tax on its profits, either, because Australia is unique in the developed world in not taxing charities or non-profit organisations on this type of "related business income".
On the flipside, a community centre that starts running bus trips for lonely old folk could jeopardise its status as a Deductible Gift Recipient, with donations tax-deductible, because that is viewed as a "social", not "benevolent", activity.
All are part of a massive not-for-profit sector that includes everything from your child's local footy club to the Catholic Church, which turns over $15 billion a year from insurance companies through to funeral services.
The sector includes about 700,000 organisations – 150,000 of them incorporated – turning over more than $74 billion a year, according to the National Roundtable of Nonprofit Organisations.
It employs more than 884,000 paid staff and about 2.5 million volunteers. Nearly 90 per cent of Australians are members of a non-profit group and a third of adults have volunteered with one.
Much of the money is public funding – either through direct donations or government contracts to deliver services.
But despite it enormous size, the sector is characterised by a bewildering, almost chaotic array of laws, regulations, standards, governance models and methods of accountability.
A review is in progress, which could lead to the biggest overhaul of the sector in decades.
The Senate's standing committee on economics is holding an inquiry into the disclosure regimes for charities and not-for-profit organisations which, among other things, will examine the legal structures for registering and running groups, reporting requirements and improving transparency in the use of public and government funds.
Submissions closed last month and the committee will report by the end of November.
The inquiry was initiated by Democrat senators Lyn Allison and Andrew Murray, both of whom have since left Parliament, following a study by consumer group Choice in March.
What they found was that existing and potential supporters often faced huge challenges in finding out how money was used, how much made it to the intended target, how much was dwindled in administration and fund-raising costs, and how effective charities are in achieving their goals.
Choice spokesman Christopher Zinn said nearly nine out of 10 adults give to charity, with an annual average of more than $400.
"But despite such widespread support and high trust in the charitable sector, donors have concerns," Mr Zinn said.
"The problem is getting and comparing the information. Our research, including a survey of charities, found wide variability and inconsistency in the way they communicate key information to donors.
"That's if they communicate it at all. Sometimes, the information simply isn't publicly available.
"This absence of transparency means that the 90 per cent of us who want to donate have an almost impossible task in comparing charities and ensuring our money has the best effect.
"It's important not to have to rely on faith and trust keeping charities going."
Gina Anderson, chief executive officer of Philanthropy Australia, agrees greater scrutiny is essential to ensuring the continued growth in support from charitable trusts, foundations, corporations, families and individuals.
"Philanthropists, donors and social investors are asking for greater transparency to understand who is doing a good job and who isn't," she said.
She argues that the term "non-profit" has negative connotations and should be replaced with "Community Benefit Entity", and advocates a financial reporting system that differentiates between those established for charitable purposes and those with community purposes such as sporting groups and private clubs – with the level of public accountability varying according to size.
"The vast majority of not-for-profits turn over less than $500,000. Do we really want them to provide a full annual report? Probably not."
Most organisations welcome the inquiry, saying regulatory reform is well overdue.
"We now have the first opportunity for a generation – the first chance, perhaps, since Australia has been a nation – to consider the goals and needs and structures of the community sector from the ground up," said Rhonda Galbally, chief executive officer of Our Community, a resource centre for the sector.
Professor Myles McGregor-Lowndes, director of the Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies at Queensland University of Technology, said: "There are quite a number of problems, particularly the outdated and archaic laws.
"When I was an articled clerk 25 years ago and went to register a company, it would take three weeks. Now I could walk in with my $300 and 10 minutes later, walk out with the certificate of incorporation and get on with business. But it still takes months to register incorporated associations."
Prof McGregor-Lowndes has devised a standard chart of accounts which could be adopted across the whole charity and non-profit area and for which there is virtually unanimous support. The issue, according to most in the sector, is not a lack of controls – but an excess. National charities have to register in each state, under nine separate pieces of legislation.
Anglicare Australia, in its submission to the inquiry, highlights the problem of overlapping jurisdictions "with 93 state, territory and Commonwealth bodies able to make a determination about an organisation's charitable status".
Depending what they do, groups have to comply with a raft of laws covering employment, insurance, child protection, aged care, environment, land ownership, privacy, food preparation and occupational health and safety.
It's time-consuming and expensive.
Rodney Brady, chief financial officer with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, said that while people were concerned about funds being chewed up by administration, regulatory requirements meant more and more money had to be used that way.
"A few years ago, we were able to run our overseas aid programs using other resources to cover overheads. The burden of requirements now means we have to use 10 per cent from the funds to cover the overheads."
Professor Mark Lyons from the University of Technology said: "Current regulatory arrangements encompassing non-profit organisations are a dreadful mess, they are costly to governments and non-profit organisations and disadvantage the public."
So complex and muddied were they that only a completely new, purpose-built system would work, he said.
"Tacking non-profits on to corporations and requiring ASIC (the Australian Securities and Investments Commission) to regulate them is certainly not appropriate," said Prof Lyons.
There is widespread support for a dedicated national regulator for the sector and one possible outcome of the inquiry is a Charity Commission.
Britain has had one for more than five years and New Zealand established one this year.
Strong supporters of the concept include Mission Australia and Oxfam Australia. They say that such a body should be responsible not only for registering and monitoring charities, but also for advocating to government and raising awareness and profile among the public.
Oxfam Australia executive director Andrew Hewett said an Australian Charity Commission would need to be well-resourced to avoid the risk of it becoming "a toothless tiger".
Prof McGregor-Lowndes said a Charity Commission would be the "Rolls-Royce" response – with a price tag to match.
With the UK body costing $75 million a year to look after 190,000 organisations and the New Zealand version costing about $15 million for 25,000 groups, an Australian commission would require about $60 million to handle up to 150,000.
Prof McGregor-Lowndes suspects the Federal Government would baulk at that and hand the job to ASIC.
Mr Brady, of the Adventists, said one of the strengths of the New Zealand commission was that it was a voluntary registration system.
"You don't have to join, but if you do then you get the benefits of having charitable status," he said.
And they include tax rebates on all donations. New Zealand has also joined other countries such as the US and Canada in removing an upper limit on the rebate allowed.
"People bemoan the fact that Australia is one of the lowest-giving countries in the world. But we do not have a tax regime that encourages donations to charity."
Mr Brady said the assumption by many people that charities, and churches in particular, did not pay any tax was inaccurate and frustrating. While they did not pay income tax, if profits went to charitable activities they were taxed "at many stages along the way", including GST.
Mission Australia is calling for current tax concessions to remain – and for charities and non-profits to be exempted from state taxes such as stamp duty.
Some of the major players – the Salvation Army and St Vincent de Paul among them – are unconvinced by the need for a commission, however.
"I think you would need to question whether we need another bureaucracy. Our preference would be to make the current regimes simpler and more effective," said Ms Anderson, of Philanthropy Australia.
Dr Ted Flack, who has 32 years' experience in the sector including periods as president of the Fundraising Institute of Australia and Volunteering Queensland, sees a danger of overkill in redesigning the regulatory regime and said it would not necessarily do anything to increase accountability.
"About 80 per cent of incorporated associations already comply and send their annual returns to the regulator. I'm not sure what that accomplishes because they are just filed, so apart from creating some public service jobs I'm not sure what difference it makes."
Dr Flack, now Queensland state director of communications and fund-raising for St Vincent de Paul and a part-time lecturer at the Centre for Philanthropy, said what mattered was that the people who were interested could find out about particular non-profits, and that would differ from large national charities and small fishing clubs with a handful of members.
He advocates different approaches for "public" non-profits which seek public money through donations and government grants, and "private" non-profits which don't.
"All we need to do is require those seeking some tax-exemption status ("public" non-profits) to prepare an annual report which includes a full financial statement and put it on a website," Dr Flack said. "It's the simplest and easiest way. It does not involve new bureaucracies or new forms of legal identities. The information is there for those who want it."
(Credit: News Limited)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Charity
Social and Community Entrepreneurs
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
List of social entrepreneurs (Wikipedia)
A social entrepreneur is an entrepreneur who works to increase social capital, often by founding humanitarian organizations.
Historical examples of leading social entrepreneurs
* Susan B. Anthony (U.S.) - Fought for women's rights in the United States, including the right to control property, and helped spearhead adoption of the 19th amendment.
* Vinoba Bhave (India) - Founder and leader of the Land Gift Movement, he caused the redistribution of more than 7,000,000 acres (28,000 km²) of land to aid India's untouchables and landless. Mahatma Gandhi described him as his mentor.
* David Brower (U.S.) - Environmentalist and conservationist, he served as the Sierra Club's first executive director and built it into a worldwide network for environmental issues. He also founded Friends of the Earth, the League of Conservation Voters and The Earth Island Institute.
* Akhtar Hameed Khan (Pakistan) - Founder of grassroots movement for rural communities Comilla Model, and low-cost sanitation programmes (Orangi Pilot Project) for squatter settlements.
* Maria Montessori (Italy) - Developed the Montessori approach to early childhood education.
* John Muir (U.S.) - Naturalist and conservationist, he established the National Park System and helped found The Sierra Club.
* Florence Nightingale (UK) - Founder of modern nursing, she established the first school for nurses and fought to improve hospital conditions.
* Frederick Law Olmsted (U.S.) - Creator of major urban parks, including Rock Creek Park in Washington DC, Central Park in NYC, and Mount Royal Park in Montreal, he is generally considered to have developed the profession of landscape architecture in America.
* Gifford Pinchot (U.S.) - Champion of the forest as a multiple use environment, he helped found the Yale School of Forestry and created the U.S. Forest Service, serving as its first chief.
* Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen (Germany) - Pioneer of the rural bond of association as a substitute for collateral in microfinance, and a principal founder of the credit union and cooperative bank sectors that now form a major segment of the European banking system.
* Margaret Sanger (U.S.) - Founder of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, she led the movement for family planning efforts around the world.
* John Woolman (U.S.) - Led U.S. Quakers to voluntarily emancipate all their slaves between 1758 and 1800, his work also influenced the British Society of Friends, a major force behind the British decision to ban slaveholding. Quakers, of course, became a major force in the U.S. abolitionist movement as well as a key part of the infrastructure of the Underground Railroad.
Present day leading social entrepreneurs
* Ibrahim Abouleish (Egypt) - Founder of SEKEM, a biodynamic agricltural corporation, alternative medicine, and educational center located outside of Cairo.
* Ela Bhatt (India) - Founder of the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) and the SEWA Cooperative Bank in Gujarat.
* Nicholas Chan (Singapore) - Co-Founder of Project:Senso Ltd, the Pledge a Book movement and active advocate for Asian entrepreneurs in incorporating volunteerism and social enterprise into their lives and businesses.
* Bill Drayton (U.S.) - Founded Ashoka, Youth Venture, and Get America Working!
* Marian Wright Edelman (U.S.) - Founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) and advocate for disadvantaged Americans and children.
* Dr. Abraham M. George (India) - Founder of The George Foundation (TGF).
* Alan Khazei (U.S.) - Co-Founder of City Year, a leading national service program.
* Dr. Verghese Kurien (India) - Founder of the AMUL Dairy Project.
* Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (India) - Founded Art of Living Foundation and International Association for Human Values.
* Muhammad Yunus (Bangladesh) - Founder of microcredit and the Grameen Bank. He was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.
(Credit: Wikipedia)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Muhammad Yunus
Social and Community Entrepreneurs
Historical examples of leading social entrepreneurs
* Susan B. Anthony (U.S.) - Fought for women's rights in the United States, including the right to control property, and helped spearhead adoption of the 19th amendment.
* Vinoba Bhave (India) - Founder and leader of the Land Gift Movement, he caused the redistribution of more than 7,000,000 acres (28,000 km²) of land to aid India's untouchables and landless. Mahatma Gandhi described him as his mentor.
* David Brower (U.S.) - Environmentalist and conservationist, he served as the Sierra Club's first executive director and built it into a worldwide network for environmental issues. He also founded Friends of the Earth, the League of Conservation Voters and The Earth Island Institute.
* Akhtar Hameed Khan (Pakistan) - Founder of grassroots movement for rural communities Comilla Model, and low-cost sanitation programmes (Orangi Pilot Project) for squatter settlements.
* Maria Montessori (Italy) - Developed the Montessori approach to early childhood education.
* John Muir (U.S.) - Naturalist and conservationist, he established the National Park System and helped found The Sierra Club.
* Florence Nightingale (UK) - Founder of modern nursing, she established the first school for nurses and fought to improve hospital conditions.
* Frederick Law Olmsted (U.S.) - Creator of major urban parks, including Rock Creek Park in Washington DC, Central Park in NYC, and Mount Royal Park in Montreal, he is generally considered to have developed the profession of landscape architecture in America.
* Gifford Pinchot (U.S.) - Champion of the forest as a multiple use environment, he helped found the Yale School of Forestry and created the U.S. Forest Service, serving as its first chief.
* Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen (Germany) - Pioneer of the rural bond of association as a substitute for collateral in microfinance, and a principal founder of the credit union and cooperative bank sectors that now form a major segment of the European banking system.
* Margaret Sanger (U.S.) - Founder of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, she led the movement for family planning efforts around the world.
* John Woolman (U.S.) - Led U.S. Quakers to voluntarily emancipate all their slaves between 1758 and 1800, his work also influenced the British Society of Friends, a major force behind the British decision to ban slaveholding. Quakers, of course, became a major force in the U.S. abolitionist movement as well as a key part of the infrastructure of the Underground Railroad.
Present day leading social entrepreneurs
* Ibrahim Abouleish (Egypt) - Founder of SEKEM, a biodynamic agricltural corporation, alternative medicine, and educational center located outside of Cairo.
* Ela Bhatt (India) - Founder of the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) and the SEWA Cooperative Bank in Gujarat.
* Nicholas Chan (Singapore) - Co-Founder of Project:Senso Ltd, the Pledge a Book movement and active advocate for Asian entrepreneurs in incorporating volunteerism and social enterprise into their lives and businesses.
* Bill Drayton (U.S.) - Founded Ashoka, Youth Venture, and Get America Working!
* Marian Wright Edelman (U.S.) - Founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) and advocate for disadvantaged Americans and children.
* Dr. Abraham M. George (India) - Founder of The George Foundation (TGF).
* Alan Khazei (U.S.) - Co-Founder of City Year, a leading national service program.
* Dr. Verghese Kurien (India) - Founder of the AMUL Dairy Project.
* Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (India) - Founded Art of Living Foundation and International Association for Human Values.
* Muhammad Yunus (Bangladesh) - Founder of microcredit and the Grameen Bank. He was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.
(Credit: Wikipedia)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Muhammad Yunus
Social and Community Entrepreneurs
Monday, September 15, 2008
A hand-up to school offers a way out of poverty, by Jen Rosenberg - The Sydney Morning Herald - 15th September 2008
One young student started a charity to help others learn, writes Jen Rosenberg.
When a group of people in Uganda approached Phoebe Williams and her father last Christmas asking for $50 for a chicken pen, she hesitated. "I was standing there thinking: 'If we give you the equivalent of 50 bucks, are you really going to buy these chooks, or where's the money going?'"
The group convinced them to donate the money and the Williams thought no more of it. But, says Williams, she recently received an email from them: "Dear Phoebe, we're so excited because today we've been able to sell so many of our fully grown hens in town that we could buy a cow with the profits."
For a community where poverty and sickness is rife, a cow is, as Williams puts it, a big deal - something families might save years for - but within seven months, the group had turned their $50 opportunity into a viable income.
Creating opportunities is the centrepiece of Williams's mission in Africa. In Kenya and Uganda, her charity, Hands of Help, provides education and medical care for street children. They are malnourished, many are HIV-positive or drug-addicted or both, and many are orphans. Primary school education is free but after that, children drop out of the school system with no funds for education, and no prospects for work. The charity links sponsors - private donors from Australia, the United States and Britain - with children in need.
"It is completely lifting that child out of the circle of poverty by giving them access to secondary education and if they don't make it through the exams, we then offer them a place in a vocational training college," Williams says.
What makes a twentysomething university student from Sydney's eastern suburbs decide to take on the cause of African children?
A bout of meningococcal meningitis at 14 gave Williams a surprisingly mature sense of mortality. The potentially fatal experience left her with a sense of survivor's guilt and inspired her own educational choices. She had read Bryce Courtenay's epic The Power Of One as an impressionable teenager, then a holiday in Africa sealed the deal. She wanted to do something useful but she needed to have the right tools to make a difference.
With degrees in commerce and science - majoring in development economics and finance - under her belt, she enrolled in a postgraduate medical degree at the University of Sydney.
"I was writing honours' essays on things like how HIV impacts on Africa economically and how a disease like malaria can trap a family in poverty forever because they are constantly sick and can't go to school or constantly can't get a good income from work."
In 2005, as a first-year medical student, Williams led a group of 17 volunteers, and $100,000 they had raised, to Uganda where they lived for three months and built a primary school for 650 children.
This first expedition led to the founding of the non-religious, non-profit charity Hands of Help.
Being a crusader while studying full-time is fulfilling but is a tiring business and does not leave much time for a social life. Williams says she could not do it without her partner, the photographer Hamish Gregory. He travels with her as a volunteer and exhibits his photos, partly as an advertisement for their work, and a percentage of their sale goes back into the charity. Some of his photos can be seen this month at the Sydney Africa Film Festival at the Chauvel Cinema in Paddington, from September 26-28.
Williams describes their perceptions of Africa as more like the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series than World Vision ads. Gregory's photographs do not aim to pull at the heartstrings but to show these stoic, heroic people who are getting through each day with the worst conditions possible but with the most amazing frame of mind and love of life.
Given her sheer entrepreneurial skills, it comes as no surprise that Williams has turned her attention to issues closer to home. Looking for some practical work during her medical degree, she established a partnership with an Aboriginal health and education program in Arnhem Land, which has been so successful that medical students at the University of Sydney can participate as an elective in their degree.
Once she finishes her own degree after exams this week, Williams will head to Oxford where she will take up a scholarship to study a masters in global health science with a view to a return to Africa or perhaps to work with the United Nations in the field of international public health. It's a long way from a humble chook pen.
(Credit: Fairfax)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Education
Charity
Social and Community Entrepreneurs
When a group of people in Uganda approached Phoebe Williams and her father last Christmas asking for $50 for a chicken pen, she hesitated. "I was standing there thinking: 'If we give you the equivalent of 50 bucks, are you really going to buy these chooks, or where's the money going?'"
The group convinced them to donate the money and the Williams thought no more of it. But, says Williams, she recently received an email from them: "Dear Phoebe, we're so excited because today we've been able to sell so many of our fully grown hens in town that we could buy a cow with the profits."
For a community where poverty and sickness is rife, a cow is, as Williams puts it, a big deal - something families might save years for - but within seven months, the group had turned their $50 opportunity into a viable income.
Creating opportunities is the centrepiece of Williams's mission in Africa. In Kenya and Uganda, her charity, Hands of Help, provides education and medical care for street children. They are malnourished, many are HIV-positive or drug-addicted or both, and many are orphans. Primary school education is free but after that, children drop out of the school system with no funds for education, and no prospects for work. The charity links sponsors - private donors from Australia, the United States and Britain - with children in need.
"It is completely lifting that child out of the circle of poverty by giving them access to secondary education and if they don't make it through the exams, we then offer them a place in a vocational training college," Williams says.
What makes a twentysomething university student from Sydney's eastern suburbs decide to take on the cause of African children?
A bout of meningococcal meningitis at 14 gave Williams a surprisingly mature sense of mortality. The potentially fatal experience left her with a sense of survivor's guilt and inspired her own educational choices. She had read Bryce Courtenay's epic The Power Of One as an impressionable teenager, then a holiday in Africa sealed the deal. She wanted to do something useful but she needed to have the right tools to make a difference.
With degrees in commerce and science - majoring in development economics and finance - under her belt, she enrolled in a postgraduate medical degree at the University of Sydney.
"I was writing honours' essays on things like how HIV impacts on Africa economically and how a disease like malaria can trap a family in poverty forever because they are constantly sick and can't go to school or constantly can't get a good income from work."
In 2005, as a first-year medical student, Williams led a group of 17 volunteers, and $100,000 they had raised, to Uganda where they lived for three months and built a primary school for 650 children.
This first expedition led to the founding of the non-religious, non-profit charity Hands of Help.
Being a crusader while studying full-time is fulfilling but is a tiring business and does not leave much time for a social life. Williams says she could not do it without her partner, the photographer Hamish Gregory. He travels with her as a volunteer and exhibits his photos, partly as an advertisement for their work, and a percentage of their sale goes back into the charity. Some of his photos can be seen this month at the Sydney Africa Film Festival at the Chauvel Cinema in Paddington, from September 26-28.
Williams describes their perceptions of Africa as more like the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series than World Vision ads. Gregory's photographs do not aim to pull at the heartstrings but to show these stoic, heroic people who are getting through each day with the worst conditions possible but with the most amazing frame of mind and love of life.
Given her sheer entrepreneurial skills, it comes as no surprise that Williams has turned her attention to issues closer to home. Looking for some practical work during her medical degree, she established a partnership with an Aboriginal health and education program in Arnhem Land, which has been so successful that medical students at the University of Sydney can participate as an elective in their degree.
Once she finishes her own degree after exams this week, Williams will head to Oxford where she will take up a scholarship to study a masters in global health science with a view to a return to Africa or perhaps to work with the United Nations in the field of international public health. It's a long way from a humble chook pen.
(Credit: Fairfax)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Education
Charity
Social and Community Entrepreneurs
Adknowledge Social Advertising lands on Australian shores - press release
10th September 2008
Adknowledge, the US-based behavioural targeting firm has launched an Australian operation to host advertising across Facebook’s, Myspace, and Bebo’s 39,000 applications.
Adknowledge's Social Advertising division has announced that it is now serving more than 10 billion ad impressions per month globally and close to 300 million in Australia on social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Friendster and Hi5. These impressions are generated from social applications.
Targeting display, video and text ads within applications advertisers can choose categories such as games, music or dating, as well as user profile information. It will also offer advertisers opportunities to brand applications, through re-skins or sponsorships.
This volume, now more than five times as large as Social Media, its next largest competitor in the space, makes Adknowledge the unrivalled leader in social network advertising.
Recent studies have shown that more than 16% of all online time is spent on Social Networks, which is greater than the amount of time spent on Google. Additionally, social applications engage users for longer than any other activity on social networks such as Facebook.
Adknowledge are able to target and cap campaigns by a users social ID, rather than by IP address or cookies. This means that they are the only network to target users even when they move between the different social platforms.
Adknowledge are launching their social media product in Australia with a Social media Seminar – ‘Advertising 3.0 Bringing Order to the Social Revolution’ – with two dates 30th September Sydney and 2nd October Melbourne. The key note speaker is Brett Brewer, President of Adknowledge, and co-founder of Myspace.
Brett successfully sold Intermix, which launched Myspace, for $673 Million to NewsCorp in October 2005.
Mr. Brewer has been an angel investor in several technology start ups, including video search site, Dabble.com, mobile texting company Frengo.com, mobile social networking site Treemo.com, and RealtyTracker.com. He is either on the board of or a strategic advisor for, all of these companies.
Also speaking at the event is Melanie Ingrey, research director at Nielsen Pacific, and Lachlan Brahe, Managing Director, Emitch.
For more information about Adknowledge or the upcoming Social Media Seminar please contact Markus von der Luehe (MD) on mvonderluehe@adknowledge.com / +61 (0) 2 8235 9471. Interviews with Brett Brewer are available on request.
Website
Adknowledge
Adknowledge, the US-based behavioural targeting firm has launched an Australian operation to host advertising across Facebook’s, Myspace, and Bebo’s 39,000 applications.
Adknowledge's Social Advertising division has announced that it is now serving more than 10 billion ad impressions per month globally and close to 300 million in Australia on social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Friendster and Hi5. These impressions are generated from social applications.
Targeting display, video and text ads within applications advertisers can choose categories such as games, music or dating, as well as user profile information. It will also offer advertisers opportunities to brand applications, through re-skins or sponsorships.
This volume, now more than five times as large as Social Media, its next largest competitor in the space, makes Adknowledge the unrivalled leader in social network advertising.
Recent studies have shown that more than 16% of all online time is spent on Social Networks, which is greater than the amount of time spent on Google. Additionally, social applications engage users for longer than any other activity on social networks such as Facebook.
Adknowledge are able to target and cap campaigns by a users social ID, rather than by IP address or cookies. This means that they are the only network to target users even when they move between the different social platforms.
Adknowledge are launching their social media product in Australia with a Social media Seminar – ‘Advertising 3.0 Bringing Order to the Social Revolution’ – with two dates 30th September Sydney and 2nd October Melbourne. The key note speaker is Brett Brewer, President of Adknowledge, and co-founder of Myspace.
Brett successfully sold Intermix, which launched Myspace, for $673 Million to NewsCorp in October 2005.
Mr. Brewer has been an angel investor in several technology start ups, including video search site, Dabble.com, mobile texting company Frengo.com, mobile social networking site Treemo.com, and RealtyTracker.com. He is either on the board of or a strategic advisor for, all of these companies.
Also speaking at the event is Melanie Ingrey, research director at Nielsen Pacific, and Lachlan Brahe, Managing Director, Emitch.
For more information about Adknowledge or the upcoming Social Media Seminar please contact Markus von der Luehe (MD) on mvonderluehe@adknowledge.com / +61 (0) 2 8235 9471. Interviews with Brett Brewer are available on request.
