Monthly Archive for December, 2008

NTEN Webinar: Social Media Building Blocks

Published in events. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

NTEN & TechSoup have teamed up to deliver a series of webinars on storytelling and social media – and I’m the presenter for the first one!

First, what’s a web-inar?

Wikipedia says:

A webinar is a neologism to describe a specific type of web conference. It is typically one-way,[1] from the speaker to the audience with limited audience interaction, such as in a webcast. A webinar can be collaborative[1] and include polling and question & answer sessions to allow full participation between the audience and the presenter. In some cases, the presenter may speak over a standard telephone line, pointing out information being presented on screen and the audience can respond over their own telephones…

Social Media Building Blocks

Is sharing really caring?  Well, it can at least boost your internal staff knowledge and your positioning as a resource in the community!

In this webinar we’ll discuss the fundamentals of sharing information with social media tools.  You don’t have to know how to do this already to take part—this is for those just starting out!  We’ll cover social bookmarking, tagging, RSS and more, plus the tools you can start using for free to do it all.

More Information and Register Now!

How you can join

I will be posting my slides on SlideShare and this blog after the event to continue the conversation started during the webinar.  I’m really looking forward to it and have already started putting together some slides and ideas.

If you have questions you want answered, ideas you want to discuss, or tools you want included, just let me know!

Click here for more information about the webinar and to register!

Published on December 23, 2008 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

My Birthday Cause: Free Geek!

Published in case studies and fundraising. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

I have a birthday coming up and over the weekend I received an email from Causes, the social change application in Facebook.  Here’s what it said:

Happy (Almost) Birthday!

Thanks to Facebook, in two weeks all of your friends will see that it’s your birthday. Instead of just writing on your wall, or giving you something you don’t need, what if they had a chance to help a cause you believe in? Whether you want to raise money for clean water in Ethiopia, vaccinations for children in Haiti, or a safe home for a puppy in Mississipi, with a Birthday Cause your friends can give in honor of your special day.

Select your Birthday Cause today: Get Started – Learn More

Have a very happy birthday,
The Causes Team

Since we moved over here just 3 months ago, I knew that my birthday wasn’t going to be spent with all my friends from home (we are going to travel a bit though, so it’ll still be a fun day!).  No birthday party meant no one buying presents.  I wouldn’t have wanted the gifts anyway, but know that people like to give them, just as much as I do for their special days.  So, I figured this would help friends celebrate my birthday with me, but help out a worthy organization, at the same time!

I clicked through and created my birthday cause in support of Free Geek! (I’ve talked about Free Geek before and why I think they are a great organization.)

The process was simple, straightforward, easy, and most importantly, empowering.  Causes has done a great job to put the tools in the user’s hands to personalize their message, pick a cause/organization that they care about, and choose the avenues for publicizing their cause that fit their community (I didn’t want to email every person right away but just those using Causes, for example, and didn’t want to email people as often automatically as I new I would email people personally, etc.).

After I finished personalizing my Birthday Cause and alerting friends about it, I was able to place a widget on my profile so people could see it when they visited my page.  I just want to point out, this was the easiest application process I’ve ever seen: it did everything for me and I just chose what, when and where.  Even putting the widget on my page was done for me, I just clicked where I wanted it to sit!

When friends donate to the Birthday Cause, they are able to write a message that appears on my Facebook Wall.  It’s great because they get recognized as donors immediately, I get to have a birthday greeting from them, and others see the donations coming in and click through themselves to check it out.

I receive notifications by email when friends donate, and can click through from the emails to thank them, send out messages, and more.  The Causes application has really done it right with the Birthday Cause process.

The first person who tried to donate, my friend Rose Vines (a wonderfully kind, and incredibly smart woman), experienced an issue with the site and it wouldn’t let her donate – the worst situation for potential donors!  She let me know what happened and I immediately emailed the Causes team at the email address in their help section.  I received two emails from Dave: 1. just after sending in the message about the issue, he let me know they were aware of the problem and were working on it 2. the next day he emailed again to say the problem was fixed and everything should be up and running.  Though, in just that little time, I’d already had 7 successful donations and one of them was from Rose!

The next time you have a birthday, if you use Facebook, I’d encourage you to try out the Facebook Causes’ Birthday Cause application and have fun raising funds in celebration of your birthday and the great work of one of your favorite organizations!

Thanks to all those who have helped me raise much-needed support (whether it is funds or not) for Free Geek – I really appreciate it all!  And thanks again to Causes for the great application!

If you’d like to support Free Geek and wish me a happy birthday – check out my Birthday Cause!

Published on December 16, 2008 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

Why I gave $20.09

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Social Actions is a nonprofit initiative that helps you find and share opportunities to change the world.  I have been working closely with the team for quite a while now because I think that versatile connections online are the only way for independent platforms to really be successful. Peter Deitz is the man behind Social Actions and here’s is how the $20.09 fundraising campaign started:

For the last 2.5 years, I have been working extremely hard to build an organization from scratch that makes it really easy for people to find and share opportunities to make a difference.

