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PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics is proud to source sustainable organic ingredients for our products from some of the best farmers on earth! One source we use is Sanvardhini Agro located in Satara, India. A professionally managed farm with a standing of over 14 years in business, is known for their pioneering work in using eco-friendly, viable alternatives to chemical fertilizers and pesticides that are used in traditional farming.

Incorporating years of trade knowledge of traditional herbal remedies with modern analytical techniques enables Sanvardhini Agro to make sure only the best practices are used, ensuring “chemical free” farming. Farming done using their techniques is beneficial to their environment as well as to the overall productivity and health of the community.

On the last visit to their farm, Jody R. Weiss, Founder of PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics realized that the farm-hands living on the farm were living in small “structures” right next to where the farm collected its cow manure. PeaceKeeper is now working with the farmers and the farm-hands on the funding of better housing, schooling support for their children and micro-credit loans for spouses of the farmers to start their own businesses. Please visit PeaceKeeper’s website in 2010 to meet the farmers that actually picked the rosemary and spearmint in the products that you are using.

PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics is an enterprising philanthropic brand which makes donations to women’s health advocacy and urgent human rights issues. PeaceKeeper funds women who have been indentured or who live on a dollar a day. PeaceKeeper sources raw ingredients like rosemary and spearmint from third world farmers and gives micro-credit loans to the families of those farmers.  

This is called Beauty For Humanity – Good For You & Good For The World! Now That’s Beautiful™. To learn more about PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics visit them at www.iamapeacekeeper.com. 

via xfactor.itv.com

"[...] "We decided we wanted to do something annually on the show to help good causes,” commented Simon.  “This year we chose to work with Great Ormond Street to help raise funds and awareness for their incredible work. I'm very proud of the single and I really hope it raises an enormous amount of money for people who really need our help"

The X Factor has been closely linked to Great Ormond Street for some time and the decision to choose them as this year’s charity follows an annual tradition of our winners visiting the hospital and some of the judges paying surprise visit to its patients [...] no less than £1 from the sale of each single of You Are Not Alone will be donated to Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, to support the work of the hospital [..]"

Mr Simon Cowell and his X-Factor franchise provides an enormous helping hand for a national not-for-profit each year, selecting an official charity to be supported by the show - including proceeds from a charity single performed by the TV finalists and reams (and bits) of national media coverage.

This is fantastic, and as a PR for a national charity - I of course applaud this exposure and all of the subsequent fundraising. 2009's choice of Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity (GOSH) is indeed a very worthy recipient of this coveted prize.

However, I have yet to find out how one might apply for the show's charity of the year status. Is it Simon's choice (he has very strong links to GOSH as well as The Variety Club to name but two)? Is it a staff vote? Is there a pitching process? I guess I would just like to see a little more transparency - as without this, smaller and lesser known charities may never get the opportunity to pitch or prove their relevance to the programme's demographic.

The 'prize' is huge; £1m raised for Help the Heroes last year, and the kind of exposure comms teams die for, so it seems only fair to me that the selection process is given greater prominence. X-Factor producers could even turn it into an audience / online vote so that the viewers pick from a group of shortlisted charities (and all proceeds from phonecalls could be distributed among that shortlist).

I dropped a friendly tweet to GOSH on Sunday during the show to see if they could shed some light. I'm awaiting a reply but am happy to share it should it arrive.

For further reading, blogger Beth Breeze has also pondered the question. Read her blog at Kent Philanthropy.

The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, EarthShare and Do Something are the newest editions to the Better The World family.  New causes are now featured on the Better The World site ranging from “Increase Your Green” to “Keep Toxins Out Of The Classroom” to “Run for the Cure”.  The money raised by Better The World members supporting these causes will benefit breast cancer patients and contribute towards finding a cure; give parents and teachers critical tips to protect their children at school; and, get young people competing to become the most green.

“We are excited to be working with our three newest charity partners, the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, EarthShare and Do Something,” said Elissa Beckett, charity director and co-founder, Better The World.  “Our tools allow them to attract new supporters that have no time or money to give.  These new supporters can now financially support their favorite cause for free.  As charity leaders, they are leveraging the power of the web to not only raise awareness of breast cancer, the environment and the power of volunteering, but to raise money too.”

