Some Marketing Help

     This evening I decided to check out Sparked.com to see if there were any new challenges posted to which I could respond with some help.  For those not familiar with Sparked, it's a site where non-profit organizations from around the world post "challenges" (things they need help with) and volunteers respond by providing various types of assistance.  You enter your skills and interests and then the site displays challenges that might be appropriate for you.

     When I checked today, I read about an organization in Kenya that provides educational, social, and psychological support for some of the thousands of children who've been displaced as a result of tribal violence over the past few years.  They have a particular focus on helping young girls to break out of the cycle of poverty and despair that is so prevalent there.  The organization is fairly new and they were looking for helping  in developing a catchy tagline as part of their branding effort.  I reviewed their website and related materials and submitted some of my suggestions.  A handful of others from around the world had also already submitted ideas as well.

     I've mentioned it before, but I continue to marvel at how people from different parts of the world can be brought together to help each other through sites like these.  Obviously there is no compensation or reward other than the satisfaction of helping.  These types of sites remind me of how generous most people really are, despite what you read in the papers or see in the news.

A Little Free Advice

     I've mentioned a couple of times on this site a website, Sparked.com, where non-profit organizations post requests for help and various people can offer their assistance.  Most of the help is in the form of using your talents to assist them - it's not a place where they're soliciting donations.  Occasionally I get an e-mail from Sparked notifying me of a new "challenge" that's been posted that might fit my skills.  Today I responded to one of those.

     The non-profit, Puente Learning Center, is a pretty cool organization in Los Angeles that is trying to make a difference in some tough neighborhoods through education.  They seem to have some amazing programs that have already had a big impact.  Anyway, the help they were requesting was for some people to look at their website and identify at least 5 ways that it could be improved.  While I think the site is pretty darn good, there are always things that could be better and so I submitted a list of suggestions.  In addition to me, there have already been a handful of others who've posted suggestions as well.

     Sparked is just another one of the many great sites out there that bring people from literally all over the world together to help each other.  Cool stuff.

International Relief

     I've mentioned before a pretty cool website called sparked.com that connects non-profits from all over the world with people who are willing to help out in a variety of ways.  Put simply, the non-profit posts a "challenge" they need help with, and people "respond" to challenges that fit their identified passions and skills.  I was notified of a challenge today that I was able to help with.

     The non-profit is a pretty amazing organization, based in England, called Resolve International.  It was started by a man who had been in Nepal and had seen, firsthand, the utter poverty that plagues so much of the country's people.  He created the organization to make a meaningful difference in these people's lives.  There are lots of ways people can help.  The particular "challenge" I responded to mostly had to do with providing feedback on certain aspects of his website.  

     Throughout this year so far I've come across so many truly inspiring projects being run by people literally all over the world.  These projects serve as an incredible reminder of how much compassion and generosity really exists our there, despite what the steady stream of negative news would cause you to think.  It's also a reminder to me to be proactive about filling my consciousness with the positive rather than the negative.  And there is an awful lot of positive if you go looking . . . 

It's a Small World

       Today was another of those days where I used my computer to help someone out overseas.  I've mentioned previously the site called Sparked.  It's a site that connects non-profit organizations who need some kind of assistance with people all over the world who are willing to share their skills.  I went to the site this evening and looked through the "challenges" that were identified because they met my skill set and interests, and I chose to help out an organization based in London.

     This organization puts on different types of workshops and then uses the money they make to fund a variety of programs that support youth in London.  They had created a new website for their offerings and wanted feedback.  So far 5 other people have responded, each providing some pretty useful insights and suggestions.  I went through the all the pages on the site and made notes about a variety of issues and then provided my feedback through the Sparked site.  

     It once again amazes me to see how people from all over the world can provide meaningful help to each other while never meeting or even knowing one another.  Pretty cool.

Connecting Helpers Across the Globe

      I'm really excited to write about today's act of kindness because it opened my eyes to a world of opportunities I would have never known about.  I have to thank Eric Winger, a fellow kindness blogger (click here for his blog) for this idea.  In one of his posts, he mentioned a site, www.sparked.com, where people can easily volunteer to help a variety of non-profits.  

     The site essentially matches people who have skills and a desire to help, with people and organizations who need that help.  When you log into the site, you choose which causes you have a passion for (e.g. education, the environment, poverty, hunger, animals, civil rights, etc.), and then select which skills you have (design, marketing, research, brainstorming, copywriting, social media, etc.).  The site then matches your passions and skills with currently listed "challenges" that have been posted by non-profit organizations.  

     I responded to two challenges today.  The first was from a Canadian organization that sends medical help aboard ships to serve impoverished populations.  They were simply looking for ideas about thanking donors.  Many people had responded and I contributed some of my thoughts.

     The second challenge took a little more effort.  A kindergarten teacher in an inner-city school was looking for someone to create PowerPoint flashcards she could use to help her students learn new words.  She had posted a document explaining exactly what she wanted.  I was able to create the cards for her, based on what someone else had started.  I then took it one step further (responding to her best case scenario) and created a version that included a link on each card where the student could click to self-check by hearing the word read aloud.  I then posted both versions for her to download.  How cool is that?

     I'm continually amazed at the power of the internet to connect people literally across the globe who would otherwise have no way of ever knowing each other, communicating with each other, or helping each other (remember my post about Wish Upon a Hero).  I'm also continually amazed at the incredible generosity that most people show.  It seems to me that most people have an inherent willingness, perhaps even desire, to help others.  Sometimes it simply takes the right tools to enable that capacity to materialize.