bryanmiller's blog

Play It Forward is a Dutch start-up that plans to launch a new online giving platform next month, offering individuals or groups of individuals the opportunity to fund specific projects around the world.

At first this sounds just like another Global Giving. However, Play It Forward looks like it’s going to have some special aspects to it that could make it stand-out as a distinctive player in the online nonprofit project crowdfunding world.

Click here to read-on at Giving in a Digital World...

I just came across Discover Scholars when I was taking a look at the finalists in this year’s Open Web Awards, where they have been shortlisted in the Non-profit Causes category.

They’re an interesting non-profit organisation that awards scholarships to students across the US – but with all their funding coming from individual donors who use the Discover Scholars website to select the type of student they want to help with their education.

Click here to read-on at Giving in a Digital World...
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I must admit that when I first trialled the microblogging service Twitter a couple of years back, it was at a time when new Web 2.0 things were appearing so fast that unless an initial bit of play revealed an application for them beyond technical interest or geeky chic then I let them pass - and so it was for me with Twitter.

However, over the last year I've seen more and more examples of Twitter being used by nonprofits - and I even got twittered myself (not sure that's the correct term) when speaking at the IFC over in Holland earlier this year. So I was wondering, perhaps it is time for those fundraisers who have to-date left the tweets to the early adopters with time on their hands to take twitter seriously as a potential addition to their digital toolkit?

Click here to read on at Giving in a Digital World...
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Last week saw announcement of the winners of the 2008 Forrester Groundswell Awards, crediting some the year's most effective corporate and nonprofit users of social media and providing a rich source of ideas for anyone considering using social media to engage with supporters.

Read on at Giving in a Digital World...
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This month marks the third birthday of the fantastic person-to-person, micro-lending website Kiva - and what a three years it has been since their launch. From raising $1million in its first year, to $10million by year two, and an amazing $40million by the end of year 3! It just goes to show what incredible things can be achieved when visionary fundraisers embrace the benefits of the internet to enable donors to support life-changing projects in a truly engaging and personal way.

Read on at Giving in a Digital World...
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I recently came across a very interesting 'open source' project initiated by folks from the RSA and NCVO Third Sector Foresight Unit - exploring how networked society consumers may engage with membership-based non-profits in the future.

Co-ordinated through a multi-user blog at commonspace.org.uk, anyone with an active interest in the subject can share their thinking on such questions as what the impact on membership subscriptions might be now that Web 2.0-savvy consumers can get information and share ideas without the need for a traditional mediating organisation.

Read on at Giving in a Digital World...
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At the moment it seems like there’s a new niche social network launching every couple of weeks, and this week it’s the turn of animal welfare charity The Blue Cross to enter the Web 2.0 world.

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Contrary to the countdown on the Finerday holding page (which seems to have gone wrong as it currently suggests that it won't be live for over 106 years) this new social networking site aimed at 'older people and their families' is apparently all set to launch next Friday, 4th July.

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Here in London we're experiencing a rare combination of happenings this week - it's the start of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships AND the sun is shining!

In contrast, this time last year I remember floating about in Second Life visiting IBM's virtual tennis championships and chatting online to the developers about how they were able to replicate the real world happenings at Wimbledon in Second Life - including the rain.

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Earlier this week YouTube released a new feature called 'Annotations' that allows you not only to annotate your uploaded video with captions, but also to create links within the video to other video clips or to your YouTube channel.

Easy captioning is a handy function, but it is the interactivity offered by the embedded links that makes this new feature particularly interesting.

Read on at Giving in a Digital World...
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