I have been amazed at the response of the twitter community to the TweetsGiving campaign. The firehose of gratitude shared through the #tweetsgiving tag during those 48 hours was overwhelming. Now that TweetsGiving 2008 is over (and we’ve met our goal!!) I wanted to share some data about our efforts. This year during TweetsGiving…

• ~3,000 gratitude tweets were posted including the tweetsgiving tag (search.twitter.com only lets you go back 100 pages so that’s an estimate).

• 

  TweetsGiving was one of the top trending terms over the 48 hours of the campaign. The screenshot from twitscoop gives a sense of the campaign as it spread in real time. Note the rise in activity in the first and last hours as word initially got out and as urgency built to help us reach the goal by the deadline.

• $11,021 were raised in 364 donations - so far!

• The TweetsGiving site had 15,830 Total Pageviews from 7,563 Unique Visitors in 101 different countries .

• TweetsGiving received over 100 press and blogger mentions (currently 107).

I had an amazing time putting together the TweetsGiving campaign with Stacey and the rest of our team. Thank you Stacey, Dave and Carrie, Matt, Vince, and Sarah. Thanks to Tori, Brian, and Mari for tweeting up a storm with us and feeling empowered to make this event their own. I can’t express my appreciation enough for everyone who tweeted thanks, donated, blogged, shared, or reflected with us to help make this Thanksgiving truly amazing.

Pius is just one of the children at our partner school in Tanzania whose life is impacted by HIV/AIDS.  Thankfully, he hasn’t contracted the virus, but he’s lost his father to the disease, and his mother, Anna, is HIV+.  Despite these circumstances, Pius’ teacher Selena says he’s consistently the top student in her kindergarten class.  To his mom, who thinks Pius just might be president someday, Pius represents hope.

Invest in hope, and in Pius’ potential, by purchasing gifts he helped to design this Cyber Monday at the Epic Change Gift Shop.  His tiny handprints were used to create our giraffe stationery and holiday cards, and his photo and story appear on the Hope candle, which was hand-poured at the exclusive Timothy Jay studio in West Hollywood.

Learn more about Pius and his brave mother, Anna, in this short video interview:

In just 48 hours, 369 people gave over $10,000 during TweetsGiving - enough to build a new classroom at Mama Lucy’s school in Tanzania. Over the past few days, I have been completely overwhelmed with the power of gratitude to inspire giving.

When the campaign started just before noon on Tuesday, and when it ended, I was in tears. There are few things more beautiful than gratitude openly expressed by thousands, except perhaps those same people transforming their gratitude into a profoundly meaningful gift from one community to another.

There will be more time to review the numbers behind TweetsGiving, how many people we reached and the lessons we learned. My partner in crime, Avi, is already likely scouring Google Analytics as we speak to explore the data. For today, though, I simply want to give my own thanks. I have so much for which to be grateful.

	Dear Tweeters: I am in awe of your gratitude and giving over the last few days. I look forward to imagining what else might be possible with the power of your collaboration. Thank you, thank you, thank you.		Dear Avi, Matt, Vincent, Carrie & Dave: Over $10,000 in 48 hours? It simply would not have happened without you. I am beyond grateful for all that you’ve done, and all the sleep you lost during TweetsGiving. Kudos, congrats and thank you!
	Dear Amanda, Those designs you created for our holiday cards and gifts? They rock. I so thoroughly appreciate all the work you put in recently to make sure that each product we sell is as beautiful as the children who participate in their design. Thanks, sister sledge ;)		Dear Mama Lucy, I am so grateful for your partnership, and so proud to count you among my friends. What you’re doing is amazing; you’re making the world a better, more beautiful place for not only your students, but for me and the children I will someday have. For that, and for all you’ve taught me, thank you. You’re an inspiration.
	Dear Zoe F., I can’t believe all the hard work you’ve done on our behalf, and I am beyond grateful. Your tireless enthusiasm is inspiring, and I’m so thankful to have your passion behind our work.		Dear Emily, Thanks for single-handedly spreading the word about Epic Change in Canada. You’re a total rockstar.
	Dear Tim, The photos you took during our last trip capture the profound beauty of each child at the school. You looked through your lens beyond their circumstance to their essence and for that, and for all you’re doing to support our efforts, I am grateful.		Dear Zoe M., I am so proud of you. At 9 years old, you’re not only changing the world, it’s a better place just because you’re in it. Thanks for secretly unplugging the internet on ThanksGiving to make sure I gave you my undivided attention. You deserve it…and so much more.
	Dear Mom, What can I say? Thanks for all the sacrifices you made to make me who I am. I hope I make you proud.		Dear Ashlee, Thanks for your constant reminders to take care of myself. I may not always heed your advice, but it always makes me feel loved. I’m proud to be your big sister.
	Dear Sanjay, Thanks for putting up with me, for making me laugh, and for being the best partner a girl could ask for. I am profoundly grateful to have you on my side.		To our Partners, We could not do this without you. Your incredible legal, technical, creative and marketing services have made our success possible. Thanks so much for your continued support of our organization.