The organization, now called Social Actions, has experienced a tremendous boost in the last twelve months. I started 2008 in Cape Town, South Africa with the simple goal of working fulltime on Social Actions by July 1st.

To reach that goal, I pulled together a talented team, attracted some financial resources, and logged thousands of virtual and real world miles spreading my vision for the micro-philanthropy sector.

Remarkably, my efforts have paid off. Social Actions is now an initiative with six team members, 34 organizational partners, 100s of supporters, and a substantial list of accomplishments to its name.

Last week, from my home office in Montreal, Canada, I wrote up 9 ambitious goals for 2009.

Social Actions can meet and exceed all 9 goals, but we need roughly $12k / month to make it happen.

My team is actively pursuing foundation grants, event sponsorships, individual monthly donations and consulting services. Our efforts in these income-generating areas should start to prove themselves by February or March of 2009.

In the meantime, we are asking for individual one-time donations to cover our costs through 02/02/2009. Between now and then, we estimate our financial expenses at $20,009.

So, I gave $20.09 and you can, too! After donating, Peter emailed me to ask if I would provide a statement about why I donated to support Social Actions.  Here’s what I said:

“Social Actions is a place where I find ways to contribute to the global process of making this world better. It’s the place where I have a say in how we can make a platform and a tool that helps more people find ways to change the world, too. I’m happy to be part of the extended Social Actions family; but I’m most happy to be a supporter and a user. Go Social Actions!”

You can see what others have said about their donations to support Social Actions on the SA site here.

You can read more about the 9 goals for Social Actions in 2009 here, which include scale, translate, report, change, measure, standardize, collaborate, lead, and inspire.

Use the widget below to donate to support Social Actions in 2009, or click on the ‘share’ link in the lower right corner to put the widget on your blog, website, etc.

Thanks!

Published on December 13, 2008 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

Great reads from December 12th through December 13th

Published in roundup. 2 Comments Tags: .

These are my links for December 12th through December 13th:

Published on December 13, 2008 by Amy Sample Ward. 2 Comments

Predictions for 2009

Published in issues and socialmedia. 12 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

It’s the time of year when people start placing their bets on where we’re going next.  Developers, consultants, experts and users all like to weigh in with their predictions for 2009′s big developments, innovations and attempts for the coming year.

Yesterday, at Make Your Mark’s Social Media Afternoon, I was asked what my predictions were.  And I realized
1. I hadn’t thought about it much
2. I hadn’t blogged about it

So, here are my 2009 Predictions for the Social Web

Mashups

Mashups are great. I love them! But I think 2009 will see a more refined world of mashups take over.

We have seen plenty of mashups where a website is able to push together a mapping tool, some public data, and user-created content like comments.  I think these mashups are tremendously helpful to organizations working to make real change in their communities, allowing them to more dynamically tell their story and make their case in a compelling way to supporters, funders, and the community at large.  Mashups in this sense aren’t going anywhere, especially as platforms are built to help create them with less technical knowledge and in less time.

The mashups that will come out in 2009 are going to be ones that create hybrid spaces in between the different tools we are already using.  Mashups of applications and spaces, not just information.  We are going to see tools developed that provide a space to interact with your contacts and content in new ways.  Like FriendFeed, but to the next level – where you aren’t creating new contacts or content or spaces; but they all exist already and are ported to the in-between spaces for you and with you as you move.

Community Movement

Tools for individuals are great, but what we’ve seen in 2008 is that the tools that individuals like the most and use the most are the ones that create the most dynamic communities. Tools like Twitter, FriendFeed and social networking.

As new tools develop, whether they are the mashups above, or new tools altogether, they are going to be driven by needs of already-formed communities and not individuals.  We have lots and lots of tools at our disposal as individuals on the web.  We can do what we need to do.  What comes next is tools that accelerate and are created by the needs of communities we already work in and have created online.

This includes organizational communities, in the sense that your organization has created a space for supporters to connect with you (on your blog, Twitter, forums, wiki, whatever), as well as the network of contacts and content I have chosen to follow, subscribe to, or otherwise connect with.

Reality

Regardless of my predictions or anyone else’s, 2009 is going to be a very exciting year. The ‘networked president’ takes office in the US, many countries around the world are facing incredible financial insecurity, terrorism is plaguing many communities, and many of our ‘same old problems’ continue to exist. Innovations online will certainly be tempered by those facts and the developments we see in our social media tools will need to help us continue to connect and discuss the issues we are dealing with around the world.

What are your predictions for 2009? What do you think is going to change the web next year? What was your favorite innovation from 2008?

Published on December 12, 2008 by Amy Sample Ward. 12 Comments

What is NPTech?

Published in community and events. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Yesterday I had a very fun opportunity to be one of the speakers for Mark Your Mark’s Social Media Afternoon, a casual event for staff members to come together to learn about and discuss ideas, trends, tools and more relating to social media.  I answered, very briefly, the question, “What is NPTech?”

