News from betterplace.org

Thanks to our most generous sponsor, the Wall AG, Berlin is full of large betterplace City Light Posters. In Berlin, as well as in a number of other German cities such as Freiburg (where this photo was taken, thanks Tobias) 3.000 posters point to our platform and its projects. The great thing: The action is fully sponsored and the company even covered the printing costs! If you want to see some other social initiatives supported by Wall AG, check Walls betterplace page.

I just wrote a post about design thinking and the highly useful Human Centered Design Handbook on Culture Matters, a great anthropology blog I infrequently contribute too. Thanks to Jörg for pointing me to it. You can read the post here.

Over the past few weeks I have come across a number of articles critical about microfinance. An article in Foreign Policy stated that the brilliant ideas advanced by Yunus and de Soto have had limited real-world impact, and in practical terms, neither of their economic notions has the capacity to remake the world, as is often claimed. A good overview about the impact of microlending can be found on the From Poverty to Power blog written by Duncan Green, Head of Research for Oxfam GB. The ‘success’ of MF has largely been judged on the success of the business model (i.e. do people repay their loans), but does it actually reduce poverty? Green summarizes the most recent studies, using randomized control trials, which raise serious doubts about the poverty alleviation impact of microlending and quotes the President of the Bangladesh Economic Association, QK Ahmad, whose own survey of 2,500 borrowers (99% of them women) concluded that microfinance had been grossly oversold. ‘They take out credit, and give it back. That’s all they do’ he said. Microlending, according to him, is a simplistic approach which ignores crucial issues such as ‘existing power relations in society.’ Well, yes, but isn’t giving a person credit exactly doing that - shifting existing power relations? Don’t we see how suddenly in many countries women are for the first time in the history of their countries able to open a bank account or own land and how they have a new standing vis a vis their husbands?

A few days ago we added a new feature on to betterplace: while donating to a project on the plattform, you can also become a micro sponsor of betterplace.org - completely voluntary and easy. After you have decided to donate to a project, we are asking you whether you’d like to support the work we do at betterplace with a small additonal donation. If you do, you are contributing to the financial expenses of our not-for-profit internet plattform and can participate in its success. Of course, as before 100% of your donations to projects go to the chosen project.

Chinese actor Jet Li It was only a question of time for populations outside the West to systematically start their own philanthropic efforts and use the Internet for their fundraising. As a cultural anthropologist I have been following developments in the Peoples Republic of China for many years and am still very interested in Chinese approaches to aid and development (a topic one can follow very nicely in the blog of my co-author Pal Nyiri). Thus I read with great interest an article in the current Intelligent Life, a good new journal published by The Economist, about Jet Liand his One Foundation. Li, aged 46, started his career as a nationally recognized martial artist. He than turned into a film star starring in the Chinese epos Hero as well as Hollywoods The Mummy movies. His third career is in philanthropy. ONE Foundation When the Tsunami hit Southeast Asia in 2004, Li was on vacation on the Maldives. His small daughter oly just escaped death and this experience left a powerful mark on the actor. Feeling that he had to „give society and the world something back“ he spent 2 years researching how to create an effective foundation, talking amongst others to Bill Gates. Than, in 2007, he founded ONE. A short time thereafter, the Sichuan earthquake shook the country and Li – via a circulated sms - called upon his compatriots to donate. He received 10$ Million during a single week. Since then, Li has been propagating social initiative as an integral part of „Chinese values for the 21. Century“ and has even managed to get the Communist Party on his side, who until recently looked very sceptically at any civil society engagements. So far over 1 Million Chinese have donated to ONE Foundation – most of them online. The website also enables donors to donate money via sms or through monthly deductions from their credit cards. That way, says Jet Li, even one yuan (15 cents) can make a difference. Early Technology Adopters Not many – if any - Western charities can claim to use their websites so effectively for fundraising. But thinking about it, the Chinese success makes sense, since Chinese have proved to be early adopters with regards to other technologies as well. I remember researching Chinese migrants in Eastern Europe in the early 2000 and my surprise at their very active use to skype-like communication channels. The families I studied where spread between China and Hungary, but spent every evening with one abother – playing cards over the internet, chatting and showing off their latest clothes. And this at a time when most Europeans had no idea what IRC or Skype was. Li’s goal is to be the main marketplace where the many NGOs operating in China … can pitch for money to the new army of donors. Currently, he says, there are „millions of NGOs in China, but nobody knows who they can trust“. He aims to build a platform based on providing information, „so we can all get to know each other better“. I think he must mean betterplace.org!

Since this morning we have replaced the “Dialogue” section of the betterplace startpage with “Spread the World”. In the Dialogue section all the blogposts from project managers were accessible in the order of their publication and offered a vivid insight into the work of organisations “in the field”. Now we have exchanged this overview with Spread the World, our new page designed to increase the online traffic for betterplace projects. One great thing about the Internet is that you can do rapid prototyping, trying out new things at low cost and see whether they work or not. That’s exactly what we will do in this case. Let’s see (and measure) whether you and your network - project managers, family, collegues and friends - use these new features to promote the project of your choice. Or whether you want the old Dialogue back. Of course, the Dialogue blogposts are still accessible in the section “Latest project report” on the homepage, as well as on the projectpages themselves. We’ll keep you posted about this small experiment and would love to hear your opinion about it.

