Posts Tagged → philanthropy

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.

The Causemopolitan Relaunches!

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:

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.

Enter Blackbaud’s Conference for Nonprofits Tweetaway!

I’m not joking when I say not a week goes by that I don’t mention Blackbaud. Either online or in conversations, I doubt they know what an evangelist that have in little me – but I’m serious when I say this is the Rolls Royce of donor management and CRM services. Just last week, I left a comment on Fred Wilson’s blog about Blackbaud when he wrote about his need for a service targeting family CRM. Since Blacklabud was the first system I used when I started in development and fundraising, it’s been hard to use other services. I was then thrilled to see that they have a Twitter contest/giveaway going on for their upcoming nonprofit conference happening in Washington DC in October.

I’m hoping to attend, let me know if you’ll be there! In the meantime, enter their contest today. It closes on the 31st so there isn’t much time left.

You can win one of four free registrations to Blackbaud’s Conference for Nonprofits with the Blackbaud INSPIRE Tweetaway! They are giving away free passes to four nonprofit professionals that participate in the Blackbaud INSPIRE Tweetaway.

So, how do you win?

1. Follow Blackbaud on Twitter.

2. Tweet how you inspire supporters with social media by @replying Blackbaud on Twitter and tagging it #BBSocial.

3. Eligible participants who work at a 501c3 organization can enter daily for a chance to win – the contest will run from August 16 at 9 a.m. ET to August 30 at 11:59 p.m. ET. The winners will be announced on August 31.

My tweet from today:
@blackbaud I create conversation online and build microsites to help drive fundraising campaigns around disaster relief. #bbsocial

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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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Help St. Bernard Project Commemorate the 5th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

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This post was originally published as an email to supporters of the St. Bernard Project. For more information you can visit their website, or follow them on Twitter (@stbernardproj) or make a donation. SBP was named in May as the first beneficiary of The Giving Project and you can also find them in the list of New Orleans nonprofits I support in my blogroll.

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Dear Friends of SBP,

August 29, 2010 marks the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the incredible devastation that still plagues the greater New Orleans area.  August 29, 2010, however, also marks the beginning of the largest and most enduring charitable response in our country’s history. At the St. Bernard Project, we are grateful for the help of 24,000+ volunteers and thousands of funders who have enabled SBP to rebuild homes for more than 300 hardworking, home-owning families. We appreciate our partners and supporters who have helped us open and successfully operate the only free mental health clinic in the area. And, we are enthusiastic about creating jobs for veterans in residential construction. In this letter, we ask for your help to make sure that the 5th Anniversary is commemorated by action and meaningful efforts to solve solvable problems.

While much progress has been made, for too many clients, the 5th anniversary means just another summer waiting to move back into their storm-devastated home. Today, despite our best efforts, nearly 1,000 families own homes but are still living in FEMA trailers because they can not afford to rebuild. Another 6,000+ families who own homes cannot afford to rebuild.  Mental health problems plague the community and post-Katrina rental prices have increased to the point of being unaffordable.

Just as hope and progress were gaining momentum (The New Orleans Saints won the Superbowl, we elected a new mayor, Treme became a national favorite) another threat emerged and inches closer to the Gulf shores — and the precious marshes that protect St. Bernard and New Orleans — with every passing day. As the Deep Water Horizon spill unleashes vast amounts of oil into the Gulf, residents who already lost their homes now face the loss of their livelihood and lifestyles.
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