20 Environmental/Green Nonprofit YouTube Channels

One of my many favorite things about my new iPhone (wahoo!) is that it's easy to watch my YouTube subscriptions. Whenever I need a little pick me up, I watch videos of the new kitties who are ready for adoption through a local organization, Maine Coon Adoptions, where we got our first cat.



You can't beat video for pulling at your heartstrings, which is why it can be a powerful tool for organizations with the time, money and skills to post videos on a regular basis.

While preparing to teach a social media webinar recently, I discovered quite a few environmental/green nonprofits that have YouTube channels. Inspired by the post, 80+ Environmental Organizations to Follow on Twitter on Planetsave, I thought I'd share the list with you.

1. 1Sky
2. 350.org
3. Brower Youth Awards (a project of Earth Island Institute)
4. charity: water
5. Defenders of Wildlife
6. Environmental Defense Fund
7. Friends of the Earth
8. Green Festivals
   
9. Green for All
10. Greenpeace USA
11. The Humane Society of the United States
12. Nature Convervancy
13. People's Grocery
    
14. Rainforest Action Network
15. San Francisco Zoo
    
16. Save the Bay
17. Sierra Club
18. Wildlife Conservation Society
19. Women's Earth Alliance
20. World Wildlife Fund

Let me know if I missed any.

Related posts

• Top 10 YouTube Videos for Social Good on Mashable
• How Nonprofits Can Use Youtube’s Call-To-Action feature by John Haydon
• Webinar: Crafting a Nonprofit Video Strategy on the see3 communications blog
• Launching a Nonprofit Video Contest by Michael Hoffman on frogloop

Cross-posted from BlogHer.com.

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environment
nonprofit

Have Fun Do Good Link Love: WeAreMedia Webinar, Pottery Bloggers & Cupcakes in Mason Jars

NEWS

I'm co-presenting with Michael Hoffman of See3 Communications about "storytelling" during the WeAreMedia Webinar September 23rd. I'll be talking about how nonprofits can use blogs to tell their stories, and Michael will be talking about how nonprofits can use video. For more information, and to register go to www.wearemedia.org.

I've got 2 new posts up on WE Volunteer:

• HopePhones.org: Donate Your Cell Phone; Help a Medical Clinic
• September is Hunger Action Month: Getting Involved + Feeding America

I've also started writing for a new blog for the Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship (full disclosure: my Dad is the Co-Founder). My newest post for them is 7 Ways Potters Can Use Blogs.



LINK LOVE

A new Craigslist Foundation Boot Camp podcast is up How to Approach a Foundation

Encourage volunteering from your site by downloading VolunteerMatch's SearchLite widget

If you were inspired by last Sunday's New York Times magazine, check out this list of Organizations Supporting Women in Developing Countries by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn.

I liked this guest post on Beth's Blog by Rebecca Krause, How Can Artists Inspire Service in Community?

Great list of Hunger Twitterers on Tyson Hunger Relief

New Organizing Institute is putting on a New Media Training for Nonprofits in San Francisco Oct 5th and 6th.


And just for fun: How to Ship Cupcakes in Mason Jars on CakeSpy!

Try Eating for $4 a Day. Join The Hunger Challenge

Did you know that the average amount Californians have to spend on a day's meal with food stamps is $4? Or that 34 million people in the United States live on a food stamp budget?

I didn't, until I read about the San Francisco Food Bank's Hunger Challenge.

Last year, 6 food bloggers and recipe developers tried to eat 3 meals on $3 per day during the 2008 San Francisco Food Bank's Hunger Challenge. This year, Hunger Challenge participants will try to eat 3 meals for $4 per day, per person, during the week of September 20-26, 2009.

You can take the Challenge for one day, or for the whole week. To participate, email the San Francisco Food Bank at: HungerChallenge@SFFB.org. (You don't have to be a blogger, or live in the Bay Area to take the Challenge).

If you'd like to learn more about national and global hunger issues, check out the national and international organizations listed below. For a local perspective, peruse the list of food bank blogs. (Hat tip to Tyson Foods Hunger Relief's post Hunger Twitterers).

