July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Nonprofits are waking up to the benefits of having a mobile and social media strategy.

Cure.org raises money for children in need, and it’s experimenting with a suite of mobile apps to draw attention to the cause.

Launching this week, the company’s new iPhone app features profiles of kids in developing countries who desperately require surgeries. You can donate directly through the app and receive real-time updates on the patient’s progress.

Cure was founded in Kenya in 1998 when it opened a new hospital. Since then, the nonprofit has served 1.9 million patients and provided over 138,000 life-changing surgeries in 27 countries. Along with medical treatment, Cure has a spiritual mission, but it says it will treat patients regardless of their religious affiliation.

CTO Joel Worrall, who joined the company over three years ago, was one of the first technology hires. “My goal is to show donors that when they give $1,000, it’s really changing someone’s life,” he told me.

Inspired by crowdfunding sites, the new app features a progress bar on each patient’s profile page [below] to show how much money has been raised to date. Once the target is reached — typically a few thousand dollars — the surgery is scheduled, and donors will be regularly updated on the patient’s recovery.

Once you’ve made a donation, the app invites you to send a get-well message. If there’s a language or literacy barrier, Cure.org claims its on the ground team will translate the messages and ensure they’re received.

Cure.org’s technology is cloud-based, so Worrall can quickly fix any issues. He said the company is using application performance service New Relic to monitor the app’s performance.

Cure.org hopes that by adding a personal, human touch to its app, more people will be inspired to make a donation. For instance, Allan [above] has clubfoot, a condition he was born with that left him feeling alienated from his peers. The app includes detailed information about his family life, schooling, and upbringing.

“This technology is doing a great thing for the kids that we are serving,” said Worrall. “Our goal is to make you feel close to someone on the other side of the world.”

Top image via Cure.org

Today, TripAdvisor and Kiva are announcing a partnership that will help with the ‘how.’

Kiva is a non-profit organization that facilities microfinance loans to sustainably fight poverty. The platform connects lenders with borrowers who use the money to create opportunities for themselves. Kiva works with individuals and partner organizations around the world to create a database of borrowers who post profiles with their intended project. This could be anything from giving a Kenyan farmer capital to buy livestock to helping a Phillippino store owner stock her store. Lenders offer a loan as small as $25, receive progress updates, and get paid back as soon as the entrepreneur is able.

As part of the partnership, TripAdvisor will make Kiva loans on behalf of its community. When a traveler submits a TripAdvisor review for a Kiva country, they will be offered the opportunity to select who they want to fund, and TripAdvisor will make a $25 loan. The first phase will fund $250K in loans, at no cost to the traveler.

“There is an overlap between the Kiva spirit and the spirit of what our community does,” said TripAdvisor CMO Barbara Messing. “Travelers to developing countries often feel like they want to do more. They enjoy the hotels and the food but realize folks in that country need more than a smile, they need resources. This partnership says to a traveler ‘hey, you just had a great trip, and here is a real and meaningful way for you to give back.’”

One of Kiva’s core goals is to help people achieve financial independence. The site emphasizes the story behind each entrepreneur to create a lasting connection between borrowers and lenders. This aligns with TripAdvisor’s brand as well, which in its own way, provides a channel for travelers to share their experiences.

“When you see someone and hear their story, it creates empathy,” said Kiva President Premal Shah on a Skype call from Sierra Leone. “Empathy creates generosity, and complete strangers are willing to lend each other money. What fosters and sustains that trust is when the money is repaid and can be loaned again and again. This is why the TripAdvisor partnership makes sense — as global citizens, none of us are visitors. We are connected, and this is never more clear than when we travel. Through this partnership, you can continue the affinity for the places you visit after you leave.”

Shah said the world is shrinking, and mobile technology is spreading to even the most remote corners of the globe. These trends, combined with developments in crowdsourcing and payments technology, have a profound impact on access to capital. Put that together with the 60 million monthly visitors to TripAdvisor, and you get thousands upon thousands of people whose lives will never be the same.

Large tech companies have a rich tradition of “giving back” and more of their billionaire founders than ever pledging to give half their wealth to charity. But titans like Google, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft aren’t the only companies donating money to social causes. Startups, even those strapped for cash, are also finding creative ways to support social causes.

As an entrepreneur I know how difficult it can be to even think about charity when you’re hurting for cash, not yet profitable, and working 12-hour days just to keep on top of the demands associated with hyper-growth. But I also know most Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have a unique DNA that compels them to not only create success and wealth for their companies — they also give back to the community at large.

