Cross-posted at:
happyfrog Evolves from Small Amphibian to Mighty Mammal - Say hello to 3rd Whale

A busy year in the pond

Since launching happyfrog.ca just over a year ago, the small band of eco-minded renegades worked hard to help sustainability-focused businesses and organizations gain valuable exposure on the web, and in close conjunction with this effort, help green-minded consumers find these great biz'es and orgs. Over this year, my colleagues and I attended all sorts of trade shows, conferences, meet-ups, presentations and camps to spread the message of sharing eco-smarts with your community. Indeed, we found great joy in seeing the positive impact we've made on green entrepreneurs and shoppers alike.

Evolution to a swimming mammal

Now, change is upon us. happyfrog has made friends with a pod of whales and announces happyfrog.ca has merged with 3rd Whale. This business merger means happyfrog.ca as we all know it will change significantly. Think of it as an evolution from a small amphibian to a giant mammal (and Darwin celebrates!).

The company will go forward as 3rd Whale with the aim of combining the happyfrog directory and social networking platform with 3rd Whale's mobile application (to be released for iPhone on in November, followed by Android and Blackberry versions) to markets down the West coast of North America, and to the world (and beyond! ;-).

Big Thanks

WiserEarth (World Index of Social and Environmental Responsibility) was a Featured Project at the 2nd NetSquared Conference (N2Y2).

They have recently opened up membership to their directory and networking platform to include, "business or government that are creating lasting change in the environmental and social justice fields."

Alexandra Samuel, longtime friend of NetSquared, talks to us about aligning the interests of businesses and NGOs, designing for participation, and how learning to have meaningful conversations online will save the world.

Jed Sundwall: What does Social Signal do?

A business working in what's regarded as nonprofit territory gets some strange reactions,  incomprehension that you're doing stuff with your own funds rather than someone elses.

Whether anyone else here is in similar circunstances, I don't know but there are two most common. "You're doing this stuff and you're a business, you must be a liar and a crook" more amusing the response when in Russia "You want to create businesses for total strangers, you must be crazy, or a communist"

Well I hope we're not taken as liars and crooks, the rest I'm more ambivalent about.        

There's been a few lone voices advocating for business participationin poverty eradication over recent years. Today, in a conversation on the omidyar network, a critical mass seems to have gathered in a conversation which might at last prove to be the tipping point:  

http://www.omidyar.net/group/foodchain/news/207/

Bookmark the page, it might be part of social enterprise history in future! 

I was fascinated to read this article only today advocating a business led approach to the reduction of poverty and terrorism.

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5632.html

In contrast, from our own website a paper from a decade earlier

http://www.p-ced.com/History/tabid/57/Default.aspx

And the relevance here:

http://www.netsquared.org/projects/proposals/targetted-economic-development-for-social-and-economic-empowerment

 economie, a London-based socially responsible investment firm has launched a social network at economie.sossoon.net to lead up to their eco6 conference in October.  According to their press release, the network has all kinds of bells and whistles:

While recommending a new study on blogging from the University of Massachusetts, my most recent post at studio 501c also discusses some of the limitations of the research, and cautions nonprofit bloggers to beware of absolute "truths."

I was running around working during the NetSquared Conference, so I didn't have a chance to take part in many of the sessions, including the Project Sprint portion of the conference, when people self-organized into interest groups around a project.

One of the projects I would have liked to have organized would have been people who wanted to create a workshop, FAQ sheet or some kind of tool, to help nonprofits and NGOs overcome their fear of blogging.The three fears I hear the most from nonprofits that are considering blogging are:

1. Our audience will write nasty comments

2. Our staff will write nasty posts and air our dirty laundry

Emily, creator of the Nonprofit Blog Exchange, asks why nonprofits don't blog. I think it's because blogging is too often touted as a radical, new end in itself, not as a tool in a larger strategy for building relationships with donors, volunteers, members, and clients.

Relatedly, we need to engage more nonprofit communicators and fundraising professionals in the conversation. No matter how well intended they may be, techies and Web gurus often promote blogs and the like without regard for sound principles of nonprofit fundraising and relationship building -- principles that apply online and off.