Give While You Live with the Help of Technology

As society and technology have evolved, it has become easier than ever for consumers to be charitable by integrating their regular spending activity with technology that helps them contribute to causes they believe in.

• There are many ways in which technology has been modified to capture charity donations during transactions that are already occuring:
• credit cards that donate a percentage of all purchases to causes of the cardholder's choice
• grocery store checkouts
• browser plugins
• ATM machines that donate every time you withdraw

Technology is being built to help people give while they live, and as the founder of one such organization, Charity ATM™, I have learned a lot about how technology can be altered to streamline giving. The continued evolution of charity technology could have even more social impact in the future, specifically when it comes to the class of supplemental inventions that enhance and add to breakthrough technology: the microprocessor, computers, the Internet and programming languages. 

Giving While Getting

Using a modification to existing ATM transaction software, and changing the consumer messaging around the withdrawal process, we at Charity ATM™, transformed the everyday transaction of taking out cash into the ability to easily donate to local school or food programs of the user's choice. When someone chooses to use a Charity ATM™ machine for a transaction they were already going to do (withdraw cash), the donation occurs automatically. Most consumers are used to a small transaction fee when withdrawing money from an ATM that is not their home bank's. Instead of this transaction fee profiting the bank that owns the ATM, in the case of Charity ATM™, the fee is donated straight to a local charity. The consumer's experience is the same as any other ATM transaction; the outcome is that a charity donation is made in lieu of a bank profit.

By structuring the technology this way, the consumer simply completes their transaction, and at the same time, does something good. The key is to pair technologies with business models that have very high margins. Because financial impact is perhaps the strongest determining driver on social impact, technologies that are able to increase the flow of cash into society can naturally be considered to be some of the most influential.

When I was first conspiring to launch Charity ATM™ in 2008, I looked at the ATM industry and saw that the average ATM fee was $1.78. (1) The national average is now up to $22--and can sometimes be as high as $3 to $4. Because the actual cost to the ATM processor is so low, there is significant room for a charitable donation. According to the US Treasury Department's Office of Thrift Supervision, the cost to a bank for an average ATM transaction is $0.27. That includes the amortization of the machine itself, the telecommunications cost, and the salaries of the people who oversee the system.

Doing a little bit of math, this means that for every $3 that is paid by the consumer, $2.73 is pure profit to the bank. There are over eighty billion ATM withdrawals in the US every year(3), and this number is growing. Not all transactions incur a surcharge fee--for instance when customers use their own bank's ATMs--however, for the sake of this example and to evaluate the impact this charitable technology could potentially have, even if only 20 percent of the total transactions resulted in surcharge fees, and those fees gave one dollar of profit from each transaction to charitable causes each year, it would raise 16 billion dollars. The social impact of that amount of money in a city like Boston or in a country like India would be astonishing. This large-scale vision of possible social impact is what the power of technology holds.

Giving While Spending

A similar technology is the innovation of credit cards to track and donate automatically during consumer use. Through software technology, and with consumer permission, a percentage of every transaction placed on a credit card can be calculated and paid to charitable causes. Working Assets is a great example of this technology-in-use. This progressive company has donated $67 million dollars to non-profit groups since 1985.(4) This extent of social impact has affected civil rights, economic and social justice, environmental change, peace and international freedom, and voting rights and civic participation. The invention of this specific technology allowed a consumer to help cure AIDS while buying a toothbrush.

Working Assets, which originally based their model on charges for long-distance phone service, eventually branched out to include mobile phone use with their Credo Mobile arm. Last year, Credo Mobile raised over two million dollars for charity.5 They have also applied this same model to gift cards--they found the already-occurring technological transaction and attached a component to it that allows for charitable giving. They have not made the consumer change their habits in any way other than to choose to use this service (versus a competitor's) in the first place.

Giving While Browsing.

