Date Archives → August 25, 2011

The Best Part About A National Park Pass

I absolutely love National Parks. It’s amazing to me that my very first visit to one wasn’t until I was 22 when I went to Acadia National Park in Maine. At the time, my friends were somewhat shocked. Me? Camping? In the most wonderful turn of events, turns out I liked it. No…loved it.

Through the years I’ve visited a great many more, including most of the parks in the West. All special, all wonderful. However for the last year and a half, the one I’ve been lucky enough to visit again and again is Shenandoah National Park. Taylor’s parents live at the base of the park just about Luray, Virginia – and it’s the most amazing getaway. We go and hike every day, kayak on the river, cook dinner every night, and sit on the back deck listening to the creek and on occasion watching the “light show” – the thunder and lightening storms that are so perfect to watch in the wilderness of the East Coast.

My favorite part? Using our National Park Pass. This trip ours had expired and it wasn’t even a second thought at the front gate of the Shenandoah’s that we would buy another. The pass is $80 annually. Some parks charge $30 for a 3/day pass, so if you want to get technical, it’s “worth it” after only a couple of visits.

But it’s well beyond worth it even if you just visited a park once a year. The National Park system is part of my American dream. Preservation and protection to forests and the animals that live in them. When we visit, it’s always a mystery what wildlife we’ll see and that’s part of the fun! And usually something comes over me at some point and I just stop at a big tree, wrap my arms around it and SQUEEZE.

When’s the last time you felt that passionate about nature? It’s really an incredible feeling!

It’s so easy to buy a park pass, for more info look HERE. Looking forward to seeing you on the trails!

The Pipeline Fellowship Announces Call for Applications in NYC and Boston

When I first heard of Natalia Oberti Noguera, the Founder and CEO of the Pipeline Fellowship I was instantly drawn to what she is actively creating – a network of women angel investors. Women have a long history of giving back – philanthropy – but have not made the same impact in the investment community. I simply had to meet her!

Natalia and I first spoke over the phone and she invited me to a really special and unique one-day conference she held this spring where women (and some men) gathered to learn the nitty-gritty of investing. It wasn’t fluffy inspirational talks (though they have a time and a place!) it was really tactical information. A lot of it was way over my head – a good thing – since the women in the room have a net worth way over my head too and were moving towards becoming accredited investors.

In the past few months, I’ve been thrilled to see Natalia speak at Microfinance USA and read features on her and articles about Pipeline in Forbes, Women2 and Next Billion – and these are just the ones I stumbled across!

So for all of those reasons and a thousand others, I wanted to help spread the word about their current applications that open until next Monday, August 29th. More information is below and here is the application to apply. Stay tuned for more in the fall about the new class of Fellows!

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The Pipeline Fellowship seeks to increase the number of women angel investors (only 13% of U.S. angels are women[1]) through its six-month angel investing bootcamp, which is specifically designed for women who are first-time angel investors. While Fellows come from a variety of backgrounds (law, finance, healthcare, the arts, small business, and more), they all share a common interest in learning to invest for good.

The program trains women philanthropists to become angel investors through education (modules on due diligence, term sheets, valuations, board governance, etc.), mentoring (matching each participant with an experienced angel investor to serve as a role model), and practice (participants commit to invest in a woman-led for-profit social venture at the end of the training).

The cohorts are intentionally small (10 women) and designed to encourage teamwork, co-mentoring, peer-to-peer learning, as well as group decision-making in the investing process. Each participant commits to invest US$5K for a collective US$50K investment in exchange for an equity stake in the woman-led social enterprise of the group’s choosing. The inaugural Pipeline Fellowship class (NYC 2011) will be announcing their investment in late October.

Applications for the 2011-2012 Boston- and 2012 NYC-based Pipeline Fellowship programs are now being accepted on a rolling basis until Monday, August 29, 2011. To apply, go to: http://pipelinefellowship.producteev.com

The Pipeline Fellowship trains women philanthropists to become angel investors through education, mentoring, and practice. In addition to an all-day conference, the program’s educational components include a series of workshops on topics such as portfolio strategies, due diligence, and valuation. Each Fellow is also paired with an experienced angel investor who serves as a role model and a sounding board, sharing feedback and advice. Lastly, the Fellows put their education to work by selecting and investing in a woman-led, for-profit social venture.

