Philanthropy Spotlight: 100 Girls Back to School

What 100 girls in Asia have to do with Copa Cabana beaches, or why private-sector philanthropy is the real global game-changer.

In October 2007, Victoria Orizarska, a successful thirtysomething finance professional with a fantastic career, riveting social life and enviable wardrobe, decided to trade it all in for something completely irrational and unmarketable — the pursuit of a lifelong dream. So she armed herself with a backpack and a camera, and set out to travel the world.

But besides the incredible richness of experiencing new cultures, Victoria was struck with something else — the devastating poverty stifling certain regions of the world. So instead of tossing some spare change at some charity to alleviate her privileged guilt, she decided to start a philanthropic effort of her own — the 100 Girls Back to School Appeal was born.

Sitting at the beach at Copa Cabana, it was very difficult to ignore the kids that rush to collect my beer can as soon as I empty it, so they can make 1/20 of a $1 on it.

The effort aims to to raise funds for at least 100 school scholarships for girls in South East Asia, India and Nepal — some of the least-developed areas, where cultural bias and economic constraint prevent girls from getting the education needed to break the cycle. To put this in the context of numbers, it will take roughly $250,000 to achieve the project’s goal — $250 per girl per year, for 10 years.

But heartwarmingness aside, the effort oozes one very important takeaway — you don’t have to be, or work for, an NGO to make a tangible difference. The private sector holds formidable potential for solving global problems — just ask Acumen Fund’s Jacqueline Novogratz.

So far, the effort has amassed over $28,000. Learn more about it, see the other side like you never have before (did me mention Victoria’s photography goes well beyond her self-described hobbyist level?), and contribute to one of the best grassroots causes we’ve come across in a while.

LBB + OLPC = GOOD

Why egocentricity is the new philanthropy, or how to turn your city know-how into a child’s bright future.

It’s a well-known fact that the advertising industry is a self-revolving beehive that buzzes solely about itself, glorifying and aggrandizing every effort that leads to awards meaning nothing to anyone else. Or so the stereotype goes.

But regardless of its veracity, we applaud it when someone takes a perceived fault and turns it into something that benefits others.

That’s exactly what Little Black Book, the publisher of guide books and online city directories for ad folk, is doing in their charity partnership with One Laptop Per Child. (Which, as we all know, we’re big proponents of.) All you have to do is recommend a restaurant, bar, hotel, squash club — any good place to take a client — in a major advertising city. LBB has pledged to donate £1 for every new recommendation, up to £20,000.

In essence, all you’re donating is your time, and a child in the developing world gets a shot at a life of knowledge and self-sufficiency. You’ll never feel better about your bar-hopping expertise.

via Creativity Online

Hungry Planet: How The World Eats, or Doesn’t

What $376.45 and $1.23 have in common, or why we should be embarrassed to even worry about “the recession.”

Data visualization may hold its mesmerism as a tool of illumination, but but even the most original ways of presenting data can fail to make that eye-opening, visceral impact on us — what usually remains in the heart are not scientific analyses and cold facts but emblematic events (Woodstock), inspiring words (Martin Luther King, Jr.) or riveting photographs (D-day bombing).

Which is what makes Peter Menzel and Faith D’Alusio’s Hungry Planet: What the World Eats (public library) so powerful — a photographic journey to 24 countries, where the authors stayed with 30 different families for a week each, documenting on paper and film what these families ate and how much it cost.

Each photograph depicts all the family members in their home environment, surrounded by a week’s worth of groceries.

United States: The Revis family of North Carolina

Food expenditure for one week: $341.98

Image copyright Peter Menzel, menzelphoto.com

Guatemala: The Mendozas of Todos Santos

Food expenditure per week: 573 Quetzales ($75.70)

Image copyright Peter Menzel, menzelphoto.com

There’s something very special about the photograph and its ability to encapsulate the time’s vibe, condensing big amounts of information — cultural, political, economic — in a commentary that engages us emotionally. The student standing in front of a tank on Tiananmen Square. The Pulitzer-Prize-winning photo of a vulture stalking a starved child. National Geographic’s iconic Afghan girl. Even without the full contextual facts about these photos, they somehow make us get “it.” And Hungry Planet does just that.

Comparing these images makes for some shocking conclusions, both funny and sad — prolific fodder for sociology, economics, and anthropology college papers alike. But to stick to our point here, we’ll seize elaboration and let the photographs speak.

Australia: The Browns of River View

Food expenditure per week: 481.14 Australian dollars ($376.45)

Image copyright Peter Menzel, menzelphoto.com

Japan: The Ukita family of Kodaira City

Food expenditure per week: 37,699 Yen ($317.25)

Image copyright Peter Menzel, menzelphoto.com

Egypt: The Ahmed family of Cairo

Food expenditure per week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds ($68.53)

Image copyright Peter Menzel, menzelphoto.com

Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp

Food expenditure per week: 685 CFA Francs ($1.23)

Image copyright Peter Menzel, menzelphoto.com

Grab a copy of Hungry Planet for a pause-giving perspective on a basic human right we’ve come to take for granted.

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GOOD Magazine: The Real Stimulus Package

How the best magazine around got better, or why taking a slight financial hit can get you an intellectual grand slam.

We love GOOD Magazine. Always have (well, at least since their launch party in Philly’s Reading Terminal in 2007), always will. And now we have yet another reason to.

Initially, an annual subscription to GOOD used to cost $20, all of which went to your choice of charity from their list of nonprofit partners — great already. (Ours went to WWF.) But imagine our delight to discover that GOOD is now pushing the innovation front with a pay-what-you-want model – you can subscribe for anything from $1 to $1,000, all of which still goes to a charity of your choice.

Your choice of subscription also gets you various tiers of perks: Anything over $20 gets free admission to Choose GOOD parties (and good they are, take our work for it), $10o or more gets your name immortalized in the magazine, and if you have the good will and appropriate pocket depth to afford the $1,000 subscription, we’re talking lifetime subscription to the magazine, lifetime free admission to Choose GOOD parties, your name printed in the magazine, and a signed, limited edition bound copy of GOOD.

Genius.

We’ve seen this sort of approach in the music industry, with acts big and small, from Radiohead to Jill Sobule, redefining the traditional business model. But we’re all the more excited to see it in print publishing, an industry struggling to stay afloat in the digital ocean of content.

More importantly, it’s a particularly good metaphor for the broader concepts GOOD stands for: Cultural contribution. Empowerment. Freedom of choice.

We can’t recommend GOOD enough — they go so far beyond “good enough” in every respect, from the compelling content, to the fantstic design and art direction, to their sustainable choice of paper stock. So go ahead and get your subscription to GOOD — it’s a solid investment, in both your personal growth and in your contribution to causes larger than yourself.