Reshma For Congress...

I came across the most remarkable woman running for Congress. Since I wrote about supporting professional women last week, I thought this was a good follow up.

Resham Saujani is running for Congress in the 14th district of New York City which encompasses the East Side and Queens. She is using social media to help spread the word about her campaign and being transparent every step along the way as she talks about her campaign on her website and on Twitter (you can follow her @reshma2010 or join her campaign by texting JOIN to 646-807-9932).

She writes about herself:

My name is Reshma Saujani. I am a dedicated Democrat, a community activist, a Yale University legal scholar, and an attorney in New York City. But first and foremost, I am the daughter of political refugees whose story embodies the promise of life in America. For questions or more info email info@reshma2010.com.

She is exactly the type of candidate I want to see. She has the experience to get the job done, the passion to want to and the background and family that make her a standup person and member of society. While I can’t vote for Reshma myself (I’m not registered to vote in NYC), I support her for Congress and will do what I can to support her from the sidelines.

What other organizations do you know about that support women in politics? Leave a comment or message me to help out with a future blog post!
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Miss Representation: How Media Dictates The Role o...

http://www.vimeo.com/7465168

The trailer above is for a film coming out called Miss Representation, which I first saw on Meghan’s blog. The interesting thing is I’ve been thinking a lot lately about women in positions of influence and how hard (and lonely) it must be at times.

I come from the stock of one such woman. A brave, glass-ceiling-breaker, take no prisoner Mom. She started her own business and had me and was a single mom by the time she was 25. She sold her business and started another (or three) and worked her way through running a business, having a family (along with me two other young daughters by then too with my step-dad) all the while putting herself through business school and then her PhD. Serious stuff. She’s among the greats, the better than greats.

But it wasn’t always easy.

It wasn’t always easy to see how much she was sacrificing for me (as her own daughter) but also for all the legions of other women out there striving to get ahead and have the luxury to be whatever and whoever they wanted to be.

And how far have we come? Some perspective.

• Women are 51% of the U.S. population.
• Women hold only 3% of clout positions in the mainstream media (telecommunications, entertainment, publishing and advertising).
• Women are merely 3% of fortune 500 CEOs.
• Women comprise 7% of directors and 8% of film writers in the top 250 grossing films.
• The United States is 84th in the world in terms of women in national legislatures.
• Women hold 17% of the seats in the House of Representatives (the equivalent body in Rwanda is 56.3% female).
• 91% of plastic surgery procedures are performed on women. The number of breast augmentation procedures in this country increased more than 700% between 1992 and 2004.
• As many as 10 million American women have a potentially fatal eating disorder.
• Approximately 1 out of 6 American women are victims of rape or attempted rape.

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Challenge Post: The Allure of a Challenge...

Once a week this summer, come back to The Causemopolitan to read a guest post that will inspire you right up out of your seat to get involved and give back in a special series called Cause It’s Summer! Featured bloggers will be sharing their own reflections and stories, tips and resources, and perspective on philanthropy, social entrepreneurship and their own cause-filled life. This week welcome Alexa Brandt, who you might remember from her guest post last summer. Almost a year to the day, Alexa challenges us to make the best of our end of summer. Complete one of her challenges? Let me know how it went!
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This summer I’ve had challenges on my mind. I spent my MBA summer internship immersed in an environment focused on online competitions, crowdsourcing and tech entrepreneurship at ChallengePost in New York City. Under the guidance of ChallengePost’s impressive founder Brandon Kessler and his expert staff, I learned how a challenge can generate support for a specific issue and inspire collective problem solving. Given the frenzy of excitement surrounding the site, I couldn’t help but think about the role challenges have played in my own life.

