What if youth everywhere came together to inspire each other, get informed about social issues, and involved in their communities? TakingITGlobal evolved from this idea to a Social Network for Social Good, inspiring youth to create a better world.
We need PR/advertising help reaching out to mainstream youth audiences to promote our unique Social Network for Social Good. Globally, our site is in 12 languages - expertise in reaching those language media would be a huge benefit to our growth.
Usability is a huge issue for us - improving the usability of our site is a top priority. Secondly, we need to expand our infrastructure to provide faster response times to users in developing countries. A PHP volunteer would also be of great help!
We would benefit from assistance in developing a fundraising strategy to build an endowment to insulate our core team from funding shifts, and also exploring how we could more effectively monetize our community technology platform.
“I wonder…If young people were actively engaged in all aspects of society, and thought of themselves as community leaders, problem-solvers, role models, mentors and key ‘stakeholders’…how would the world change?”
Jennifer Corriero (printed on “THE WAY I SEE IT #48” Starbucks Coffee Cup)
In a world that is increasingly global and interconnected, there are many threats that face our common humanity such as global poverty, war and conflict, HIV/AIDS and environmental degradation. Being at the intersection of key global trends, TakingITGlobal supports young people in being a force for change both in the present and in the future. Recognizing the need for young people to be co-owners in their own development process, TakingITGlobal leverages the power of social networks and digital media as a tool for learning, collaboration, dialogue and action.
TakingITGlobal aims to be the online destination for young people globally who want to make a difference. Young people under the age of 25 comprise 50% of the world’s population, with the majority living in the developing world. Empowering youth as engaged learners and socially responsible citizens will contribute towards addressing many community development outcomes including improved health, reduced crime and violence, increased levels of literacy and employment. Many of the current generation of youth will be entering a workforce demanding new skills including technology literacy, creativity and cross-cultural perspectives. TakingITGlobal is contributing to a world where young people everywhere have the opportunity to grow up with the support and encouragement needed to develop their talents and knowledge, while contributing to shaping a more sustainable world.
“TakingITGlobal can be seen as the deluxe version of international youth dialogue. This vast website is home to a set of interrelated online projects that offer young people connections, resources, opportunities and choices. Lots and lots of choices... For a young person seeking a portal into global issues or a chance to talk with peers from around the world, this site is a dazzling launching pad.”
Youth as E-Citizens Report, Center for Social Media, American University
To become less reliant on grants and donations, TakingITGlobal obtains a significant amount of our revenue through providing technology services and solutions to other charities and non-profit organizations.
We both license our custom technology platform itself, to organizations like Oxfam, Greenpeace, and UNA-USA, and provide our community engagement expertise to assist in the development and management of effective online communities, such as telecentre.org and the Digital Divide Network.
Between 40-50% of our funding in the past few years has been self-generated this way, with the rest coming from foundations, government, and corporate supporters. For more details, you can read our 2005 Annual Report (http://www.takingitglobal.org/aboutus/TIGAnnual2005.pdf)
As a small non-profit organization without an endowment or advertising revenue, it is difficult to continue to expand and keep up with demand. We need to better engineer our technology systems to scale up to support growth and deliver faster response times to the many users in developing countries accessing our services.
Also, our technology team is at capacity with balancing both improvements and development for the TakingITGlobal site, and our external development work to bring in additional funds, providing services to other groups. To innovate and experiment with new features and technologies, we need to find funding and passionate developers to join our team.
We recognize that young people are accessing a variety of social networking services and their online personalities are spread-out and often disconnected. To help members feel that TakingITGlobal is at the centre of their online experience, we allow them to integrate their use of Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Second Life, LinkedIn, Amazon, and other services and tools into their TakingITGlobal profiles.
The majority of new Internet users around the world no longer speak English as a first language, so engaging these users in their language is a challenge and priority. To address this obstacle, we have developed a comprehensive translations back-end to allow member volunteers (over 250 so far!) to translate the entire site structure into various languages. To date, 11 languages have been translated and launched, and we even send out regular monthly communities now in many of these languages!
- Additional web hosting capacity in various countries
- Volunteer expertise with scaling web applications and database servers across the globe
- An endowment to support our core community engagement & development team to insulate them from funding cycles
- Advertising and promotion in-kind in developed countries to raise awareness about TakingITGlobal to the masses
Future
- 30 Days: Consult with experts on developing a scalable plan for our technology systems
- 60 Days: Launch a series of improvements to enhance usability and connections between members on the site
- 90 Days: Load-balanced servers operational in Asia, Africa, and Europe provide increased capacity and improved access speed to TakingITGlobal members everywhere!
