FreePledge is a young for-profit social venture that aims to help nonprofits tap into the Internet and technologies.
FreePledge has leveraged the power of growing e-commerce market to empower nonprofit organizations.

Users go through FreePledge for their online shopping, they pay exactly the same price as they would otherwise and a percentage of their purchases is donated to the nonprofit of their choice at no cost to them (or to the nonprofit).

Partnered online stores include Amazon, Ebay, Orbitz, shop.com, Target, BestBuy, Apple and many more.

The Cedar Cultural Center is a nonprofit music venue in Minneapolis, MN. August 23, 2006 The Cedar launched a new web site. The site was built in collaboration with Cruiskeen Consulting LLC

The new site has many features. It is very rich in audio and video material, and features information about upcoming performances.

One of the most exciting upcoming events at The Cedar is the annual Nordic Roots Festival, which features music from the Nordic countries. 

More information about The Cedar: 

The Cedar (also known as the Cedar Cultural Center) is a highly eclectic music venue located in the vibrant West Bank district of Minneapolis. Renowned for hosting some of the best acts in folk, blues, jazz, indie rock and world music in an intimate space, the Cedar is a 501(c)3 non-profit, largely volunteer-driven organization and welcomes your support!

Mission

The Cedar's mission is to promote inter-cultural appreciation and understanding through the presentation of global music and dance. The Cedar is committed to artistic excellence and integrity, diversity of programming, support for emerging artists, and community outreach.

History

The Cedar is located in the historic Cedar Theater building, which opened in 1948 and operated as a movie theater until the 1970’s before falling into disuse. The Cedar Cultural Center was established in 1989 when local real estate magnate Keith Heller donated the theater to a non-profit started by Deb Martin and Mary Ann Dotsen, Minnesota STAR (Society for Traditional Arts and Resources). Their mission was “to support the preservation of cultural diversity by promoting and presenting traditional music and dance of many cultures.” Bill Kubeczko has been the artistic and executive director since 1993, and with the help of a small, dedicated staff and a legion of energetic volunteers, the Cedar has been presenting 150 or more high-quality shows every year since.

Arts Engine, Inc. supports, produces, and distributes independent media of consequence and promotes the use of independent media by advocates, educators and the general public. By fostering the production and use of independent film, video and new media, Arts Engine connects media makers and active audiences in order to spur critical consideration of pressing social issues.

Our projects include:

Big Mouth Films
Big Mouth Films produces feature-length, social issue documentaries independently and in collaboration with numerous companies and organizations. Big Mouth is best known for the Emmy-nominated film Deadline, a compelling exploration of the events surrounding governor George Ryan's commutation of 167 death sentences in Illinois.
www.artsengine.net/projects

MediaRights.org
MediaRights helps media makers, educators, librarians, nonprofits, and activists use documentaries and shorts to encourage action and inspire dialogue on contemporary social issues.
www.mediarights.org

Media That Matters Film Festival
The Media That Matters Film Festival brings high-impact shorts and Take Action tools to audiences around the country all year long through distribution of a DVD with all sixteen films, Web streaming, broadcasts and community screenings.
www.mediathatmattersfest.org

YMDi
The Youth Media Distribution Initiative (YMDi.org) is a comprehensive series of online and offline programs that boost the distribution and impact of youth-made films.
www.YMDi.org

For a full project description, along with additional screenshots and content samples, see www.kiwanja.net/wildlive!.htm

Blacktie is an organization that provides a variety of internet tools to
nonprofit organizations and philanthropists.  We form "community" around a
centralized website.  For more information, go to: www.blacktie-colorado.com

Hands On Bay Area Day is an event during which twelve-hundred volunteers at 51 community service projects across the Bay Area completed more than 7,000 hours of service valued at more than $120,000. This day is also the biggest fundraising event for Hands On Bay Area, when a large part of its budget is acquired through donations raised by volunteers. It is an organization that provides year-round service to the community.

Hands On Bay Area is a unique organization with a mission to mobilize communities to action. Many people find it difficult to volunteer for several reasons: trouble choosing what activity to do; the long-term commitment often required by organizations; and the number of hours organizations request weekly or monthly of volunteers. 

What HOBA does is eliminate these barriers by acting as a liaison between volunteers and organizations and coordinating projects that make it easy to volunteer and help organizations meet their needs. They use an interactive database and email to do so.

Each month HOBA offers hundreds of meaningful volunteer projects coordinated with over 300 agencies. Hands On Bay Area projects each have a project leader who acts as the contact person for volunteers and ensures events go smoothly at the site. People interested in volunteering sign up for a one-hour orientation with HOBA, at which they learn about HOBA and how to sign up for projects. They are given an account on the website, and after it's activated, they can peruse the calendar and sign themselves up for projects. The volunteers control how often they do a project and how many projects they complete. HOBA simply asks that volunteers try to complete two projects annually.

Hands On Bay Area offers a wide array of projects: promoting literacy, maintaining parks, providing meals at homeless shelters, mentoring children, socializing with senior citizens, and much more. Volunteers often develop friendships as the encounter each other on various projects. There is also a team activity, where groups of people can sign up to participate in a set number of projects that focus on an impact area; by doing this, they deepen their knowledge about the issue and develop community together.

