Login with FacebookThe Long Term Challenge in Haiti for Nonprofits
The global response to last month's devastating earthquake in Haiti was unprecedented in a number of ways, including the critical roles played by technologies like mobile phones and social media.
In the first ten days following the disaster, Americans used their cell phones to donate over $30 million, which represented roughly 14 percent of all U.S. donations toward relief in the island nation during that period.
Meanwhile, since the earthquake destroyed local infrastructure including traditional communication media, social media like Twitter and Facebook quickly emerged as the primary channels for information flowing into and out of the country.
To their credit, many aid organizations have been quick to recognize the importance of these new tools, which clearly have the potential to transform the way societies can recover from the effects of natural disasters in the future.
“It used to be that information-sharing in disasters was largely looked at as a one-way information transfer from relief groups to affected communities,” Adele Waugaman of the UN Foundation and Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership told Cristina Romero of the European Journalism Centre. “Increasingly, through, technologies that allow for crowd-sourced information, affected communities themselves are becoming a critical source of information in disaster response.”
In addition to the significant roles played by cell phones and social media, a third tool -- also largely based in technology -- is now emerging for addressing the longer-term issue of how to help Haiti rebuild itself after the earthquake.
This is the critical opportunity to evaluate which nonprofits are most effective in managing the challenges on the ground as the Haiti effort emerges from the first-stage disaster relief phase to the much more challenging task that lies ahead -- how to help the poorest country in the hemisphere recover and rebuild itself so that it might better survive natural disasters in the future.
This is what GreatNonprofits is all about, of course, providing the platform for donors, staffers, volunteers and clients to rate the effectiveness of the various groups actively involved in the earthquake recovery effort.
As we learned from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the earliest stages of getting emergency help to victims soon becomes overshadowed by the long-term effort to meet the essential needs of those trying to rebuild their shattered lives.
In areas of great poverty, such as Haiti (but also along the Mississippi Gulf Coast and in New Orleans), this work is complex, involving the construction not only on schools, clinics and highways, but of implementing new strategies for combating the causes of the endemic poverty that condemns so many victims to homelessness, disease, and hunger following the disaster itself.
The opportunity for Haitians and the aid organizations helping them, therefore, is no less than to transform the country into a new society that is better able to resist the devastation of future disasters, via projects such as stronger building codes, better sanitation systems, improved communication infrastructure and a much deeper commitment to universal education and economic development.
Much of this will involve nonprofits. Many of them, in turn, will be smaller and less well-known than the more prominent organizations that led the first stage of disaster relief, while the eyes of the world were still firmly on the drama unfolding in and around Port-au-Prince.
One of the core goals of GreatNonprofits is to provide the platform for these less-glamorous groups to gain the visibility they need to continue to attract the resources necessary for what will inevitably prove to be a very long, complicated and expensive period of recovery in Haiti.
Toward that end, we have only just begun. Please visit our Haiti Disaster Action Center to help us develop this new effort into the kind of vital resource that will be so badly needed in the months and years to come.
-- David Weir
Tides Foundation Guide Aims to Help Nonprofits Find Shared Service Programs
The Tides Foundation recently released a new services guide to for nonprofits aimed an increasing organizational efficiency despite tight budgets in our current economy. “Shared Services: A Guide to Creating Collaborative Solutions for Nonprofits” encourages collaboration between multiple organizations and nonprofit leaders. Such collaboration could allow nonprofits to cut costs and focus on the best ways to provide high quality services while working towards their mission.
Tides Senior Vice President China Brotsky explains that the guide evolved out of the idea that “In these challenging times, effective infrastructure and operations is not merely a matter of convenience, but a matter of survival for nonprofits.”
The guide comes at a time when nonprofits most need these kinds of innovative ideas, and as an influential voice in the nonprofit world, The Tides Foundation has wisely recognized the benefits of cooperative solutions to the difficult problems facing nonprofits.
“Shared Services” is available for purchase online at: www.nonprofitcenters.org/shared-services-guide. Review copies are available upon request and a free 11-page preview of "Shared Services" is also available for download.
