Celebrate Epic Thanks This Thanksgiving

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Celebrate Epic Thanks This Thanksgiving

November 23rd, 2011, by Sloane Berrent. 5 Comments »

Welcome to the season of Thanksgiving. It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving the past few years without #EpicThanks, a project of Epic Change by my good friends Stacey and Sanjay and their countless amazing friends, volunteers and supporters. Epic Change amplifies the voices and impact of grassroots changemakers and social entrepreneurs. I’ve written about their fundraising projects here, here and here. I thought it was time for another voice to be heard!

Make a donation here:

This is a guest post written by Adriana Mistick, a junior at Wheaton College. She also happens to be my sister! This past summer she had the incredible opportunity to go volunteer with Mama Lucy at Sheperds Junior School in Arusha, Tanzania. This is her story.

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Addy and the students from Sheperds Junior School, Summer 2011

I’ve sat down to write about my summer in Tanzania so many times without ever being able to find the words or the descriptions that are just right. I’ve decided now that it was one of those experiences I will never fully be able t explain or attempt to show with photos because what I really want is for everyone to be able to go and experience it for themselves.

It was early this year when I decided I wanted to do something different for the summer. I was about halfway through college at that point and had been lucky enough to take some time off early in college to help me get my head on straight. Now I guess you could say I’m focused. On what, you ask? Water and teaching kids, or teaching anyone I can, about water and our environment. I’m a self-proclaimed “water junkie”. Thinking about my summer and not knowing where to start, my sister Sloane (maybe you guys know her??) was eager to help me find a good match in terms of location and program. The moment I told her what I was thinking she had something perfect in mind but still worked wonders by facebooking, tweeting and emailing a personal ad for her baby sis.

EPIC CHANGE. That’s where Sloane’s mind was from the start and from the moment she first told me about meeting Stacey Monk at a conference and following their progress, that’s where my mind was too.
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Exciting Announcement! Introduction to Lippe Taylor

March 12th, 2011, by Sloane Berrent. No Comments »

I have such incredible news to share! I’ve recently accepted (and just started) as Director of Digital Marketing for Lippe Taylor, a marketing and public relations agency in New York that focuses on women and women’s issues.

I have long been passionate about women and women’s issues (including my new web project Help A Woman Out) and couldn’t be more excited to take my skills and experience to join the Lippe Taylor family. It’s an amazing agency with a great client base and I’m thrilled to be jumping right in, managing a team, and leading digital initiatives.

I have a lot more to share about Lippe Taylor and this new chapter in my life and I can’t wait to write more about it here. In the meantime, the full press release is below. Check it out. My mom said she learned things she didn’t know about me from reading it! And as always, thank you for coming along on this journey with me.

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Cause and Social Marketing Expert Sloane Berrent Joins Lippe Taylor Brand Communications as Director of Digital Marketing

NEW YORK – March 7, 2011 – Lippe Taylor Brand Communications announced a new addition to its digital marketing team with the addition of social entrepreneur and digital strategist Sloane Berrent as the agency’s new Director of Digital Marketing.

Sloane is a former Kiva Fellow and has been recognized for her leadership in women’s issues and cause marketing by CNN, Wall Street Journal, LA Times, Chronicle of Philanthropy, TechCrunch, Read/Write Web and Mashable and included in power lists She Takes on The World’s Women of the Year 2009 and Forbes’ 20 Inspiring Women To Follow On Twitter. Most recently Sloane ran her own digital strategy consultancy, Answer With Action.

Sloane will join the digital marketing team led by David Binkowski, who joined Lippe Taylor as EVP, Digital Marketing in June 2010 from MS&LGroup. “I am excited to welcome Sloane to the Lippe Taylor digital team where she’ll bring her deep knowledge and insights of social and cause marketing to our clients. Sloane’s career history of focusing on women’s issues and rights significantly bolsters our core strength of marketing to women,” said Binkowski.

“As we have seen tremendous growth in our social marketing business, we are filling our teams with the best talent in the industry. Sloane is just that! Her expertise in marketing to women makes her a perfect fit,” says Jim Joseph, President of Lippe Taylor.
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There Is No Prize Out There

January 10th, 2011, by Sloane Berrent. 4 Comments »

I talk a lot about cause-filled living and what it means to incorporate cause into your life everyday. Often when asked why I am the way I am, or why I care so much, I answer that it started small and has grown to be a big part of who I am and that I would be this way no matter where I lived or what I did because it’s who I am on the inside.