Global Mojo (6), based in San Francisco, has developed a browser plugin technology that tracks user activity and, through a series of pre-negotiated contracts, allows users to raise money for charities of their choice as they conduct their transactions. This hands off, easy-to-install piece of code raises money with little to no interaction required from the donor once it's set up.

Global Mojo is small and has started out with just six-thousand users. While the company has stated that each user will generate between $10-15 per year (7), this could become significant if the almost seven billion people currently using the Internet (8) eventually adopt this service. If 25 percent of Internet users install and run Global Mojo, it could generate $26 billion per year. Similar to the ATM model mentioned above, this technology has huge potential to generate massive social impact if it continues to grow and permeate the enormous user base available to it.

The Power of the Internet to Make a Difference

The groundbreaking technology of the Internet has the ability to make a huge difference. More than any technology before it, the numbers of people it can reach, and the societies it can involve around the world, is massive. If adopted by the leading nations, these technologies could trickle down into global culture and result in an impact that would dwarf even the most aggressive estimates. As I write this, North America continues to hold the highest level of Internet permeation into society. It is countered on the other side of the world by Africa, with an average permeation rate of 30.2 percent.

The website www.freerice.com is doing something tangible with their technology: they host a fun trivia-type game on their site and donate ten grains of rice to the World Food Programme for every correct answer by a site visitor. To date, they have contributed 91 billion grains of rice. If there are an average of 29,000 grains of white rice in a pound (9), and one pound of rice feeds four people three meals a day, this website's fundraising should be sufficient to feed 12 million people three times a day, or something like that.

There are other click-to-play and click-to-donate websites popping up across the Internet every day that use this model of collecting advertising revenue from user interactions to purchase food and donate to causes. Aside from fundraising, websites are also allowing people to distribute software that helps to utilize the global user base of processing power to solve complex research problems and find solutions for disease. A software project at UC Berkeley, called Boinc(10), runs complex equations and effectively solves societal issues using the collective users' computers as processors.

The Retail Space

The ease of giving and helping social impact in a positive way has also been made in the retail consumer space. Many retailers have developed or adopted technology that enables them to collect charitable donations via keypads at checkout. If you've ever been asked by the person checking you out at Whole Foods if you'd like to make a flat donation to charity, this is why. Generally, a small amount is easy for a customer to handle, and the greater pool of donations slowly grows.

Opponents of this type of charitable transaction argue, however, that the disconnect of the non-profit from the donor actually leads to less money raised.(11) Often, the donor who is willing to give a thirty-nine cent roundup would be just as willing to give five dollars if an advocate from the charity was appealing to them directly. This calls for a technology which would enable charities themselves to know who donated and be able to contact them directly.

And while all of this technical innovation toward charitable donation is a positive thing, it also should be noted that the ease of using this kind of technology can encourage a hands-off, laissez-faire approach to charitable giving versus real, hands-on social impact. While small consumer electronic donations do add up, some consumers use their participation as an excuse not to do more. In addition to these passive methods that are available on the Internet, there are also active and involved ways in which a consumer can use the Internet and the technology built on top of it to make social impact.

Just the Beginning

All of these technological solutions to giving are just the beginning. As we continue to evolve and create new payment methods and gateways, we will continue to create new technology which will allow users to donate both passively and actively--and make a social impact while they go about their everyday lives.

I believe that as people become busier and busier, with the advent of instant technologies, the more this integrated form of social impact can be built in, the better. We will find that huge amounts of good can come from very little input by collective masses of individuals. If we can feed millions of people by playing a game online for rice, image what we could do if the right people and corporations got behind a true movement to give a small percentage of all profits in various technologies to charity.

It is easier than ever for consumers to give, and easier than ever for businesses to help make that a possibility.