While some of Silicon Valley is comprised of a few massive companies, it is primarily made up of thousands of startups. If every startup found a way to participate in philanthropic giving in some way, no matter how small, the collective impact would be huge.

Startups don’t have their own foundations, heaps of cash to give away, or lots of time to run charitable programs. But every company and every individual can find a way to give back, supporting the idea of “universal philanthropy.” And there are creative ways to go about doing so. Here are my five recommendations for startups to consider:

Find the right match

Choose an organization to support that fits with your company’s values. Whether you fund one charity for the long haul, or choose a new one each year, it’s important the organization supports a program aligned with your company’s vision and values. My company chose to support the Mona Foundation. Mona supports causes our management and employees believe in, including education for women and girls, as we believe mothers will often be the first educators of future generations. The organization does not promote traditional charitable giving, but rather they support social and economic development. They look for schools organized and established by people who live in the communities they serve and support projects that have long-term sustainability.

This was an entrepreneurial model that resonated with our company’s DNA. To select your charities, do a bit of research, read through their multiyear plans, visit the places they’re doing work, and ask a lot of questions. When you find the charity or charities that “fit” with your company’s vision, it will be obvious.

In my company’s case, we actually traveled to Africa and visited a few of the projects that Mona was supporting. Depending on the size of the foundation and the relative size of your contributions, it may make sense to ask for a seat on their board of advisers or directors.

Give 1 percent of your EBIDTA or profits

Once you’ve identified the charities you want to support, consider setting up a simple, ongoing way to give. The easiest way for a startup to donate money is to give 1 percent of your EBIDTA. This model works well for startups for two reasons. First, it’s simply calculated as part of your budget and becomes a line item you can expect from year to year. Second, it’s a profit-sharing model that rewards the charity with more funds as your company improves performance. If you go through lean times, the charity gets less. The 1 percent of EBIDTA model gives an extra incentive to everyone in the company to deliver the most profitable growth possible.

Get employees involved

If you involve your employees in your charitable program from the beginning, they’ll be more eager to support the cause. Invite representatives from the charities you support to your office for special events, allow employees to volunteer at the charity during work hours, and support them if they want to get more involved. At my company, we have gone on trips to Tanzania and Haiti to experience the actual projects first-hand. Many of our employees choose to contribute some of their salary to the foundation that we’ve adopted or donate to charities of their own — even though we don’t require it. By creating a culture of giving, employees will participate on their own accord and will further help the overall impact.

Give, even if you don’t have profits

Many startups aren’t yet profitable, but that doesn’t mean they can’t donate to charity. In the absence of profits, you can give 1 percent of your company’s equity to a charitable organization or foundation. This is an incredibly generous gift, because you’re donating your company’s future upside. It’s fairly straightforward to draw up a contract giving 1 percent of your company to a charity. I would argue every company can spare 1 percent of its value for a good cause.

Become an agent of change

Creating a culture of giving within your own company is just the first step toward fostering universal philanthropy in Silicon Valley and beyond. Aim to set an example by publicizing your charitable endeavors and encouraging other startups to follow suit. Host industry events where you invite charities to present, and use social media to share your experiences with charitable giving. Many startups believe they don’t have the time or resources to be philanthropic, but once they learn about innovative charitable models, they’ll realize there are always ways to give back.

Payam Zamani is a veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur. As the CEO of Reply.com, Payam introduced the concept of adopting a foundation as part of his business plan with the goal of making philanthropy part of the company’s corporate fiber. For the past seven years, Reply.com has been donating 1% of its profits to the Mona Foundation to help build schools across the globe. In 2009, Payam joined Mona Foundation’s board of advisers. In his spare time, he also serves on the board of directors or advisers for SoulPancake, Fundly, Les Concierges, TheRealReal, and CrowdMob.

Hand holding the heart image via file404/Shutterstock

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N.R. Narayana Murthy is one of the most powerful people in India.

He created Infosys, one of his country’s most important companies which brought IT outsourcing in India. He sits on the boards and councils at Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, as well as corporations such as Unilever and Ford. He is a tech advisor to several countries in Asia. By anyone’s measure, he’s one of the rare “masters of the universe” whose decisions control the fate of many others.

He is also a philanthropist and humanitarian with a passion for bringing more technology, more education, and a higher quality of life to rural areas and urban centers in India; and he is often named as one of the nation’s great heroes.

Today, Murthy has been named the recipient of the 2012 James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award, part of the prestigious Tech Awards presented each fall in Silicon Valley to companies and individuals whose work has shown significant and global social impact.