Website
Adknowledge
Free loans for bills - Reporter: Rodney Lohse - Channel Seven 'Today Tonight'
Broadcast Date: January 08, 2008
As families sink to record levels of household debt and bankruptcy while credit default rates skyrocket, struggling Australian communities are seeing the emergence of financial white knights handing out free loans.
Belinda Drew heads up the non-profit organisation Foresters ANA, which assists communities to establish loan circles and other no-interest loan schemes as an alternative to controversial high-interest loans also known as pay-day loans.
"[People] know they're not going to get done over ... they're not going to be exploited and they are not going to be judged either and that's really important to people," Belinda said.
"All you have to do is join a local circle, put in $10 a month and after six months you can borrow money in times of need."
Mother-of-five Kerry Deller is a case study in financial salvation, rescued by a lending scheme that required nothing more from her than what she borrowed.
"I found myself single after 20 years of marriage and I had five children and it was something that I hadn't planned for in any way shape or form," she said.
Surviving on welfare, Kerry was about to abandon a university degree.
"The car had broken down and I had raked every cent together to get my car back," Kerry said.
"Without the car I couldn't go to uni and I just didn't know where to go or what to do, and out of the blue I got this phone call."
The call was from a so-called community savings and loan circle, Foresters ANA.
Sydney father Mervyn Peka has used several no-interest loans to pay for household needs but he said the most important gift the companies have given is the ability to educate his children.
In just the first three months of this year, more than 6500 Australians applied for bankruptcy and across the nation, credit default rates soared.
The worst state, Tasmania, suffered an almost 60 per cent increase.
In the Northern Territory, the rate jumped by almost 50 per cent.
It was a similar story in Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales.
Victoria had the best rate with just a 10 per cent increase.
Community loans are available in most capital cities and are generally for smaller amounts for cars and household bills.
Foresters ANA can be contacted to find out if there are branches in your area.
"There's enormous power in people coming together to help themselves," Belinda Drew said.
Contact Foresters ANA Mutual Society Ltd.
Website: www.forestersana.com.au
Tel: (07) 3210 6772
(Credit: Channel Seven)
As families sink to record levels of household debt and bankruptcy while credit default rates skyrocket, struggling Australian communities are seeing the emergence of financial white knights handing out free loans.
Belinda Drew heads up the non-profit organisation Foresters ANA, which assists communities to establish loan circles and other no-interest loan schemes as an alternative to controversial high-interest loans also known as pay-day loans.
"[People] know they're not going to get done over ... they're not going to be exploited and they are not going to be judged either and that's really important to people," Belinda said.
"All you have to do is join a local circle, put in $10 a month and after six months you can borrow money in times of need."
Mother-of-five Kerry Deller is a case study in financial salvation, rescued by a lending scheme that required nothing more from her than what she borrowed.
"I found myself single after 20 years of marriage and I had five children and it was something that I hadn't planned for in any way shape or form," she said.
Surviving on welfare, Kerry was about to abandon a university degree.
"The car had broken down and I had raked every cent together to get my car back," Kerry said.
"Without the car I couldn't go to uni and I just didn't know where to go or what to do, and out of the blue I got this phone call."
The call was from a so-called community savings and loan circle, Foresters ANA.
Sydney father Mervyn Peka has used several no-interest loans to pay for household needs but he said the most important gift the companies have given is the ability to educate his children.
In just the first three months of this year, more than 6500 Australians applied for bankruptcy and across the nation, credit default rates soared.
The worst state, Tasmania, suffered an almost 60 per cent increase.
In the Northern Territory, the rate jumped by almost 50 per cent.
It was a similar story in Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales.
Victoria had the best rate with just a 10 per cent increase.
Community loans are available in most capital cities and are generally for smaller amounts for cars and household bills.
Foresters ANA can be contacted to find out if there are branches in your area.
"There's enormous power in people coming together to help themselves," Belinda Drew said.
Contact Foresters ANA Mutual Society Ltd.
Website: www.forestersana.com.au
Tel: (07) 3210 6772
(Credit: Channel Seven)
Sunday, September 14, 2008
GTA Addresses Federal Senators - Media Release - 12th September 2008
Gaming Machine manufacturers today called for a new approach to the development of research and regulations controlling the gaming industry in Australia.
Addressing the Senate Community Affairs Committee Public Hearing today in Sydney, Ross Ferrar, Chief Executive of the Gaming Technologies Association, stated that Australia’s gaming jurisdictions are widely regarded as the most regulated in the world.
“The companies which manufacture gaming machines work in a highly regulated and strenuously audited, total compliance environment,” Mr Ferrar stated.
“No gaming machine products enter the marketplace in Australia without undergoing comprehensive testing and technical review.”
“We have no complaint about the level of Government scrutiny to which our members are subjected. On the contrary, we believe that these high standards are important and that we can very confidently state that this industry operates with great probity and integrity.”
Mr Ferrar stated that much of what is described as “Harm Minimisation strategy” in the various Australian jurisdictions has not actually achieved anything positive. He said that many of the measures introduced in the late 1990s and early this century around Australia were not based on real evidence and as a result, have subsequently been proven to be useless.
“Australians deserve better than this. They deserve policy which will provide help if and when it’s needed – and leave the rest of the Australian public to enjoy a legitimate, legal form of entertainment.”
The GTA is pleased that the Government has announced that the Productivity Commission will review its 1999 Report into Australia’s Gambling Industries.
“We believe that this review will reinforce the various analyses that have been conducted by State and Territory Governments in the years since 1999, which have shown a decline in problem gambling in the community,” Mr Ferrar said.
“We hope that this will result in the use of current data on the incidence of problem gambling instead of ten year old statistics.”
Mr Ferrar called for the establishment of a new ongoing national research body funded by federal, state and territory governments to conduct a more comprehensive and objective research program. It should involve operators, manufacturers and related private sector businesses, as well as community and counselling sectors and regulatory authorities.
“This new body should examine all aspects of gaming in Australia, including the effectiveness of current regulatory regimes, harm minimisation strategies, the efficacy of counselling and support services, and possible future features of gaming machines,” Mr Ferrar said at the Senate Committee Hearing.
“There should be evidence-based research on the economic and social impact of gaming in Australia, both positive and negative. And all research should be required to be conducted transparently and objectively.”
“The result would be a body of knowledge in which all stakeholders could have confidence and on which all governments could build policy and regulation to protect and promote the interests of the whole community.”
“We would all be protected from the false opinions and claims of self-interested individuals whose motivations appear to us to lie in seizing a greater share of government expenditure on research for their own personal financial benefit.” Mr Ferrar claimed.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ross Ferrar 0418 686 075
Garrie Gibson 0417 626 853
GTA hosts and operates the annual Australasian Gaming Expo and the New Zealand Gaming Expo.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Gaming
Poker
Poker and Casino News
Casino News Media
Social and Community Entrepreneurs
Addressing the Senate Community Affairs Committee Public Hearing today in Sydney, Ross Ferrar, Chief Executive of the Gaming Technologies Association, stated that Australia’s gaming jurisdictions are widely regarded as the most regulated in the world.
“The companies which manufacture gaming machines work in a highly regulated and strenuously audited, total compliance environment,” Mr Ferrar stated.
“No gaming machine products enter the marketplace in Australia without undergoing comprehensive testing and technical review.”
“We have no complaint about the level of Government scrutiny to which our members are subjected. On the contrary, we believe that these high standards are important and that we can very confidently state that this industry operates with great probity and integrity.”
Mr Ferrar stated that much of what is described as “Harm Minimisation strategy” in the various Australian jurisdictions has not actually achieved anything positive. He said that many of the measures introduced in the late 1990s and early this century around Australia were not based on real evidence and as a result, have subsequently been proven to be useless.
“Australians deserve better than this. They deserve policy which will provide help if and when it’s needed – and leave the rest of the Australian public to enjoy a legitimate, legal form of entertainment.”
The GTA is pleased that the Government has announced that the Productivity Commission will review its 1999 Report into Australia’s Gambling Industries.
“We believe that this review will reinforce the various analyses that have been conducted by State and Territory Governments in the years since 1999, which have shown a decline in problem gambling in the community,” Mr Ferrar said.
“We hope that this will result in the use of current data on the incidence of problem gambling instead of ten year old statistics.”
Mr Ferrar called for the establishment of a new ongoing national research body funded by federal, state and territory governments to conduct a more comprehensive and objective research program. It should involve operators, manufacturers and related private sector businesses, as well as community and counselling sectors and regulatory authorities.
“This new body should examine all aspects of gaming in Australia, including the effectiveness of current regulatory regimes, harm minimisation strategies, the efficacy of counselling and support services, and possible future features of gaming machines,” Mr Ferrar said at the Senate Committee Hearing.
“There should be evidence-based research on the economic and social impact of gaming in Australia, both positive and negative. And all research should be required to be conducted transparently and objectively.”
“The result would be a body of knowledge in which all stakeholders could have confidence and on which all governments could build policy and regulation to protect and promote the interests of the whole community.”
“We would all be protected from the false opinions and claims of self-interested individuals whose motivations appear to us to lie in seizing a greater share of government expenditure on research for their own personal financial benefit.” Mr Ferrar claimed.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ross Ferrar 0418 686 075
Garrie Gibson 0417 626 853
GTA hosts and operates the annual Australasian Gaming Expo and the New Zealand Gaming Expo.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Gaming
Poker
Poker and Casino News
Casino News Media
Social and Community Entrepreneurs
Friday, September 12, 2008
Namatjira housing estate in Chifley hosted a community day attended by Minister for Volunteering, Ho, by Nick Moncrieff-Hill - The Southern Courier
11th September 2008
A new landscaped barbecue area at Namatjira housing estate in Chifley may seem like a simple gesture from the State Government, but Maroubra MP Michael Daley said it was a significant way to address isolation.
The garden and barbecue area were installed as part of the Community Greening Project spearheaded by Housing NSW and the Botanic Gardens Trust.
“From small beginnings come better things and that’s what today is all about,” Mr Daley said.
“There are so many social problems in Sydney that can be overcome just by people working more closely together and by talking to each other and volunteering, so this initiative today is all about getting the people to work together, enabling them to communicate a bit better.”
Local residents, football players, government and non-government officials and workers attended the community event, which the former Volunteering minister Linda Burney, said was to encourage community participation within the estate.
“Today is really about two things: it’s about creating more connection between the residents here but also providing a space where residents can have other people in to sit and talk and gather in a really pleasant environment,” Ms Burney said.
Randwick Council provided native plants and Botanic Gardens staff assisted with their planting while ambulance workers and firefighters offered educational entertainment.
Rabbitohs Shannon Hegarty and Germaine Paulson ran an impromptu coaching clinic with local children.
Local community initiative co-ordinator Rozita Leoni said the new area had provided the community with a valuable opportunity.
“These community events really help people come together and the more isolated we become it feels like our problems escalate, whereas if you talk to someone you can work it out a lot quicker,” she said.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Rozita Leoni
A new landscaped barbecue area at Namatjira housing estate in Chifley may seem like a simple gesture from the State Government, but Maroubra MP Michael Daley said it was a significant way to address isolation.
The garden and barbecue area were installed as part of the Community Greening Project spearheaded by Housing NSW and the Botanic Gardens Trust.
“From small beginnings come better things and that’s what today is all about,” Mr Daley said.
“There are so many social problems in Sydney that can be overcome just by people working more closely together and by talking to each other and volunteering, so this initiative today is all about getting the people to work together, enabling them to communicate a bit better.”
Local residents, football players, government and non-government officials and workers attended the community event, which the former Volunteering minister Linda Burney, said was to encourage community participation within the estate.
“Today is really about two things: it’s about creating more connection between the residents here but also providing a space where residents can have other people in to sit and talk and gather in a really pleasant environment,” Ms Burney said.
Randwick Council provided native plants and Botanic Gardens staff assisted with their planting while ambulance workers and firefighters offered educational entertainment.
Rabbitohs Shannon Hegarty and Germaine Paulson ran an impromptu coaching clinic with local children.
Local community initiative co-ordinator Rozita Leoni said the new area had provided the community with a valuable opportunity.
“These community events really help people come together and the more isolated we become it feels like our problems escalate, whereas if you talk to someone you can work it out a lot quicker,” she said.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Rozita Leoni
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Model thoughts on charity, children and eating squid, by Amy Verner - Globe and Mail - 8th September 2008
These days, when supermodel Petra Nemcova's name is attached to a splashy soiree, you can bet that she's out to raise money and awareness for the Happy Hearts Fund, which she established after her life-changing experience during the 2004 tsunami. Nemcova and her fiancée, photographer Simon Atlee, were staying at a resort in Thailand. Atlee died in the tsunami and Nemcova was seriously injured. Last Friday, both Nemcova and Kate Hudson were honoured for their charitable work at a mega-party thrown by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Unite and produced by Torontonian Barry Avrich.