References : 

• 1 http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=4196835
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• 2 http://www.playmeter.com/images/0209photos/Proof2.pdf
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• 3 http://www.playmeter.com/images/0209photos/Proof2.pdf
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• 4 http://www.workingassets.com/Recipients.aspx
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• 5 http://www.credomobile.com/mission/Nonprofit-Donations-2010.aspx
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• 6 http://www.globalmojo.org
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• 7 http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thebusinessofgiving/2010405080_help_a_non-profit_every_time_y.html
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• 8 http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
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• 9 http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071212093852AAfUznC
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• 10 http://boinc.berkeley.edu/
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• 11 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112014803

Ama Ghar Children's Home

Photo Credit: Ben Horton.

On my last day in Nepal, after spending almost two weeks with a Western medical team doing a story on the state of healthcare in that country, I was ready to head back to the U.S. and write my story. Thankfully, before I left, I was able to reach Bonnie Ellison, the Country Director of Ama Ghar Children's Home. I called her unexpectedly on her cell in the middle of her busy afternoon, and I was so thankful to be given the privilege and honor of visiting the magical Children's Home.

Photo Credit: Ben Horton.

Situated about thirty minutes by taxi outside of the bustling streets of Kathmandu, this modern building sits in the middle of plentiful green pasture space, complete with its own fields for growing crops. I was impressed with the sophistication of the structure and the open and clean elements of the architectural design. Ama Ghar Children's Home has been designed to merge traditional Nepali architecture with modern, environmentally-sustainable technology. Solar panels and cookers save precious electricity and innovative waste management systems recycle materials into fertilizers and cooking fuel. It is truly an impressive building, and a fine place to live for the children that are lucky enough to call it home.

Ama Ghar, which means "motherly home," houses 46 orphaned children ranging in age from four to 18, and accepts new children on a rolling basis. They are fortunate to be able to provide the children with the best education possible, and recently have received scholarships for twenty-four children to attend a local Montessori school.

Photo Credit: Ben Horton.

When I first arrived, the children were still at school. At first I was disappointed that the kids weren't there, but later was thankful for the contrast when they arrived home from school and the energy was suddenly infectious and full of positivity. Anyone who has spent time with children knows that their energy is special, and that they have the ability to lighten a day. For me, this was certainly true, and I wished that I could stay for a few days longer.

I was especially touched by a young woman of 17, Snjana, who introduced herself as a writer and painter. She went to grab a book she had created called The Vision of Life. As we flipped through it together, I felt like a child again, and was so inspired by its wisdom and clarity in its descriptions of the beauty of life. Snjana's book had such depth, and the paintings accompanying the words were touching. This girl was certainly gifted, and I wanted more than anything to help her however I could.

Photo Credit : Ben Horton.

Children like Snjana are my inspiration to help bring awareness to Ama Ghar and other nurturing spaces for the young people of Nepal. Snjana deserves every chance she can get, but the sad thing is that the odds are against her. I hope that she defies those odds and proves me wrong, and when she does, I will help her get a job as a writer in the USA.

While Ama Ghar believes that a solid education is vitally important, they also believe that it is not the only factor contributing to a child's success. A stable home and genuine love are also essential. The housemothers and fathers care for the children as if they were their own and uphold a routine that encourages individuality as well as a sense of community. I was touched to see how housefather Bhesh, who was an orphan himself as a child, played with the kids as they returned from school. It did not feel like an orphanage. In fact, it is intentionally not called that because it really is a home.

Photo Credit : Ben Horton.

The mission statement says it well: "The Ama Foundation was created to provide a home, a family environment and education for the most underprivileged children of Nepal by providing them with opportunities that will enhance their growth and development."

They strive to define sustainability in a two-fold manner -- both economically and culturally -- and invest in the future of Nepal by educating the parents, teachers, business leaders, social workers and professionals of the next generation. Education is the path to creating real social and economic improvement in the lives of the children of Nepal.

Photo Credit : Ben Horton.