Past
- November 1, 1999: Idea for TakingITGlobal is developed, Action Plan created
- August 2000: First web site launched (profiles, discussion boards, events, organizations), featured in Fast Company
- 2001: Spoke at TED, launched tons of new features (featured members, volunteer program, global gallery, updates [blogs], workshops, e-zine), launched sustainability strategy, featured in TIME Magazine
- 2002: Executive Director Jennifer Corriero named Global Leader for Tommorow by World Economic Forum, TIG finalist in Stockholm Challenge, launched Country Sites and Project pages
- 2003: Received support from Compaq/HP, partnered with UNESCO, finalist in Childnet Awards, launched "Understanding" section to help youth understand global issues, petitions, monthly themes
- 2004: Launch of Guide to Action to support youth action project development, received Canadian government support to send youth interns to partner organizations around the world (UNESCO, Youth Employment Summit, Oxfam International Youth Parliament, Education Development Center, Peace Child International), keynoted NECC conference to promote TIG to over 10,000 educators
- 2005: HIV/AIDS Program launch, broke 1 million hits/day, sent intern to Sierra Leone to foster West African partnerships, developed partnership with ISTE to bring student voices (photoblogging about the future of education) to world's largest Educator conference, launched site in 5 languages
- 2006: Launched site in 6 new languages, launched Education program (TIGed.org) to bring Web 2.0 tools, social networking, and global issues into the classroom. Received grant to expand youth civic engagement in Canada with staff hired in all provinces/territories in Canada.
In 1999, two young Canadians imagined what would happen if young people around the world could join together online to inspire each other, get informed about social issues, and become involved in their communities. Over seven years, TakingITGlobal.org has evolved from this idea into a powerful platform, a "Social Network for Social Good", with an array of programs, inspiring hundreds of thousands of young people to create a better future. A sophisticated technical platform has supported expansion into eleven languages, and Education programming has been developed to ensure a pipeline of engaged youth into the community.
See the case study on us: http://www.netsquared.org/takingitglobal
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Responding to your ideas
Hi all, thanks for your comments on our project posting.
First of all, I wanted to say that we are definitely not and have never been on the "nonprofit gravy train" :)
From the beginning, TakingITGlobal has generated sustainable revenue by licensing our technologies and sharing our expertise with other organizations. We generate a significant portion -- 40-50% -- of our funding by providing services to educators, organizations, and events.
To learn more about our funding & budget, you can look at our
2005 Annual Report - our 2006 report will be done in the next few weeks.
In terms of the profile of our members in developing countries - the average is around 65-75% male, 25-35% female - which is reversed (~35/65) in most of the developed countries. The majority of users are in their mid-20s, and are accessing the Internet from cybercafes or telecentres.
Fostering development and education is a big part of what we are focused on both in the developing and developed world.
In developing countries, we hope that by inspiring young people to take local action, and linking them to opportunities to explore their interests (events, scholarships, organizations, volunteer/work opportunities, etc.) we can support them in pursuing their goals. For those without IT skills, we are launching our Creating Local Connections program across West Africa next month to provide peer-to-peer ICT skills training across Liberia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone - with funding provided by the Open Society Institute.
In the developed world, we are providing educators with training and tools to integrate Web 2.0 technologies, social network, and global content into their instruction. The goal is to provide rich, interactive learning experiences for students, connecting them with global peers, and developing a sense of awareness of the rest of the world, with a focus on the Millennium Development Goals.
good project, but needs a healthy dose of own medicine
You do good work, and are well known for it. But you need to be clear as to why you want to grow and not just grow for growth's sake. Is there a particular demand you have indentified that ONLY you can fill. What is behind your expansion decision. What is your long term goal and vision?
Second, it is every nonprofit's wet dream to get an endowment. If you can get one great. But as an entrepreneurial organization you should instead think more practically about how you can leverage your capabilities and existing partnerships to build the organization out. You certainly have the name and connections to grow, just need to get off the nonprofit gravy train and figure it out. If anyone can figure it out, you guys can!!!
TakingITGlobal
This is very interesting work, and the organization has been cited by a number of groups for its vision and impact.
I suppose I'll start with a mundane question: what is TakingITGlobal's annual budget (if possible, in USD not counting in-kind contributions)? What are your major sources of funding?
On a more theoretical note, I like to know more about how TakingITGlobal fosters human development and education. What is the profile of your user base in developing countries? Do they have their own computers or do they use computers at school, library, house of worship? How does TakingITGlobal connect the online and offline worlds for these young people? Do you have partnerships with schools, etc.?
TakingITGlobal's earned income strategies
Sandra Dickinson
You indicate that you generate a 'significant amount' of earned income to support your mission from licensing your technology platform and from (sounds like) consulting services in re: community-building and engagement.
My first question is: can you describe more fully the features and functionality of the technology platform that you license?
My second question is: how do you work with your community-engagement clients, and what are your fees?
I ask these questions for a number of reasons:
In my own project, I am looking to build a platform - but and so are some of the other projects. I think we don't all need to reinvent the wheel - if the features/functionality of our fellow's platforms meet our own project needs.
In my own project, one of my immediate "obstacles" is participant engagement . This is an area where my project needs expertise that your project may be able to provide. [I mean, if my project ends up being funded from the Technology Innovation Fund, I sure would like to spend it on services I need coming from folks I have met thru this application process! (and I'm discovering that participant engagement is also critical factor for a number of other projects I have reviewed - we all work together so much more effectively!)]
Finally - my own project Selearninggames is dedicated to increasing the profitability of earned income ventures. Because earned income is a significant factor in your financial sustainability model -- your comments and feedback on my own project would be right on target. Please take a look and let me know what you think. Thank you.
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