The Realist Idealist

One of the things that I used to say to college student leaders during trainings for Break Away was the number one rule of anything you do - be it schedule volunteer work, manage a meeting, or fund raise - is “follow up.” The second rule: “follow up.”
When it comes to making good things [...]

[Read more →]

I recall very well in college how a relatively small (though seemingly ubiquitous) cohort of do-gooders on campus made a lot of the best things happen. At least things that I thought were “best.” Organizations like Alternative Spring Break, Habitat for Humanity, Manna Project and others that were making incredible things happen, were all [...]

[Read more →]

My $600 Bush-proffered economic stimulus hit my bank account a couple weeks ago and ever since I’ve been trying to figure out how to spend it.  Actually, “give” it, is probably a better way to think about it.
A quick run through of my living room will reveal a glaring emptiness (actually there are two large [...]

[Read more →]

Making good things (actually) happen is hard.
On any large scale, trying to make the world a bit better place is messy and complicated and almost always full of the same back-room shenanigans chronicled throughout the political, business, and tech sectors, but with one not-so-small difference: everyone involved acts like it’s not, and almost no one [...]

[Read more →]

I’ve heard a lot of talk around the nonprofit sector in the last 6-9 months about “blogger strategy” and “leveraging the blogosphere.” That is to say, a lot of people are talking about how to get bloggers to write (positively) about them and/or their organizations.
The same has been true at my own organization as I’ve [...]

[Read more →]

…what would it be? Are we hard liquor or something smoother? Billy Bob at the bar takin’ down a Coors Light or James Bond sipping a martini over a game of cards? More like gin and tonic or rum and coke? Fruity? Shaken? Umbrellas? Stirred? Olives?
Whether you are one to partake or not, this is [...]

[Read more →]

It’s been three weeks since I’ve written anything. The last time I did was in Argentina when a co-worker sent me a great link and I more or less didn’t have to to think at all.
The month of April was abysmal as far as posting was concerned. The crazy thing is, I probably [...]

[Read more →]

In early October YouTube announced the YouTube for Nonprofits Program and a special site for them that would allow them to have full branding of a page and free processing of donations for Google Checkout.
Since then, hundreds of nonprofits from the ONE Campaign to the Clinton Foundation to PlayPumps International have launched pages and raised [...]

[Read more →]

I’m in London this week for the kick off of the Webby’s People’s Voice Awards sponsored by .Org.
www.thewebbys.org
Almost every time I’ve said “.Org” someone has responded, “Oh great, which one?” The answer is the interesting thing; the “.Org” I mean, and the one making this event happen, is actually an “org”anization unto itself as a [...]

[Read more →]

I’ve often felt strongly that the requirement of businesspersons, nonprofit and NGO staff, and others in the field to write an email or produce other work on time is one of the larger problems our society faces. There is simply not enough time in the day. There aren’t enough neurological connections upstairs to [...]

[Read more →]