Social Purpose Purveyors

On the heels of yesterday’s global release of Edelman’s 2010 goodpurpose study, we wanted to share a few powerful examples of Social Purpose Purveyors who are using the Web to create and coordinate a means of addressing some of the most pressing issues in our world. Armed with a unique idea to address these issues and empowered by the web to spread their call-to-action on a global scale, these Purveyors are proving that anyone, from any age, background, level of influence or funding, can change the world. Brands and brand marketers should take note of the work being led by these Social Purpose Purveyors and look for opportunities to support their efforts and empower customers to do the same.

Social Entrepreneurship: Carmina Mancenon

The age group of 15-19 has the second highest population in the Philippines with 8 million youth, 2.7 million of whom live in extreme poverty. One third of innovation lost. One third of hope non-existent. It is complete injustice to disregard this potential. –Stitch Tomorrow

About a year ago, 16-year-old Carmina Mancenon made a bold announcement at Davos. One of the youngest people ever invited to speak at the World Economic Forum, Carmina told a room full of global leaders about her experience witnessing the poverty that affects some 2.7 million youth in the Philippines and her vision for a youth-led microfinance initiative that would use fashion as a means of combating youth poverty. Stitch Tomorrow, she said, would provide underprivileged teens with the resources, capital and education to start their own fashion lines and a sustainable source of income, using recycled materials found in their local neighborhoods and villages. Today, Carmina, along with Dinar Thalieb (18), Jack Greig (19) and Aneeza Arshad (17) are working with the thousands of members who have registered for Stitch Tomorrow to make this vision a reality.

Also Explore:

• Wokai: The first person-to-person microfinance platform for global contributors to help rural Chinese borrowers, currently living in poverty, start their own businesses.

Education: Charles Best

Five years ago, Charles Best was a 25-year-old social studies teacher working at Wings Academy in the Bronx. Frustrated by the lack of funding for even basic supplies in his classroom, he started Donors Choose, a website for other teachers like him to post requests for supplies needed in their classrooms to gather $5, $10, $100 donations from contributors. More than $64 million, 157 thousand project requests later and 3.9 million students affected Donors Choose is an important force in the fight for education funding in the US.

Also Explore:

• University of the People: In an age of astronomical post-secondary education costs, University of the People provides tuition-free online post-secondary education to qualified students around the world.

Connectivity: Rose Shuman

About three years ago, Rose Shuman set out to address the digital divide in a powerful way. She wanted to make the Internet, and the wealth of information it provides, accessible to communities in India and Uganda. Shuman, supported by her Open Mind team and The Grameen Foundation, launched Question Box, a service for even the most remote communities to submit queries important to informing their work, health or life decisions to local language call centers and receive information collected from the web and Question Box’s database.

The premise behind Question Box is that many barriers keep most of the developing world from taking advantage of the wealth of knowledge available through Web search engines. So I was thinking, why not bring the information to them in a way that’s most convenient and useful to them… In this way we are helping farmers make decisions regarding where to sell, what to plant and how to best take care for their crops. It’s all about giving communities the ability to help themselves. –Rose Shuman

Today, Question Box has helped thousands of rural farmers, students and community members inform key issues in their life, education and work.

Also Explore:

• The Status of Africa: This simple digital tool has allowed average Facebook users to lend their status to one of seven Africans – from a Nairobi street kid to a Nomadic tribe member to a Flying Doctor – giving them an opportunity to connect with global Facebook users. The lent status allows them to share their personal stories and lives with people around the world who might not otherwise have a personal connection to their perspective and the issues affecting their lives.

Social Purpose Hacks of our Collective Free Time: Jane McGonigal

In Cognitive Surplus, Clay Shirky asserts that more than one trillion hours of our collective free time, combined with personal motivation and the power of the web’s tools that allow for instant connection and coordination will change the world. Call it a kind of Amazon Mechanical Turk for social purpose.

Jane McGonigal is attempting to take advantage of that opportunity. As the director of games development and research at Institute of the Future, she’s working to tap into the collective power of 500 million virtuoso gamers who spend at least an hour a day playing online games and developing gaming platforms that ultimately will educate gamers about issues in their local and the global community and train them to help. This September, more than 500 individual donors funded her proposal to create Gameful, a virtual headquarters for game developers interested in creating games that make a positive impact on gamers’ lives and communities.

Also Explore:

• Sparked: Have a spare minute? An hour normally spent watching TV? Sparked is a microvolunteerism platform that allows people from a variety of areas of expertise to donate their free time and experience to help a non-profit in need.

Sharing Personal Perspective: Dan Savage

In an effort to offer hope to gay teens being bullied or contemplating suicide because of their sexuality, Dan Savage created a simple YouTube channel and posted a personal video with a powerful message: “It gets better.” He and his husband Terry offered an honest and heartfelt story of their own experience as gay teens and their plea for other gay teens to focus on and fight for the possibility of love, acceptance and happiness that they experienced in their post-high school lives. One simple video has led to thousands of similarly powerful and heartfelt video responses from average YouTube users, politicians, including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and countless celebrities and companies. In one incredible video from Google, LGBT employees’ stories provided a truly moving testament to the personal side and values of one of the largest tech companies in the world.

Also Explore:

• Shape What’s to Come: An online community created by Levi’s (client) for women to find a new form of mentorship and perspective from other women around the world and shape their career or a cause they care about.