Artists of Change

From the AP, Ben & Jerry are back working with the company they founded after new leadership assumes the helm:

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield are leading the company’s “American Pie” campaign, designed to persuade consumers to demand a change in spending priorities. Their goal is to shift $13 billion that now pays to maintain thousands of nuclear bombs into pediatric health insurance, schools or other programs for kids.

Ben & Jerry sold the ice cream company to Unilever in 2000 for $326 million, with the stipulation that Unilever would continue the social programs and activism that its founders had instilled as core values of the company years prior. Ben & Jerry have stayed away from involvement, unhappy with Unilever's continued commitment to social issues.

But a new CEO has brought renewed focus to social involvement at Ben & Jerry's, and subsequently has brought the founders back into the fold. An interesting comment from him on an organization requiring leadership in order to thrive:

“There was always the commitment on the part of Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever, post-acquisition, to honor the social mission and to do things that are true to the social mission,” Freese said in an interview. “What got lost over time, initially, was that Ben and Jerry had not just honored the social mission, they had committed themselves to being leaders, had committed themselves to being activists. Ben & Jerry’s was less courageous for a period of time, post-acquisition.”

Posted by tyler at 05:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From the Washington Post, MySpace is promoting social activism:

MySpace.com, the social-networking site that boasts 90 million members who are "friends" with one another online, is trying to galvanize its user base to get involved in public service.

It is doing so by sponsoring a contest, which begins today, requesting submissions of 15- to 30-second video public-service announcements encouraging social activism. The winner will be featured in Seventeen magazine, which is co-sponsoring the contest.

The marketplace is moving very quickly in the direction of grassroots philanthropy, powered in part by social networking tools. While Buffett and Gates invest billions, others will aggregate millions of users, creating positive change as a movement of the masses.

Behind the scenes, Artists of Change is evolving into a like-minded organization, designing in such a way as to harness the energy of millions of people worldwide to make a difference in the efforts of worthy philanthropic organizations and the lives that depend on their efforts.

Posted by tyler at 10:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From Tony Gibbs, Charity Training, UK (printed in Oh My News):

"...it is also important to note that many philanthropists (or philanthrocapitalists) are the ones who decide on the beneficiaries for their money and are not easily swayed from their own aims and objectives. Incidentally, just as it is equally important for charities to make their aims and objectives clear in their own governing document and not be swayed in order to "chase the money."

Just like politics, the more money that pours into philanthropic organizations, the more there will be outside competition for influence over the goals and objectives of the organizations. By harnessing the giving power of smaller donors, financial assistance becomes explicit support for the goals and objectives of the organizations - smaller donors not having the efficacy to mold the inner workings of a charity will instead be very selective in the organizations they do donate to, and that is a direct acknowledgement of the message that is broadcast.

Posted by tyler at 08:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)