Simple Ways to Make a Difference Today!

Archive for November, 2009

Simple Ways to Make a Difference Today!

November 23rd, 2009, by Sloane Berrent. 9 Comments »

Last month I started a series called “$5 or 5 minutes = 1 Way to Make a Difference” and I got an incredible response. It seems like there are a lot of way to give back online that are SIMPLE and EASY, but it can be hard to find them. So here’s my helping hand with 6 “Look, there’s a quick and easy way I can make a difference TODAY.” I present you with the 2nd edition of how you can give back either with a donation, your time or the click of a button. Simple yet meaningful.

I could say, “In the spirit of the holidays” but I think you and I both know this kind of behavior – getting into the habit of helping others – doesn’t have an expiration date or time or year, it’s evergreen.

Some of the opportunities below do expire, so act today!

1) VOTE. L’Oreal’s Women of Worth campaign highlights women in the community making a difference. In addition to all of the finalists having $5,000 donated in their name to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, the nominee with the MOST votes by end of day Tuesday, November 24th, will receive $25,000 for their nonprofit of choice.

I voted for Halle Tecco, an amazing woman who was a Kiva intern this summer and I met at my Kiva Fellowship training. She started a nonprofit called Yoga Bear that provides yoga mats and studio time for cancer patients and survivors. All of the women nominated are worthy of the grand prize, but if you want my recommendation, vote for Halle & Yoga Bear HERE.

2) TEXT. DONATE via your cell phone: text FEED to 90999 and your phone company will donate $5.00 to Feeding America! Your donation will provide 35 meals. Feeding America’s provides food to more than 25 million low-income people facing hunger in the United States every year, including more than 9 million children and nearly 3 million seniors. With a network of over 200 food banks serving all 50 states, more than 2.5 billion pounds of food and grocery products are distributed annually.

*UPDATE – An anonymous donor is MATCHING all texts to YOUR TEXT is now worth 70 meals!*

Great campaign by MashCast. See their flash mob to raise awareness at the top of this post. Follow @mashcast on Twitter for more information about this campaign which runs through the holidays. Make any additional donations HERE.
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Moving To New Orleans

November 19th, 2009, by Sloane Berrent. 87 Comments »

TribeCon 2009 Group Shot

It’s official! I’m moving to New Orleans.

I’ll pause for a moment to let that sink in.

Word has slowly been leaking this week as I reached out to friends in New Orleans to start looking for housing for me and to keep their eyes and ears open. And for those who know me or have been following my journey for any part of this year, you’re no stranger to that fact that I loved New Orleans since the moment I first stepped foot there in 2002, but if that was lust, than the true love came this past spring when post SXSW, I drove there to spend two months volunteering and giving back.

Little did I know that I would arrive with a tweet-up in my honor. That I would meet and come to be friends with some of the most amazing people I have every met, that I would be taken in and “shown the ropes” and that at the end of the two months not only would I have learned to eat crawfish and have a crawfish boil in my honor but that I would feel like I wasn’t just leaving another stop on my journey, but I was leaving someplace that I deeply, one day, wanted to call home.

Let’s start with the KNOWNS. I’m arriving on December 1st and am going to dive head-first into finding housing.

UNKNOWNS? Exactly what, professionally, I’ll be doing. To that extent, I am in talks about a few exciting consulting projects from around the country, there are a few job leads there that I think look very compelling and interesting and I have social entrepreneurial goals of my own that I’m looking to develop and move forward. More on all of this, but if you have any ideas for me or things makes you go hmmm, then definitely reach out and say hello.

I know some people might say – but moving from Los Angeles? How will New Orleans ever compare? Let me say this, in moving this time, I’ve realized there are three things really important to me in my choice on where to live.

1) Quality of Life
2) Strong Sense of Community
3) Social entrepreneurial and social impact environment where I feel I can make a difference

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Sloane Berrent Bio

November 19th, 2009, by Sloane Berrent. 1 Comment »

Training Group to Become ASHI Members

Every day is an opportunity to move the ball forward and make progress. I’ve been taking challenges and items on my Master Task List one at a time and rolling out changes on The Causemopolitan piece by piece. First I updated the schedule section, contact page, then the Kiva section, and now, ta-da, the “About Sloane” section is complete.

Seeing as how it’s all a work in progress, there are many more changes I’ll be making and working on. Even for the parts I’ve changed, I go in and make edits after they’re live for a few days. That’s part of the fun of a blog versus a static site though right? You can go in and make changes all the time.

I decided to break the “about” section in 3 parts: me in 140, shorter bio, and then longer form. I’m including the first two here and a snippet from the third. This might not be a HUGE deal, but I find it really hard to write about myself in a bio format and so this is something I’ve put off and procrastinated over for some time. So in my book, this is a HUGE accomplishment. Let me know what you think!

You can see the whole About Sloane section HERE.

In 140:
Kiva Fellow. Humanitarian. Sloane blogs at The Causemopolitan about her life, nonprofits, social entrepreneurship and “cause-filled living.”

Short Bio:
Sloane Berrent is a cause-based marketing and social branding consultant, nonprofiteer and budding social entrepreneur. She combines high-level social media strategy, product evangelizing, fundraising and community development services to for-profit and nonprofit companies with a focus on social action campaigns. Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, Sloane has lived in Burlington (VT), Boston (MA), Rome (Italy), and the Venice and Santa Monica neighborhoods of Los Angeles. She spent 2009 as a digital nomad, traveling the world experiencing life and volunteering including stints in South America, New Orleans and three months in the Philippines as a Kiva Fellow. She co-created “Cause It’s My Birthday” a campaign to raise money and awareness for malaria prevention in Ghana. She speaks frequently on building community and blogs at The Causemopolitan.
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Vote for CNN Hero of the Year

November 18th, 2009, by Sloane Berrent. No Comments »

Vote for Derek Tabb - CNN Hero of the Year!

Roots of Music are marching forth to help their teacher, Derrick Tabb, become the next CNN Hero of the Year! Vote NOW, voting closes 6AM so do it NOW!

A native New Orleanian and snare drummer for popular Rebirth Brass Band, Derrick Tabb and friend, Alison Rheinheart, created New Orleans’ only non-profit music program that provides free instruments, music education, supplementary tutoring, hot meals and transportation to more than 100 at-risk youth.

I was fortunate enough to meet them both this past spring when I was in New Orleans and volunteer for Roots of Music. I’ve been a big fan ever since and am really excited to see this incredibly organization getting the national recognition it deserves.
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