Kevin Spacey gives an amazing answer to a question in the video above to “What is the ultimate prize?” While it is from Inside The Actor’s Studio, it rings true for any profession and any ambitions that we have inside of us.

There is no prize out there for how it feels to make others feel good, or to be a good neighbor or a good friend or a global citizen. There might be prizes and accolades. There might be the power of influence. But what it really comes down to is what type of person are you?

Do you help those in need? Do you help yourself and love yourself when you are in need? When you look at your ambitions and what legacy you want to leave, are your motives pure? Are your parents proud of the person you’ve become? Are you proud of the person you’ve become?

It’s never too late to be the person you want to be.

It’s never too late to realize that the true prize of looking around and supporting your peers to be the best they can be. Believe that you have something to give to this world and cultivate that and believe in it.

As a reminder, here is an exercise. Write down on a post-it note a strong and powerful statement about yourself. Next, put that note on a mirror in your house. Every time you look in the mirror you’ll see your reminder to yourself and take a moment to not just see your writing, but to feel it and to become it.

There is no prize out there. There is only the prize within.

The Causemopolitan Relaunches!

October 14th, 2010, by Sloane Berrent. 7 Comments »

Friends,

I’m incredibly excited to share with you a brand new version of The Causemopolitan. The Causemopolitan will still provide you with information about philanthropy, social entrepreneurship and cause-filled living opportunities for you to find ways to give back and continue to build cause into your life. Only now, it’s brighter, bigger and better than ever! There are more ways to find the content you want, stronger category and tagging infrastructure, interviews, and more targeted content to match the reader base. The layout and design have been given a facelift. New logo, new design, new colors. I hope you enjoy the new look and feel as much as I do, and would love to hear what you think in the comments!

Another great addition! The Causemopolitan has gone social! You can ‘like” posts, share on Twitter and add to StumbleUpon all at the top of every post. I’ve created a page on Facebook for The Causemopolitan and that is going to be the main portal for sharing cause-based videos, events and information and I’d love you to join the conversation.

If you’re not signed up to receive FREE updates from The Causemopolitan what are you waiting for? Sign up takes less than one minute and you can do it here! Of course, You can still add The Causemopolitan to your RSS feeder as well.

When I first started The Causemopolitan in February of 2009, I was looking for a little place on the web to call my own. I launched the site with encouragement and assistance from good friends Jonathan Dingman (designed the first wordpress site), Erica O’Grady, (the big push) Mike Prasad and Jeff Henderson (hosting and support). Since then so much has happened. From New Orleans to the Philippines and back, I have shared over 300 posts and connected with countless people who have left comments or reached out to me because of The Causemopolitan.

My blogging history didn’t start with The Causemopolitan. I had been blogging as the Lifestyle Editor for the leading Los Angeles blog LAist (part of the Gothamist network) since 2005, and had kept up with my Tumblr blog in addition to being active on social networks including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr, but I wanted more. I was on a journey after all spending 2009 giving back in volunteer projects around the world.

Here’s the funny thing about blogging. I know mine is just one of millions of post-it notes on a wall, but it’s my post-it note, and it’s come to mean the world to me.

I haven’t gotten everything right all of the time, haven’t blogged every day, haven’t shared everything I wanted to, but I have tried my best to grow the community around The Causemopolitan. As my yoga teacher says, “You might lose your balance, but that doesn’t mean you didn’t try your best.”