“Narayana Murthy’s work has helped to position India as a global technology leader and has raised awareness about serious social issues in that country and around the world,” said Tech Museum President Tim Ritchie in a statement on the award. “Murthy’s commitment to social good is an inspiration and his work exemplifies the values we should all strive to embody.”

In 1981, Murthy co-founded Infosys with a small sum of money borrowed from his wife. Today, Infosys is one of the country’s largest and best companies, and was the first Indian company to be listed on an American stock exchange.

But with all that success came some bitter concerns, as well. Infosys was instrumental in the advent of outsourcing and the business of globalization, largely through Murthy’s own design of the Global Delivery Model.

But as more IT work came to India, the country did not see the economic boom it had hoped for. “The disposable income of rural people has actually dipped,” Murthy said to reporters in 2006.

“They’re saying: ‘Is this globalization? Is this all we’re going to get?’”

So, with the millions of India’s poor in mind, Murthy shifted his focus from profit-focused IT to human-focused social work.

In 1996, his company established the Infosys Foundation to do work in the areas most critical to Indian life and culture: health care, social rehabilitation and rural uplift, education, and the arts. Murthy’s wife, an author and social worker, has been particularly involved in the Foundation’s efforts, as well.

In his book, A Better India, a Better World, Murthy outlines his values and plan for his country as told through a series of speeches given throughout his career: That the globalization and development brought on by companies like Infosys would not lead only to the prosperity of a few but to the betterment of all.

“The power of money is the power to give, and I work to embody this mantra throughout my work,” said Murthy in a statement today.

“The Global Humanitarian Award is a great honor. I have seen how technology can impact social good, and philanthropy has been a central part of my life. I have always felt that one’s personal wealth should be seen as an opportunity to influence societal improvements.”

Past recipients of the award include Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and Applied Materials’ Chairman Emeritus James C. Morgan, for whom the award is named.

Following the example set by philanthropists like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, the venture capitalists at Andreessen Horowitz have made a joint pledge to donate at least half of their substantial incomes to charity.

The firm’s six general partners all made the commitment, which was announced today in a blog post by founding partner Marc Andreessen. It’s a public promise to “donate at least half of all income from our venture capital careers to philanthropic causes during our lifetimes.” That includes income from salaries, investments, and the “carry” that each partner collects as a share of the firm’s profit from its funds.

“It’s our way to give back,” founding partner Ben Horowitz said in a call with VentureBeat today. “We feel that we’re part of the Silicon Valley team, and because we’re in venture capital, we wind up making more money than, say, a local schoolteacher, but not because we’re smarter or doing a better job.”

“We very much appreciate the position we’re in and being able to do what we do,” Horowitz continued. “We’re just trying to give back.”

Plus, Horowitz said, the partners don’t have expensive hobbies like playing polo, flying balloons around the world, or building spaceships, so they decided to put their wealth into something productive.

Horowitz acknowledged the example set by Buffett, who has pledged to donate the majority of his fortune to charity, and has encouraged other wealthy individuals to do the same. He and Andreessen also gave credit to other individual venture capitalists, such as John Doerr and Michael Moritz, who have been active philanthropists and have “set a great example.”

This is the first such pledge on behalf of an entire firm that we know of, however.

Andreessen acknowledged the influence of his wife, Laura Andreessen, who teaches philanthropy at Stanford, has started a philanthropy research institute at the university, and is the author of “Giving 2.0,” a recent book on the topic.

“She’s teaching me a thing or two,” Andreessen said.

The firm kicked off its pledge with a donation of a collection $1 million to six local, Silicon Valley-based charities. The charities each partner is funding are as follows:

• Ben and Felicia Horowitz: Via Services
• Jeff and Karen Jordan: Ecumenical Hunger Program
• John O’Farrell and Gloria Principe: Second Harvest Food Bank
• Marc and Laura Andreessen: Fresh Lifelines for Youth
• Peter and Martha Levine: Canopy
• Scott and Pamela Weiss: The Shelter Network

That’s just the first of what the partners hope will be many more substantial gifts to come. However, they haven’t put a dollar amount or a goal on their pledge, as it depends on how much profit the firm’s funds produce.

“We have very big dreams of being a very big venture capital firm and returning billions of dollars to our investors and generating billions of dollars in carry,” said Horowitz. “But of course we could fall on our faces and generate nothing,” which would leave nothing for charity.

That seems unlikely: The firm’s first fund has already returned almost the entire $300 million its investors pledged, after less than three years, which means it’s well on pace to return substantial profits over the rest of the fund’s 10-year lifespan.

