What does climate change mean to you? In the UK it often feels like a series of scientific debates and middle class people wondering if we’ll have a thriving wine industry in 30 years.

For many children in the developing world, though, it means destruction, death, poverty and no chance to go to school. Climate change is happening now and it is the most vulnerable children in countries not responsible for messing with our climate that are paying the price.

UNICEF – Climate kid shows you how children will have to adapt if we do nothing.

The World’s governments know all about the challenge of climate change. At the Copenhagen climate conference in 2009 developed countries promised to raise an extra $100 billion a year by 2020 for developing countries for climate change. This money is to be evenly split between trying to prevent further rises in global temperatures and helping to adapt Read more…

A few months ago whilst catching up on the latest social media news I came across the “Social Good Summit” – an annual conference hosted by Mashable, 92nd Street Y, and the United Nations Foundation aimed at bringing together technologists, thought leaders and passionate activists to unlock the potential of new media and technology to make the world a better place.

Why not?

Since I was heading back to North America for a few months, and seeing that Ted Turner, Lance Armstrong and Doug Ulman were going to be amongst some of the notable speakers, I thought to myself, “Why not grab a couple of tickets and use this as a reason to visit New York?”.

Afterall, it’s an opportunity to connect with some amazing people and organizations involved in social good.

At first I thought it was just going to be a small event, however as the weeks rolled by more and more Read more…

The earthquake in Japan occurred months ago, but there are still many areas of the country that need support. Last month, American Express set out to reignite attention and support for the relief efforts by launching “Friends of Japan,” its first-ever global social media program on Facebook.

Friends of Japan is a social, word-of-mouth campaign that builds upon previous contributions and fundraising activities by Amex since the disaster struck.

The campaign encourages people from around the world to share messages of hope through the Amex Facebook page (facebook.com/americanexpressjapan). Visitors from around the world will receive a customized experience based on their location, as the “Friends of Japan” area on the page will be translated into Chinese, English, French, German, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish.

Visitors can select one of four messages or create their own messages of hope for Japan, in the form of a virtual postcard. American Express will donate $1 for every Read more…

Social entrepreneurs – What if you could capture the power of a crowd to fund your next big project?

Donors – What if you could connect with the organization that you help in a more personal way?

StartSomeGood provides a community platform where social entrepreneurs and enthusiastic supporters can connect.  It uses a hybrid crowdfunding model (think Kickstarter but with a tipping point and a social entrepreneurship twist) to help organizations fundraise various projects.

How does it work?

Each venture has a profile on StartSomeGood where it can write about its story, a social problem, and its proposed solution to the problem.  The venture also has a campaign page where it can lobby for support for a current project that it is working on.  It defines a tipping point goal and an overall fundraising goal.  The tipping point is the minimum amount the venture needs to truly start its project—without that amount of money Read more…

“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?” – TakingITGlobal Co-Founder Jennifer Corriero

You’re a young person just beginning to carve your path in life. You have big dreams, you’re enthusiastic, and you know you can make the world a better place. Like many young people today, you’re also connected to a large circle of friends through social networking and social media tools like Facebook and Twitter.

The only problem is you aren’t quite sure how to access a combination of these resources to further understand and impact the world in a positive way.

Not to worry! TakingITGlobal (TIG) is here to help!

An Online Youth Community Dedicated to Positive Social Change

Created in 1999 by Co-founders Michael Furdyk and Jennifer Corriero, www.tigweb.org is an international online community dedicated to empowering Read more…

Oh the irony.

I have been feeling a little guilty that I just haven’t had time to work on my next TheSociallyConsciousBlog article. Things have gotten so busy lately. I was looking around our TSCB website bank, searching for inspiration and riddled with guilt when I decided to randomly click on a link. Low and behold I should land on Sparked.com – the “easy, social, online volunteering for busy people.”

I think it’s a sign.

Of course I’m not the only one who is busy. 73% of Americans (and about the same for Canadians) don’t volunteer and cite lack of time as the major reason. Sparked makes it easy for skilled professionals to help nonprofits get valuable work done, in a time frame that fits in with the demands of a full-time job. Sparked is labeled as the world’s first micro-volunteering network.

What is micro-volunteering you ask?

Well one of Sparked’s co-founders, Ben Rigby Read more…

Education for most people around the world is not free.

It actually costs money – and a lot of it.

I’m not going to delve into the numbers too much (as they vary according to country and grade level), however picture this for a moment…

The cost of raising a child alone (form birth to age 17) is approximately $182,857.

17% of that is child education = $31,085.69. If education costs money, it becomes an expense – and essentially schools become a business, and a business’ responsibility is to cater to the bottom line – profit.

Education = Expense
Schools = Business
Education = Profit

In today’s consolidating economy, people are getting paid less to do more, yet the cost of education continues to rise at an average rate of 6% annually.

If a parent’s income suffers in any way, they’re forced to make a very tough decision – one that may force them to pull their child out Read more…

A South Asian boy name Iqbal was living a life of slavery by the age of four.  Then he spoke out internationally about children’s rights.

A single article in the Toronto Star about Iqbal grabbed the attention of 12-year old Craig Kielbuger. He learned that even a child’s single voice can have an incredible strength behind it.

On that day in 1995, Free the Children was born.

Children’s Networking

Today, Free the Children is the world’s largest network of children helping children through education.  It encompasses one million adolescent across 45 countries.

But this is just the beginning.

Craig and his brother, Marc, have traveled the world countless times.  Each trip has given them more memories, ideas and inspirations.  On a certain trip to Ecuador, citizens came to their aid after walking many hours and knowing they would not receive anything in return.  This experience both puzzled and amazed the Kielburger brothers.

“A movement of people who Read more…