To our Earliest Donors & Volunteers,
You took leap of faith, and invested in Epic Change from the very beginning. I am so grateful for your participation in our efforts. You have made a real difference in the lives of 242 children, and many more who will walk through the doors of Shepherds Junior School. I have no words to express my gratitude, but hope the pictures below are, as they say, worth a thousand words:

1 more thing: We shipped our first holiday cards and gifts today!!! They looked beautiful. If you haven’t yet ordered yours, there’s no time like the present! Order now.

The Story

About a week ago, Avi posted these kind words about me on his blog. I was surprised to get the link and, while I was blushing on the outside, I was glowing on the inside. There’s something about unanticipated gratitude that gets you every time.

A few days after I received Avi’s link, and inspired by his gratitude, I dreamt up TweetsGiving, and immediately shot Avi a direct message on Twitter asking if he wanted to help. He did. And, with his incredible collaboration and boundless enthusiasm, TweetsGiving was born.

We reached out and got some incredible folks involved, including word-of-mouth marketers @CarrieKerpen and @DaveKerpen at @theKBuzz and web designer Matt Blasi, and the fabulous artist who designed our TweetsGiving turkey, @VincentHunt.

Get Involved

Check out our newly launched TweetsGiving site for more details, and to watch the total fundraising grow toward our goal of $10,000. You don’t need to be on Twitter to participate, and if you donate $10 or more to TweetsGiving before noon on Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, 11/27, 12pm EST), we’ll paint your message of gratitude on the next classroom at Shepherds Junior school.

Gratitude

I plan to share all the things I’m grateful for this year here on the blog tomorrow in honor of Thanksgiving, but I’m not even certain how I’ll be able to capture it all…we’ve just so much to be grateful for.

For today, I’m thankful to Avi (@MeshugAvi)and the serendipity of our collaboration. I’m not even sure how he found me, but I’m so glad he did. A Harvard grad with real chops in social media, he’s an invaluable contributor to Epic Change.

A few videos from the kids in Tanzania that will get you in the spirit of the holiday. You’ll have to tilt your head to look at the second one, but who couldn’t stand to look at the world from a fresh perspective?

Giving

As you’re getting ready for the holiday season, remember, Epic Change now has cards and gifts for sale. Each product is based on the story of a child at the school, and with each purchase, you’re adding a brick to their next classroom…so get some of your holiday shopping done today. Our first orders will ship this Friday!

(Excuse me for being a little punchy. It’s just a touch of sleep deprivation. But seriously, today makes it all worth it. I’m a little excited.)

Today at Epic Change, we launched our new line of cards and gifts for the holiday season…and I can’t wait to hear what you think! Their sale seeks to prove our hypothesis: compelling stories of hope are assets that people in need can use to raise the income necessary to transform their own communities. If you believe that’s possible, and want to help us prove that it is, I hope you’ll make a purchase and help us spread the word.