Just hours before the event (which attracted more than 3,800 guests who paid a minimum $75 admission), she sat down to talk about Happy Hearts, Vietnam and why she's not afraid to eat squid.
Teaming up with Virgin Unite and throwing a big party seems like a great way to let Canadians know about your organization.
Tonight is all about a beautiful celebration of a partnership with a common goal. Virgin Unite focuses on children, as does Happy Hearts. They do education and medical relief, whereas our focus is mainly education in 12 countries including Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Congo. Richard is a very successful businessman and very creative and he approaches philanthropy on a grand scale. I have a lot to learn from him.
How are you able to sustain and build interest for Happy Hearts now that the immediate concern over tsunami victims has dissipated and the media has moved on?
There's a huge gap between first response and when government takes over. We try to fill that gap. We don't do first response. If people want to see what we do, they can come with us and see firsthand; we will take them on our trips.
You travelled extensively as a model. Now you travel for a different reason. What has been the most striking difference?
I travelled to Vietnam for a Sports Illustrated photo shoot a few years ago. We stayed in a beautiful hotel and beside the hotel, people were living in boxes. At that time, I could see it but I could not do anything about it. Now I can. When what I see makes me frustrated, I will turn it into action.
You must admit that being the face of the organization has helped it grow.
I feel like a bridge because I'm not just connecting information, but also two worlds. It's not just those who are more fortunate helping those who are less fortunate. I always say that helping others is actually selfish because when you make them happy, this makes you even happier.
What prompted you to become a vegetarian?
Mostly I'm a vegetarian, but my reason was the sustainability of fish. If we continue consuming at the same rate, there will be no fish in 40 years. This does not apply to squid, so I eat lots of squid and I eat fish that is caught freshly by a fisherman.
Do you think you would have made those changes if the whole tsunami experience never happened?
It would have taken longer. My goal in life has always been to help people, especially children, but the tsunami accelerated things.
What is the biggest difference between the children you see in North America and those in developing countries?
Assuming we're taking about average American children, if you ask them here what they would like, most of the time they say a new PlayStation or toys. When you ask children in Cambodia, they say education. They want to get the best possible education elsewhere in the world so they can come back to Cambodia and make sure other children don't suffer the same way.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Virgin Unite
Richard Branson
Just hours before the event (which attracted more than 3,800 guests who paid a minimum $75 admission), she sat down to talk about Happy Hearts, Vietnam and why she's not afraid to eat squid.
Teaming up with Virgin Unite and throwing a big party seems like a great way to let Canadians know about your organization.
Tonight is all about a beautiful celebration of a partnership with a common goal. Virgin Unite focuses on children, as does Happy Hearts. They do education and medical relief, whereas our focus is mainly education in 12 countries including Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Congo. Richard is a very successful businessman and very creative and he approaches philanthropy on a grand scale. I have a lot to learn from him.
How are you able to sustain and build interest for Happy Hearts now that the immediate concern over tsunami victims has dissipated and the media has moved on?
There's a huge gap between first response and when government takes over. We try to fill that gap. We don't do first response. If people want to see what we do, they can come with us and see firsthand; we will take them on our trips.
You travelled extensively as a model. Now you travel for a different reason. What has been the most striking difference?
I travelled to Vietnam for a Sports Illustrated photo shoot a few years ago. We stayed in a beautiful hotel and beside the hotel, people were living in boxes. At that time, I could see it but I could not do anything about it. Now I can. When what I see makes me frustrated, I will turn it into action.
You must admit that being the face of the organization has helped it grow.
I feel like a bridge because I'm not just connecting information, but also two worlds. It's not just those who are more fortunate helping those who are less fortunate. I always say that helping others is actually selfish because when you make them happy, this makes you even happier.
What prompted you to become a vegetarian?
Mostly I'm a vegetarian, but my reason was the sustainability of fish. If we continue consuming at the same rate, there will be no fish in 40 years. This does not apply to squid, so I eat lots of squid and I eat fish that is caught freshly by a fisherman.
Do you think you would have made those changes if the whole tsunami experience never happened?
It would have taken longer. My goal in life has always been to help people, especially children, but the tsunami accelerated things.
What is the biggest difference between the children you see in North America and those in developing countries?
Assuming we're taking about average American children, if you ask them here what they would like, most of the time they say a new PlayStation or toys. When you ask children in Cambodia, they say education. They want to get the best possible education elsewhere in the world so they can come back to Cambodia and make sure other children don't suffer the same way.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Virgin Unite
Richard Branson
Road to peace is paved with loss - Think Big Magazine - September / October 2008
Grant Hilton is a changed man. The former stressed-out businessman is now at peace with himself. At just 38, he has been on a journey of self-discovery many don't achieve in a lifetime...
Websites
Think Big Magazine
Universal Peace Centre Retreat
Profiles
Grant Hilton
Universal Peace Centre Retreat
Websites
Think Big Magazine
Universal Peace Centre Retreat
Profiles
Grant Hilton
Universal Peace Centre Retreat
Muhammad Yunus, Banker to the World's Poorest Citizens, Makes His Case - Wharton - 9th March 2005
Last year, a panel of judges from Wharton joined with Nightly Business Report, the most-watched daily business program on U.S. television, to name the 25 most influential business people of the last 25 years. On that list was Muhammad Yunus, managing director of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and a pioneer in the practice of microcredit lending. Grameen Bank received formal recognition as a private independent bank in 1983 and, as of this month, had dispersed close to $5 billion in loans to four million borrowers, 96% of them women. Grameen's strategy is to offer miniscule loans to very poor people, giving them the means to generate income and work their way out of poverty. Yunus was featured in a book entitled, Lasting Leadership: Lessons from the 25 Most Influential Business People of Our Times, co-authored by Knowledge@Wharton and Nightly Business Report. He was recently interviewed by NBR's Linda O'Bryon while attending the World Health Congress in Washington, D.C.
NBR: You have been credited with inventing the microcredit movement more than 30 years ago. Why did you go in that direction?
Yunus: I had no idea that I would ever get involved with something like lending money to poor people, given the circumstances in which I was working in Bangladesh. I was teaching in one of the universities while the country was suffering from a severe famine. People were dying of hunger, and I felt very helpless. As an economist, I had no tool in my tool box to fix that kind of situation.
NBR: So what gave you the idea to give people tools?
Yunus: While I traveled around the country, I told myself, 'As a person, forget about the tool box. As a human being, I can go out and be available to help another person.' So that's what I started doing. This was back in 1974. I saw how people suffered for a tiny amount of money. They had to borrow from the moneylender, and the moneylender took advantage of them, squeezed them in a way that all the benefits passed on to the moneylender and none remained for the borrowers. So I made a list of people who needed just a little bit of money. And when the list was complete, there were 42 names. The total amount of money they needed was $27. I was shocked. Here we were talking about economic development, about investing billions of dollars in various programs, and I could see it wasn't billions of dollars people needed right away. They needed a tiny amount of money. This was in 1976.
NBR: I understand some of the money was for a bamboo furniture maker?
Yunus: That's right. She was making bamboo stools and earning only two pennies a day. I couldn't believe that someone could make only two pennies for crafting such beautiful stools. After a discussion with her I found out she had to borrow money to buy the bamboo, which cost only 25 cents. But she didn't have the 25 cents. So she had to borrow it from the trader, who agreed to lend it to her on the condition that she sell the bamboo stool to him when it was finished at a price that he decided.
NBR: So how was your plan different?
Yunus: I wanted to give money to people like this woman so that they would be free from the moneylenders to sell their product at the price which the markets gave them -- which was much higher than what the trader was giving them.
NBR: But even then you charged interest.
Yunus: Oh yes ... Definitely, yes.
NBR: And why is that? What was the thinking?
Yunus: I thought if you do things in a businesslike way, then the project can become as big as you want it to because you are earning enough money to cover all your costs. You are not dependent on anybody. You are not dependent on a limited supply of capital. This is business money. Business money is limitless. And then, you can reach out to many more people than you would otherwise do.
NBR: So this is not charity?
Yunus: This is not charity. This is business: business with a social objective, which is to help people get out of poverty. Other banks were not giving loans to these people.
NBR: So how did you get from that first $27 to working with Grameen Bank and expanding this around the globe?
Yunus: The villagers got very excited that I gave them the money. To them, it was like a miracle. Seeing this, a question came to my mind. If you can make so many people so happy with such a small amount of money, why shouldn't you do more of it? Why shouldn't you reach out to many more people? I could do this by linking these people with a bank that could lend them the money. So I went to the bank and proposed that they lend money to the poor people. The bankers almost fell over. They couldn't believe what had been proposed to them. They explained to me that the bank cannot lend money to poor people because these people are not creditworthy. So a long series of debates began with me and the banking system. Finally, I resolved it after about six months by offering myself as a guarantor. I said, 'I will sign the loan papers. I will take the risk, and you give the money.' I got the money and gave it to the people. And luckily for me, all the people paid it back. The banks had been saying that I would never get the money back and would ultimately have to pay it back myself. I said, 'I don't know anything. Let me try it out.' And I tried it, and it worked.
NBR: Has it continued to work?
Yunus: Yes, and we expanded it from village to village. But we still saw that the banks weren't changing their minds even after I had demonstrated that there was no risk to the process, that banks could do better by giving money to poor people, who were paying it back, than to rich people, who were not paying it back.
NBR: Poor people were paying the money back [more reliably] than rich people?
Yunus: Much better than rich people. Because Bangladesh has a tradition of rich people who borrow money from the big banks and hardly pay it back.
NBR: That's pretty startling.
Yunus: Very startling, yes.
NBR: You have said that you loaned primarily to women. Why is that?
Yunus: It has to do with the decision to have a separate bank for the poor people. From the beginning, I had complained about the banking system on two grounds. One complaint was that the banking system was denying financial services to the poor people through certain rules it had set up. The second allegation was that the banking system also was not treating women fairly. If you look at the gender composition of all the borrowers of all the banks in Bangladesh, not even 1% of the borrowers happen to be women. I said this is a very gender-biased organization. So when I began, I wanted to make sure half the borrowers in my program are women so that they are even. I did that. It was not easy because women themselves didn't think that they should borrow money. I had to do a lot of convincing. I encouraged them to believe that they can borrow money and make money. Part of that effort was to overcome fears -- cultural fears -- and the fact that they had never had any experience with business and so on. Soon we saw that money going to women brought much more benefit to the family than money going to the men. So we changed our policy and gave a high priority to women. As a result, now 96% of our four million borrowers in Grameen Bank are women.
NBR: So you say you have four million borrowers. How much money over time have you loaned out?
Yunus: If we start with that $27, and you add on all the money that we have loaned, it's nearly $5 billion that we have given over time. Now we have come to a stage where every two years we are giving $1 billion. So half a billion dollars a year. That's the stage we are in.
NBR: And this keeps funding itself because of the interest that's being paid?
Yunus: That's right. We take the deposits and we offer the depositors good interest rates. The money we lend to the borrowers makes a profit for the bank.
NBR: While people say that your program works well, some also say that it tends to focus on the top tier of poor people. How do you respond to that -- the criticism that it doesn't get to the people who really need such basic things as food and shelter?
Yunus: Grameen Bank helps poor people of all classes, of all types. Bottom, middle, and higher levels. Our work started with $27 to 42 people. Although we say we can work with all levels, and Grameen Bank is an example, still people don't pay attention to what we do. They just say, 'Oh no. Microcredit. It's not doing the right thing, focusing only on the upper level of poor people.' So last year we started to focus on the beggars. Our argument is you can't be poorer than beggars. That's the last stage of your survival. You go around and beg for food, collect rice, cook it at home and then eat. That's your daily survival ration. So we are interested in them. We are saying, 'Look, as you go house to house, would you carry some merchandise with you -- some cookies, candies, toys for the kids and so on -- to sell?' People love that. We thought initially we would have 4,000 to 5,000 borrowers in that program, but as the year ended we had more than 26,000 beggars. They are very happy because they have seen that when they go to houses which have never opened their front door to them, that door is now open. The beggars show their merchandise and they are given a stool to sit on, which they never had before. The beggars not only sell but also get respect from the families.
NBR: We have recently seen elections in Iraq for the first time. Self determination is the hope there. In a sense, is that what your program does? It changes people?
Yunus: Definitely. Actually, if you look at it one way, the microcredit we give to the women is a tool to explore one's self, how much capacity that is stored up inside: 'I never knew that I had the capacity. That creativity. That ingenuity. To make money to express myself. So that money gives, for the first time, an occasion for me to find out how much I can do.' When you were successful in the first round, when you took tiny amounts -- $30, $35 -- and went into business and paid back the loan, you are now much more equipped to do better. Bigger. So you ask for a $50 loan, a $60 loan, because you think you can do bigger business and more challenging business than when you first took out an easy loan.