International and National Hunger Organizations

• Action Against Hunger
• Bread for the World
• Feeding America
• Friends of the World Food Program
• International Food Policy Institute
• MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger
• Share Our Strength
• United Nations World Food Programme
• WHY
• World Food Prize

Food Bank Blogs

• Capital Area Food Bank of Texas
• Food Bank of New York City
• Food Bank of Northern Nevada
• Food Bank of Southeastern Virginia
• High Plains Food Bank
• North Texas Food Bank
• San Francisco Food Bank
• Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties
• South Plains Food Bank
• St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance in Phoenix
• White Center Food Bank Blog

Cross-posted from BlogHer.com. BlogHer is a media sponsor of The Hunger Challenge.


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Pick up the Sunday NYT Magazine: It's All About Empowering, Funding & Educating Women

Even though I've had to cut back on a lot of my donations this year, I've continued to sponsor a woman survivor of war each month through Women for Women International. I also celebrated my 40th birthday by setting up a Birthday Wish using the Causes application on Facebook, and raised $580 for Women for Women International with my Facebook pals.

Why am I so focused on this organization? Because in my heart of hearts I know that empowering and educating all women and girls is one of the most important things we can do to make the world a better place. Watch The Girl Effect video to see why (it's only 2 minutes 23 seconds long).

Hopefully, this Sunday's New York Times Magazine, which is focused on women in the developing world, will convince more people to support organizations and policies that empower and educate all women and girls.

The issue includes an interview with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, an interview with the President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a piece about Women and Philanthropy by Lisa Belkin, and an excerpt from Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. (You can enter a contest to win a copy of Half the Sky on Kristof's blog, On the Ground).

After reading the Magazine you might wonder, how can I help? There are a lot of organizations out there working to educate and empower women that you can support. For example, according to Joanne Fritz's post, Women Helping Women Through Philanthropy:

"The Women's Funding Network, encompassing more than 145 women's organizations, has joined with an effort by women of wealth, Women Moving Millions, to increase their collective funds by one billion dollars by 2018. The goal? To change the planet by helping women and children."

Some of my favorite organizations that serve women are Women for Women International (read the interview I did with Founder, Zainab Salbi), Global Fund for Women (read the interview I did with President and CEO Kavita Ramdas), and Dining for Women (read the interview I did with Founder Marsha Wallace). I also make loans to women entrepreneurs using Kiva.org.

What are your favorite organizations that serve women? I'd love it if you shared them in the comments along with what you think of the Magazine's articles.

Cross-posted from BlogHer.com.

women
philanthropy
education
rights
New York Times

Have Fun Do Good Link Love: 40th B'day, Power to the Peaceful, Twittering about Volunteering

NEWS

Yesterday I turned 40, and Have Fun Do Good turned 4.

A big thanks to everyone who donated to my Birthday Wish on Facebook. You surpassed my goal of raising $400 for Women for Women International and raised $580!

I've got two new posts up on WE Volunteer:

• 21 Twitter Feeds About Volunteering
• Volunteer on Vacation in Hawaii

Episode 14 of the Be Bold Podcast: Create a Career with Impact with Lara Galinsky of Echoing Green is up. I'm the host (:

LINK LOVE

New Craigslist Foundation Boot Camp podcast is up, Real Time Strategic Planning with David La Piana.

6 Free or Cheap Web Tools to Schedule Volunteers via the Wild Apricot Blog

Enter to Win a DVD of the American Experience series, We Shall Remain. This was an amazing program about Native American history which I highly recommend.

The Power to the Peaceful Festival is looking for volunteers. Performers include Michael Franti and Spearhead, Sly & Robbie, Cherine Anderson, Vieux Farka Toure', Sellassie, Truth Universal, and the Aguas Da Bahia Drum & Dance Ensemble.

Apply for a Travelocity's Change Ambassadors Grant. "This grant will fund up to $5000 for the transportation to, as well as the cost of, any trip organized by one of our volunteer travel provider partners for individuals or groups deemed worthy based on the merit of their applications (including financial circumstances) and their ability to meet the grant requirements."