We’ve called our inaugural line of cards and gifts the “Shine” collection, in honor of Mama Lucy, whose name is derived from a word that means “to shine.” She does, and by purchasing Epic Change gifts and cards, you’re helping to expand her school, and shine her light into the lives of even more children.

Products include candles by West Hollywood designer Timothy Jay as well as stationery and holiday greeting cards that feature artwork by children at the school and photos by award-winning photographer Tim Llewellyn. Greeting cards and stationery will be printed on recycled stock using vegetable and soy based inks by GreenerPrinter. Each product shares the hopeful story of someone whose life will be directly impacted by its purchase.

Every purchase you make at Epic Change represents an investment in the education and future of children, like Alice, Damares, Pius, Naomi, Gideon, and many more who have the potential to change the world. Each package of cards you buy adds a brick to a new classroom, and each candle you purchase adds two bricks. A new classroom requires about 1,000 bricks.

To help us accurately forecast demand, and have your items included on our first ship date, please place your order today. The first 50 candle orders will be wrapped in a bow made from a khanga (i.e., traditional dress) donated by the mother of a student at Mama Lucy’s school.

I hope you’ll give the gift of hope this holiday season, and will share our unique catalog with your colleagues, family and friends.

Thanks so much!

Stacey

PS: Here’s a few other ways you can support Epic Change during the holidays:

* Create a gift registry to collect donations for Epic Change instead of holiday gifts.
* Give the gift of philanthropic travel by giving your loved ones the trip of a lifetime.
* Share Epic Change holiday cards & gifts on your blog or website.
* Make a donation to spread hope this holiday season.

I preface with that because I am completely consumed with hope and hard work, but got a couple of fabulous emails from Tanzania that I couldn’t wait to share, so I’m taking a welcome break from the grindstone to post a quick update.

The first was from Leah, a fourth grader who’s one of the brightest in her class. She wrote me this short note:

I want to tell you that yesterday I did the national examination. I promise you that we will win the exam. I love you.

Each year, students across Tanzania in grades 4 and higher take annual national exams. Since our partner school in Tanzania just expanded this year to include Class 4, this was the school’s first opportunity to participate. The day after I received Leah’s note, I got this one from Teacher Nancy Nashilu, the fourth grade instructor. I was brought to tears when I read what she had to say in an email with the subject heading “STORM IS OVER”. She wrote:

Is it real that class 4’s have done their national examination? Is it true that we’ve lifted the heavy luggage we had carried? Unbelievable.

Shepherds Junior, with the help of Epic Change, has managed to make a big step in life by having their first Class 4 doing their National Examination. Great. I personally interviewed my students one day before that very day, and they thanked their teachers for the good preparation we had done for them. They promised me to do wonders. I saw the determination and the courage they had when I was interrogating them, and I felt something in them. Being a class teacher and having the first class at our school to sit for the national examination, made me struggle and surrender all my energies together with my colleagues to see our students succeed. I was chosen as the assistant exam proctor. On that very morning, 12.11.08, I was given the mathematics tests to take into the examination room. Behind me was the lead proctor and the headmaster. I walked as a bride holding the papers on my hand. When I reached in the room I looked on my beloved students and I felt tears rolling from my eyes. Not that I was sad, but because I had faith and trust that they will make it.

The room was so quiet in such a way you could have heard intestines colliding in the stomach. And as I was opening the sealed envelope containing the exams, I knew to expect nineteen 100s in math from my class. After the examination, the students told me the paper was as easy as ABC! I felt like flying because this first exam got such a positive response from my lovely students, but I had no wings. The first day ended with this saying of “YES WE CAN” which reminded me of the current U.S.A. President and how he made it with the same words and I got even higher hopes for my students. The second day everything went on accordingly still with the same saying. Now we are eagerly waiting for their results to see whether they will win the battle…like Obama.

Whatever your politics, you can’t help but feel this fabulous teacher’s love, pride and hope for her students. I wish I could explain to Leah, Nancy, and to you, just how much these notes mean to me.