Ama Ghar was founded by Shrawan Nepali, who spent part of his childhood at the Paropokar orphanage in Kathmandu. He was fortunate to have the support of his godmother, Ama Tika Basnett, who encouraged and helped him during the darkest times of his life. Assisted by Peace Corps volunteers, Shrawan was educated in the US but never forgot those less fortunate that he had left behind in Nepal. With  Ama Tika Basnet and Shekhar Silwal, he formalized his vision and opened Ama Ghar in 2001; the first fourteen children arrived at Ama Ghar during that year.

Please consider making a donation to Ama Ghar, or contact them to learn more about how you can visit and volunteer. They are very open and welcome, with a guest apartment available for those who wish to visit. I encourage anyone traveling to Kathmandu to try and make this part of their trip, as it was certainly a highlight of mine.

My Friends Habitat For Humanity Experience

My friend and fellow Curry Without Worry board member Charlotte Makoff is about to embark on her fourth Habitat for Humanity build. This time she's going to Bungoma, Kenya, a town near the Ugandan border about an hour and forty-five minutes by car from the village where President Obama's father was born.

Charlotte is a 51-year-old attorney in San Francisco who had no previous construction experience before she joined up with Habitat for Humanity. She used to think that on-the-ground humanitarian jobs were for health care professionals, engineers and skilled bilingual social workers. But Habitat's Global Village volunteer program gives any able-bodied person the opportunity to go to small villages in various corners of the world and help build adequate, decent and affordable housing for locals in need.

Charlotte's Habitat trips so far have included Ethiopia, India, Zambia and Kenya. Global Village also goes to Mongolia, Central Asia, South America -- even Hawaii and Alaska. Each trip lasts approximately two weeks and costs about $2,000 for the participant. The $2,000 includes a donation to Habitat to cover part of the cost of building the homes. Habitat provides accommodations, ground transportation and meals for the duration of the trip. (Airfare is not included. Charlotte's airfare has averaged about $1,700.) Often, team members opt to stay on for a few days after the volunteer trip is over for additional sightseeing at their own expense. In India, for instance, the team members went to the Taj Mahal and Varanasi. In Africa, the team members stayed on to go on a safari.

So, volunteering for Habitat for Humanity is not cheap. And the work is physically challenging. The buildings are usually simple brick houses of about three rooms with a corrugated tin roof. In Ethiopia, the houses Charlotte built were made of an indigenous mud called Chika. In Zambia, Kenya and India, the homes were constructed with red kiln-fired bricks. At all four construction sites, Charlotte and the other Habitat volunteers dug trenches for the foundation, moved rocks, made bricks, did masonry work, painted and assisted with the placement of the corrugated sheets on the roofs. Habitat always hires a professional builder on each project to oversee the construction and instruct the group members on their daily tasks. Often, the homeowners-to-be build right alongside the volunteers. This team effort makes for a sense of camaraderie and accomplishment that make each volunteer's investment well worth it. Habitat provides copious amounts of bottled water, tools, work gloves, etc. The volunteers provide their energy and a generous spirit. The houses rise up from the dust and bring truth to the saying: "Many hands make light work."

Each trip, Charlotte brings more than just herself and her willingness to build. On her last trip to Zambia, she brought an extra suitcase with clothes for the children in the village. I also did this on my last trip to India, and will do this on my upcoming trip to Nepal next month. On this upcoming trip to Kenya, she's bringing hundreds of sanitary pads and new packages of girls' underwear. On previous trips she learned that girls in Africa often stay home from school -- missing 20 percent of their class time -- because they don't have access to sanitary pads when they need them.

In her expeditions with Global Village teams, she has met other volunteers from all over the world -- Germany, Poland, Hong Kong, Jamaica, New Zealand -- ranging in age from 18 to 75. Most teams are evenly split between men and women, but it is possible to join an all-women team too. This diversity builds more than houses; it builds tolerance, trust and an abiding sense that we really do live in a small world after all.

Charlotte says of her trips, "Habitat for Humanity is now a habit. The Global Village trips are addicting. I am always looking for opportunities to help. I think volunteering in Africa and India brings me as much or more happiness than anything else I have ever done."