Web Site Releases First Ever List of Top-Rated Nonprofits That Help People Get Jobs
Menlo Park, Calif. — February 4, 2010 — GreatNonprofits announced today a list of Top-Rated nonprofits that provide job training or placement based on user-reviews (http://greatnonprofits.org/reviews/issues/jobs/_). This first-ever list show the breadth of nonprofits stepping up to address the growing need for jobs in this economy. Government and individual funders looking to support organizations that are effectively helping people get jobs can browse the list by ratings and location, and read reviews of nonprofits that are truly having an impact – or those that are not.
The ratings were posted during the 2010 Job Training and Placement Awards, hosted by GreatNonprofits, Goodwill Industries International, the International Association of Jewish Vocational Services, and GuideStar. Ratings were submitted by members of the public who have volunteered, donated, or been served by the nonprofits. There are over 40 top nonprofits on the final list, available at http://greatnonprofits.org/reviews/issues/jobs/_.
“…I may have been a late blossomer, but because Goodwill® believed in ME when I couldn't believe in myself and took out the time to teach me how to be a responsible person and that life could actually be GOOD, we now thrive as a family,” wrote one reviewer about Goodwill Industries of Colorado Springs, “we even own our own home, and how can you thank someone enough for saving your life and the life of your children, to not repeat the lifestyle that you yourself went thru, thinking there were no other options?...”
Sandee Kastrul, the President and co-Founder of Inner-City Computer Stars in Chicago, IL, one of the top-rated charities, says, “Since we have participated in the campaign, we have been delighted by the responses of our alums, our participants, our employers and volunteers. What a wonderful way to give and receive feedback in order to strengthen our program and increase our impact.”
"Our rankings have been top-rated, “said Jim Gibbons, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International, “This verification is one that gives people first-hand knowledge of their local, reputable and trustworthy organizations that are worthy of their time, service, financial donations, or donated goods."
The entire list of top-rated nonprofits is at http://greatnonprofits.org/reviews/issues/jobs/_. Use this list to find great nonprofits to support with your giving and volunteering.
About the 2010 Job Training and Placement Awards The awards were hosted by GreatNonprofits, the leading provider of user-generated ratings and reviews of nonprofits, Goodwill Industries International, the International Association of Jewish Vocational Services, and GuideStar. Over the course of the Job Training and Placement Awards, more than 116,000 people visited the GreatNonprofits Web site, and close to 1000 reviews were posted about more than 100 nonprofits providing job training or placement in their communities.
Reviews appear on GreatNonprofits.org as well as GuideStar.org, the premiere source for donor research on nonprofits. Nonprofits with 10 or more positive reviews are included on the GreatNonprofits Top-Rated Job Training and Placement Nonprofits list. Reviews submissions took place from January 1st to January 31st, 2010.
Media Contact: Shari Ilsen Shari [dot] Ilsen [at] greatnonprofits.org 650.234.4766 (office) 978.621.3396 (cell)
How Do the Arts Enrich our Communities?
GreatNonprofits and Partners Launch National Campaign
San Francisco, February 2010 – The GreatNonprofits 2010 Arts Appreciation Campaign (www.greatnonprofits.org/arts) will recognize the top-rated nonprofits enriching their communities through the arts. During the month of February, organizations that get reviews on GreatNonprofits (http://www.greatnonprofits.org) will receive exposure to potential donors via GreatNonprofits and GuideStar, the premier site for philanthropic research on the Web.
The national campaign asks clients, donors, volunteers, and board members to write reviews of nonprofits. All reviews will be automatically visible on GuideStar (http://www.guidestar.org).
“Reviews show the real human impact of a nonprofits and raise the visibility and credibility of those organizations,” says GreatNonprofits CEO Perla Ni. “This will help highly-rated nonprofits attract more support and volunteers.” GreatNonprofits is a nonprofit Web site where people can post reviews of nonprofit organizations, similar to Yelp or TripAdvisor. Last year the site received more than 450,000 visits.
The campaign is launched in partnership with Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco and GuideStar. Campaign Deadline: February 28th.
Media Contact: Shari Ilsen shari.ilsen@greatnonprofits.org 650-234-4766