I’ve heard a lot of talk at recent conferences about metrics for social innovators and socially responsible businesses. So many seem to measure quantity. How many people were served? How much was donated? How many donors participated? How many people visited the website? These are obviously critical metrics, but I believe we need to expand the discussion to focus not only on the scope of our impact, but on its quality and depth. Test scores are one way to do that, as are surveys of targeted populations (provided you can obtain frank feedback, which is sometimes difficult).

For us, it’s more than how many students are we impacting, it’s the quality of the education they receive. For our partners who are passionately committed to delivering the best possible education to the children in their care, that’s the pudding. You know, where the proof is.

I can’t wait to share the school’s test scores with you when they arrive.

“WOW! THAT’S A SUPERB VICTORY!  MAY GOD GIVE HIM THE STRENGTH AND WISDOM TO LEAD AMERICA AND THE WORLD.  Everyone here’s very happy with the results.”

The world is, truly, smaller than we think.  In Kenya, the country just to the north of Tanzania, today was declared a national holiday in honor of Obama and his father, their native son. I won’t share my own political perspectives here, and Epic Change certainly has no political agenda given IRS rules governing 501c3 nonprofits, but I’d be fooling myself to think the world can think of much but the election today.  Regardless of political persuasion, last night’s vote was clearly historic, and sent an important message to African Americans, people of African descent, and people of color across the globe.  In Obama’s own words…”yes we can!”

I can’t imagine what that message must feel like to the children and the community of Shepherds Junior.  To Gideon, who dreams of discovering new planets, to Leah who wants to cure AIDS, to Edmund who aspires to protect the rights of women in his country and to Nihad, a budding environmentalist, Obama’s election seems much more than a political statement.  It’s an indication of all that’s possible for them, and for our shared future, if we work together, across party affiliations, races, nationalities and all our differences, to create a world that celebrates the remarkable potential of all people.

Last night over dinner, Sanjay asked me what I thought I might be like if I had been born here. I hope I would be like Mama Lucy. I fear, though, that I don’t possess her ability to succeed slowly and in small steps. She is able to relish (and appropriately so) the small miracles that she witnesses and inspires every day. While she focuses and builds upon those, I believe I might instead focus on everything that hadn’t yet happened, thus obscuring the magnitude of what had been achieved. I hope to learn from her and grow - passionate progress before perfection.

At Epic Change, we have so much room to grow, new ideas to discover and goals to achieve. And most of the time, I fix my gaze on all that’s yet to be accomplished. But today, since this paragraph about Mama Lucy came to mind (and as everyone around me will testify, I’ve been interminably humming this song), I’m focusing on what has happened, just this month, that’s bringing us at least a few steps closer. Today, I’m going to feel grateful. (Perhaps it’s a lesson from another great woman in my life, my sister Ashlee, who’s recently created a journal she calls “The Grateful Monk” in which she writes regularly about small things for which she has great gratitude - an idea so swell, I’m stealing it here. I’m sure she won’t mind.)

Here’s what October brought to Epic Change, besides beautiful crisp autumn weather in the sunshine state, and the opportunity to attend BarCampAfrica & SoCap08:

Feature Story

Check out this feature story about Epic Change from my alma mater, Carnegie Mellon, in the October issue of their quarterly magazine, Carnegie Mellon Today.

Challenge Grant

Late last year, Epic Change was challenged by a potential funder to raise $25,000 through small contributions from ordinary people within one year. This month, with your support, encouragement and donations, we exceeded that goal and, by doing so, were awarded a $5,000 grant that we will use as part of our next loan in Tanzania, which we expect to make before the end of the year.

Holiday Cards & Gifts

We’ve been working feverishly on this season’s holiday products. Early in November, Epic Change will launch a beautifully designed line of holiday cards and gift items that feature stories of the children of Shepherds Junior school. Not only will these items incorporate artwork by the students and beautiful images like these by photographer Tim Llewellyn, who joined us on our last trip to Tanzania, each purchase will also make possible one or more of 1,000 bricks that will be needed to build the school’s next classroom.