NBR: It gives you that self confidence.
Yunus: That self confidence. And if you go through 10 rounds and 15 rounds you are ready for a much bigger challenge than you thought. We introduced information technology into the system. We created a cell phone company called Grameen Phone and brought the phone into the villages of Bangladesh. We gave loans to the borrowers to buy a cell phone and start selling phone service. It became a growing business. Now that they are already confident business women, they can very easily come into a business which they never heard of before. They never saw a telephone in their life but they accepted it as a business idea, and there are now more than 100,000 telephone ladies all over Bangladesh doing good business and connecting Bangladesh with the rest of the world.
NBR: Do they use the telephone in their business, or is this a business itself?
Yunus: It's a business itself. If I have a phone, since nobody else has a phone, they have to come to me to use it. They make a call and pay. It's like a public telephone call office. The owner of the phone becomes a one-person public phone office.
NBR: So it's the newest technology for people who have never had a telephone or anything like that.
Yunus: That's right. People complain that microcredit will let these women raise only chickens and cows and nothing else, that they are always stuck with primitive technology and don't have the capacity to move up to a new technology. So this is again a demonstration. Give them a chance to pick up state-of-the-art technology.
NBR: And your program has gone beyond Bangladesh? Are you everywhere in the world?
Yunus: To our knowledge, our program is running in more than 100 countries, some in a big way, some in a small way. And more and more countries are joining in each year, each day.
NBR: Africa is one area of interest. Have there been any special, noteworthy cultural issues there one way or the other?
Yunus: There are cultural issues everywhere -- in Bangladesh, Latin America, Africa, wherever you go. But somehow when we talk about cultural differences, we magnify those differences. To me, after all this experience, I see there are 95% common things in culture, only 5% differences. The human culture is the basic culture. Finding ways to improve people's lives may take different shapes, but it's still the same urge to improve your family, to care for your children, to have a decent life for yourself and so on. So those cultures are common cultures, as is the culture of poverty, deprivation and lack of opportunity. So we create a new culture of confidence and self dignity by [building] businesses that are not at the mercy of anybody. They are equal partners: the bank and the people. They are in business in equal partnership.
NBR: They are both taking a risk.
Yunus: They are both taking a risk and doing business together.
NBR: The focus of this series of interviews is greatest challenges. What would you say your greatest challenge has been?
Yunus: My greatest challenge has been to change the mindset of people. Mindsets play strange tricks on us. We see things the way our minds have instructed our eyes to see. We think the way our minds have instructed our minds to think. We are familiar with one way of thinking. Most of it comes during our academic years, during our student years. The teachers we had, the books we read -- they made up our mindset, and ever since we are stuck with that. We cannot break through this. If you are a successful student in a university, actually you become the 'mini' of the professor whom you liked and admired most ... So that's what mindset does. When you bring in a new thought, you are in conflict with those old thoughts. You struggle, but the old thoughts still prevail because the mindset is so strong. It would be good if we could have an educational system, a learning process, where we could retain our originality and at the same time accumulate insight and never become a mini professor, but remain ourselves and still absorb different views. Yet institutions have their own mindsets, and it's very difficult to penetrate and change them. So changing has to be done faster. It's a faster world -- particularly in the 21st century -- but human minds, our academic system, make change slow. So this has been the hardest challenge that I have faced along the way.
NBR: So you want change to be at a faster speed?
Yunus: Absolutely. Yes.
NBR: You were among the 25 most influential individuals that the Wharton School and Nightly Business Report selected for this series. In a sense, you are unique on that list. How do you see yourself among that group?
Yunus: I was very surprised. I didn't think I was at that level. These are the people who are admired all over the world, who have accomplished so much. Seeing that I was one of the 25, I was really inspired and overwhelmed. But in a way, if I look back, this is recognition of the importance of financial services to the poorest people. This is what you recognized. Today, if you look at financial systems around the globe, more than half the population of the world -- out of six billion people, more than three billion -- do not qualify to take out a loan from a bank. This is a shame. What kind of institutions have we built that cannot afford to extend their services to the majority of the people?
NBR: And finally, what is your vision for the future?
Yunus: My vision for the future? Two things: to make credit a human right so that each individual human being will have the opportunity to take loans and implement his or her ideas so that self-exploration becomes possible. And second: that it will lead to a world where nobody has to suffer from poverty -- a world completely free from poverty. Not a single human being will suffer from the misery and indignity of poverty. Poverty is unnecessary. The human being is quite capable of taking care of himself or herself. But we have created a society that does not allow opportunities for those people to take care of themselves because we have denied them those opportunities. I have described poor people as like a bonsai -- that little tree that grows in a flower pot. I said you pick the best seed of the tallest tree in the forest, and plant it in a flower pot, and it will grow into a tiny tree. Is there anything wrong with the seed? Nothing is wrong with the seed. It's the best seed. Then why is it tiny? Because you planted it in a flower pot. You didn't allow it to grow in the real soil. The poor people are the bonsai people. Society has not allowed them the real soil. If you allow them the real soil, real opportunities, they will grow as tall as everybody else.
NBR: What has happened to those furniture makers that you first loaned $27 to?
Yunus: They have changed. All of Bangladesh has changed if you look from the bottom up. In general, you see Bangladesh is still a poor country and so on. But empowerment has come to the women of Bangladesh -- even the poorest women in Bangladesh. It's tremendous. It's a dramatic change that has taken place. Women have access to money. They can now plan. They can now dream. Their children are in school. Many of them are going into higher education through Grameen Bank financing. New communities are emerging. A new generation is emerging. New technology has been brought in -- information technology, mobile phones, and so on -- in a country where 70% of the people have no access to electricity. We brought solar energy -- self-contained electricity -- and connected it to the mobile phones. We try to address all that. Housing has been brought in, and new infrastructure. The economy as a whole has changed. People are creating their own jobs. They are not waiting for anybody else to hire them.
NBR: And this program has been working in the United States?
Yunus: Yes in the United States, Canada, in England, in France, in Norway. Rich countries, poor countries -- the problem remains the same. (Credit: Wharton)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Muhammad Yunus
Financial News
Social and Community Entrepreneurs
NBR: You have been credited with inventing the microcredit movement more than 30 years ago. Why did you go in that direction?
Yunus: I had no idea that I would ever get involved with something like lending money to poor people, given the circumstances in which I was working in Bangladesh. I was teaching in one of the universities while the country was suffering from a severe famine. People were dying of hunger, and I felt very helpless. As an economist, I had no tool in my tool box to fix that kind of situation.
NBR: So what gave you the idea to give people tools?
Yunus: While I traveled around the country, I told myself, 'As a person, forget about the tool box. As a human being, I can go out and be available to help another person.' So that's what I started doing. This was back in 1974. I saw how people suffered for a tiny amount of money. They had to borrow from the moneylender, and the moneylender took advantage of them, squeezed them in a way that all the benefits passed on to the moneylender and none remained for the borrowers. So I made a list of people who needed just a little bit of money. And when the list was complete, there were 42 names. The total amount of money they needed was $27. I was shocked. Here we were talking about economic development, about investing billions of dollars in various programs, and I could see it wasn't billions of dollars people needed right away. They needed a tiny amount of money. This was in 1976.
NBR: I understand some of the money was for a bamboo furniture maker?
Yunus: That's right. She was making bamboo stools and earning only two pennies a day. I couldn't believe that someone could make only two pennies for crafting such beautiful stools. After a discussion with her I found out she had to borrow money to buy the bamboo, which cost only 25 cents. But she didn't have the 25 cents. So she had to borrow it from the trader, who agreed to lend it to her on the condition that she sell the bamboo stool to him when it was finished at a price that he decided.
NBR: So how was your plan different?
Yunus: I wanted to give money to people like this woman so that they would be free from the moneylenders to sell their product at the price which the markets gave them -- which was much higher than what the trader was giving them.
NBR: But even then you charged interest.
Yunus: Oh yes ... Definitely, yes.
NBR: And why is that? What was the thinking?
Yunus: I thought if you do things in a businesslike way, then the project can become as big as you want it to because you are earning enough money to cover all your costs. You are not dependent on anybody. You are not dependent on a limited supply of capital. This is business money. Business money is limitless. And then, you can reach out to many more people than you would otherwise do.
NBR: So this is not charity?
Yunus: This is not charity. This is business: business with a social objective, which is to help people get out of poverty. Other banks were not giving loans to these people.
NBR: So how did you get from that first $27 to working with Grameen Bank and expanding this around the globe?
Yunus: The villagers got very excited that I gave them the money. To them, it was like a miracle. Seeing this, a question came to my mind. If you can make so many people so happy with such a small amount of money, why shouldn't you do more of it? Why shouldn't you reach out to many more people? I could do this by linking these people with a bank that could lend them the money. So I went to the bank and proposed that they lend money to the poor people. The bankers almost fell over. They couldn't believe what had been proposed to them. They explained to me that the bank cannot lend money to poor people because these people are not creditworthy. So a long series of debates began with me and the banking system. Finally, I resolved it after about six months by offering myself as a guarantor. I said, 'I will sign the loan papers. I will take the risk, and you give the money.' I got the money and gave it to the people. And luckily for me, all the people paid it back. The banks had been saying that I would never get the money back and would ultimately have to pay it back myself. I said, 'I don't know anything. Let me try it out.' And I tried it, and it worked.
NBR: Has it continued to work?
Yunus: Yes, and we expanded it from village to village. But we still saw that the banks weren't changing their minds even after I had demonstrated that there was no risk to the process, that banks could do better by giving money to poor people, who were paying it back, than to rich people, who were not paying it back.
NBR: Poor people were paying the money back [more reliably] than rich people?
Yunus: Much better than rich people. Because Bangladesh has a tradition of rich people who borrow money from the big banks and hardly pay it back.
NBR: That's pretty startling.
Yunus: Very startling, yes.
NBR: You have said that you loaned primarily to women. Why is that?
Yunus: It has to do with the decision to have a separate bank for the poor people. From the beginning, I had complained about the banking system on two grounds. One complaint was that the banking system was denying financial services to the poor people through certain rules it had set up. The second allegation was that the banking system also was not treating women fairly. If you look at the gender composition of all the borrowers of all the banks in Bangladesh, not even 1% of the borrowers happen to be women. I said this is a very gender-biased organization. So when I began, I wanted to make sure half the borrowers in my program are women so that they are even. I did that. It was not easy because women themselves didn't think that they should borrow money. I had to do a lot of convincing. I encouraged them to believe that they can borrow money and make money. Part of that effort was to overcome fears -- cultural fears -- and the fact that they had never had any experience with business and so on. Soon we saw that money going to women brought much more benefit to the family than money going to the men. So we changed our policy and gave a high priority to women. As a result, now 96% of our four million borrowers in Grameen Bank are women.
NBR: So you say you have four million borrowers. How much money over time have you loaned out?
Yunus: If we start with that $27, and you add on all the money that we have loaned, it's nearly $5 billion that we have given over time. Now we have come to a stage where every two years we are giving $1 billion. So half a billion dollars a year. That's the stage we are in.
NBR: And this keeps funding itself because of the interest that's being paid?
Yunus: That's right. We take the deposits and we offer the depositors good interest rates. The money we lend to the borrowers makes a profit for the bank.
NBR: While people say that your program works well, some also say that it tends to focus on the top tier of poor people. How do you respond to that -- the criticism that it doesn't get to the people who really need such basic things as food and shelter?
Yunus: Grameen Bank helps poor people of all classes, of all types. Bottom, middle, and higher levels. Our work started with $27 to 42 people. Although we say we can work with all levels, and Grameen Bank is an example, still people don't pay attention to what we do. They just say, 'Oh no. Microcredit. It's not doing the right thing, focusing only on the upper level of poor people.' So last year we started to focus on the beggars. Our argument is you can't be poorer than beggars. That's the last stage of your survival. You go around and beg for food, collect rice, cook it at home and then eat. That's your daily survival ration. So we are interested in them. We are saying, 'Look, as you go house to house, would you carry some merchandise with you -- some cookies, candies, toys for the kids and so on -- to sell?' People love that. We thought initially we would have 4,000 to 5,000 borrowers in that program, but as the year ended we had more than 26,000 beggars. They are very happy because they have seen that when they go to houses which have never opened their front door to them, that door is now open. The beggars show their merchandise and they are given a stool to sit on, which they never had before. The beggars not only sell but also get respect from the families.
NBR: We have recently seen elections in Iraq for the first time. Self determination is the hope there. In a sense, is that what your program does? It changes people?