About Better The World:
Better The World is a global technology, consulting and specialty media social enterprise that creates innovative cause solutions for not-for-profit and for-profit organizations. Better The World strives to improve stakeholder engagement, loyalty and goodwill through it’s three primary lines of business; a social fundraising software platform; a social citizen based advertising network; and innovative cause consulting services. The company also operates an international consumer website where Internet users can raise money for more than 20 local and international charities, just by surfing the web. For more information, visit http://www.bettertheworld.com.

PeaceKeeper launched a 75% organic lip gloss with the UNIFEM – The United Nation’s Development Fund For Women and its Trust Fund To Eliminate Violence Against Women – to raise awareness about UNIFEM’s important global work. UNIFEM is the women's fund at the United Nations, dedicated to advancing women’s rights and achieving gender equality. It provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programs and strategies that foster women's empowerment. UNIFEM works on the premise that it is the fundamental right of every woman to live a life free from discrimination and violence, and that gender equality is essential to achieving development and to building just societies. UNIFEM works in the following thematic areas: 

    * Enhancing women’s economic security and rights

    * Ending violence against women

    * Reducing the prevalence of HIV and AIDS among women and girls

    * Advancing gender justice in democratic governance in stable and fragile states 

PeaceKeeper took its UNIFEM lip gloss around the United Nations and invited women of all nationalities and skin tones to try it on and it looked STUNNING on everyone! This is true! Dirty Blondes, Brunettes, Olive Complexions, Women of Color and even Classic Blondes love its sheer burgundy tone. This gloss also looks AMAZING over any lipstick color!  
 
PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics is an enterprising philanthropic brand which makes donations to women’s health advocacy and urgent human rights issues. PeaceKeeper funds women who have been indentured or who live on a dollar a day. Therefore, what is important about PeaceKeeper is that we source raw ingredients like rosemary and spearmint from third world farmers and give micro-credit loans to the families of those farmers. This is called Beauty For Humanity –Good for You & Good For The World! Now That’s Beautiful™.
 
To learn more about PeaceKeeper and to order PeaceKeeper UNIFEM Gloss visit them at www.iamapeacekeeper.com.  

Micro-lending website Kiva.org recently hit a major milestone. Since launching four years ago, the organization has facilitated $100 million in microloan transactions between individual lenders and low income entrepreneurs all around the world. Lots of charities target the poor, you may ask, so what makes this organization unique? It’s the approach.

In order to achieve its mission of connecting people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty, Kiva employs a strategy of inclusion. It turns what was once an opaque process in both lending and charitable giving on its head, creating greater levels of personal involvement and future commitment.

A few weeks ago Kiva founder Premal Shah described this process to an audience of thousands at the 2009 Women’s Conference, saying: “When you give to big organizations, you don’t know where your money is going. Here you do. There are short feedback loops and direct transparency. When you browse entrepreneurs’ profiles on Kiva, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you know exactly where your money is going. You can see that you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence. Because of the technology we enable, you get an e-mail from that person and establish a connection. That makes it personal.”

What Shah describes also encourages the experience of web-based world change to go viral. People excited about a new process tend to spread the word, and Shah says Kiva has benefited tremendously from this natural momentum: “We don’t even have a marketing person at Kiva, it all just spreads from word of mouth. For every dollar we spend at Kiva, we raise $10 online.”

Other firms are benefiting from technology-enabled connections, too. Ashton Kutcher’s company Katalyst, which is widely known among the Gen Y and Hollywood set for creating savvy social media campaigns, is now convincing large corporations that it’s time to go about communicating social issues and engaging stakeholders in totally new ways. Earlier this year the company joined forces with Kellogg company in order to confront hunger.

The result of the Katalyst-Kellogg collaboration was a web video featuring a cross section of user generated content, submitted by people moved to help end the growing hunger epidemic in the United States. The aim of the video was to encourage consumers to donate to Feeding America, the nation’s leading hunger relief organization. The video, accessible on on the KelloggCares Facebook Page www.facebook.com/kelloggcares and numerous other channels, was directed by Demi Moore.

