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All Blog Posts (23)

Act On Those Urges to Give!

Two months ago, Lee Owen (our communications strategist for the NICENetwork) said to me that something that a woman mentioned in a meeting recently kept nagging at her. It was a topic we don't contemplate much in Florida, the land of hot summers and palm trees. The woman witnessed, here in January, kids out waiting for the school bus without jackets. Believe it or not, in Central Florida it can get to be as low as 30 degrees in the early morning during the "winter" and not warm up above 50 some… Continue

Added by Debra J. Berg on October 2, 2009 at 8:35am — 2 Comments

Documenting actions that lead to growth of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs

This chart is on the home page of the Tutor/Mentor Connection OHATS (Organizational History and Tracking System) web site. Every time a recorder documents an action related to the… Continue

Added by Daniel Bassill on August 20, 2009 at 2:32pm — No Comments

NICE Vision ... the plan whose time has come

People have been asking me what my vision for NICE is, so here goes (hang with me, it's pretty painless ...) Problem Statement: The growth in the large volume of start-up human service nonprofits each year in the United States poses three challenges to the industry which are not being addressed effectively: 1. The success stories of human service nonprofits created by U.S. social and civic entrepreneurs are not typically known outside a given non-profit’s city or region. Few research in… Continue

Added by Debra J. Berg on August 10, 2009 at 4:38pm — 2 Comments

Service with a smile

http://pro.netatlantic.com/t/15503599/63732454/86601/0/ I got this video in an email today from David Riklan. I thought it was an appropriate message for this blog. Enjoy! Paula Continue

Added by Paula Dirkes on July 28, 2009 at 11:53am — No Comments

National Conference on Volunteering and Service this week.

The National Conference on Volunteering and Service is being held in San Francisco on June 22 to 24. I'm writing about it on my blog and following on twitter. How are others connecting with what's going on at this event? Continue

Added by Daniel Bassill on June 23, 2009 at 6:07pm — No Comments

Second Life for Nonprofit solutions

I just read in a past edition of the Philanthropy Journal where the MacAarthur Foundation has opened an "island" in the virtual world of Second Life to educate charities and foundations about the potential for growing philanthropy in the virtual world and to allow its grantees to showcase their work and connect with new audiences. What a great idea for other organizations and human service initiatives. Go view: http://www.macfound.org/virtualworld. I'm going to look into this idea for the NICEN… Continue

Added by Debra J. Berg on June 3, 2009 at 10:34am — No Comments

Kids Hope USA and others of interest

Hi Debra and friends, I saw an article in my Chicago SunTimes yesterday titled "Mentors from Churches tutor students". It was written by Betsy Hart, who hosts a blog, radio show, news columns, etc. In this article she was pointing to a group called Kids Hope USA, based out of Michigan. I might have heard about this group in the past, but have had no contact. This illustrates that there are many different mentoring and… Continue

Added by Daniel Bassill on May 22, 2009 at 9:52am — 2 Comments

Twitter tweets and how to spend your time

Stuck in an airport last week and always trying to make time count, I'm now about two-thirds of the way through "Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet and a Time". I'd be curious whether anyone else has read it and successfully incorporated Joel Comm's ideas. He really knows his "tweating" strategies, but I'm wondering if it's worth all the investment of time and interruption he suggests necessary to make it work. Should one be so tied to one's Blackberry? Time is money after all.… Continue

Added by Debra J. Berg on May 17, 2009 at 3:30pm — 7 Comments

Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference in Chicago seeks to draw attention to tutor/mentor programs

The May and November conference that I've hosted in Chicago since 1994 are intended to draw people involved in volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring programs together to network, share ideas, and build collaborations that help each other do better work. However, they are also intended to… Continue

Added by Daniel Bassill on May 14, 2009 at 1:30pm — 2 Comments

Changes, graduation, your story

I'm waxing philosophical today since my daughter is graduating from college on Saturday in Illinois. It's so amazing to see how people's stories unfold. At 24, after five years of challenging study in French horn, our daughter has made it through doubt and a host of other issues to success. In the fall she'll attend Boston U grad school with a very bright performance future ahead of her in a great environment for music. But six months ago, life wasn't so clear. We all have roller coaster experi… Continue

Added by Debra J. Berg on May 7, 2009 at 11:37am — No Comments

Check Out Your Insurance Costs Now to Save Costs

I met with one of our insurance professionals recently who gave me a great tip I want to share with you. He said that many insurers are seeing their revenue fall off because businesses are not paying to keep their insurance current or they are canceling their insurance because they can not afford it. For a business entity, I absolutely encourage you to keep your insurance premiums paid and current; however, there is an opportunity to reduce those premiums and keep the same coverage. Because ins… Continue