Yunus: Definitely. Actually, if you look at it one way, the microcredit we give to the women is a tool to explore one's self, how much capacity that is stored up inside: 'I never knew that I had the capacity. That creativity. That ingenuity. To make money to express myself. So that money gives, for the first time, an occasion for me to find out how much I can do.' When you were successful in the first round, when you took tiny amounts -- $30, $35 -- and went into business and paid back the loan, you are now much more equipped to do better. Bigger. So you ask for a $50 loan, a $60 loan, because you think you can do bigger business and more challenging business than when you first took out an easy loan.
NBR: It gives you that self confidence.
Yunus: That self confidence. And if you go through 10 rounds and 15 rounds you are ready for a much bigger challenge than you thought. We introduced information technology into the system. We created a cell phone company called Grameen Phone and brought the phone into the villages of Bangladesh. We gave loans to the borrowers to buy a cell phone and start selling phone service. It became a growing business. Now that they are already confident business women, they can very easily come into a business which they never heard of before. They never saw a telephone in their life but they accepted it as a business idea, and there are now more than 100,000 telephone ladies all over Bangladesh doing good business and connecting Bangladesh with the rest of the world.
NBR: Do they use the telephone in their business, or is this a business itself?
Yunus: It's a business itself. If I have a phone, since nobody else has a phone, they have to come to me to use it. They make a call and pay. It's like a public telephone call office. The owner of the phone becomes a one-person public phone office.
NBR: So it's the newest technology for people who have never had a telephone or anything like that.
Yunus: That's right. People complain that microcredit will let these women raise only chickens and cows and nothing else, that they are always stuck with primitive technology and don't have the capacity to move up to a new technology. So this is again a demonstration. Give them a chance to pick up state-of-the-art technology.
NBR: And your program has gone beyond Bangladesh? Are you everywhere in the world?
Yunus: To our knowledge, our program is running in more than 100 countries, some in a big way, some in a small way. And more and more countries are joining in each year, each day.
NBR: Africa is one area of interest. Have there been any special, noteworthy cultural issues there one way or the other?
Yunus: There are cultural issues everywhere -- in Bangladesh, Latin America, Africa, wherever you go. But somehow when we talk about cultural differences, we magnify those differences. To me, after all this experience, I see there are 95% common things in culture, only 5% differences. The human culture is the basic culture. Finding ways to improve people's lives may take different shapes, but it's still the same urge to improve your family, to care for your children, to have a decent life for yourself and so on. So those cultures are common cultures, as is the culture of poverty, deprivation and lack of opportunity. So we create a new culture of confidence and self dignity by [building] businesses that are not at the mercy of anybody. They are equal partners: the bank and the people. They are in business in equal partnership.
NBR: They are both taking a risk.
Yunus: They are both taking a risk and doing business together.
NBR: The focus of this series of interviews is greatest challenges. What would you say your greatest challenge has been?
Yunus: My greatest challenge has been to change the mindset of people. Mindsets play strange tricks on us. We see things the way our minds have instructed our eyes to see. We think the way our minds have instructed our minds to think. We are familiar with one way of thinking. Most of it comes during our academic years, during our student years. The teachers we had, the books we read -- they made up our mindset, and ever since we are stuck with that. We cannot break through this. If you are a successful student in a university, actually you become the 'mini' of the professor whom you liked and admired most ... So that's what mindset does. When you bring in a new thought, you are in conflict with those old thoughts. You struggle, but the old thoughts still prevail because the mindset is so strong. It would be good if we could have an educational system, a learning process, where we could retain our originality and at the same time accumulate insight and never become a mini professor, but remain ourselves and still absorb different views. Yet institutions have their own mindsets, and it's very difficult to penetrate and change them. So changing has to be done faster. It's a faster world -- particularly in the 21st century -- but human minds, our academic system, make change slow. So this has been the hardest challenge that I have faced along the way.
NBR: So you want change to be at a faster speed?
Yunus: Absolutely. Yes.
NBR: You were among the 25 most influential individuals that the Wharton School and Nightly Business Report selected for this series. In a sense, you are unique on that list. How do you see yourself among that group?
Yunus: I was very surprised. I didn't think I was at that level. These are the people who are admired all over the world, who have accomplished so much. Seeing that I was one of the 25, I was really inspired and overwhelmed. But in a way, if I look back, this is recognition of the importance of financial services to the poorest people. This is what you recognized. Today, if you look at financial systems around the globe, more than half the population of the world -- out of six billion people, more than three billion -- do not qualify to take out a loan from a bank. This is a shame. What kind of institutions have we built that cannot afford to extend their services to the majority of the people?
NBR: And finally, what is your vision for the future?
Yunus: My vision for the future? Two things: to make credit a human right so that each individual human being will have the opportunity to take loans and implement his or her ideas so that self-exploration becomes possible. And second: that it will lead to a world where nobody has to suffer from poverty -- a world completely free from poverty. Not a single human being will suffer from the misery and indignity of poverty. Poverty is unnecessary. The human being is quite capable of taking care of himself or herself. But we have created a society that does not allow opportunities for those people to take care of themselves because we have denied them those opportunities. I have described poor people as like a bonsai -- that little tree that grows in a flower pot. I said you pick the best seed of the tallest tree in the forest, and plant it in a flower pot, and it will grow into a tiny tree. Is there anything wrong with the seed? Nothing is wrong with the seed. It's the best seed. Then why is it tiny? Because you planted it in a flower pot. You didn't allow it to grow in the real soil. The poor people are the bonsai people. Society has not allowed them the real soil. If you allow them the real soil, real opportunities, they will grow as tall as everybody else.
NBR: What has happened to those furniture makers that you first loaned $27 to?
Yunus: They have changed. All of Bangladesh has changed if you look from the bottom up. In general, you see Bangladesh is still a poor country and so on. But empowerment has come to the women of Bangladesh -- even the poorest women in Bangladesh. It's tremendous. It's a dramatic change that has taken place. Women have access to money. They can now plan. They can now dream. Their children are in school. Many of them are going into higher education through Grameen Bank financing. New communities are emerging. A new generation is emerging. New technology has been brought in -- information technology, mobile phones, and so on -- in a country where 70% of the people have no access to electricity. We brought solar energy -- self-contained electricity -- and connected it to the mobile phones. We try to address all that. Housing has been brought in, and new infrastructure. The economy as a whole has changed. People are creating their own jobs. They are not waiting for anybody else to hire them.
NBR: And this program has been working in the United States?
Yunus: Yes in the United States, Canada, in England, in France, in Norway. Rich countries, poor countries -- the problem remains the same. (Credit: Wharton)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Muhammad Yunus
Financial News
Social and Community Entrepreneurs
Monday, September 08, 2008
Brain Food For Social and Community Entrepreneurs
Super Trivia Guy (aka Ric Allport) creates a free trivia and games newsletter “The Brain Food Factory”. It is designed to exercise all brain functions and is an aid to help people avoid the horrible conditions like Alzheimer’s.
Profile on Super Trivia Guy
The Brain Food Factory is a free newsletter which, at the moment, consists of Super Trivia Guy and his faithful offsider Not-So-Super Helper Person (more about her at a later stage). This website simply enables people to sign up for the free newsletter, however, in time, it will grow into who knows what with all sorts of fun and interesting things to do.
We thought the best way to tell you a little bit about Super Trivia Guy was to put up an interview he did recently. Go get yourself a cup of tea and sit back and get to know him. He's Super!
INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK - SUPER TRIVIA GUY a.k.a RIC ALLPORT
Super Trivia Guy (aka Ric Allport) has had many different incarnations in his life, including High School Teacher, Musician, Music Storeman/Salesman, Artist, Photographer, not to mention his career highlight as a Telephone Sanitizer (which helped him get through Art College). He has been running live trivia shows for the past eleven years with Complete Trivia and has also been developing and running an online trivia competition.
I love the name Super Trivia Guy. Where did you come up with it?
I have been running live trivia shows now for about twelve years and I have been doing an online trivia competition for about four years. Over this time I have lost track off how many questions, pictures and sound clues that I have gone through. After chatting to my business partner in Sydney (who has been doing this for about eighteen years), we roughly estimated that in the databank at the moment there would be about 150,000 questions alone, not including pictures and sounds. I mentioned this to some of my online players and they said that my brain must be bursting with knowledge and I must be a mastermind of trivia, a kind of super trivia guy. When I heard that I thought “what an interesting name, I think I will keep that”. So 'Super Trivia Guy’ was born. I am now working on my Super Creed so if anyone has any suggestions please let me know.
Why are you so interested in trivia, puzzles and the like? When did your interest in these areas begin?
When I was a kid I was always interested in games, puzzles and sport. Certainly not academic things. I was always playing something. I then started to play music as well, which became a great passion for me. I also loved the weird and wonderful e.g. Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, Sideshow Alley at the Easter Show, crazy world records (not many people could tell you that Kevin Cole of New Mexico blew a spaghetti strand 19cms out of his nostril in a single blow).
Over the years I have really become interested in the workings of the brain and the importance of keeping it very active. Unfortunately, I had to watch a friend of mine’s father go rapidly downhill with Alzheimer’s Disease. I found it difficult to understand what was happening at the time, so over the years I have looked into how the brain works and how to keep it active. I found that, much like your body needs to exercise, so does your brain. Doing Crosswords, Trivia Quizzes, Sudoku, Word Games etc really helps to keep the brain active and in top condition. It is not a cure for Alzheimer’s or Dementia or other brain disorders, but it helps to keep them at bay.
What is a typical working day like for Super Trivia Guy?
I am not quite sure about any part of my day being typical, however it usually starts at about 7am when I get up and check emails, make sure that the online trivia competition is running smoothly, and hear the oh so wonderful sound of my coffee being ready! Each day brings different things to do. Usually the first thing to do is check the news sites to see what is going on around the world (trivia happens all the time) and we like to make sure we always have current questions. Then it is creating the questions from the research, finding pictures and sounds. From there it usually leads to creating some Crosswords, Sudoku puzzles etc which I put into our free monthly newsletter. In between all this, there is the promotion and marketing that also has to happen and then the creation of our mega monthly online competition. Somewhere in between all that I fit in food and some sleep.
What are the pros and cons of your job?
I receive wonderful feedback from people all over Australia about our site and how much it helps them. To know that what I do makes a difference to many people’s lives really makes what I do worthwhile. Also, working mostly from home means that I work to my own timetable which can be as flexible as it needs to be (except the end of the month when the next months questions have to be finished, so don’t bother me unless you bring coffee and cake!).
The down side of what I do is the probably the marketing aspect. Trying to create a unique business in a unique place – the Internet, has many challenges when it comes to marketing. The online site is very unique amongst all other trivia sites on the net. Also, the downside in working from home is that sometimes you never stop and take time out for yourself.
What are your interests outside of trivia?
My other interests and passions are music (I have played live since I was fourteen years old), also animals in all shapes and forms. There is nothing more wonderful then watching the amazing creatures that make up this world. And then there is of course watching movies, seeing live bands play original music, going to art shows/festivals and anything else I can fit in.
Which celebrities, leaders or public figures do you admire and why?
Anyone who helps and protects animals in any way shape or form.
Robin Williams: he is an amazing person who is incredibly intelligent, so funny and if you read his life story quite an inspiration.
Adam Hills: the consummate professional host and very funny. Spicks and Specks has to be the best show on TV.
Lisa Randall: a physicist who is making her mark in a very male dominated workplace and one who has very interesting theories.
Jeff Gambin from ‘Just Enough Faith’: check him out, he really helps people in need and deserves all the support he can get.
Oprah Winfrey: love her or hate her, she really has made a difference to so many people in the world.
Ian Ballard: a friend of mine from High School. He found out years ago that he had MS and instead of letting it get the better of him, he has become a driving force behind F5M which is trying to raise $5 million for research into a cure for MS.
Andrew Denton: how he manages to extract so much information from the people he interviews is beyond me. (Credit: Ric Allport)
Website
The Brain Food Factory
Media Man Australia Profiles
Social and Community Entrepreneurs
Profile on Super Trivia Guy
The Brain Food Factory is a free newsletter which, at the moment, consists of Super Trivia Guy and his faithful offsider Not-So-Super Helper Person (more about her at a later stage). This website simply enables people to sign up for the free newsletter, however, in time, it will grow into who knows what with all sorts of fun and interesting things to do.
We thought the best way to tell you a little bit about Super Trivia Guy was to put up an interview he did recently. Go get yourself a cup of tea and sit back and get to know him. He's Super!
INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK - SUPER TRIVIA GUY a.k.a RIC ALLPORT
Super Trivia Guy (aka Ric Allport) has had many different incarnations in his life, including High School Teacher, Musician, Music Storeman/Salesman, Artist, Photographer, not to mention his career highlight as a Telephone Sanitizer (which helped him get through Art College). He has been running live trivia shows for the past eleven years with Complete Trivia and has also been developing and running an online trivia competition.
I love the name Super Trivia Guy. Where did you come up with it?
