Help Atlas Corps win $20K

International exchange corps for nonprofit professionals stands to win $20K in Ideablob.com contest.

Sometimes identified as a two-way Peace Corps—because volunteers come to and from the United States—Atlas Corps “facilitates an international exchange of nonprofit leaders in which ideas and talent cross borders to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges such as HIV/AIDS, human trafficking, poverty, care for the elderly and disabled, and education of underprivileged youth.”

Ideablob.com allows nonprofit and business entrepreneurs to submit their good ideas and to earn $10,000 towards funding them.

Each month, readers vote for their favorite idea — the idea with the most votes two weeks in a row wins. Because Atlas Corps is an Advanta customer their prize will double, to $20K, if selected.

According to their entry on Ideablob:

Atlas Corps’s new model of international cooperation brings talented professionals from developing nations such as India and Colombia to the U.S. to volunteer for one year in established nonprofit host organizations. Host organizations receive an experienced mid-career professional with specialized knowledge and unique perspectives. Fellows learn best practices, impart their professional knowledge, and then return to strengthen the nonprofit sector in their home countries.

Last year, Colombian Maria Duenas was a Fellow at TechnoServe, a nonprofit in Washington, DC. She now heads up TechnoServe’s flagship project in Bogotá, Colombia, creating business solutions to rural poverty.

In Atlas Corps’s second year, the program has doubled with four Colombian Fellows and five Indian Fellows in Washington, DC, and three U.S. Fellows in Bogotá, Colombia. In the coming year, we plan to increase the number of Fellows again to increase our scale, impact and sustainability. To do so we need this money and we need your vote.

All [prize money] will go directly towards the placement of new Fellows, since Host organizations cover the administrative costs. This prize money will put us well on the way to achieving our goal of promoting international cooperation in the nonprofit sector in a unique and sustainable way. See www.atlascorps.org/2008-fellows.html.