Some truly incredible things have happened over the last year and a half including:

Expanding my experiential marketing and online communications consulting practice, Answer With Action.
Accepting a Kiva Fellowship in the Philippines for the summer of 2009 with Ahon sa Hirap, Inc., the oldest microfinance institution in the Philippines.
The EPIC Cause It’s My Birthday series last October where Doug Campbell and I raised $19,500 for Netting Nations to provide malaria nets to families in Ghana.
Attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January 2010 as the MySpace and Wall St. Journal Citizen Journalist.
Launching NOLAlicious, a weekly enewsletter in New Orleans with friends Carl Nelson and Taylor Davidson. NOLAlicious has since been named the “best newsletter in New Orleans” in the annual Web Awards by The Gambit.
Co-created and produced two series of benefits, raising over $60,000, for fishermen and their families in the wake of the Gulf Coast Oil Spill through the platform, Gulf Coast Benefit. All donations went to support the Gulf Restoration Network and Catholic Charities of New Orleans.
Created a public speaking practice around cause-filled living, and how to build online communities around cause. I’ve loved this and engagements have including Fundraising Day NYC, TribeCon, SXSW, The Combine and SocialDevCamp Chicago and lecturing at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and CalTech.
Create relationships and blogged for publications including PopTech, WhatGives!?, GOOD Magazine, and Socialbrite.

Another great resource to follow along is my blogroll. Updated every month, I add links and resources as a benefit to those in the public and private sector to help identify ways to give back. It also has lists for other publications I write for, nonprofits I support and inspiring cause-based writers.

I welcome your feedback and looking forward to this next chapter for me, you, and The Causemopolitan.

Yours in cause,
Sloane

P.S. Last, you can always follow the latest in cause news that I share on my Twitter (@sloane) and on now also through The Causemopolitan on Facebook.

6 Ways to Help the Gulf Coast Today

June 21st, 2010, by Sloane Berrent. 19 Comments »

Photo Credit Kris Krug / Static Photography. Photo on Flickr. View more photos from TEDxOil Spill Expedition on Flickr.

Here in the Gulf Coast, the effect from the oil spill is overwhelming. An entire way of life is gone forever. It’s not an overly dramatic statement. The entire fishing industry will never recovery and people who have worked on the water their whole life (or whose professions rely on water-based industries) are now without a viable way to make money. What’s worse is that many of the areas hardest hit are actually the same areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. What that means is that many of those communities are still repaying loans from Katrina and are unable to take on a second loan from the SBA, even with deferred payment.

A phrase heard from natives about natural and unnatural disasters that have attacked this region is, “When CNN goes away, the lawyers come out to play.” How tragic and deplorable to think that if the national media veers their attention that BP won’t hold itself accountable for decimating the livelihood of thousands of families, recreation activities for the entire region and destroying the wildlife and wetlands that the entire country depend on to keep our fragile eco-sysytem in place.

I therefore implore you to do what you can to keep this topic top of mind. That can mean using your own social networks to tell stories, re-share photos taken, signing petitions to lawmakers, making donations to nonprofits doing direct relief work, create ways for your industry or business to give back and keep pushing forward. The “disaster fatigue” is upon us that sets in during enormous devastation and I applaud so many of you out there reading this for your hard work and precious time in helping those who need it. You inspire me.

Yours in better times,
Sloane

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Edited from an original post published on June 20, 2010 as a NOLAlicious special edition called “Gulf Oil Spill Special Edition.” For more information on NOLAlicious or to sign up for the weekly e-newsletter, visit our website NOLAlicious.com.
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News Updates

From The New York Times Interactive Map to the Oil Reporter Mobile Application, there are many resources gathering information and sharing photos, videos, blog and news updates from the entire Gulf Region. One site to bookmark is WWOZ’s BP Oil Disaster Resource and Update page. You can find more information like what is listed here that can help build your own resource guide of information surrounding the disaster.

Donate

There are many small community groups making an immediate impact in the Gulf Coast region where your donations will be put to use immediately. To help you, follow this Twitter list of organizations to support. Another great opportunity to give is during Monday night’s 2-hour CNN telethon special. You can direct your donations to one of three national nonprofits, National Wildlife Federation, The Nature Conservancy or the United Way. If you remember, the CNN Haiti telethon raised over $5 million, and these national endeavors are critical fundraising channels for giving back on a national scale.

Gatherings for Good

Follow @TEDxOilSpill, or attend the event June 28th in Washington DC where leaders around the country and across industries including government agencies, NGOs, and environmental groups are coming together to tackle the tough questions raised by the recent and ongoing environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. Topics will include mitigation of the spill and the impending cleanup efforts; energy alternatives; policy and economics; as well as new technology that can help us build a self-reliant culture. There are 72 Meetups happening around the country that day (including this one in New Orleans) so you can participate where ever you are.
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