The thrill of competition, the crusade to achievement, and the satisfaction of completing a goal have made challenges an effective tool to propel me into action. I often reframe key life decisions as personal challenges. In doing so, I devise a structured plan to achieve a specific milestone. Setting a personal challenge is not a hard process, but can make difficult tasks seem more bearable. Most importantly, it requires me to set a deadline for completing each goal. Here a couple of examples from my own life:

• In 2002, following my graduation from UCLA and entrance into the working world, I found myself feeling disconnected from my female peers. I challenged myself to devise a forum to unite smart, savvy women in Los Angeles. As a result I founded the Ladies Lounge, a multi-city social networking group for 22-35 year old women.
• In 2003, I wanted to take a six-month sabbatical from my career to travel in Latin America. I sat down, wrote a departure date on a piece of paper, signed it and considered it a contract to myself. I left nine months later, but only because I had challenged myself to meet a time-sensitive goal.

With just a few weeks of summer remaining, I would like to pose a challenge to each of you. I challenge you each to achieve one new goal – big or small.

Wondering where to start? Here are a few suggestions:

Philanthropy
Identifying a cause that is near and dear to your heart is not challenging, but finding the right nonprofit organization to support it can be. Take a small step towards identifying the right nonprofit by challenging yourself to do one charitable thing this summer. Organize a group volunteer activity for you and your friends or colleagues. Often food banks like the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank can put a group to good use on a weekend, making it the perfect option for busy professionals to give back. Host a small donor circle event at your home in support of a charity. Pick a fun theme like a chili cook-off or bocce ball tournament and simply ask guests to donate $10-20 to attend in support of a specific charity. Step Up Women’s Network has done a fantastic job engaging members to host fun donor circle events like Cocktails & Canines and a VIP Screening of Eat, Pray, Love. If you are feeling extra motivated, consider devising a unique fundraising platform to generate funds for a cause. My dear friend Sloane Berrent’s Cause its my Birthday campaign is one of my favorites to date – 7 days, 7 cities, 7 parties, 1 cause.
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Shop For A Cause...

Every Thursday this summer, come back to The Causemopolitan to read a guest post that will inspire you right up out of your seat to get involved and give back in a special series called Cause It’s Summer! Featured bloggers will be sharing their own reflections and stories, tips and resources, and perspective on philanthropy, social entrepreneurship and their own cause-filled life. This week welcome Tori Mistick, and listen to her advice about how to shop (or clean out your closet) to support a cause.

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You don’t have to start a charity or donate hours upon hours of your time to make a difference in your community. Just try cleaning out your closet! This is something that most of us do anyhow, and you can make the most of it by making sure that your gently used garments go to a thrift store or charity that benefits your local community.

Here in Pittsburgh, where I live, I have worked closely with the thrift and consignment stores owned by the National Council of Jewish Women, Pittsburgh Section. Their thrift stores accept all kinds of thrifty goods such as clothing, furniture and home accessories and at their upscale consignment store you will find women’s clothing, shoes and accessories with an exclusive pedigree. Donating items to these stores allows the NCJW to raise money for their many local projects such as Suit Yourself, which provides free business clothing to people re-entering the workforce, and Children’s Rooms in the Courts, which provides ano-cost place for kids to play rather than listening to their parents battle it out in court.

Working with the NCJW, I found that the way to really help them raise money goes beyond donating items, they need you to shop with them for new things! This is how the stores make money and the organization can continue to do good work locally. So if you want to have a cause filled summer, get out and shop for a cause!
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The Giving Project Launches...

I really do believe that we all can make a difference. Have an impact. Leave the world better than we found it.

But too often, in the day to day of life, we get weighed down by responsibility and it’s hard, just plain hard to make it through. It’s one thing after another and our very best intentions (whatever they may be) fall to the side as we struggle just to get through the day.

I’m no different. Even in my cause-filled living way of life, I often find myself not doing as much as I want to when I think about giving back. It’s the Lance Armstrong effect. He gets on a bike and goes 50 miles without batting an eye. He must feel like he should do more training, step up his game, be the best he can be every day. That very best is more than most people could ever hope for, yet for him, those 50 miles don’t seem like enough.

I’m no Lance Armstrong, but I feel the same effect. I give a piece of me every day to the world, and yet at night, I often feel like I should be doing more. My sense of giving has been normalized and I need more. In 2010, I decided, I would find a way to incorporate a more structured giving campaign into my life and share those details on my blog. That structure means a number of hours volunteered, money donated, in-kind donations, everything.