Part 2 of betterplace.org and What Would Google Do? Part 1 Jarvis cites professor of journalism Jay Rosen, who talks about „the people formaly known as the audience“. In the old media world – print, radio and TV - a relatively small group of producers faced a huge mass of consumers, „the audience“. But increasingly this largely passive audience is a thing of the past. News, information and entertainment are collaborative and interactive – they are created in the dialogue between „producers“ and „consumers“ We witness the same phenomena in the social sector. In the very moment „people formery known as donors“ are able to contribute and challenge aid organisations, the latter will be asked to enter into a dialogue and develop collaborative strategies. Here comes an example. A few months ago on betterplace, one of us (Joana) came across a malaria prevention project in Westafrica run by a big German aid organisation. She liked the project and donated to it. Yet as she had just been reading about a very promising African company producing high quality insecticide-treated bed nets – A-Z Textiles in Tansania – she was curious to find out where the aid organisation was getting their nets from. From a sustainable and holistic development perspective it would be much better strategy to buy nets locally, thus strengthening the local economy (O.K. Tansania is not „local“ as it is not in Westafrica. But it is more local than Germany or „made in China“.) In the offline world, it would have been far too much effort to follow up on this topic. Joana would have had to write a letter, identify the correct person to address it to, get an envelope, buy stamps and go to the post office. Too much hassle for a busy life. But on betterplace the project manager was just one click away and she could pose the question without a problem. After a few days she received an answer, which – although it didn’t satisfy her completely (the nets distributed by the project are not being produced in Africa) – demonstated that the organisation cared about its donors and was willing to collaborate. Just imagine if the organisation now would really pursue the topic and keep us informed about the process! They would not only have the chance to come up with a more sensible policy (buying local), but would also have secured a loyal donor, likely to spread the word about the aid organisation amongst her friends and network. Those who open up win In the literature critical of current fundraising practices (such as Alexander Glücks Der Spendenkomplex), we can read that charities often treat donors as „data“ to be „milked for money“. Yet many people (not all, for sure) also have good ideas and access to valuable information, which they could offer to organisations thus improving their work. After reading What Would Google Do? we predict that those organisations and initiatives who take their supporters serious, open up to them and are ready to work collaboratively are the ones who will survive and flourish in the new era.

One book which gets handed down from one family member to the other during our holiday in France is Jeff Jarvis’ What Would Google Do? Even our 14 year old son Vico is reading it right now. Jarvis owns BuzzMachine.com, one of the most popular blogs about the Internet and new media, teaches journalism at New Yorks City University and writes the new media column for the Guardian. What Would Google Do? identifies some of the major principles behind the success of google – the fastest growing company in history. In chapters with titles such as Give the People Control and We Will Use it, Do What You Do Best and Link to the Rest or Free is a Business Model Jarvis illuminates the new rules guiding our current Internet-driven economy. It’s an inspiring read, especially as so much of it is reflected in our work with betterplace. We understand the plattform as a disruptive technological answer to some of the main challenges facing the non-profit sector: The sector is highly intransparent. Or do you know what is happing to the money you have donated? The cost of financing social causes and innovation are high: the cost of conventional fundraising can absorb up to 50% of donations raised. there is a huge lack of accountability (especially with regards to beneficiaries), insufficient stakeholder feedback and – resulting from this – poor impact measurement. Or do you know whether a donation to World Vision benefits more people than one to the Choki Traditional Art School? The disruptive potential of betterplace At betterplace we offer answers to these challenges: Transparency: Aid organisations and social initiatives posting projects are required to specify their projects, breaking down the „needs“ needed for their realisation. Project managers are asked to report about the project progress in their project blog, in writing and posting photos and videos. Cost free fundraising: The use of betterplace is free and 100% of all donations received through the plattform are transfered to the project. Quality control through the Web of Trust: Traditional trust mechanisms, such as the brand of an organisation or its charitable status in Germany, are combined with network-trust: i.e. we give a multitude of project-stakeholders the possibility to say what they know about the project and the people running it. Thus beneficiaries, travellers and neighbours (who have visistedt he project), employees of the organisation etc. can all have a voice. Thus a much more realistic image of the project is available, enabling donors to make an informed choice. Being disruptive implies that traditional processes and systems are broken apart and value chains shortened, making them more transparent and effective. Our co-founder Jörg Rheinboldt, who was one of the founders of Alando (which was in turn bought by Ebay) and served many years as CEO of Ebay Germany, knows from experience that this is not to everybodys liking. But those who adapt early to the principles and rules of the new order will be the ones to profit. To be continued

We at betterplace.org see ourselves as “Social Entrepreneurs” - along with many others who have uploaded their projects on betterplace.org. Being a Social Entrepreneur, does not only involve doing good, but also implies developing a sustainable business idea that has a social impact. Innovative business ideas that have a positive social or environmental impact, deserve support especially taking into account the tough economic context in which they compete. We are therefore very happy to help promote such causes. In cooperation with the partners of this years “Social Entrepreneur 2009” Awards - the Schwab Foundation, Boston Consulting Group and Financial Times Germany - betterplace is looking for potential candidates. Up until 31 July, you can nominate organisations that are committed to innovative social change here.