For more information about signing up to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, visit their web site: http://www.habitat.org/gv/

Businesses With Impact: Fenix International, Maker of The Fenix ReadySet Solar Kit

Today, I want to talk about Fenix International, the maker of the Fenix ReadySet Solar Kit. I have travelled internationally and seen firsthand the dire need for a reliable power source by millions of people in third-world countries. At the same time, I have often been surprised to notice how many people live in poverty but still seem to have personal cell phones. They have cell phone reception, but ironically don't always have a way to charge these cell phones at their homes, as they don't have reliable power. Cell phones are not a luxury item to these people; many depend on mobile phones to tap into the global economy.

Mobile phone usage is a great example of the penetrating power of technology around the world, even in the most remote developing regions. In fact, there are more than 600 million "off the grid" mobile subscribers today: people who have cell phones but no consistent electricity source with which to charge them. In order to charge their phones, it's a common practice for a rural third-world cell phone user to walk more than 20 miles to the closest city, where they can access a grid outlet or use a large, dirty diesel generator. "Charge vendors" sometimes haul car batteries back and forth along these routes to provide charges -- for a fee -- to their local communities. It's an inefficient system that relies on fossil fuel power and massive human effort to do what a solar panel could do in a few hours.

San Francisco-based Fenix International has come out with a product that offers a clean, carbon-free solution: the Fenix ReadySet Solar Kit. Essentially a personal renewable energy system that uses solar panels to generate power, this kit offers a viable alternative to common "dirty" fossil fuel sources. It's not just any solar kit, it's a high-quality, well-designed product -- delivered by ex-Apple engineers hailing degrees from MIT, Stanford, Brown and other great schools. It's a real cutting-edge product, with a cutting-edge business model worthy of serious attention from consumers and investors alike.

I had the pleasure of speaking with the CEO of Fenix International, Mike Lin. His innovative and social-minded startup is hoping its renewable energy products will help deliver electricity to the estimated 1.5 billion people who currently live off the grid. Rather than rely on grassroots distribution networks like many of its competitors, Fenix works with large mobile telecoms to provide energy to the millions of customers around the world who lack access to electricity.

One of Fenix International's primary geographic targets is the African continent. Lin says:

"There is so much exciting activity around high tech in Africa, with a real grassroots movement -- especially with mobile phones. The need for powering phones is much greater there, with thousands of people walking miles and miles to charge their cell phones or to use a wired phone."

The ReadySet Solar Kit isn't just about making it easier for individuals to charge their phones. It actually gives regional entrepreneurs the ability to start their own small businesses using the ReadySet Kit, where they can in turn charge phones for their entire communities. "Mobile phones are used for much more than just phone calls in these areas of the world," Lin says. "They are essential tools of productivity in business, allowing for activities such as mobile banking, price checking and person-to-person banking using mobile payments." 

Currently, Fenix is working with MTN Group (Africa's largest mobile telecom, with 165 million subscribers) in Uganda and Rwanda to co-brand and sell the ReadySet Kit through their massive rural distribution network of independently owned franchisees. Fenix has already distributed more than 2,000 kits in Uganda, providing much needed charges to thousands of people each week. Uganda and Rwanda are only two of the 21 countries MTN Group operates in, so there's potential to further expand throughout Africa. Together with MTN, Fenix has demonstrated that by simply providing access to energy and helping subscribers more easily charge their mobile phones, MTN can increase their revenue 10-14 percent and, at the same time, empower local entrepreneurs to become micro-utilities in their communities. (Hint hint, other major providers!)

Inspired by how "mobile banking" revolutionized financial independence, Fenix believes that "mobile energy" is the next exciting frontier that will power laptops, tablets and even water purifiers and vaccine refrigerators off-grid.

I asked Mike to speak about his experience of getting this startup going, and keeping it going.