Weekly Dose Of Inspiration On The Web

Photo courtesy of Greeblemonkey

I really enjoyed the feedback I received from my last series of Recommended Reading so I’m going to continue the series here. While that very often includes will be articles and posts I’ve read online, I also really would like and envision this space to be able to share videos, music and anything else I find interesting. I see these as my “gems” and for the purpose of this series of posts, I’m going to call it your “Weekly Dose Of Inspiration On The Web.”

The beginnings of each article are included (where it fits), but I definitely suggest that you click through to read the posts in their entirety, leave a commend and see what others are saying!

Google’s biggest CSR opportunity yet
In the hype over how Google has up-ended the tech world with its purchase of Motorola Mobility, one aspect of the deal hasn’t yet attracted attention – but is potentially the most important. Google entering the hardware business should lead to the one breakthrough the market truly needs: a smartphone free of conflict minerals.

How Cindy Gallop Broke Through the “Thick Layer of Men” and Became the Counterpoint to Porn
My inaugural post helped benchmark where we are. The majority of my posts from here on out will help tell the stories of where we are going, who is going to get us there and what lessons we can learn from one another to get there even faster. I also frame up the personal side of things to help give depth and context to each interviewee’s insights and advice. First up, one of the most accomplished and authentic women I know: Cindy Gallop. Not only was Cindy the first woman to have a seat on Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) Global Group’s board, but she is also tackling the topic of sex education from an extremely refreshing and effective angle withMakeLoveNotPorn. More seats in the board room? Safer, happier, healthier sex? Yes to both, please. So: How do we get there? Cindy’s responses explore these topics and more (including “the bitch complex” and solutions, solutions, solutions).

10 Rules For Brilliant Women
I coach brilliant women, lots of them. Dedicated, talented, brilliant women. Most of the time, they don’t know their brilliance. They are certain they “aren’t ready” to take on that next bigger role. They are more attuned to the ways they aren’t qualified than to the ways that they are. They are waiting for someone to validate, promote or discover them. Sound familiar? It’s time to step up, brilliant women.

Finance Forward Issue 2 (May 2011)
We are happy to present the second edition of Finance Forward, an environmental scanning document which looks at forces shaping inclusive financial services in Africa (and beyond). The benefit of periodically scanning the business, economic, social, technological, physical, and political environments in the background of the “system” of financial inclusion is that we can continue to monitor and understand the implications of further developments in these trends and act upon our learning. We scanned a large number and variety of articles (academic and popular) that were published during the fourth quarter of 2010 and first quarter of 2011 to produce this issue of Finance Forward. In these edition we present six themes which are built upon those found in the first edition.

Check-in for Checkups with Clorox and Children’s Health Fund (CHF)

I first met the amazing folks from Children’s Health Fund last sumer when I spoke on a panel about Social Media for Social Good at Fundraising Day NY.

I was incredibly moved by their mission and their stories of success. I helped get the word out about a new mobile clinic in New Orleans last summer and have had them in my sights ever since. I was so honored to have been asked to partner with them for a summer campaign with Clorox to do some good.

Through a new social media-driven campaign, Clorox and CHF are working to encourage healthy habits and help provide health care to disadvantaged children. This is the second year CHF and Clorox are partnering and this year’s program is called Check-in for Checkups. You might have been my tweets or posts this summer or heard me talk about in person. I’m THAT passionate about this campaign. I’ve met the good folks from Clorox and their PR agency who helped put this together and it’s the real deal cause marketing campaign that included a multi-year cash donation and then this extra money donated through the help of YOU and people everywhere who share their summer healthy habits online.

For each check-in that you do, Clorox will donate 10 cents, up to $100,000, to CHF to help support their goal of providing half a million health care visits to children in need across the country. What’s amazing is that now when you check-in with your healthy habit, you are not only helping yourself, but also the lives of others. The more you check-in, the more you give back to disadvantaged children across the country.

This issue is so incredibly important since one in five children in the U.S. live in poverty and millions of children do not have access to regular checkups and timely health care visits when sick. As a result, simple childhood health problems, like ear infections and toothaches, can lead to lifelong health issues.

CHF’s mobile medical clinics go into underserved communities to bring ongoing health care to children at schools, community centers, homeless shelters and other places in the heart of the community. In addition to pediatric primary care providers, the CHF network consists of other dedicated health care professionals including dentists, mental health providers and nutritionists.

