Monthly Archives: December 2008

12.18.08
by

Obama site for MLK Day events

President-Elect Obama’s inaugural team invites organizations to post their MLK Day events to the inauguration website.

This coming year, MLK Day falls on January 19th, the day before the 2009 Inauguration. Known as a “day on not a day off” and a popular day for organizing direct-service events, President-Elect Barack Obama is encouraging people to serve in their communities MLK Day and beyond.

Organizers of projects are invited to post their projects on the event registration page on the inauguration site. If you are an organizer and you’ve already posted your event on MLKDay.gov, you are asked to wait to cross post; the aim is for MLKDay.gov events to be migrated to the Inauguration site.

Community members will be able to search for local projects after the New Year. Here is analysis from the Huffington Post; below is the text of the invitation:

Every time our nation faces crisis, our national experience has shown Americans rise to the challenge. While government has an important role to play in helping rekindle our economy and addressing the problems of a distressed nation, President-elect Obama believes each of us, as Americans, have a responsibility to do what we can for our communities and fellow citizens.  We are one nation….

As a tribute to that legacy and the very real needs of our nation, the President-elect and Vice President-elect will launch a national organizing effort on the eve of their Inauguration to engage Americans in service. This national day of service will fall on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, January 19, 2009 and, unlike past calls to service, President-elect Obama will ask Americans to do more than just offer a single day of service to their cities, towns and neighborhoods.  He will ask all of us to make an ongoing commitment to our communities. …

The call will go to all Americans to organize service projects and join others at events in their communities. As the Co-chairs of the Presidential Inaugural Committee, we invite you and your organization to join other Americans to organize service projects in your communities. The Presidential Inaugural Committee will offer Americans a new website to help promote your events and for Americans to make their commitments, build communities, find opportunities to serve and share their results. These can be events that orient people to your organization’s work, engage people in direct service, or bring people together to reflect on Dr. King’s legacy and how they can commit to becoming more engaged citizens.

The official place to post and search for projects is on the MLKDay.gov site. Read more about resources for running a great project.

add to del.icio.us :: Add to Blinkslist :: add to furl :: Digg it :: add to ma.gnolia :: Stumble It! :: add to simpy :: seed the vine :: :: :: :: post to facebook

12.17.08
by

Indicorps – Opportunities for the Indian Diaspora

Indian service program recruits people of Indian family background, from all around picture-15the world, to commit to service in India. Indicorps is now recruiting interns to start January 2009.

Indicorps encourages aspiring young leaders of the Indian Diaspora to engage in intense grassroots development opportunities that explore the promise of leadership and help leverage their skills and talents to address India’s pressing needs.

The organization encompasses several programs, including Volunteer Ahmedabad (VA!), capitalizing on the spirit of volunteerism of Ahmedabad citizens; Ahmedabad Ultimate, promoting the spirit of fair play and competition through Frisbee; and the flagship Indicorps Fellowship Program. The Fellowship emphasizes public service and personal growth, seeking to nurture and inspire a new brand of socially conscious leaders through structured one – and two-year grassroots service opportunities in India.

Interns — who do not have to be of Indian origin — support the “backbone” of the U.S. and Ahmedabad-based Indicorps, strengthening organizational capacity and growing initiatives, and interacting with many people in the NGO sector in India. While not a field-based internship, interns serve a critical role in supporting fellows, encouraging others to serve, and effecting change. The internship offers weekly, structured learning opportunities, an off-site service requirement in a rural community,  and a chance to work across programs.

Interns receive a one-week group orientation (including housing) and assistance in finding housing for the duration of the internship if necessary. The orientation includes an introduction to the city of Ahmedabad and to the NGO sector.

Internship openings right now include:

  • Marketing and brand management: Indicorps seeks a marketing/brand management professional to assist Indicorps strengthen its inspirational messaging in India through Indicorps and related programs.
  • Alumni outreach: Indicorps seeks an individual to help structure an Alumni Association that functions independently, but is closely linked to Indicorps as a host organization.
  • Technology: Indicorps seeks a self-proclaimed technology wizared to help stay on the cutting edge of operating and outreach technology, using its current resources efficiently.
  • Ultimate Frisbee: Ahmedabad Ultimate seeks four coaches to coordinate, publicize, and host month-long summer camps during school summer vacation from April-May 2009. (Internship lasts 5-6 months, through May.)
  • Publications: Indicorps seeks a publications intern interested in helping the organization self-publish an anthology that inspires people through stories of Fellows’s experiences in the field.

Most internships are flexible, unpaid, last 4-6 months, and do not require special visas. (You may still need a visa to enter India.) Read more Frequently Asked Questions. Look for news about 2009 Fellowship applications, coming soon.

Indicorps founder Sonal Shah co-chairs the Technology, Innovation and Government Reform working group for President-Elect Obama’s transition team. She’s an economist and heads Google.org’s global development efforts. Also serving on that working group are Paul Schmitz, Public Allies C.E.O., and Cheryl Dorsey, Echoing Green executive director.

add to del.icio.us :: Add to Blinkslist :: add to furl :: Digg it :: add to ma.gnolia :: Stumble It! :: add to simpy :: seed the vine :: :: :: :: post to facebook

12.15.08
by

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.

My Idea

add to del.icio.us :: Add to Blinkslist :: add to furl :: Digg it :: add to ma.gnolia :: Stumble It! :: add to simpy :: seed the vine :: :: :: :: post to facebook

12.13.08
by

Emerging: Financial Services Corps

Recognizing the broad need for financial education among low and middle income earners, the New America Foundation proposes a Financial Services Corps.

Proposed in March, the New America Foundation‘s Melissa Koide published a policy paper describing the need for a new domestic corps of financial advisors and educators to help regular families sort through the morass of complex issues involved in personal financial management.

According to Koide’s proposal:

The creation of a Financial Services Corps (FSC) would help these households address their personal finances and plan for their future by:

  • enlisting financial experts and advisors to deliver personalized financial counseling and planning to low to middle income households;
  • providing the tools, resources, support to local, regional, and workplace based initiatives to ensure these families are effectively reached;
  • collecting and analyze data to understand the short-, medium-, and long-term financial education, counseling, and planning needs of these households; and
  • exploring new strategies and approaches to financial education and advice through an innovations fund.

The Corps could be modeled after the Legal Services Corporation — the Congressionally-mandated entity that oversees legal aid organizations. In that model, “the FSC would provide the infrastructure, resources, and support to engage and connect financial experts with low and middle income households and communities.”

In a New York Times piece today, M.P. Dunleavy reports that the Corps was inspired by Peace Corps.

If the concept interests you, or someone you know, also check out the separate Financial Services Volunteer Corps (established in 1990). The program sends skilled volunteers overseas for one or two weeks to educate people in “emerging market countries” about financial systems. The program is a partner of Volunteers for Prosperity.

add to del.icio.us :: Add to Blinkslist :: add to furl :: Digg it :: add to ma.gnolia :: Stumble It! :: add to simpy :: seed the vine :: :: :: :: post to facebook