New Partners

We’ve just established an exciting partnership with Appfrica International to assist us with improving our website and blog. Appfrica International is an incredible organization based out of Uganda that incubates, facilitates and mentors entrepreneurs in software from the region. These are often recent computer science graduates or students who can’t find opportunities because of low job prospects. Appfrica works with them to help expose them to new skills, to collaboratively work on projects that earn them money and to help them develop strong business plans. Find out more at Appfrica.org.

Additionally, Exquisite Safaris will begin offering opportunities for travelers to visit Mama Lucy and her school as part of their safari excursions to Tanzania. The Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel experience integrates indigenous local culture into every personalized experience they recommend. These personal introductions create authentic cross cultural friendships that generate trust, respect, and generous donations funding philanthropic travel projects worldwide. Exquisite Safaris was mentioned in a recent article published in the New York Times. If you or a friend are planning a trip to the region, we hope you’ll consider booking through Exquisite Safaris and incorporating a visit with Mama Lucy.

I know it’s not perfection - but it’s progress. A ton of it. And for that, and so much more: today I am grateful.

PS: My favorite member of the canine species, Millicent the Magnificent, is feeling festive today & wanted me to wish you a Happy Halloween!!!

PPS: If you’re on twitter, don’t forget to play #TrickorTweet today, and suggest Epic Change as a recipient of the funds the game will raise by adding us to the comments on this post about the effort. If you’re not on Twitter, what are you waiting for? Register here, read this and follow me. Trust me and jump in, the water’s fine ;)

I recently attended the first-ever Social Capital Markets conference held in San Francisco - a jam-packed 3-day event that was billed as:

“Bringing together the investors and entrepreneurs who are accelerating the flow of capital to good.”

It was an amazing inaugural event, so hats off to Kevin Johnson, who founded the event, Amy Bezinger, its associate producer and Halloran Philanthropies, the event’s principle sponsor. I jotted my initial thoughts from the conference in a previous post and in my live tweets onsite, but now that I’ve had a few days for my experience to truly set in, I thought I’d share some additional feedback…so here’s the skinny:

THE GOOD (actually, Great)

The UnConference: To me, the third and final day of the event, led by facilitator extraordinaire, Jerry Michalski, was by far the most useful, engaging portion of the conference. Dubbed the “unconference”, the day was comprised of over 50 sessions proposed and led by participants, facilitated, like BarCamp Africa, in an open space style. As a former management consultant with my fair share of facilitation experience, I’d wholeheartedly recommend this format to anyone looking to surface and explore great ideas that might otherwise go undiscovered, develop collaborative teams, and create a fun, truly engaging environment that enables each participant to contribute meaningfully. Not only did this day result in some of the most interesting conversations and topics of the entire conference, but it also pulled together people with similar interests and provided, IMHO, the single best networking format of the event.

Live Pitching: During this session, four social entrepreneurs gave 8-minute pitches to a panel of VCs & potential funders who provided meaningful real-time feedback. Apart from the unconference sessions, this was by far the most useful breakout session because it focused on hands-on, real-world scenarios.

Live Tweets: Peter Deitz (@SoCap08 and @peterdeitz) was a madman tweeting the event live; it was truly incredible to watch him engaging in conversation while simultaneously typing 140-character microupdates on Twitter. Mark Grimes (@neddotcom), Glenn Strahan (@glennstrachan) and several others enhanced his coverage with their own insights. I believe the Twitter backchannel enriched the participation of those of us attending the event, and certainly broadened the conference’s reach beyond boundaries demarcated by the geography of Fort Mason and a healthy registration fee. (For those wondering, I didn’t use Epic Change donations to cover a dime, but instead used my trusty personal credit card, coupled with hotel points and airline miles, to foot the bill. It was certainly a worthwhile expense, but until we get a little more established, we simply can’t afford to divert funds from mission-critical objectives. To their credit, there was a much-needed 50% discount for non-profits. Kudos for that!)

Incomparable Catering: Perhaps to some it’s a small detail, but not to me. Food counts - and if my chub earns me nothing else, I hope it grants me some authority on the subject. Truly, the catering throughout the event was scrumptious, healthy beyond compare and served 100% guilt-free on totally recyclable ware with a splash of Honest Tea and Adina. I believe the caterers were Acre Gourmet, and they were perfetto.

