The event also served as a “send-off” for Assemblywoman Skinner as she heads to Copenhagen, Denmark this week for the 2009 United Nations Convention on Climate Change. This conference brings together 192 countries and 100 heads of state or government in negotiations to deal with the growing threats posed by global warming. Assemblywoman Skinner will represent California alongside State Senator Fran Pavely and other state leaders, and will speak about her energy efficiency legislation and California policies. She will also interact with the University of California delegation that is attending the conference to provide expert testimony through panel discussions.

Recognized as the California Assembly’s 2009 Rookie of the Year, Nancy authored landmark legislation this past year, including bills that will give foster youth better access to college housing, (AB 1393), make AC Transit buses more bike friendly (AB 652), and bring thousands of energy efficient jobs to California (AB758).

The Madera Group congratulates Assemblywoman Skinner for all of her achievements in 2009, and wishes her a victorious 2010!

Photo: CPUC Commissioner Dian Gruenich, Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, and Janice Lin from Stratgen Consulting
Photo Credit: Erik Johnson

This month, the Madera Group continues our work with Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence, launching a new “campaign within a campaign” to help increase enrollment in their program, Make Mine a Million $ Business. Founded by social entrepreneur and author Nell Merlino (who created “Take your Daughter to Work Day”), Count Me In helps women entrepreneurs grow their businesses by providing (for free or at very low cost) a suite of online tools, webinars, national and regional events, and access to business development experts.
More than 60,000 women have joined the online community, and another 1,500 have paid a small fee to join a more focused “fast track” to business growth, the “Make Mine a Million $ Business Race” known as the M3 Race.

With a goal of registering 3,000 women by July 31st, we have launched the Race to 3,000, a special e-mail messaging campaign that aims to double the number of racers this summer. Every M3 community member will receive special attention in the next four weeks, through targeted multi-media messages that frame the values of the program using data gleaned from feedback the organization has received from past events. In addition, M3 members are invited to participate in CMI’s free on-line webinars each Wednesday, which teach a variety of business practices, strategies and tools, as well as offer helpful hints and ideas from featured entrepreneur experts.

This week’s webinar, What’s New in the M3 Race, will show participants how to navigate through their personal business resource tools, as well as help them discover new resources and discounts from Count Me In’s partners that are exclusive to M3 Racers. Count Me In’s Program Department will also be on hand to answer questions about how to tailor and personalize M3 RACE tools for specific businesses.  And that’s not all! On Monday, July 13th, M3 members are invited to hear Nell Merlino speak at a special Meet-Up event, the Girls Inc panel discussion: “Corporate Camp for Entrepreneurs” in New York City.

In her blog a few months ago, Nell Merlino wrote about bringing back the buddy system, reminding us that while self-sufficiency is important, the power of companionship and collaboration cannot be forgotten, especially when working toward a goal. Nearly everyone can identify with the experience of forming a supportive network of friends that help encourage one another to succeed, and that’s what the M3 community is all about. Count Me In brings together a national team of experts and allies, introduces them to one another, and connects them to thousands of potential clients and customers.  Amid a lagging economy, it’s vital that women business owners can come together, share their ideas and talk about how they are steering their way through these challenging times. The Make Mine a Million $ Business Race gives women the chance to move forward and accomplish their goals even faster. We encourage you to join the race by July 31st! Visit www.makemineamilion.org/race.

The Clinton Foundation and Madera Group launched a new video about the Clinton Foundation Millennium Network’s work to inspire young philanthropists to become the “How Generation.”

President Clinton joined more than 600 young leaders in Los Angeles at the Millennium Network reception on April 30th. Actors Jessica Alba and Adrian Grenier were hosts, and Will.i.am performed. President Clinton challenged the audience to answer the great questions of our time: How can we leave a positive impact on the next generation? How can we make individual changes in our lives to make a large difference in the world? As Madera’s Executive Producer, I produced the “How Generation” video for the Clinton Foundation, with David Driver as the Director of Photography. We shot the video on location with a high definition camera. As you will see from watching the video, the overflow crowd provided a lively backdrop for our interviews.

As a follow up to the Millennium Network reception, the Clinton Foundation and Madera Group created an email message to share the video with the network’s supporters. (Click Image)

To learn more about the Clinton Foundation Millennium Network, visit their Facebook Cause page.