I have been running live trivia shows now for about twelve years and I have been doing an online trivia competition for about four years. Over this time I have lost track off how many questions, pictures and sound clues that I have gone through. After chatting to my business partner in Sydney (who has been doing this for about eighteen years), we roughly estimated that in the databank at the moment there would be about 150,000 questions alone, not including pictures and sounds. I mentioned this to some of my online players and they said that my brain must be bursting with knowledge and I must be a mastermind of trivia, a kind of super trivia guy. When I heard that I thought “what an interesting name, I think I will keep that”. So 'Super Trivia Guy’ was born. I am now working on my Super Creed so if anyone has any suggestions please let me know.
Why are you so interested in trivia, puzzles and the like? When did your interest in these areas begin?
When I was a kid I was always interested in games, puzzles and sport. Certainly not academic things. I was always playing something. I then started to play music as well, which became a great passion for me. I also loved the weird and wonderful e.g. Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, Sideshow Alley at the Easter Show, crazy world records (not many people could tell you that Kevin Cole of New Mexico blew a spaghetti strand 19cms out of his nostril in a single blow).
Over the years I have really become interested in the workings of the brain and the importance of keeping it very active. Unfortunately, I had to watch a friend of mine’s father go rapidly downhill with Alzheimer’s Disease. I found it difficult to understand what was happening at the time, so over the years I have looked into how the brain works and how to keep it active. I found that, much like your body needs to exercise, so does your brain. Doing Crosswords, Trivia Quizzes, Sudoku, Word Games etc really helps to keep the brain active and in top condition. It is not a cure for Alzheimer’s or Dementia or other brain disorders, but it helps to keep them at bay.
What is a typical working day like for Super Trivia Guy?
I am not quite sure about any part of my day being typical, however it usually starts at about 7am when I get up and check emails, make sure that the online trivia competition is running smoothly, and hear the oh so wonderful sound of my coffee being ready! Each day brings different things to do. Usually the first thing to do is check the news sites to see what is going on around the world (trivia happens all the time) and we like to make sure we always have current questions. Then it is creating the questions from the research, finding pictures and sounds. From there it usually leads to creating some Crosswords, Sudoku puzzles etc which I put into our free monthly newsletter. In between all this, there is the promotion and marketing that also has to happen and then the creation of our mega monthly online competition. Somewhere in between all that I fit in food and some sleep.
What are the pros and cons of your job?
I receive wonderful feedback from people all over Australia about our site and how much it helps them. To know that what I do makes a difference to many people’s lives really makes what I do worthwhile. Also, working mostly from home means that I work to my own timetable which can be as flexible as it needs to be (except the end of the month when the next months questions have to be finished, so don’t bother me unless you bring coffee and cake!).
The down side of what I do is the probably the marketing aspect. Trying to create a unique business in a unique place – the Internet, has many challenges when it comes to marketing. The online site is very unique amongst all other trivia sites on the net. Also, the downside in working from home is that sometimes you never stop and take time out for yourself.
What are your interests outside of trivia?
My other interests and passions are music (I have played live since I was fourteen years old), also animals in all shapes and forms. There is nothing more wonderful then watching the amazing creatures that make up this world. And then there is of course watching movies, seeing live bands play original music, going to art shows/festivals and anything else I can fit in.
Which celebrities, leaders or public figures do you admire and why?
Anyone who helps and protects animals in any way shape or form.
Robin Williams: he is an amazing person who is incredibly intelligent, so funny and if you read his life story quite an inspiration.
Adam Hills: the consummate professional host and very funny. Spicks and Specks has to be the best show on TV.
Lisa Randall: a physicist who is making her mark in a very male dominated workplace and one who has very interesting theories.
Jeff Gambin from ‘Just Enough Faith’: check him out, he really helps people in need and deserves all the support he can get.
Oprah Winfrey: love her or hate her, she really has made a difference to so many people in the world.
Ian Ballard: a friend of mine from High School. He found out years ago that he had MS and instead of letting it get the better of him, he has become a driving force behind F5M which is trying to raise $5 million for research into a cure for MS.
Andrew Denton: how he manages to extract so much information from the people he interviews is beyond me. (Credit: Ric Allport)
Website
The Brain Food Factory
Media Man Australia Profiles
Social and Community Entrepreneurs
Sunday, September 07, 2008
The schmooze circuit, by Amy Verner - Globe and Mail - 4th September 2008
Festival festivities kick off tonight, but will crystallize at Swarovski on Saturday with the ultimate battle of the bling
Until the Toronto International Film Festival parties get started tonight, this intrepid scenester is in a limbo period, all dressed up and waiting to go. The master spreadsheet has been composed, all access has been secured, each outfit has been roughly planned and friends have come out of the woodwork to offer themselves as my entourage. I can all but taste the Park Hyatt's tray of seasoned almonds, dried fruit and olives - my favourite source of sustenance throughout a week of celeb watching that will take me from Passchendaele at the Drake tonight to the passion of Paris Hilton at Ultra next Saturday.
In the meantime, a few trends are already appearing on this year's film festival schmooze circuit.
The usual battles of the bling will climax at cocktail hour on Saturday night. At the northwest corner of Bloor and Yonge Streets, Swarovski is hosting a prescreening reception for Blindness, a film that isn't exactly easy to watch but makes a crystallizing impact. Meanwhile, a red carpet will be rolled out at the southeast corner of Bloor and Bay Streets for Hello Canada magazine's salute to Hollywood's legendary couples. Birks seems like an apropos venue: Where better to recognize love than in a place that sells diamond rings?
Like a vegetable garden creeping onto the lawn, the greening of TIFF continues. The Royal Bank of Canada soiree on Saturday night is to honour Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in support of the Waterkeeper Alliance. Think organic noshing, Bullfrog Power and greenery in lieu of flowers.
Gift suites, the freebee bonanzas at every festival, also have an eco bent: the It Lounge in the Windsor Arms Hotel features organic cotton Fila T-shirts emblazoned with "f-words" such as "fashionista" and "freedom" in addition to Teva shoes with soles made from recycled tires. Kate Hudson, who's in town for the Virgin Unite Event, will be enlightening the press on Wildaid, an organization that raises awareness about trade in endangered-species products. And then there's Greenhouse, the pop-up bio boîte at 99 Sudbury Street that arrives via New York and touts eco-friendly design materials and 360 Vodka. No doubt attendees at the Playboy Party chaperoned by bunnies Shannon James and Roxanne Dawn will be thanking Mother Nature.
If any businesses stand to gain from the festival, it's restaurants that get no respect throughout the year. Empire and Sopra are two Yorkville-area locations that will be peppered with celebrities - from Claire Danes and Zac Efron (Me and Orson Welles) to Matt Dillon and Kate Beckinsale (Nothing but the Truth) - but Toronto foodies would be the first to point out that these aren't considered the city's best places to chow down. The skinny is that various restos get booked by event producers for the duration of the film festival. They offer themselves at bargain-basement prices in exchange for bragging rights. Of course, if a local stargazer were really smart, she'd make reservations at standbys such as Sotto Sotto and Joso's, or newcomers Grace and Nyood, where more discreet action will be happening nightly.
But grabbing your own brush with greatness is getting harder this year. Lobby will not be open to the hoi polloi this time (not that it ever prided itself on a lax velvet-rope policy). It has turned private and will be known as the Luxury Lounge for the duration. Under the auspices of Jordan Bitove's Vision Co., with such tony brand partners as Perrier-Jouët, Vogue and London Fog, it will be the destination for numerous studio dinners and a little tomfoolery care of LeBron James and Steve Nash, who are hosting after-parties.
And now some burning questions. Check back throughout the week for answers.
Will Anne Hathaway wear Prada to the screening of Rachel Getting Married? While her onscreen look more closely channels ready-to-rebel than ready-to-wear, this bona fide actress will likely go the glam route when she heads to the after-party at Brandt House.
Will Colin Farrell make front-page news once again when he reunites with his formerly homeless Toronto friend who goes by the name Stress? One year after the sexy Irishman treated the stranger to a shopping spree and encouraged him to get his life on track, Stress is now off the streets. Incidentally, Mr. Farrell is here this year for a film called Pride & Glory,which also stars Ed Norton.
Will the cast of Burn After Reading actually make it to their top secret after-party? Last year, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's SUV was so swarmed by fans on Yorkville Avenue that they ditched their plans to kick back at hot spot Amber and decamped to the Park Hyatt's rooftop lounge, which I lovingly refer to as the "famous fortress in the sky."
Will Geoffrey Rush continue to be the festival's most omnipresent party-hopper? Last year, the actor best known for his Academy Award-winning role in Shine turned up everywhere, from Casa Loma to Holt Renfrew to the George Christy luncheon. Should Mr. Rush wish to relinquish this title, singer John Legend definitely qualifies. How he will be able to cram in a song or two at One X One, a headlining performance with Mariah Carey for the Canadian Idol finale, a jam session at King Street boîte Atelier, an appearance at a Lush magazine party and a private dinner into three days is beyond me.
My agenda is equally packed. The difference, of course, is that I won't have an entourage.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Virgin Unite
Film Festivals
Social and Community Entrepreneurs
Until the Toronto International Film Festival parties get started tonight, this intrepid scenester is in a limbo period, all dressed up and waiting to go. The master spreadsheet has been composed, all access has been secured, each outfit has been roughly planned and friends have come out of the woodwork to offer themselves as my entourage. I can all but taste the Park Hyatt's tray of seasoned almonds, dried fruit and olives - my favourite source of sustenance throughout a week of celeb watching that will take me from Passchendaele at the Drake tonight to the passion of Paris Hilton at Ultra next Saturday.
In the meantime, a few trends are already appearing on this year's film festival schmooze circuit.
The usual battles of the bling will climax at cocktail hour on Saturday night. At the northwest corner of Bloor and Yonge Streets, Swarovski is hosting a prescreening reception for Blindness, a film that isn't exactly easy to watch but makes a crystallizing impact. Meanwhile, a red carpet will be rolled out at the southeast corner of Bloor and Bay Streets for Hello Canada magazine's salute to Hollywood's legendary couples. Birks seems like an apropos venue: Where better to recognize love than in a place that sells diamond rings?
Like a vegetable garden creeping onto the lawn, the greening of TIFF continues. The Royal Bank of Canada soiree on Saturday night is to honour Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in support of the Waterkeeper Alliance. Think organic noshing, Bullfrog Power and greenery in lieu of flowers.
Gift suites, the freebee bonanzas at every festival, also have an eco bent: the It Lounge in the Windsor Arms Hotel features organic cotton Fila T-shirts emblazoned with "f-words" such as "fashionista" and "freedom" in addition to Teva shoes with soles made from recycled tires. Kate Hudson, who's in town for the Virgin Unite Event, will be enlightening the press on Wildaid, an organization that raises awareness about trade in endangered-species products. And then there's Greenhouse, the pop-up bio boîte at 99 Sudbury Street that arrives via New York and touts eco-friendly design materials and 360 Vodka. No doubt attendees at the Playboy Party chaperoned by bunnies Shannon James and Roxanne Dawn will be thanking Mother Nature.
If any businesses stand to gain from the festival, it's restaurants that get no respect throughout the year. Empire and Sopra are two Yorkville-area locations that will be peppered with celebrities - from Claire Danes and Zac Efron (Me and Orson Welles) to Matt Dillon and Kate Beckinsale (Nothing but the Truth) - but Toronto foodies would be the first to point out that these aren't considered the city's best places to chow down. The skinny is that various restos get booked by event producers for the duration of the film festival. They offer themselves at bargain-basement prices in exchange for bragging rights. Of course, if a local stargazer were really smart, she'd make reservations at standbys such as Sotto Sotto and Joso's, or newcomers Grace and Nyood, where more discreet action will be happening nightly.
But grabbing your own brush with greatness is getting harder this year. Lobby will not be open to the hoi polloi this time (not that it ever prided itself on a lax velvet-rope policy). It has turned private and will be known as the Luxury Lounge for the duration. Under the auspices of Jordan Bitove's Vision Co., with such tony brand partners as Perrier-Jouët, Vogue and London Fog, it will be the destination for numerous studio dinners and a little tomfoolery care of LeBron James and Steve Nash, who are hosting after-parties.
And now some burning questions. Check back throughout the week for answers.
Will Anne Hathaway wear Prada to the screening of Rachel Getting Married? While her onscreen look more closely channels ready-to-rebel than ready-to-wear, this bona fide actress will likely go the glam route when she heads to the after-party at Brandt House.
Will Colin Farrell make front-page news once again when he reunites with his formerly homeless Toronto friend who goes by the name Stress? One year after the sexy Irishman treated the stranger to a shopping spree and encouraged him to get his life on track, Stress is now off the streets. Incidentally, Mr. Farrell is here this year for a film called Pride & Glory,which also stars Ed Norton.