This May, I’d like to introduce The Giving Project. The Giving Project is where I partner with one nonprofit for a set period of time to help them, to lend them my skills, my contacts, my network and create a customized program that matches both their needs and wants with my skills.

My first partner is the St. Bernard Project. I was first introduced to them last year when I was in New Orleans volunteering. I loved their passion, their business savvy in a nonprofit world and their desire to ultimately “put themselves out of business.” Their mission is to create housing opportunities so that Hurricane Katrina survivors can return to their homes and communities.

The St. Bernard Project, a nonprofit, community-based organization that carries out its mission through three primary programs: Rebuilding Program, Center for Wellness and Mental Health and Senior Housing Program. Over 900 families are still without their homes in St. Bernard and I want to do every little bit I can do to help get that number to ZERO.

In partnering with them here is what I’m doing:

• They have a Women’s Rebuild Week May 24th-29th. I am working on helping with sponsorships.
• I hosted a Women’s Only Happy Hour through NOLAlicious to bring together women in New Orleans to learn about their organization and the Women’s Rebuild Week.
• I’m leading a Rebuild Day, again through NOLAlicious (and my whole NOLAlicious family), where anyone (COED y’all) in New Orleans can come out and join us for a fun day of giving back, rebuilding a house, networking and meeting cool people and helping provide housing for members of St. Bernard Parish.
• I’m attending their Hammer to Heels Fundraiser Friday night. If you’re in town, you should too!
• Social media assistance – I’m helping their team create a plan to maximize their social media efforts.
• Promotion – Creating blog posts like this. Creating content like photos and videos, having them top of mind and telling everyone about their. Being an evangelist for all of the work they do.

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The Mother’s Day Gift That Keeps On Giving...

Thank you to everyone who tuned into last night’s Vokle live chat with Stacey Monk, Jen Consalvo and Susan McPherson to talk about To Mama With Love, Epic Change and nonprofit fundraising online. From my post yesterday, Give Your Mom The Gift Of Giving Back: ToMamaWithLove.Org I heard so much from people how much they loved this campaign, which was also apparent last night. The chat made the homepage of Vokle and we had a robust conversation not only about this campaign and others we had been a part of, but the larger issues at hand within social media around fundraising and doing good.
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Forbes Woman: 20 Inspiring Women To Follow On Twit...

I’m utterly honored this week to find myself on Forbes Woman’s list of 20 Inspiring Women to Follow. I look at the list of the other women included and am wowed by them and their passion, drive and accomplishments. If we are the sum of the people we spend the most time with and the circles we’re in, then I am in good company!

Big thank you to the author of the post, Halle Tecco for being a big supporter of mine. I simply can’t wait to see where we all are a few years from now and Halle certainly deserves to be on the list in addition to authoring it.

From the introduction:

Research from the Harvard Business Review last year showed that women get less love on Twitter than men. While the random sample of 300,000 Twitter users showed that men and women follow a similar number of Twitter users, men have 15% more followers. “This is intriguing,” the authors noted, given that there are more women than men Twitter users: 55% to 45%. Further, men are almost twice more likely to follow another man than a woman while women are 25% more likely to follow a man than a woman.

What can be done about this? We can start by seeking out and following more women on Twitter and other social networks. Below are 20 absolutely inspirational women who are tweeting up a female storm.

In celebration, I created a Twitter List featuring them all that you can follow HERE.

Shelley Cohen’s Birthday Wish and Paying It ...

Where do I start with Shelley Cohen? Let’s see. I could talk about how I was completely enamored with her from the first time we met, in Washington DC through her longtime friend Melissa Fitzgerald and how the three of us talked into the night about Africa, Uganda, helping children there and the nonprofit the two founded, Voices of Uganda. I could mention that when I said I was going for the first time to the Democratic National Convention in Denver in 2008 that Shelley was quick on the forward button, sharing invites and insider information to help guide me through the madness and overwhelming sensation that the DNC holds. But I think if I had to choose, I would talk about Shelley’s deep commitment to her family and instilling a sense of service to her daughter and a sincere desire to make the world a better place. A longtime resident of Washington DC, Shelley is active on nonprofit boards including the National Wildlife Federation and works for a green sustainable energy company, Ameresco. A huge thank you to Shelley for this interview. It’s one of my favorites.

