‘Karma’ Video Game Promotes Altruism
Do Something, a youth organization in New York, has created Karma Tycoon, a free online video game it hopes will introduce teenagers to the nonprofit world, encourage volunteerism, and teach financial responsibility. Players have to watch their budgets carefully as they set up a nonprofit…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Satellites Aid Darfur Human-Rights Efforts
To stanch bloodletting in Darfur, an Amnesty International project is putting satellite images online to monitor 12 vulnerable villages in Sudan and nearby Chad. The dozen villages have not been attacked but are in danger because of their location near water or other resources, say officials of…
By Sam Kean
Contributor
To promote networking for social causes, NetSquared has handed out $100,000 in awards to 21 people and organizations that use the Web for charitable projects. NetSquared — a project of TechSoup, which trains charities to use technology to further their missions — announced the award winners at an…
By Sam Kean
Contributor
Charity Uses Cellphones to Promote Exercise
While it doesn’t burn many calories, text messaging might soon play an important role in the battle of the bulge. America on the Move encourages people to take small steps toward improving their health by walking an extra 2,000 steps a day, roughly a mile, and cutting 100 calories — the equivalent…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bits: Conference to Discuss Municipal Wi-Fi and Broadband Projects Planned for July
“Impact: The Digital Revolution,” a conference to discuss municipal wi-fi and broadband projects, is scheduled to take place in Houston July 26-28. One of the meeting’s sponsors is Technology for All, an organization in Houston that focuses on technology as a way to increase educational and…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
New Web Sites Specialize in Financing Charity Projects
Two new sites, ChangingThePresent.org and Bring Light, are giving donors the opportunity to make gifts that support specific projects, rather than giving general contributions to a charity to use as it chooses. Both sites also give donors the ability to set up online fund-raising drives to raise…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Site Seeks to Spur Donors to Collaborate on Gifts
Change.org, a new giving site, allows donors to work together to raise money for the issues they care about. The site seeks to harness the interactivity of so-called Web 2.0 technologies to promote giving and advocacy, both in the nonprofit world and politics. Visitors to the site can start or join…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Offer by iTunes Benefits Charity Work in Darfur
Customers at iTunes, the online music site, can download new versions of classic John Lennon songs and help victims of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. Amnesty International is using music to raise awareness about — and much-needed money for — the conflict, which has killed more than 300,000…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Database Offers New Hope in Tuberculosis Fight
A new database could be an important tool in the battle against tuberculosis. Scientists finished sequencing the genome of the tuberculosis bacterium in 1998. Through a process called expression profiling, they can analyze infected tissue samples and determine which of the bacterium’s 4,000 genes…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Rockefeller Foundation Offers ‘Ideas Portal’
The Rockefeller Foundation has been testing something it calls an ideas portal on its Web site, which provides visitors with an online form through which they can share thoughts about problems they would like to see the foundation tackle and specific projects it should support. More than 1,700…
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor
IBM Collaborates With Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy and IBM hope to harness the power of technology to conserve the world’s great rivers. By working together, the charity and the information-technology giant plan to develop a computer-modeling system that will bring together multiple sets of data about water quantity, climate,…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bits: Fenton Communications Purchases Donordigital
Fenton Communications, a consulting company in New York that advises nonprofit organizations, foundations, and other advocacy groups, has purchased Donordigital, a consulting company in San Francisco that helps nonprofit organizations with their online fund raising and advocacy. The merger goes…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Nominations Sought for Technology Awards
The ePhilanthropy Foundation is accepting nominations for the 2007 International ePhilanthropy Awards, which honor innovative uses of the Internet for fund raising, membership, and activism. A new award will honor the best Web site or online campaign designed for older adults. Winners will receive…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Verizon Gives $31-Million for Education Web Site
Over the next three years, the Verizon Foundation, in Washington, will put $31-million toward its Thinkfinity.org educational and literacy program. The site provides more than 50,000 free lesson plans for elementary- and secondary-school students developed by leading educational institutions,…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Google Shares Map Software With Holocaust Museum
Believing that information and understanding are the first steps toward action, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Google are using the Internet company’s mapping technology to educate the public about the crisis in Darfur. The museum has assembled photographs, data, and eyewitness…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Environmental Site Offers Donors ‘Stock’ Option
Reduce, reuse, recycle — and, now, retire. The Clean Air Conservancy plans to add a fourth R to the familiar three by allowing people to purchase “carbon credits” — stocks that regulate how much carbon dioxide companies emit — and donate them to a charitable fund that holds the stocks, essentially…
By Sam Kean
Contributor