Will the cast of Burn After Reading actually make it to their top secret after-party? Last year, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's SUV was so swarmed by fans on Yorkville Avenue that they ditched their plans to kick back at hot spot Amber and decamped to the Park Hyatt's rooftop lounge, which I lovingly refer to as the "famous fortress in the sky."
Will Geoffrey Rush continue to be the festival's most omnipresent party-hopper? Last year, the actor best known for his Academy Award-winning role in Shine turned up everywhere, from Casa Loma to Holt Renfrew to the George Christy luncheon. Should Mr. Rush wish to relinquish this title, singer John Legend definitely qualifies. How he will be able to cram in a song or two at One X One, a headlining performance with Mariah Carey for the Canadian Idol finale, a jam session at King Street boîte Atelier, an appearance at a Lush magazine party and a private dinner into three days is beyond me.
My agenda is equally packed. The difference, of course, is that I won't have an entourage.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Virgin Unite
Film Festivals
Social and Community Entrepreneurs
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Social advertising: a plan for viral success, by Michael Berkley - iMedia - 29th August 2008
You may not be able to anticipate which campaigns will be a hit with consumers, but there are ways to optimize your brand's chances of being accepted in their digital gathering spots.
As traditional online advertising proves disappointing in its ability to effectively reach users of MySpace, Facebook and other social network sites, a new breed of marketing tools has emerged under the moniker of "social advertising." Unlike other forms of marketing, social advertisements allow brands to harness the immense marketing power of word-of-mouth campaigns.
There is no force more powerful in advertising than the influence of friends and family. Research supports what marketers have known all along -- all the celebrity product endorsements in the world can't impact someone's purchasing decision as strongly as the recommendation of a friend, husband or wife or business partner.
As powerful as they are, however, word-of-mouth campaigns have historically been a result of serendipitous happenstance rather than orchestrated strategy. In the offline world, brands have little control over how word-of-mouth starts, how it spreads and how it translates into sales. Advertisers can do little more than cross their fingers in hopes of generating community buzz.
That was then. In today's digital world, brands have the ability to harness the unmatched power of world-of-mouth advertising. Rather than simply hope for the best, friend and family influence can now be seeded, augmented and directed by marketers. More significantly, word-of-mouth campaigns can also be tracked and measured in the digital world.
Seeding
Offline, finding and gaining the attention of potential customers is very difficult. Turning that audience into evangelizers of a brand or product is nothing short of miraculous.
In the digital arena, however, well-defined communities already exist. Social network sites such as MySpace and Facebook have become modern day town halls where people regularly gather to communicate and share mutual interests. It has been reported that 75 percent of all teenagers in the United States belong to a social network and 25 percent spend at least 2 hours a day in a social network. Social networks currently hold the highest concentration of teenage attention than any other media.
Brands can be welcomed into these communities... but only if they are perceived as being authentic and providing compelling entertainment or utility to the community.
For example, to reach social network users, Converse included an authentic social networking component to its "Open Gym" campaign. The sportswear giant organized real-world basketball competitions for inner-city youth and used Facebook as an online "meeting place" for participants. The kids went to Facebook to learn about Open Gym games in their communities, to organize new games, play virtual basketball and share videos and pictures of their activities with other players. Converse was accepted into the social network community because it offered real value and was perceived as playing a role beyond simply pushing product.
Authenticity goes beyond content. It also refers to the method of message delivery. Unsolicited advertisements such as banner ads and pop-ups have proven to be ineffective in social network environments because of their obtrusive nature. In their place, a new category of social network-friendly marketing tools called "social advertisements" has begun to emerge.
Social advertisements are opt-in vehicles for brands that allow them to be not only tolerated but actually invited into the online community. They are typically web-based mini-applications that gain consumer attention and spread from friend to friend. Social advertisements are easily embedded onto individuals' home pages and public profile pages. Their focus is to entertain (games, videos), provide utility (information, data) or stimulate communication within the group (chat, message boards, wikis) rather than overtly push a product or service. Of course, the brand messaging is always present. Social advertisements can create vibrant sub-communities around specific entertainment properties, such as a musician or band, sports team, TV show, movie or, in fact, the brand itself.
As one example of available social advertising techniques, Sony Music uses my company's SplashCast tool to connect its artists with users of MySpace and other social network sites. The tool acts as a mini TV-style player that allows the company to distribute a dynamic stream of videos, pictures, text and other digital content. One Sony "Splashcast" stream might be dedicated to its hip-hop artist Chris Brown and another to Britney Spears. Fans might first find the stream on the artist's own website, but since the widget can be easily embedded into any personal page on the web, it quickly spreads from fan to fan. Sony easily updates all of its streams with fresh content whenever it wants.
Different channels allow Sony to distribute and organize various kinds of digital content as it sees fit. One channel may be dedicated to the artist's latest music video while another may be his personal blog. The company also uses two-way communications capabilities to allow users to upload and share additional content. With Chris Brown, for instance, there is a channel dedicated to fan chat and another for pictures that fans want to share with other fans. The result is an online community made up of users from various internet locations that form and regularly meet around the brand's social advertisements!
The above illustration highlights a critical point: key to social advertising is the concept that brands are invited into and distributed by those within the online community (word of mouth). This is very different from conventional advertising, such as banner ads and pop-ups, where the brand is being forced upon consumers. Some social advertising tools not only push content out to receptive audiences but also allow users to upload and share content with each other. The result is a tool that acts as a brand-sponsored, online water cooler: a place where people gather to share mutual interests.
Augmenting
With social advertisements, brands have the ability to accelerate the adoption process. Using conventional media buying methods, they can juice up distribution of their application by increasing its visibility among target consumers. A marketing widget, for example, can be placed on relevant websites or distributed within Google AdSense. Traditional marketing strategies such as PR and print ads can further heighten visibility and interest in the application.
Controlling
Unlike offline word-of-mouth campaigns that can take unexpected and unwanted directions, social advertising keeps the power of control in the hands of the brand. For instance, social advertising tools can usually "blacklist" inappropriate websites from embedding the social ad or widget. Some tools that employ features such as image uploading or chat allow those in charge to pick and choose content they deem appropriate and to moderate conversations that take place within their distributed communities.
Tracking and measuring
Traditional word-of-mouth marketing is as hard to monitor as it is to control. A good social advertisement, however, will provide reports on how far the campaign has spread, in which particular social networks it has taken hold, who's viewing it and who's distributing it. Brands can even review user conversations to assess customer reaction to new products and to better understand customer needs. Ultimately, these tools can measure their effectiveness in swaying purchasing decisions. A review of user chat, for instance, may reveal conversations directly related to purchasing decisions. A close parallel between sales and the social advertisements' viewing/sharing can be an indicator of the advertisement's success.
Conclusion
Word-of-mouth advertising is the most powerful strategy a marketer could hope to employ. Now, thanks to emerging social advertising technologies, it is also a viable reality. Brands can create exciting entertainment experiences or sponsor third-party entertainment content. Either way, harnessing the power of social advertising online is critical for those brands trying to reach teens and young adults.
Michael Berkley is the CEO of SplashCast Media.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Social Networking Websites
As traditional online advertising proves disappointing in its ability to effectively reach users of MySpace, Facebook and other social network sites, a new breed of marketing tools has emerged under the moniker of "social advertising." Unlike other forms of marketing, social advertisements allow brands to harness the immense marketing power of word-of-mouth campaigns.
There is no force more powerful in advertising than the influence of friends and family. Research supports what marketers have known all along -- all the celebrity product endorsements in the world can't impact someone's purchasing decision as strongly as the recommendation of a friend, husband or wife or business partner.
As powerful as they are, however, word-of-mouth campaigns have historically been a result of serendipitous happenstance rather than orchestrated strategy. In the offline world, brands have little control over how word-of-mouth starts, how it spreads and how it translates into sales. Advertisers can do little more than cross their fingers in hopes of generating community buzz.
That was then. In today's digital world, brands have the ability to harness the unmatched power of world-of-mouth advertising. Rather than simply hope for the best, friend and family influence can now be seeded, augmented and directed by marketers. More significantly, word-of-mouth campaigns can also be tracked and measured in the digital world.
Seeding
Offline, finding and gaining the attention of potential customers is very difficult. Turning that audience into evangelizers of a brand or product is nothing short of miraculous.
In the digital arena, however, well-defined communities already exist. Social network sites such as MySpace and Facebook have become modern day town halls where people regularly gather to communicate and share mutual interests. It has been reported that 75 percent of all teenagers in the United States belong to a social network and 25 percent spend at least 2 hours a day in a social network. Social networks currently hold the highest concentration of teenage attention than any other media.
Brands can be welcomed into these communities... but only if they are perceived as being authentic and providing compelling entertainment or utility to the community.
For example, to reach social network users, Converse included an authentic social networking component to its "Open Gym" campaign. The sportswear giant organized real-world basketball competitions for inner-city youth and used Facebook as an online "meeting place" for participants. The kids went to Facebook to learn about Open Gym games in their communities, to organize new games, play virtual basketball and share videos and pictures of their activities with other players. Converse was accepted into the social network community because it offered real value and was perceived as playing a role beyond simply pushing product.
Authenticity goes beyond content. It also refers to the method of message delivery. Unsolicited advertisements such as banner ads and pop-ups have proven to be ineffective in social network environments because of their obtrusive nature. In their place, a new category of social network-friendly marketing tools called "social advertisements" has begun to emerge.
Social advertisements are opt-in vehicles for brands that allow them to be not only tolerated but actually invited into the online community. They are typically web-based mini-applications that gain consumer attention and spread from friend to friend. Social advertisements are easily embedded onto individuals' home pages and public profile pages. Their focus is to entertain (games, videos), provide utility (information, data) or stimulate communication within the group (chat, message boards, wikis) rather than overtly push a product or service. Of course, the brand messaging is always present. Social advertisements can create vibrant sub-communities around specific entertainment properties, such as a musician or band, sports team, TV show, movie or, in fact, the brand itself.
As one example of available social advertising techniques, Sony Music uses my company's SplashCast tool to connect its artists with users of MySpace and other social network sites. The tool acts as a mini TV-style player that allows the company to distribute a dynamic stream of videos, pictures, text and other digital content. One Sony "Splashcast" stream might be dedicated to its hip-hop artist Chris Brown and another to Britney Spears. Fans might first find the stream on the artist's own website, but since the widget can be easily embedded into any personal page on the web, it quickly spreads from fan to fan. Sony easily updates all of its streams with fresh content whenever it wants.
Different channels allow Sony to distribute and organize various kinds of digital content as it sees fit. One channel may be dedicated to the artist's latest music video while another may be his personal blog. The company also uses two-way communications capabilities to allow users to upload and share additional content. With Chris Brown, for instance, there is a channel dedicated to fan chat and another for pictures that fans want to share with other fans. The result is an online community made up of users from various internet locations that form and regularly meet around the brand's social advertisements!
The above illustration highlights a critical point: key to social advertising is the concept that brands are invited into and distributed by those within the online community (word of mouth). This is very different from conventional advertising, such as banner ads and pop-ups, where the brand is being forced upon consumers. Some social advertising tools not only push content out to receptive audiences but also allow users to upload and share content with each other. The result is a tool that acts as a brand-sponsored, online water cooler: a place where people gather to share mutual interests.
Augmenting
With social advertisements, brands have the ability to accelerate the adoption process. Using conventional media buying methods, they can juice up distribution of their application by increasing its visibility among target consumers. A marketing widget, for example, can be placed on relevant websites or distributed within Google AdSense. Traditional marketing strategies such as PR and print ads can further heighten visibility and interest in the application.
Controlling
Unlike offline word-of-mouth campaigns that can take unexpected and unwanted directions, social advertising keeps the power of control in the hands of the brand. For instance, social advertising tools can usually "blacklist" inappropriate websites from embedding the social ad or widget. Some tools that employ features such as image uploading or chat allow those in charge to pick and choose content they deem appropriate and to moderate conversations that take place within their distributed communities.
Tracking and measuring
Traditional word-of-mouth marketing is as hard to monitor as it is to control. A good social advertisement, however, will provide reports on how far the campaign has spread, in which particular social networks it has taken hold, who's viewing it and who's distributing it. Brands can even review user conversations to assess customer reaction to new products and to better understand customer needs. Ultimately, these tools can measure their effectiveness in swaying purchasing decisions. A review of user chat, for instance, may reveal conversations directly related to purchasing decisions. A close parallel between sales and the social advertisements' viewing/sharing can be an indicator of the advertisement's success.
Conclusion
Word-of-mouth advertising is the most powerful strategy a marketer could hope to employ. Now, thanks to emerging social advertising technologies, it is also a viable reality. Brands can create exciting entertainment experiences or sponsor third-party entertainment content. Either way, harnessing the power of social advertising online is critical for those brands trying to reach teens and young adults.
Michael Berkley is the CEO of SplashCast Media.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Social Networking Websites
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