Cook told Apple employees that the company has donated $50 million to Stanford’s hospital, the Verge reported. In addition, Cook also talked at length about Apple’s participation in (Product) RED, a charity fighting against AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. According to Cook, another $50 million has been donated to (Product) RED, though it’s unclear if the money came solely from the sale of (Product) RED branded iPods and iPad Smart Covers or if Apple donated additional money as well.

Before former Apple CEO Steve Jobs passed away, many people brought up the fact that he hadn’t personally contributed any of his estimated $3.8 billion wealth to charity. A New York Times column also pointed out that Jobs declined to join Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in the Giving Pledge, a charity that encourages wealthy Americans to donate half of their wealth to charity. And, according to the the book “Inside Apple”, Jobs at one time mentioned to employees that giving away money was a waste of time.

It’s clear that in regards to giving money away, Cook takes the opposite stance. Shortly after Cook took over, he announced a new employee matching donation program, in which Apple matches up to $10,000 per year for the charitable contributions its employees make.

But Apple’s charity efforts fall short when you look at the $97.7 billion the company now has in cash. The reported $150 million that Apple has given away is a small drop in the bucket even compared to $46.33 billion, the revenue Apple made in the first quarter of 2012. In addition, the labor issues stemming from Foxconn, the company that manufacturers the iPhone and other Apple products, only hurts the company’s newly found charitable image.

Even with Cook’s plans to step up charity efforts, it’s still a mysterious part of the company. Do a search of Apple’s site and you’ll have a hard time finding any information about community outreach or company donations. Heck, search the web for “apple charity donations” and the only hit you’ll get from Apple is from its Australian website. If Apple does have an official charitable contribution policy, it sure does a good job of hiding it.

There are a few ways to give back to your community. Have a bake sale,  donate clothes to the Goodwill, or call up your good buddy Rainn Wilson and throw a party in Palo Alto for charity.

That’s exactly what Payam Zamani, chief executive officer of Reply.com, did to raise awareness for an organization close to his heart: the Mona Foundation, which is focused on improving education around the world, particularly for women.

“He’s one of those celebrities you don’t come across very often,” Zamani said of Wilson.

Wilson, who is best known for his character Dwight Schrute on NBC’s The Office, met Zamani five years ago on a trip to Haiti the two took volunteering for the Mona Foundation. Aside from his paper salesman fame, Wilson is a big supporter of the Mona Foundation and is now challenging Silicon Valley companies to open their coffers to annual charitable donations.

Rainn Wilson and Payam Zamani at the Rosewood Hotel

The two put on a fundraiser at the Rosewood Hotel in Palo Alto California on Monday to raise awareness for the organization and implore Silicon Valley to be more philanthropic.

Five years ago, after vetting the Mona Foundation himself, Payam lobbied the board of his company, local online advertising marketplace Reply.com, to donate one percent of all its profits to Mona each year. He sees no reason other companies shouldn’t do the same. Wilson, whose one wish for the Mona Foundation would be “cash,” also sees a need for bigger organizations to step in and “make it a yearly thing for your company.”

Zamani explained Mona Foundation’s core as being very entrepreneurial. Indeed, its donation structure almost acts like a venture capitalist. The organization goes to resource-poor communities all around the world and finds what is already working. VCs don’t find failing companies and step in, they find what is already successful and support its growth.

One neighborhood may have a school that is already running, but in great need. Others may have a budding medical program, but could benefit from a financial push in the right direction. The difference is, that “right direction” isn’t fully determined by the Mona Foundation. Similar to a VC, Mona vets the community’s project, sees if it is really sustainable and headed for success. It then consults the people who run the program, and doesn’t dictate how donated money should be used, but instead asks what the program wants.

At the reception, Wilson recalled a book he had read about the outside world forcing its views on in-need communities. This particular community had thatched roofs and the villagers worked as shepherds. Not far from the thatched houses, however, was a set of empty condominiums, built by a charitable organization’s efforts. When the villagers were asked why they were not using the condominiums, they had an interesting answer.

What the condominium builders didn’t understand was the importance of the villagers’ sheep. They would be eaten in the night if not protected, so the villagers brought them inside the thatched houses at night for safe keeping. The villagers would not be able to bring sheep up the condominium stairs, and thus the buildings went to waste. Mona respects this division of knowing “what’s best” and honoring what the local program leaders know is best.

Rainn Wilson speaks of the Mona Foundation

Like a VC, the foundation doesn’t give the money and run either. It sticks around to advise and watch the community’s progress.