How Can We Support Kids Who Want to Create Change?

Need a little pick me up today? Watch this adorable video on TakePart.com of 5th Grader, Damon Weaver, interviewing President Obama. Damon asks the President about education reform, school lunches, and my favorite question, "I notice as President that you get bullied a lot. How do you handle it?"

How awesome is it that the adults in his life gave him the support, skills and encouragement he needed to have this experience? If you have a child in your life who wants to make the world a better place, how do you support him or her?

Here are a few ideas:

1. Volunteer with them. If you use the advanced search option on VolunteerMatch.com, you can find volunteer opportunities that are good for kids and/or teens.

2. Help them find biographical and autobiographical books, movies, and TV shows about inspiring people like Listen to the Wind, the children's version of the adult bestseller, Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time. There is also a young reader version, Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Change the World...One Child at a Time.

3. Find programs that help young people make a difference like Common Cents' Penny Harvests or Do Something.

4. Write letters to your government officials (federal, state and local) together. Have fun with it. Encourage them to create "mail art" and decorate the paper and envelopes.

5. Talk about local, national and international current events. They can also read and listen to news as reported by young people on the UNICEF podcast and TIME for Kids.

I'd love to hear your ideas about how to support children who want to make the world a better place.

Below are a few related posts and articles:

• Volunteering with your Family on Idealist.org
• Volunteer Vacation for the Whole Family on momlogic
• How to Teach Children About Congress on eHow
• A list of life-shaping books for children by Kathleen McGinnis on Sojourners
• 40 Books about Peace and Social Justice by Megan Schliesman for Cooperative Children's Book Center

Cross-posted from BlogHer.com

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youth
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Congress
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books
social justice

Have Fun Do Good Link Love: Facebook Birthday Wish, Special Olympics & 1 Million Bones

NEWS
My WE Volunteer posts this week:

• Have You Volunteered with the Special Olympics?
• Join WE Volunteer on Facebook

I've raised $220 of my $400 goal for Women for Women International using the Causes Birthday Wish application on Facebook.

I'm hoping I can raise the remaining $180 by August 19th. Click here to view my Birthday Wish (:





LINK LOVE

Podcast recording of How To Think Like A Social Media Marketing Genius from Craigslist Nonprofit BootCamp with Beth Kanter of Beth's Blog and Susan Gordon of Causes is up.

10 Marketing Realities Nonprofits Need to Accept to Succeed on Kivi’s Nonprofit Communications Blog

Making sense of Webinars on the WiserEarth Blog

Global Fund for Women has a new blog!

August 19 New Organizing Institute Webinar: Moving from online operations to online campaigning with Michael Silberman, of EchoDitto.

August 28 in NYC: Mashable’s Social Good Conference

The Extraordinaries is accepting pilot partner organizations to join the micro-volunteering movement.

One Million Bones - Call to Artists and Activists: "One Million Bones is a fundraising art installation designed to recognize the millions of victims killed or displaced by ongoing genocides occurring on our watch."

The woman who created it, Naomi Natale, is a TED Fellow and seems pretty amazing.

10 Nonprofit E-newsletter Resources

"Blogs are great because you can re-purpose some of the content from your posts in your e-newsletter," I told a large group at a recent social media training. "How many of you have an e-newsletter?"

No one raised their hand.

Uh oh.

I know everyone is all abuzz about Twitter and blogs and Facebook, but the reality is, not everyone uses social media; almost everybody uses email.

It is amazing to me how many organizations and entrepreneurs don't have an e-newsletter, or if they do, it is deathly boring. If you fit into either category, below is a roundup of e-newsletter tips and advice to give yourself a crash course and get you going:

