Happy New Year

betterplace.org wants to wish all of you - readers, co-competitors, supporters, project managers and donors - a very happy New Year. We are thankful for your support, feedback and encouragement, and the great work many of you are doing to make this world a, yes, better place.

2009 will see a continuation of much of what we have started in 2008. In the blogsphere, we’ll be introducing a number of changes. Finally, both the German and the English blog will be properly incorporated into betterplace.org. We will also seek for a greater variety of topics and let you more fully participate in our work as a team: we are having so many inspiring and interesting encounters with new supporters and collaborators from all realms of life and business, which we would like to share with our readers. Thus, for example, last week here in the US, Stephan and I met Bill Barmeier, vice president for eBay’s global citizenship team, to discuss possible cooperations between the eBay Foundation and betterplace.

The last - and our first - year, has been a great one for betterplace. Over 7500 users have financed 120 projects. 60 companies are actively using betterplace.org to improve their social reputation, making it more transparent and participatory. We also feel priviledged to have the support of an increasing number of highly powered supporters and enthusiastic volunteers, not to forget the wonderful betterplace juniors, who with their x-mas activities alone collected over 3.000 Euros for 5 different projects on betterplace.org. Over the past month, the German media coverage has also finally taken up the betterplace idea and spread it around the country.

Let me thank all of you. Have a Happy New Year and let’s make 2009 another year to remember.