"Brian Warshawsky, our COO, and I worked together at Apple. I knew that if I was going to launch this startup, the team needed to trust AND like one another. The profile of the person who has joined Fenix is someone who is deeply passionate about doing something good in the world. We have a growing point of view of looking beyond simple philanthropy. We are using business as a vehicle for doing good."

Over the next five years, Fenix would like to sell at least a million units, expand into other areas of the world, and see "applications" for their ReadyStart kit be produced. They intentionally designed the kit so it that its power can be imparted to devices with a USB cable or a 12-volt adaptor, which means that third parties can easily design compatible applications. It's "open-source" hardware, which I personally really appreciate.

They have raised a series A round of funding and are currently looking to raise a $10 million round series B. They are also in the middle of a so far very successful Kickstarter campaign, which I encourage you to check out, because you can actually buy a ReadySet Kit for yourself by donating to this very worthy cause. It's not just for citizens of developing countries; you can actually use it anywhere in the world as a reliable alternative and clean power source. It's also not a bad idea for your emergency kit or boat/RV. Or, you have the option of funding a kit for someone in need. Well, what are you still reading this for? Go learn more about Fenix, and check out the Kickstarter campaign!

Thanks for reading, and check back here again soon for another spotlight Business With Impact.

This peice if part of my Businesses With Impact series. I'm highlighting companies that fit within what I consider to be a scope of "significant social impact," meaning that they exhibit a high degree of operational awareness of corporate responsibility, social capital investments and philanthropy. While my research is not qualitative per se, I am confident about featuring companies doing inspiring things to change the world in real ways. If you have a suggestion for a company or individual to feature, please 

Businesses With Impact: The Social Venture Network

As I make my way through the world of entrepreneurialism and interact with clients, partners and vendors, I come across all types of business models. When weighing whether to work with them, I take my time and make sure that we are both working toward compatible goals and that each business I choose to work with is upholding social impact goals of its own. This series of blog posts is based on my research into companies and their leaders, in order to highlight some businesses I've been particularly impressed with.

My goal is to raise awareness of companies that are contributing to what is often referred to as the "Impact Economy." Weighing factors include operational awareness of corporate responsibility, social capital investments and philanthropy. While my research is not qualitative per se, I am confident about featuring companies that fit within what I consider to be a scope of significant impact.

Today, let's start with The Social Venture Network (SVN). This is a community of thousands of triple-bottom-line business leaders and investors who've been diligently building the infrastructure for sustainable business since 1987. One of the pioneers and leaders in this genre of business, SVN connects, supports and inspires business leaders and entrepreneurs that are working to build a just and social economy. They focus on building valuable peer-to-peer relationships among high-impact, innovative business leaders at semi-annual conferences held all over the country. Understanding that much of what holds entrepreneurs back from realizing their dreams is not only access to resources, like cash, but the support and guidance they need to maintain their vision. To this end, SVN organizes entrepreneurs into Peer Circles that meet monthly to break the isolation so commonly felt by social entrepreneurs. SVN also incubated other high impact organizations that define this space: including BSR, BALLE, Net Impact and ASBC. With a 25-year history, they are a network of the innovators of socially responsible business.

I recently met with Erin Roach, Director of Recruitment and Marketing for SVN. She told me, "the entrepreneurs and investors who founded SVN not only divined the imperative for changing the way the world does business, but seized the business opportunity. Billions of dollars have been invested by SVN members over the past 25 years in business that positively affect both society and the environment, which is why we call it the impact economy."

She went on to speak about companies founded by SVN members like Stonyfield Farm, Seventh Generation, Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream and other large companies that have had tremendous growth ground and impact. Many of which will be celebrated at the upcoming SVN Hall of Fame in November. The emphasis for the Hall of Fame is on uniting the past and future of the movement The pioneers will be sharing the spotlight with SVN's Innovation Award winners, and the event itself is a fundraiser for SVN's Bridge Project.

Please join me here in the weeks to come as I continue to focus in on one business or individual at a time, and help to spread the motives and ideas powering the revolutionary Impact Economy.