Blog Profile / Dowser
| URL : | http://dowser.org/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Society & Culture | |
| Posts on Regator: | 323 | |
| Posts / Week: | 3.1 | |
| Archived Since: | May 26, 2011 | |
Blog Post Archive
Education Generation: Crowdfunding Tuition
Eileen Knowles, founder and CEO of Education Generation, a new crowdfunding platform for education, says that she wants to “move away from pity-driven charity.” Rather, she’s working to get stories of the young students that they help fund, so that the donor community...
In Texas, a housing development pioneers a fresh, holistic approach to sustainable design
In some respects, humans should envy turtles. They carry their homes on their backs and never have to pay rent or worry about mortgages. # Housing is a basic need for humans and, unfortunately, it’s not only prohibitively expensive for many low-income families,...
Leveling the Playing field: Supporting the underrepresented women in social entrepreneurship
Women have historically been unrepresented in all sectors of business; only recently have prominent leadership positions in business become occupied by women. Lee-Ann Gries, the president and chief investment officer of JumpStart Inc, recently commented on Huffington Post that “A measly three percent of...
'Little actions on the edge': John Thackara on Designing Solutions in the Bubble Economy
John Thackara’s 2005 book, In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World, argues for a world where the value of people and relationships is emphasized over the value of things. For designers, who have, by definition, traditionally made things for people to consume,...
Design Impact Reflects on its First Year Launching a Social Enterprise in India
At Dowser, we were excited to recently reconnect with the leadership team of Design Impact at the end of their pilot year launching an innovative social enterprise across India. Per the name, Design Impact addresses social problems using the toolkits of design in...
The Unreasonable Institute Targets Female Entrepreneurs for Fellowships
The Unreasonable Institute is revving up for another summer session to accelerate socially-minded ventures. Every year entrepreneurs compete to become Unreasonable Fellows, in the final round they are featured in the Unreasonable Marketplace online and the first 25 to raise $10,000 (the cost...
Book Review: Green Washed - Have Americans lost the big picture by focusing on buying 'green'?
“Our slim, trim and sleek new box is 10% smaller than before! The paper savings alone equal over 1000 trees per year and energy savings equal to heating about 38 homes per year!” –Organic [USDA certified] FlaxPlus Granola, from Nature’s Path, $3.99 #...
'Lemonade Detroit' Shares Stories of Resilience, Using Crowdfunding to Create Community
# “I think that it’s a city that has begun to realize that it’s really only gonna be lots and lots of small solutions,” says one of the subjects of “Lemonade Detroit,” a film that highlights stories of resilience in the Motor City.....
How A Film Captures a Dictator: Granito
Earlier, Dowser reported on Granito, a documentary, which has excavated old footage for a genocide case against ex-Guatemalan dictator General Efrain Rios Montt. On January 26, 2012, we learned that Guatemalan court, led by Judge Carol Patricia Flores, has decided to prosecute Montt...
Weekly Roundup: Afghanistan's Brutal Winter Moves Readers to Help
As Facebook’s $5 billion IPO saga continues and Walmart decides to label all health products in their stores with a “Great for You” sticker, a less reported story captured readers this week. # Afghanistan is facing one of the worst winters it’s seen...
StartSomeGood Co-founder Tom Dawkins Shares Lessons in Crowdfunding Social Enterprises
StartSomeGood was launched in March 2011 as a crowdfunding site explicitly geared toward social entrepreneurs. Their goal is to help changemakers get their projects off the group by connecting them to financial and intellectual capital and creating a supportive community around projects. #...
Pico Iyer: Keeping the Narrative Alive
Pico Iyer has traveled to every corner of the globe, often writing about it along the way: from the holy city of Benares to remote corners of Tibet to isolated nations like Bhutan, North Korea, and Cuba. Iyer is the author of a...
Brooklyn's FEAST Makes Crowdfunding a Face-to-Face, Social Event
The rise of crowdfunding has shown the power of individual, small donations to collectively support projects of all sizes -- from community garden nooks to large documentary films. But most crowdfunding is done online and therefore limited in the kinds of exchanges you...
Sex Trafficking and the Super Bowl
The Super Bowl visits a different city every year, creating a highly sought-after boost in tourism for the city and excitement for football fans. But, many say, it also brings something that stays a lot more hidden: a spike in human trafficking. #...
Weekly Roundup: Facebook's Social Mission
Can One of America’s Biggest Tech Companies Pursue its Social Mission and a Massive IPO Simultaneously? Facebook’s IPO listing has caused quite a stir in the business community. But, Zuckerberg writes in a lengthy letter his missions behind Facebook are not purely monetary....
Harvard's Julie Battilana Takes the Pulse of the Social Entrepreneurship Movement
A duo of researchers at the Harvard Business School recently set out to investigate movers in the field of social entrepreneurship beyond the big names who attract the most attention. Their study uses six years’ worth of applicants for an Echoing Green fellowship as...
Ioby Partners with Deutsche Bank to Fund Projects by Community Development Corporationss
ioby, the first and only online micro-funding platform dedicated to promoting civic urban environmental projects, recently announced partnership with Deutsche Bank, who will match donations made to ioby for all projects led by Community Development Corporations (CDCs) in New York City. # CDCs,...
DC Comics, Time Warner, Warner Bros Announce Campaign to Increase Aid to Horn of Africa
On January 23, DC Comics announced a new campaign to support to humanitarian work in the Horn of Africa, where a confluence of drought, famine, and Islamist militia rule have led some 13 million people to starvation. The campaign, called “We Can Be...
Weekly Roundup: Davos, Igloos and the Future of Capitalism
WEF Discusses Global Inequality in the Swiss Alps This week the world’s political leaders, policy analysts, tech titans, successful businessmen, and members of the social sector convened for the annual World Economic Forum. Despite all the wealth in the room, one of the...
Conversations with Unreasonable Fellows: Ties Kroezen of NICE
Ties Kroezen lives in the Netherlands, but the fruits of his labor are in Africa. His company, NICE International, brings IT services and clean energy development to The Gambia and other African countries. Kroezen was selected to represent NICE at this year's Unreasonable...