They are currently at 125,000+ checkins but are looking for 1 million! It’s super easy to get involved. You can either head over to their microsite and enter what your check-in is or send a tweet with the hashtag #checkinforcheckups.

Some of the healthy habits I’ve used this summer include walking to work every day, drinking 8 glasses of water a day, going to yoga each week, making a commitment to healthier eating habits – yours can be anything – but the best part of sharing those healthy habits is not only making them part of your daily life but helping others in the process.

Get in the habit of your summer healthy habit by checking in every day and spread the word! Join me in helping to support equal access to healthcare for children everywhere.

Recommended Reading For The Week Of August 2nd

There are so many ways we are all sharing content these days. A lot of it is through social media or social bookmarking, but I wanted to be able to share a few of my recent favorite and recommendations with you. Two of my favorite inspirational powerhouse women, Amy Sample Ward and Sarah Evans, do this too so I definitely recommend you check them out for great links to what’s hot on the web this week as well. The beginnings of each article in included, link through to read in its entirety and see what others are saying.

5 Tips for Running Successful Cause Marketing Campaigns
Businesses love cause marketing, and the belief is that supporting a good cause translates into stronger sales. The Cause Marketing Forum has some pretty convincing numbers: In 2009, 72% of American consumers said they avoided purchasing products from companies whose practices they disagreed with. Accordingly, two-thirds of brands started engaging in cause marketing in 2010, up from 58% in 2009, according to a study by PRWeek and Barkely PR. Consumers have taking a healthy shift towards doing good, with 86% of global buyers believing that businesses need to place at least equal weight on societal interests as on business interests, according to an Edelman survey. It’s not enough to make money — businesses also need to do good.

More Female Managers And Board Members Means More Corporate Philanthropy
According to new research it’s the companies with more female senior managers and women board members that give more money to charities. Harvard Business School’s Christopher Marquis and Matthew Lee looked into the world of corporate philanthropy that since the 1970′s has sparked an ongoing controversial debate. The thought being that if these large companies have so much extra money to give to charities, it should be reinvested in the company – the money does belong to shareholders after all. Another complaint from those who are against corporate philanthropy is that it’s an easy way for CEOs and other top executives to give to the charities that are close to their hearts, but without having to dip into their own wallets.

Defend Your Research: What Makes a Team Smarter? More Women
The finding: There’s little correlation between a group’s collective intelligence and the IQs of its individual members. But if a group includes more women, its collective intelligence rises. The research: Professors Woolley and Malone, along with Christopher Chabris, Sandy Pentland, and Nada Hashmi, gave subjects aged 18 to 60 standard intelligence tests and assigned them randomly to teams. Each team was asked to complete several tasks—including brainstorming, decision making, and visual puzzles—and to solve one complex problem. Teams were given intelligence scores based on their performance. Though the teams that had members with higher IQs didn’t earn much higher scores, those that had more women did.

Inside The All-Female Hamptons Hackathon For Humanity
Hackathons, the one- to three-day programming marathons where coders convene to create innovative web applications, tend to resemble 2 a.m. cram sessions at college dorms. Picture a group of hyper-focused twentysomething men craned over Macs, surrounded by empty 12 oz. cans of Red Bull, eventually passing out for a few hours on the floor. Women are not always eager to participate. The founders of Girl Develop It, a female-centric hacker non-profit, in league with the entrepreneurship startup Jump Thru, understand this. And so, this past weekend, they staged the inaugural Hamptons Hackathon for Humanity. The event — billed as an “anti-hackathon,” and aimed to show that computer programming can be an equally female-friendly endeavor — brought 16 female technologists, web developers, and venture capitalists together in a luxurious cedar-shingled mansion.

5 Best Practices for Beauty Brands on Facebook
Among luxury and personal care brands, beauty brands — a category that, for the purposes of this article encompasses cosmetics, fragrance, skin and hair care brands — have emerged as among the most digitally savvy. Although beauty brands continue to invest heavily in traditional advertising and their own websites — open any women’s magazine and you’ll see plenty of makeup ads and a fragrance sample or two — Facebook is playing an increasingly central role in their marketing, ecommerce and customer service strategies.

See more of my favorite articles by following me on Twitter , @sloane.