“The web is by far the quickest and most efficient way for companies to activate and organize people,” explains Kutcher. “We don’t just use the web to evangelize a cause, we use it to mobilize.”

The core idea behind what both Kutcher and Shah stand for, in addition to transparency and openness, is effective engagement. Both feel an urge to harness the power of technology in order to elicit a greater level of participation from the public on key issues that affect our world. They strongly encourage more companies to do the same.

“Let people be the ambassadors of your cause,” Kutcher says. “There are now dozens of ways to do this. The biggest thing I advocate for is don’t go out and build a website. There are so many social media tools that already exist: Facebook, Twitter, iPhone applications...These are all tools that can be used to create social good. All you have to do is connect them. Just link these tools. Create a loop of technology to get your message out and create a world of good.”

Shah heartily agrees that linking technology applications creates superior social opportunities for companies, and points to how even the simplest advances – from e-mail to cell phones and mobile cash – have upped the ante for Kiva and helped his stakeholders tremendously. As for what the future holds, Shah seems optimistic: “What we are going to see in the next decade is going to be mind-blowing.”

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Detailed information regarding McKesson's community investment efforts is included in McKesson's 2008-2009 Corporate Citizenship Report, available at www.mckesson.com/citizenshipreport. Highlights  are included below.

Community Days
In Fiscal Year 2009, nearly half of McKesson’s 32,000 employees participated in the Company’s annual Community Days volunteer event. At hundreds of sites worldwide McKesson Community Days volunteers created more than 16,000 care packages for hospitalized veterans at VA medical centers. Employee participation in Community Days has grown 500% in since Fiscal Year 2004. More information on McKesson's 2009 Community Days event including multimedia elements are available in an online press kit at www.mckesson.com/communitydays

Caregiver Kits
Since 2006, McKesson has partnered with humanitarian organization World Vision to provide more than 175,000 World Vision Caregiver Kits to local community caregivers who care for those living with AIDS in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The Company's expertise and infrastructure in distributing medical-surgical supplies have allowed McKesson to negotiate dramatic discounts with suppliers on the kits' contents, passing these savings on to the community groups — schools, churches and businesses — that purchase materials and assemble the kits for World Vision to distribute in remote areas of developing countries.

McKesson Foundation Strategic Focus on Chronic Disease Management
Established in 1943, the McKesson Foundation invests in nonprofit organizations working to improve the communities where the Company operates. In Fiscal Years 2008 and 2009, the McKesson Foundation donated nearly $10 million, primarily to healthcare-related nonprofit organizations and to support employees' community involvement efforts. 
 
In Fiscal Year 2010, the McKesson Foundation announced a new strategy to focus on chronic disease management. By combining the Foundation’s cash donations with McKesson Corporation’s deep institutional health care services and IT expertise, the program seeks to further the social impact that can be achieved. The Foundation’s near-term commitment is to fund innovative diabetes management projects.
 
During this challenging economic environment the Foundation has also expanded its matching gift program for employees and opened it up to all eligible 501(c)(3) organizations. For more information about the McKesson Foundation visit www.mckesson.com/foundation.

 

From Jeff Leahy, CRMS Head of School: Last night I had dinner in Tokyo with Taro Tomisawa, who graduated five years ago. Taro works for the Tokyo Foundation, a non-profit that focuses on "developing policy, investing in people, and transforming society". During dinner Taro shared with me that over the course of his time at CRMS doing community service became somewhat of a habit for him. He thinks that this is one of the main values that CRMS has to share with the world, and that this sense of supporting others is not readily found elsewhere. During his time in college and his year in Tokyo he has struggled to find the same amount of opportunities that he felt were so available at CRMS. Today he works in the government area of downtown Tokyo and has taken on an important role in the Foundation - keeping his CRMS legacy alive.

How does 100% authorship change your business?

• In philanthropy, might it reduce the cult of the expert? Contests and competitions give rise to their own results-based expertise. Scaling, as always, becomes an issue, and people with scaling expertise even more valuable.