1. 10 Surprisingly Easy and Startlingly Effective Ways to Improve Your Nonprofit E-Newsletter by Kivi Leroux Miller on Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com (check out all of Kivi's posts about e-newsletters)
2. Email & E-News Musts Outlined at Marketing Sherpa Summit by Nancy Schwartz on Getting Attention (check out all of Nancy's posts about email and e-newsletters)
3. A Few Good Broadcast Email Tools on Idealware
4. Some steps to a better enewsletter by Jeff Brooks on Donor Power Blog
5. All of the Email 101 articles in Network for Good's Learning Center
6. 10 Fast Tips to Boost E-newsletter Performance by Allyson Kapin on Frogloop
7. How eNewsletters Can Kill Your Non-Profit by John Haydon on JohnHaydon.com
8. Getting Blasted: Six Ways that Nonprofit Email Misses the Point and Damages Relationships with Stakeholders by Michael Gilbert on Nonprofit Online News
9. Choosing an Online eNewsletter Tool by Jason Pfeiffer on Communicopia
10. The Mercifully Brief, Real World Guide to Raising Thousands (If Not Tens of Thousands) of Dollars With Email by Madeline Stanionis (book)

nonprofit
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Have Fun Do Good Link Love: We Volunteer, Virtual Nonprofit Tech Conference, National Parks and More!

NEWS

I started a new blogging gig this week for Do Good, Feel Good, the blog of WE tv's We Volunteer Campaign. This week's posts were: 5 Tips to Help You Find Time to Volunteer and Do Good with Ladies Home Journal.

Last week I mentioned that I'm speaking about how artists can use social media to market their business on Saturday, August 8th at the Artists Building their Business seminar in Santa Fe, NM. I've posted my PowerPoint, Using Social Media to Build Your Art Business on SlideShare.


LINK LOVE

NTEN's Online Nonprofit Technology Conference: Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission Sept. 16 & 17, 2009

Wild Apricot's 100 Online Tools for Non-Profits

Smart-phone app lets you do good deeds in your spare time in The Christian Science Monitor.

Video from Craigslist Foundation Boot Camp 09: Smarter Service in a Web 2.0 World

The National Parks: America's Best Idea, a film by Ken Burns.

Top Ten Best National Parks You Don't Know About from The Huffington Post

And 'cause I've been writing a lot of letters lately and it is a sweet gift idea, What you need in your "Traveling Mail Art Kit" from the new book Good Mail Day on Craftside.

Is There Someone You Need to Forgive?

"Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave." --Indira Gandhi

As I approach my 40th birthday, I've been thinking a lot about the past before I move into a new middle aged (good heavens!) present. As is the case anytime you reflect on the past, there are going to be memories of people who hurt you, of people you hurt, and of times you hurt yourself.

Considering forgiving someone, asking for forgiveness, or even forgiving yourself can make you feel vulnerable and scared, but consider the benefits:

According to a Mayo Clinic article, Forgiveness: How to let go of grudges and bitterness, forgiveness can lower your blood pressure, help you with anger management, lower your heart rate, give you fewer depression and anxiety symptoms, reduce chronic pain, improve relationships, and give you a greater sense of well-being.

In her post, Michael Vick, Forgiveness, & Top 10 Reasons to Do It, Victoria Moran of Your Charmed Life points out that if you want to make a clean break from someone, you have to forgive them, "You can divorce the spouse who hurt you and move a thousand miles away, but without forgiveness, he or she is still with you every single day."

Kristin Robertson, author of A Forgiveness Journal and the blog, The Everday Mystic, writes in her post, Forgiveness is Like Chicken Soup: Good for What Ails Ya, that forgiveness can help you to live in the present, "Your spirit no longer is bound to the past, your mind stops reviewing and re-living grievances, and you stop clinging to a victim’s role."

The question is, how do you forgive?

The Fetzer Institute's Campaign for Love and Forgiveness is a, "community engagement initiative that encourages people to bring love and forgiveness into the heart of individual and community life." Their website has a plethora of resources:

• Love and Forgiveness Practices
• Letter-writing ideas
• Love and Forgiveness Garden creation ideas
• Teaching resources
• An online Letting Go Ritual
• Locations of in-person "Let's Talk About It" discussions
• E-Cards
• Badges for your blog or website
• Campaign Blog

Forgiving others, or asking for forgiveness is never easy, but given the benefits, how can you not give the gift of forgiveness to yourself?

Cross-posted from BlogHer.com

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forgiveness