THE BAD (or just not as Good)

Keynotes: Many of the keynote speakers were extraordinarily insightful, and their business acumen was beyond compare; in particular Katherine Fulton of the Monitor Group and Matthew Bishop, author of Philanthrocapitalism and columnist at The Economist were quite interesting and informative. That said, I was waiting to be truly inspired. While there was an extremely talented viola performer who wordlessly connected the audience to the humanity of our mission, few speakers really touched on the purpose of our work, but seemed to gloss over it as a foregone conclusion.

I was twice reminded in the context of the conference of this potential problem. During the Building a Business Plan breakout on the first day of the conference, the presenters pointed out (and I tweeted) an irony often seen in the business plans of socially responsible businesses: in an effort to overcompensate for the perceived “softer” side of our efforts, or because we mistakenly believe our audience is as connected to our cause as we are, we ironically underplay the power of our mission. Likewise, in a Calvert Foundation discussion during the unconference about a forthcoming documentary, one participant heartfully explained that very few in the room are actually in this for the money; it’s the passion and the purpose behind our work that gets us up in the morning. I couldn’t agree more - which is why I think that at least one of the keynotes should have been by an entrepreneur with compelling stories of communities and causes transformed by their work or, better yet, someone whose life had been impacted by the efforts of those in the room.

Networking Opportunities: First of all, let me say that the Connection Concierge tool offered by assetmap.org was a great service, and I think it may become even more useful as we move forward. As for the networking sessions, the one on the first evening that had grouped us by interest area had the potential to be fruitful, but was cut tragically short. In its place, I’d definitely propose a lengthier networking session on the first afternoon or evening so that we have time to make connections that will last throughout the event. Perhaps some version of the unconference, a connection & conversation cafe, might be an alternative for the first day. Smaller conversations on topics proposed by participants, with drinks and snacks, could prove very successful - like a lengthened version of speed dating: 30-45 minutes per topic, 3-4 topics.

THE UGLY (yep, actually not pretty at all)

Inclusivity & Diversity: On the final morning of the conference, Jerry Michalski asked us to look around the room and think about our experience at SoCap08. As I did, I noticed something: I was sitting in a sea of white people, many of us seeking to “help” communities around the globe, very few of whom seemed to be represented in the room. Earlier that morning, I had posted a note to the blog from our Tanzanian partner, Mama Lucy Kamptoni, explaining her thoughts on poverty. She wrote:

“[Sometimes people] think that because Africans are living in poor countries, therefore they cannot think about themselves. They think that since they don’t have money, so they can’t be able to plan, implement, monitor and supervise anything even if given chance or supported. They should know that, even if a person/community is poor, the best way to help is to listen and give chance to the beneficiaries to know what really is their problem, and what they think is their priority. You may think they need good road first but their priority is school, hospital or water. If you’ll not give them chance, you’ll end up doing their last thing at first. Poverty cannot be eradicated by just the ideas of one side. Sharing ideas of both sides can help and bring changes easily.”

It was a profound disconnect for me…and she’s right: the communities we seek to transform absolutely must have the power to participate in the decision-making that impacts their lives. And yet, there we were, absent their input, at an incredibly exciting conference that would benefit “them”.

Let’s face it, the people who have the most power and who reap the most significant rewards in any marketplace are the investors and entrepreneurs in the market. They have the power to determine where funds will be invested and receive the lion’s share of the income from transactions. If that power and potential profit remains concentrated in wealthy white hands, I think we’ve missed at least part of the point.

If we are, as it seemed at the conference, in the early stages of developing a socially beneficial marketplace, the market makers must be diverse. If those with power in the marketplace remain a sea of white faces, we’ve missed a key opportunity to build a system that brings benefits - and equality - to people across the social & geographical spectrum.