The gala opening of the David Brower Center this Sunday in downtown Berkeley is, literally, a dream come true. I say this because I sat down four years ago with the founder and chief visionary of Berkeley’s showcase green office building, Peter Buckley, and the renowned UC Berkeley cognitive scientist, George Lakoff, to talk about what it means to create a place for good people to work, live, play and help make the world a better place.

At the risk of oversimplifying, Lakoff argues that metaphors structure human thought, both conscious and unconscious. For him, talking about the Brower Center kicks off an inquiry into language, motivation, and human needs. Peter is a humble and practical man, just looking for a way, he said, to provide people with a “decent facility.”

A superb meeting of the minds, it turns out. The tagline for the building—which is home as of this month to a dozen social ventures, a restaurant, a 180-seat theater, meeting spaces and a gallery—is “What Inspires You.” This little gem of verbal alchemy gets to everything this building is about. First, the space—open, dignified, and light-filled. Then, the building itself—an engineering marvel that is best practice in environmentally sensitive design and construction. And finally, the metaphor itself—a place of inspiration and purpose, and connection for the community that built it and is now making it home.

The Madera Group, for all the reasons cited here, and more, is both delighted and humbled to be part of this dream.

There’s been a lot of excitement in the last year about social networking in general, and about Facebook in particular. And a lot of talk about the value of social networking for nonprofits. But is there really a return on investment for nonprofit participation on these sites? Here’s a success story. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a 501(c)3 organization that works in the U.S. and over 30 other countries to protect ecologically important lands and waters. Using tools readily available on Facebook, the organization has raised almost $48,000 in the first six months of their social networking effort. They did this by creating a Cause and a Fan Page for the organization, and by forming a relationship with an ecology oriented game on Facebook, (lil) Green Patch. Six months later the (lil) Green Patch application is one of the most popular on Facebook, with over 6 million users!

1. Optimize operations and resource allocation: Kiva President Premal Shah is focusing on “mind blowing efficiency” in his organization. Meanwhile, William Meehan, a senior director at McKinsey & Company, pointed out that nonprofits spend 20-30% of funds to raise money, while in the commercial markets, this figure is less than 1%.

While for-profit and nonprofit organizations have differing operating goals and milestones and measure success by differing values, social profit organizations can continually refine and optimize resources for impact. The most innovative social impact organizations hold this tightly in their operating philosophy.

2. Measure social impact, not moral value: Most panelists throughout the day emphasized producing measurable results, including program officers, social investors and executive directors. Interestingly, William Meehan suggested leaving the philosophical questions for another time and focusing on inputs and outputs for measurement. Ironically, most of us who give to charitable organizations do not ask for these figures or measurements.

3. Develop the appropriate strategy for your own organizational culture:
While highly innovative, the market for online giving marketplace is still in its infancy—well under $500 million in annual giving (from a survey of the largest online giving marketplaces including Network for Good, MissionFish, Kiva, and DonorsChoose). As a comparison figure, all foundation giving in 2007 was approximately $43 billion (Foundation Center).

4. Create picture and profile functionality: When building a giving marketplace, user profiles from a donor and beneficiary standpoint are very helpful and can cause significant bumps in online donor activity—as simple as the ability to upload photos and have donors write a few lines about their participation. People clearly respond to pictures, connectivity and interactivity. The success of profile functionality in donor response is another example of the narrative storytelling approach Madera Group emphasizes in our online communications and fundraising work with our clients.

5. Focus on trust and build transparency in the process:
Similar to more traditional fundraising, in online giving marketplaces building trust and creating transparency in the process is fundamental. Echoed by multiple panelists, one cannot emphasize the importance of supporting donor relationships with radical transparency about how their donations are put to use in supporting an organization’s mission and growth.

Neelu Jain
is an Organizational Strategist with Madera Group. She brings expertise in social capital design, operations, and investment strategies for nonprofit and for-profit clients. She received her MBA from UCLA Anderson School.

— Feliciano dos Santos

Here in San Francisco we are fortunate to have the inspiring annual Goldman Environmental Awards. The financial prize increased this year to $150,000, which is a significant cash resource for the local activists from around the world. Many of the award recipients work tirelessly for relatively little compensation. The 2008 winners are from Mexico, Mozambique, Russia, Ecuador, Belgium, and Puerto Rico.

I was particularly moved by Feliciano dos Santos from Mozambique,
working on sustainable development issues through music-based outreach
about sanitation.

