March Madness (or Even Do-Gooders Get Distracted) March 22 2008 at 11:20 AM

A couple of weeks ago we installed a flat screen TV at GlobalGiving. Its purpose is to make it easy for everyone on the team (we are all in one big room) to see what is going on - volume of donations for today/yesterday, a ticker of who gave to what project in real time, photos of projects, etc.

Well,... More

Snap Picks and Skin in the Game March 21 2008 at 7:15 AM

This week I got interested in college hoops again. Since my Wahoos were a major disappointment, I haven’t been following things as much as I usually do, or more precisely, I haven’t watched a single game or read a single article about a single team (save the bad news about the ‘Hoos) this season.
Still, I can’t resist participating in pools. I’m in the office pool and my book club pool for $10 each. I literally spent less than five minutes filling out both brackets with no research. After... More

National Enquirer Here we Come March 20 2008 at 5:52 AM

Yesterday was a normal day at GlobalGiving. Each of periodically glancing up at our wall-mounted flat screen TV, which gives us a running update on donation volume, ticker-style updates of each donor/donation, and rotating pictures from projects on the website. Traffic seemed in the normal range. And then something strange happened. Traffic shot up. Not huge, but enough to notice. “What’s up?” asked our newest team member, Georg. So we checked it out. Yes, folks, Perez Hilton... More

Becoming a locavore March 19 2008 at 6:54 AM

As some of you know already, I looove food. I love to eat it, to cook it, and will go to great lengths to experience and learn more about it whenever I can. And lately I’ve been quite taken with the idea of becoming a locavore, of eating foods that are grown within a certain radius from where you live. It means you’re more likely to know who and how it was grown, and in theory you are reducing your carbon footprint by lowering transportation costs. I say in theory because aI recently found out... More

(Re?) Connecting with Roots March 17 2008 at 6:29 AM

I just returned from Japan, having participated in a Japanese-American Leadership Delegation trip sponsored by Japan’s Foreign Ministry, the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership, and the Japanese-American National Museum in Los Angeles (highly recommended if you’re ever in LA). The purpose of the trip was to improve understanding and strengthen relationships between Japanese-Americans and Japan by meeting and exchanging information with leaders in politics, government, business,... More

Welcome BRAC! March 13 2008 at 8:19 AM

“I am wondering whether you would consider adding BRAC projects to GlobalGiving?”

Would we?! We would love to. That is what I told my friend Susan Davis on the phone a couple of months ago. She was calling to say that she was helping BRAC launch an enhanced US presence.I get a lot of calls like this, but few that make me so happy. In my view, BRAC is one of the absolute best community-based NGOs operating in the world today. Founded in Bangladesh 1972, BRAC has helped millions of... More