• Fundraising comes to look like what Kiva’s Matt Flannery calls “the larger trend toward more connected experiences.” At home, we are all walkathoning (or growing mustaches) and asking our friends to help.

• In journalism and publishing, it looks like the rise of the individual reputation and the individual voice. Blogs over mainstream publications. Aggregators will still be important, be they search engines, social networks, or perhaps mainstream web properties.

• The shift to short, quick, forms like Twitter reduces the influence of professional copywriters. Amateurs have the time to write influential micro posts. Sharing among friends becomes the measure of influence.

• This changes the search engines’ power as the reference source. Right now Google is struggling to keep up with real time publishing. Here’s Jeremiah Owyang on what the search engines’ shift to realtime means for reaching people:

  Search marketers must understand that blasting marketing information through Facebook or Twitter won’t be effective, as search engines will filter out irrelevant messages that nobody listens to.

It comes down to content that’s useful, that other people can share. In a future where everybody writes, will anybody notice if your organization doesn’t?

My post for the Case Foundation blog this week looks the explosion of authorship (with blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) -- and what that means for nonprofits. Click through to the original post on casefoundation.org, or listen to the audio above ipodding pleasure.

Post Independent (John Stroud) Glenwood Springs, CO - CARBONDALE, Colorado — Friends and fellow Colorado Rocky Mountain School juniors Kelsey Bohannon and JJ Worley recently found a way to help needy people around the world, and keep what otherwise would be trash out of area landfills.

Through the Soles4Souls shoe charity, they collected some 500 pairs of used shoes from throughout the Roaring Fork Valley. The shoes will be sent to a warehouse in Nevada, and eventually shipped to villages around the world where people cannot afford to buy shoes themselves.

“I heard about it and it just interested me as a way for people do something for those in need without sending money,” said Bohannon, 16, who lives in Glenwood Springs.

“Some people don't like giving money, because they're not sure what's really going to happen to it,” she said. “There's not much else you can do with used shoes, though. You know someone is going to be wearing them who needs them.”

Worley, also 16, from Carbondale, looks at it as a “one person's trash is another person's treasure” sort of approach to global charity.

“People really do get tired of donating money. This is a way to get rid of something you'd be throwing away anyway, and for a good cause,” she said.

Bohannon and Worley put up flyers around the valley and set up collection boxes at Summit Canyon Mountaineering in Glenwood Springs and at Dos Gringos Burritos in Carbondale.

“They asked me to come empty the box at Summit because it was overflowing,” Bohannon said. “The shoes filled up my car.”

Once they collected all the shoes they realized it would cost $230 to ship them to Nevada, even after the 80 percent charity discount from UPS. So they approached the Aspen Skiing Company, and it covered the shipping cost.

“We didn't even think about the money part of it,” Worley said. “We really want to thank the Skico for helping us out.”

They received some interesting shoes along the way, including some Go-Go boots, a pair of snowboard boots, and ballet slippers.

“Some of them are pretty fancy shoes, and not very used at all,” Bohannon said.

Miser's Mercantile, a local second-hand store, also donated some of the shoes it had in stock, and the American Legion Ladies Auxiliary collected a box of shoes as well.

The students may do another drive in the future, but their collection efforts are done for now. However, Independence Run and Hike, a local running and outdoor gear store, is also a collection location for Soles4Souls.

The store, located in the Gateway Plaza at Highway 133 and Cowen Drive in Carbondale, is collecting “gently worn” footwear and/or monetary donations to help ship the shoes.

The shoes sometimes go to victims of a natural disaster, or who are subject to living in extreme poverty, according to the organization's website, www.giveshoes.org.

“It is estimated that Americans have 1.5 billion pairs of unused shoes lying in their closets,” it notes. “The charity can use each and every one of these pairs to make a tangible difference in someone's life.”

Independence Run and Hike owner Brion After said he is glad to contribute, both in the charitable sense and because of the reduced environmental impact of recycling used shoes.

“We believe in taking care of the land that takes care of us,” he said. “Partnering with Soles4Souls enables the local running and hiking community to be environmental stewards and assist those in need throughout the world.”  jstroud@postindependent.com

For more information on Colorado Rocky Mountain School please contact lraleigh@crms.org