When Feliciano came on stage at the Opera House, he gave a moving speech about his work to educate local villagers about personal hygiene and sanitation, as Mozambique is prone to water borne illnesses. Feliciano was struck with polio as a child, so he knows the critical importance of public education. Feliciano sang for us his now famous song, “Wash your Hands.” As a result of incorporating hygiene messages in his music, people throughout Mozambique have begun to focus more on the country’s rural sanitation problems. You can watch a video profile about him here.

I hope you and your family will take sometime on Earth Day to make a commitment to action and environmental education.  To learn more about the other Goldman Prize award winners click here.

It is hard to believe that this week is already the 38th anniversary of Earth Day. Once a marginalized holiday for those of us working within the environmental movement, it has now become a global emergency call to address climate change and numerous other environmental threats.

Madera Group produced a video to help launch the rebranding of International Rivers. The organization works to protect rivers and human rights around the world. It has played a crucial role in building a global river protection movement fostering grassroots organizations in more than 60 countries and promoting leadership though technical and strategic advice.

International Rivers’ rebranding process involved dropping “Network” from its name, upgrading its website and creating a new logo. Paddy McCully (International Rivers’ Executive Director), Andre Carothers (Rockwood Leadership Program’s Executive Director and IR Board member) and I came up with a parody of Bob Dylan’s classic Subterranean Homesick Blues film to describe the throes of NGO rebranding. We thought the project would be more fun than Paddy talking on camera about how the new look and feel of the International Rivers web site is part of a larger strategy to grow their organization’s mission.

The team shot the video several weeks ago on the Russian River in Guerneville, California, on a very windy afternoon which proved to be challenging for Paddy’s orchestration of the cards and his natural comic timing.

So when I read Thomas Friedman’s article a few days ago about the work of Van Jones (pictured at left) and the Ella Baker Center on the new national project they are launching—the Green-Collar Jobs Campaign: Green For All—I got really excited. I live near Oakland, home of the Ella Baker Center, and have been hearing about the project. However this week while I happened to be in D.C., the project and the concept of greening the workforce began to take hold on the national level.

Green For All’s goal is to secure $1 billion in funding for green-collar job training in order to lift 250,000 people out of poverty across the country. It works in three main fronts:

• National Advocacy in the federal government and the private sector to ensure that the United States has an abundant supply of well-trained “green-collar” workers and entrepreneurs, focusing on those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
• Technical Assistance in “green-collar” job training and to align business, labor unions, community organizations and educational institutions.
• Public Education to impact news coverage, produce videos,
  host convenings, create advocacy toolkits, employ new media and anchor
  a Web 2.0 strategy for shaping debate, organizing discussion and
  sharing best practices.

In a speech Senator Clinton gave in Oakland a few weeks ago, in front of 14,000 people, she introduced Van’s concept of green-collar jobs to the crowd to roars of excitement. To have Van Jones’s visionary leadership shape the Democratic front-runner’s message on the environment and job creation gives me hope. Another statistic I heard this week is that Oakland, California, has a high school drop-out rate at 47%.  Like all those that heard this shocking number, I realized that Van was really up to something significant. If you create green jobs in communities across California and eventually the nation that support sustainability and job creation in vulnerable communities, then we can begin to radically shift the tide of the detrimental policies.

Learn more about Green-Collar jobs and Van Jones’s work at the Ella Baker Center.

Al Gore spoke today at the Alliance for Climate Protection, the nonprofit group he founded last year to raise awareness of climate-related issues. “I will accept this award on behalf of all the people that have been working so long and so hard to try to get the message out about this planetary emergency.” He added that global warming was “the most dangerous challenge we’ve ever faced, but it is also the greatest opportunity to make changes that we should be making for other reasons anyway.”

The first time I worked with Al Gore was in the early 1990’s in New York City. I was organizing a public event in Columbus Circle for Congresswoman Bella Abzug and her newly launched organization WEDO—Women’s Environmental Development Organization. Bella, as we all called her, had asked this young Senator from Tennessee to speak at the event alongside singer Natalie Merchant.

It was that fall morning, similar to today, that I first heard about the growing threat of global warming and radical changes in weather patterns. When he spoke that afternoon, he educated thousands of us about what we could expect in this unprecedented campaign to fight for the only planet we have—earth.

Thank you, Al and the panel scientists, for your tremendous dedication to public service, global action, and paving the path toward solutions and social change.