And of course, the birthday wish interviews have been running daily for two weeks. Huge thank you to all who participated. I have a few more to post next week and the BIG news is I also have a delivery date for my own Cause It’s My Birthday campaign for malaria nets in Ghana. So stay tuned, much more in the birthday sphere to come. Plus actionable tips to do a birthday fundraiser of your own!

The Shelley Cohen Birthday Wish Interview:

1) Tell me about your birthday and fundraising campaign. When was your birthday? Was it a milestone? What was your inspiration? What nonprofit did you partner with? Did you tell them in advance? What was your fundraising goal (if you had one) and did you reach it?

FOR MY 40TH BIRTHDAY (MARCH 2, 2008), I HAD A HUGE PARTY AT A LOCAL HOTEL CALLED 15 RIA. IN LIEU OF GIFTS, I ASKED PEOPLE TO DONATE TO VOICES OF UGANDA. I PUBLICIZED IT VERY WELL AS PART OF THE EVITE, AND INCLUDED LINKS. I WAS NOT ON FB AT THIS TIME. I DID NOT HAVE A FUNDRAISING GOAL, BUT I PROMISED TO MATCH WHAT WAS RAISED. THE PARTY RAISED ABOUT $1000, AND I MATCHED IT!

FOR MY DAUGHTER SIENNA’S FIRST BIRTHDAY ON MAY 29, 2009, WE ASKED THAT PEOPLE BRING FOOD ITEMS FOR THE DC CENTRAL KITCHEN IN LIEU OF FOOD ITEMS. WE COLLECTED 5 HUGE BOXES FULL OF FOOD!

2) Did you use online tools? Did you have a birthday party in person? What was your way to connect with people and tell them about this?

FOR THE 40TH BIRTHDAY, I JUST USED CONSTANT CONTACT (I SENT MY INVITE SEPARATELY)! NOT ON FACEBOOK THEN. FOR SIENNA’S BIRTHDAY, I USED EVITE.

3) What have you done for past birthdays?

HADN’T DONE SPECIFIC FUNDRAISERS FOR BIRTHDAYS BEFORE.
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Shercole King’s Birthday Wish...

Today’s birthday interview is bringing it home to New Orleans where I’m interviewing Shercole King, an all-around woman about town with a bunch of cool projects under her belt including GoodNOLA, Minority Weirdos and New Orleans Tech. I had the chance to catch up with Shercole and her birthday campaign to benefit the New Orleans Women’s Shelter. What I like most about Shercole’s campaign is that this was her first time and while the bar wasn’t set too high, she was really thoughtful about how to engage her friends and community. This interview really shows, to me, that our birthdays can be anything we want them to be if we just put it out there in the Universe.

Here we go, big thanks to Shercole for participating in the birthday interviews.

1) Tell me about your birthday and fundraising campaign. When was your birthday? Was it a milestone? What was your inspiration? What nonprofit did you partner with? Did you tell them in advance? What was your fundraising goal (if you had one) and did you reach it?

My birthday was December 4th. Not really a milestone, I made 27. My inspiration was the fact that I have everything I want and need for the most part and I just wanted to help others. I felt this was a great way to do it. The nonprofit I partnered with was New Orleans Women’s Shelter. No, I didn’t tell them in advance just went on a spur and started it up. My fundraising goals was just $270. I reached my goals, I actually exceeded I was excited. In the end I made it to $320.

2) Did you use online tools? Did you have a birthday party in person? What was your way to connect with people and tell them about this?

Yes, I used online tools. I used Facebook Causes, my Facebook profile, and my twitter accounts. No, didn’t have a birthday party. I mainly connected with my friends via social networking encouraging them to help out with this cause.

3) What have you done for past birthdays?

Past birthdays, I haven’t done much. This was my first birthday doing a fundraising cause.
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Simple Ways to Make a Difference Today!...

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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