"Earth Share of Washington is 66 leading environmental organizations that help to protect our environment and quality of life - locally, nationally and internationally. Earth Share of Washington partners with businesses and government agencies to encourage employees to give to the environment at work through payroll giving programs, volunteer projects and involvement in our annual Day in the Park."

This site makes it easy for someone (in Washinton) to locate opportunites to participate in efforts to protect the environment. By aggregating activities sponsored by 66 different organizations and presenting multiple paths to engagement the site makes it very easy for a user to locate an activity that fits their skills and abilities.

The Earth Share site is firmly focused on task and this echoes through the site. Navigation is easy and clear. Users can subscribe, via email, to a monthly newsletter or syndicate news content.

Monetray donations are handled through "Groundspring.org" , a third party donation processing site.

Dave Manelski, the group's Program Coordinator and Webmaster was recently interviewed for Net Squared.

"Welcome to Grameen Foundation USA... a dynamic, nonprofit organization that uses microfinance and innovative technology to fight global poverty and bring opportunities to the world's poorest people."

This site introduces users to microfinance and one organization working to engage in social change through small scale loan, financial service and technology. It is effectively crafted to both introduce new visitors to  the key concepts and works of the Grameeen Foundation and also allow return visitors to explore their projects in greater depth and take action by either contributing to the foundation or recieving email updates.

Te Grameen Foundation site uses feedburner (http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/home) to enable users to subscribe to their rss feed. Syndication provides another pathway to interested users, outside of the traditional email messages. RSS can be an effective method...if you wish to capture tech savvy users. For many old fashioned email provides the safe secure and known method for recieving updates. This site, like many others, offers both options which makes sense online, given the varying degrees of technical sophistication surfers bring to a site.

The sites "get Involved" tab brings users to a page offering a numer of ways a visitor may interact with the Foundation.This includes donating, subscribing to email updates and a "Spread the Word" section which includes a link to a unique (to me) service called Word of Blog ( http://www.wordofblog.net/index.php) which lets you create a "badge" for your own web page which links users back to (in this case) the Grameen Foundation site.

Providing Internet access, website hostng, media development and training for partnering organizations and communities effected by the Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.

Coming Soon:

New Orleans Voices For Peace Mobile Media Lab

* Our goal is to assemble a Web 2.0 mutual empowerment mobile media labs which will provide technological access in the name of solidarity.

MISSION:
*With an understanding of culture, class and racial divides we strive to engage in mutual empowerment of residents, activists and grassroots organizations in the Gulf Coast region who have been left without a voice in the digital age. In short, to give voice to the voiceless.

*In order to create fusion in ideas and put those ideas to action the Mobile Media Lab will provide a common ground where organizations working from all over the spectrum can unite in order to bridge the disconnect often found between local organizations and our natural allies working on a national level.

*We will do this by providing free internet access and conducting multimedia training(s) in a mobile media lab where Gulf Coast residents and area organizations can create testimony to their continuous struggles and document progress made since the disaster. To properly address the clear connections between the disaster in New Orleans as a microcosm of the injustices created by Western Society, we will provide technological assistance and education to aid in the assembly of folk stories related to the tragedy of New Orleans. This project can be conducted both locally and throughout the diaspora.

PROJECT:
*Create a mobile news team to document events in NOLA, and around the country (demonstrations, disaster relief, educational tours, etc.). In addition, we will promote training with partnering organizations in media production.

*Provide an open source web portal to both socialize and focus the information of all participants. This will be conducted through the following hosts: http://www.neworleansvfp.org, http://neworleansnetwork.org http://www.commongroundrelief.org, http://www.ivawdeployed.org, and others.

*Create a mobile computer literacy lab to remove the technological hurdles to equal media access (including printing, fax, internet skills, social networking, & access/management of information that has been recorded).

POSSIBLE COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS:
*9th ward history project -mapping the history of the residents in the 9th Ward, documenting their survival, rescue, relocation and recovery through collaboration with residents, volunteers, universities, faith-based groups, and grassroots organizations.

PARTNERING ORGANIZATIONS:
United Peace Relief (http://www.unitedpeacerelief.org)
Common Ground Relief (http://www.commongroundrelief.org)
New Orleans Voices For Peace (http://www.neworleansvfp.org)

PASSED INTERNET ACCESS AND MOBILE MEDIA LAB PROJECTS:
Veterans For Peace, chapter 116, Internet access, IMPEACHMENT BUS
CAMP CASEY I, Internet access, Crawford, TX
Camp Covington, Internet access, Covington, LA
Common Ground Relief, Internet Access, New Orleans, LA
Emergency Communities, Internet access, Buras, LA
Four Directions Solidarity Network, Internet access, Dulac, LA
Camp Liberty, Internet Access, Slidell, LA

PROGRAM NEEDS:
*media equipment - imacs, audio/video equipment, satellite Internet, digital video and still cameras, digital videon projector, PA system.

TRANSPORTATION NEEDS:
*Bus - Retired school buses or entertainer tour buses.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT
Mobile Media Lab will generate operating capital and travel budgets through grants, contracting of production services, retail sales of concessions, tickets and soliciting donations.

More information (http://www.neworleansvfp.org/node/2269)

Contact: gordonsoderberg@mac.com
504 613-0174