In short, I believe people from many communities, and especially those who would be impacted by our efforts, deserve both a voice and access to the capital they need to transform their own communities. To Mama Lucy’s point, many times the best ideas for healing a community come from within - or at least in partnership with those whose lives are impacted by poverty, pollution and other social ills. So, my challenge for SoCap09 would be to find ways to give a voice to entrepreneurs & people with great ideas from communities we seek to impact, and to drive capital in their direction. At the unconference, I led a discussion on the topic of inclusivity & diversity (I know, perhaps not my primary area of expertise, but someone needed to say it). During the conversation, we came up with two ideas for ensuring that SoCap09 is more inclusive & diverse than this year’s event. Thanks to Sergio Almarza Alamos and Sergio Almarza Grez from Chile of RedAlmarza, Uganda-based Jon Gosier of Appfrica, Steve Vitka of Blacklight Ventures, Marianne Bellotti of the Small Hands Fund, Justin Bean of Sustainable Initiatives, and consultants Jennifer Carter-Scott and Marian Doub, who participated in this conversation and helped to develop these ideas.

• Pitches from Abroad: Either pre-recorded, fed live or held onsite, the opportunity for entrepreneurs from across the globe to share their ideas with an audience of potential collaborators and investors would be both incredibly interesting for the audience, and a rewarding experience for the presenter. To ensure non-native speakers of English, and those who may be unfamiliar with the art of pitching, could participate successfully, presentation preparation may need to be supported, so I’d recommend that entrepreneurs be paired with partners who have attended the conference previously, or who have some expertise in the field.

• Fellowships: Amy Bezinger explained at the conference that the price was intentionally set high to ensure that only the highly-motivated would attend. While I think the decision was likely wise in many ways, the $1,195 price tag was quite high and, with travel costs for traveling from places like Africa, Asia and South America, and hotel, the cost would be absolutely prohibitive for entrepreneurs and, especially, potential entrepreneurs from developing countries. I’d recommend that a fellowship, including, if possible, travel expenses, be offered. To fund it, paying participants could opt-in to give an additional $25 donation to cover the cost (or an additional fee could be baked into the conference price for paying participants, as their presence would certainly improve the overall conference experience), sponsors of future events could be required to donate to fund fellowships and hotel/travel partners could be sought to defray costs.

This year’s participants would likely have access to potential candidates in their networks for either opportunity. I know I do.

I’m sure there are many other brilliant ideas for ensuring a more diverse pool of participants at next year’s event - what are yours? If you attended SoCap08, what feedback would you add? I’ll be sending a link to this entry to the conference team, so please leave your comments and suggestions.

Today is Blog Action Day 2008.  According to the site, “Today thousands of bloggers will unite to discuss a single issue - poverty.   The day aims to raise awareness, initiate action and to shake the web!” 

Since many bloggers will likely be posting on the topic of poverty from an outsider’s perspective, I thought it would be interesting to supplement their coverage with the views of people, like Mama Lucy and Baba Gidori (the father of Gideon, one of the students at Mama Lucy’s school), who have been directly impacted by poverty and have lived their entire lives in one of the poorest countries in the world.  I’ve also included a link to a previous post that explores some of my own perspectives on poverty, which happens to be about Baba Gidori’s son, Gideon. Check out our diverse perspectives on the topic of poverty by clicking on the links below:

• From Mama Lucy: “I don’t consider myself as a poor person. I’ve no good sources of income but I’ve the ability to think and utilise the little I’m having so as to bring change to my community…”  Read more.

• From Baba Gidori: “Life could be better and simpler for me and my children if poverty were not an issue…”  Read more.

• From Me: “All too often, our portrayals of African children focus on their lack, and implicitly convey that their poverty is somehow their core attribute, their essence. Not only is our portrait radically incomplete, it is, perhaps worst of all, self-perpetuating…”  Read more.

I invite you to comment and share your own views on the topic of poverty, and to visit the Blog Action Day 2008 site to further explore this important topic.

Of course, if you’d like to take real action, we’re still looking for a few more people (just 5 more $25 donors!) to donate to receive the $5000 challenge grant that expires this Friday.  Donate Now.