Added by Pete Wincup on May 7, 2009 at 10:51am — No Comments

The Power of One Featured in YouPublish

Mark Victor Hansen (of Chicken Soup fame) has launched a site for writers/authors called YouPublish. My book, The Power of One, and an article I submitted for National Volunteer Week was selected as Editor's Pick of the Week. YouPublish offers a great opportunity for anyone who's a writer ... even those writing to promote their cause ... to get noticed. April 28, 2009 YouPublish Feature/Marketing Spotlight More That Meets The Eye Just when you thought YouPublish couldn't get any better, our d… Continue

Added by Debra J. Berg on May 2, 2009 at 1:04pm — 6 Comments

FastCompany Trends - maps, living lean, helping businesses care, more..

Here's a link to FastCompany on trends for 2009 that would be good to incorporate into your mission where you can. I think of Dan Bassill when I think of the mapping trend. I think of every cause here when I think of helping businesses incorporate social causes into their missions. Worth the read ... www.trendwatching.com/trends/halfdozentrends2009/ Continue

Added by Debra J. Berg on April 26, 2009 at 10:44am — 1 Comment

National Volunteer Week April 19-25

What would we do without volunteers? Certainly the NICENetwork.org site wouldn't exist but more importantly, our causes could not have gotten off the ground. People who volunteer know something others who have never volunteered don't know ... you become a better person for it and you receive back more than you give. 52% of American volunteer at some point in the year. The other 48% claim that they would like to but they don't know where to begin. Let's all do our part this year and ask someone t… Continue

Added by Debra J. Berg on April 19, 2009 at 1:46pm — No Comments

Lake County Florida learns about NICE

This is a very recent article in Focus magazine for readers in Lake County (Central) Florida about what we're doing at NICE. If you are ever passing through Lake County on state highway 441 around Eustis and have a heart for mending communities with local solutions, I'd very much enjoy having a chat over coffee with you down at Olivia's.

… Continue

Added by Debra J. Berg on April 15, 2009 at 5:30pm — 2 Comments

Thinking big for the sake of our youth

I'm generally an optimistic person and I pride myself on keeping a positive perspective when reading news headlines. But a couple of articles I've read, frankly, put me in the mindset of " is there any way out of this?" On the less negative side I read a thought-provoking article in the April, 2009 edition of Fast Company about how McDonalds is forming a coalition to put pressure on agribusinesses (like Cargill) to be more green and sustainable in how they raise cattle. The eye-opener and lesso… Continue

Added by Debra J. Berg on March 23, 2009 at 3:00pm — No Comments

Do we need "heroes" or "leaders" to change communities?

Heroes inspire us, set new limits, create new visions of what's possible and remind us of the good that is in each of us. When I wrote The Power of One, I referenced the social innovators in it as "heroes" because they certainly fit this description. But they are more than that.. they are leaders, too. And they are people who's time has come. We are living in a difficult time right now. The economy has hit more people than many of those living today can remember. Without a doubt this is a time f… Continue

Added by Debra J. Berg on March 17, 2009 at 3:00pm — 10 Comments

It's Official! The NICENetwork.org site is up and running!

It's been planned, strategized, and finally it's here! Our NICENetwork.org site is operational. Thanks for visiting and learning more about the civic and social entrepreneurs we celebrate across this nation and the world. Here's the press release going out today to announce this unique online effort to bring good ideas to more people. Creative Citizens Soften Impact of Tough Economy with New Network (Eustis, Florida – March 11, 2009) – Not everyone is feeling helpless in this down economy. “Cr… Continue

Added by Debra J. Berg on March 11, 2009 at 11:41am — No Comments

NICENetwork.org Launch - Get Inspiration, role models, and help for your initiative

I have joyfully spent the last decade uncovering and researching hundreds of initiatives launched by everyday people in cities across America. (All of this research is self-funded, by the way.) I found that most civic/social entrepreneurs have been so busy doing what they do, they haven't realized what they now know and have to offer others. And few people have spent the time and resources to uncover that knowledge. That's why we developed this Forum! As a doorway to this NICE Community Forum,… Continue

Added by Debra J. Berg on March 5, 2009 at 12:40pm — No Comments

Lee Owen's Intro

President and owner, WritePointMedia, Inc. My background is in business-to-business marketing, non-profits, and writing/editing. Most of my life I’ve been involved with start-up situations. I really enjoy the creative process of defining a new venture then collaborating with others to make it happen, and that’s one of my goals at WritePointMedia—to collaborate with businesses, non-profits, and existing/aspiring authors to help them define and reach their goals. My corporate experience ranges f… Continue

Added by Lee on February 18, 2009 at 8:22pm — No Comments

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