Venture firms in Silicon Valley can also play a big role in giving back, bigger than simply giving its own money. For Zamani, getting venture capitalists to encourage portfolio companies to follow in Reply.com’s footsteps would be a great start. Giving profit to charity is sometimes hard to convince boards of, and having the VC’s support would help facilitate that conversation.

When VentureBeat asked Wilson what he thinks of celebrity investors and whether they should invest more time in philanthropy, Wilson said, “I think that we can do it all. We can have our creative lives, we can have our business lives, and we can have our lives that are focused on making the world a better place.”

During his talk, Wilson expressed how important women are to the Mona Foundation, and the belief that young girls will really be the purveyors of knowledge for their communities. He joked that if we educate boys, they’ll become cab drivers in the big cities, and highlighted the importance of educating the girls who will return to their families and villages. So in keeping with that theme, what technology company would Wilson like to see most get involved with the Mona Foundation? Well, that would be “Internet company” Boobs.com, which probably sees a ton of traffic. So, donate, Boobs.com, Rainn Wilson compels you. (Click the link, I dare you.)

Watch our video interview with Rainn Wilson and Payam Zamani to get the down-low on their hopes for Silicon Valley philanthropy.

If you’d like to donate to the Mona Foundation, you can find more information here.

Photos courtesy of Mark Tuschman

Hewlett-Packard

The change in policy makes sense, as the value of HP’s technology expertise could be far more useful, in conjunction with a donation, than just writing checks to charities, said Paul Ellingstad, a director in the office of global social innovation at HP, in an interview. Throwing brain power at a problem could do more good than just throwing money at it.

Announced at the Digital Life Design conference today in Munich, the HP program will help nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) such as mothers2mothers, a South African group that helps prevent the transmission of the AIDS virus from HIV-positive pregnant mothers to their children.

“We shifted our thinking about 14 months ago,” said Ellingstad. “We have focused on education and health and want to make sure our philanthropic efforts are more effective.”

HP will consider giving cash, materials, expertise, and employee time.

HP will use new database, cloud and mobile services technology to convert mothers2mothers’ paper-based patient records into digital form so that information can be shared across more than 700 sites in sub-Saharan Africa. That will enable counselors provide more effective education and support services to pregnant mothers. The system will provide updated information on patient treatment plans and advanced reporting tools.

The m2m employees will be able to collect and share data via basic mobile phones. Over time, that will help the organization serve more patients. The m2m group counsels more than 1.5 million women in nine countries. Mother-to-child HIV transmission rates are high due to the challenge of getting mothers to stick to their medical treatments. Roughly 40 percent of HIV-infected women give birth to HIV-positive babies. A single dose of medication to a mother before birth and again right afterward can stop transmission in 50 percent of the cases.

HP also recently announced a similar expertise-based initiative with mPedigree (whose CEO Bright Simons is pictured at top), which is fighting the use of counterfeit anti-malaria drugs through a combination of mobile phone and cloud services. And HP works with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) to improve the speed of HIV diagnosis for infants in Kenya.

Disclosure: The Digital Life Design conference paid my way to Munich so I could moderate a panel. VentureBeat’s coverage of the conference remains objective and independent.

Zuckerberg officially announced the foundation, which will go towards helping Newark’s troubled schools, this morning in a blog post. Mayor Booker, who has gained notoriety for his efforts to improve Newark, is currently working towards developing and executing a comprehensive education plan for the city’s public schools — which will be “based on clear standards and metrics that reward excellence in teaching, school leadership and student achievement.”

Zuckerberg, who was recently ranked wealthier than Steve Jobs by Forbes, will be offering over $100 million in his own Facebook stock for the foundation. “I believe in the Mayor and his vision, and that’s why I want to help them succeed,” he wrote.

While Newark schools could certainly use the money, the cynic in me also sees Zuckerberg’s surprise philanthropy as a way to counteract his negative portrayal in the upcoming film, “The Social Network.” In a conference call today, Zuckerberg mentioned that he originally wanted to make the donation anonymously, but Mayor Booker and Governor Christie begged him not to, Business Insider reports.

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is also getting involved by donating the services of his mobile payment startup Square, according to Forbes. Since Zuckerberg’s donation is a matching grant, Mayor Booker and Dorsey are also encouraging people to donate through Partnership for Education in Newark to reach another $100 million. Thus far, they’ve raised $7,280 through Square — $5,000 of which came from Dorsey.

Watch the announcement below. You can also view it on Oprah’s website.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=15259897&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0

Via The Next Web and Cindy W on Vimeo