Here are my slides:

MakeYourMark-NPTech

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: change media)

To share or not to share

The main conversation focused on publicly sharing information vs trying to keep information private (whether it’s reports, data, strategy or even success/failure of projects/campaigns).  Some conversations point include:

  • The culture of sharing in the NPTech community is what creates the most value
  • Everyone wins when you share, discuss, create opportunities to learn
  • Mistakes are the most important part of charting new territory, need to talk about them
  • Sharing takes place formally and informally: presentations at conferences or in reports, online in blogs, in collaborative spaces like wiki, webinars, and so on
  • Keeping information private means lots of groups reinvent the wheel without knowing it
  • Not talking about mistakes mean more and more time, capacity, and money wasted with groups doing the same things wrong

Why social change fits with social media

Social change relies on communities coming together (whether they are geographic, issue, cause, or characteristic based) to make a profound difference on our world.  Social media allows people to come together online in new ways; the tools are only useful, fun, and successful when used as part of a community (how fun is it to use Facebook without any friends?).  Thus, tools that create community are great for communities making change.

Twitter

During the presentation, I was asked about Twitter; specifically what tools I like to use.  I get this question a lot.  My two main Twitter tools are:

  • Twhirl:  I like Twhirl because I can launch a window for both my personal and organizational accounts at the same time, let it run and update constantly whether I am reading it or not (unlike having to visit and then refresh a browser over and over), and let it alert me to replies, direct messages, etc. so I can be as much a part of the conversation as I want throughout the day.
  • Tweetscan:  Sometimes I’m just too busy to give Twitter all the attention it may want :) That’s why I like Tweetscan.  I can set up alerts for different words, like Google Alerts, and have it email me a round up so I can reply when I need to and not miss important opportunities to connect other users to information I may have.

Would have loved to have you all there for Social Media Afternoon!

Let’s keep the conversation going here – what do you think about the world of NPTech (the community that has made a tag a self-identifier) or about social media and social change?

Published on December 12, 2008 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

Last Day of Voting for USAID Challenge

Published in challenge. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Originally posted on the NetSquared blog.

It’s true: Today, Friday, is the last day to cast your vote for up to 5 favorite USAID project submissions.  Get out the vote, now!

The Word on the Street…

Project teams and others are telling their friends, families, colleagues and communities about the vote, hoping to make it to the next round where 15 projects will be presented to the USAID judges.  If you want to learn more about projects than what is provided in the Project Gallery, check out the Community Blog where projects are discussing their ideas and asking for your support.

Oliver Subasinghe recently told the devex community about the USAID Challenge and check out this testimonial from quazi on the community blog:

Learning about various projects through the USAID Development 2.0 Challenge

I am glad that I voted for 5 projets posted here on NetSquared. What I liked most is that I now will have access to ideas as I prepare to use social web technologies to advance our cause for leadership development in Bangladesh, especially for the youth.

Get out the Vote!

This is the last day to help select the 15 projects moving on in the Challenge. Cast your vote now!

The voting process is simple, interactive and fun. It’s our goal to be as inclusive as possible because it’s your job to pick the projects that best deserve the time, attention, and funding that this Challenge can offer.

How to vote:

  • You must Register and Login to the NetSquared site to participate in the Vote (please check your junk mail folder if you do not see a registration email confirmation)
  • Each registered user has one (1) ballot
  • You must vote for at least three (3) Projects and no more than five (5)
  • All votes are weighted equally (in other words, your first choice and fifth choice have equal value)
  • You can only vote for each Project once, yes that includes your own
  • You must review and cast your ballot for your vote to count (details below)

Share your feedback, ideas, or favorites on the Community Blog after you’ve voted!

Published on December 12, 2008 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

Twitter, twittering, tweets: How to make Quality Content on Twitter

Published in strategy and webtools. 4 Comments Tags: , , , .

I might be on a Quality Control string here, judging by the title of this post and my recent SSIR post, but I think it’s valid.

More and more people and organizations are using Twitter, the micro-blogging tool that lets users answer the question, “what are you doing?” with short 140-character sized posts to the world.  Even more people and organizations are talking about Twitter.  I’m sure you’ve heard buzz, whether you meant to or not, and whether you are a Twitter-er or not.

Darren Rowse’s post today on TwiTip focused on the question, “What value are you creating for your followers on Twitter? What’s in it for them?” I think this is a great question for individuals AND organization to consider and here’s how…

Quality Twitter-ing from Organizations

No one wants to be friends with a building, a billboard, or a fundraising flier. They want to be friends with people.  Even though your Twitter account (or you Facebook group, or anything else for that matter) is representing the organization, people still expect real people to be behind the messages.

Keeping your organization’s Twitter feed from feeling too impersonal is easy:

  • Have a conversation (using the @ feature on Twitter to reply to others’ messages)
  • Show some personality (comment, don’t just advertise)
  • Show some emotion (don’t fear the emoticon :) or web laugh hahaha )
  • Be real (your organization probably doesn’t have an answer to everything, share links that aren’t just from your website)
  • Be helpful (use search tools like TweetScan or Twitter Search to find people talking about subjects you can help with and send them a link or info)

Recently, I looked at The Womens Museum’s Twitter feed for a slide I contributed at the NFPTweetup.  I examined the messages that appeared on the main page of The Womens Museum’s Twitter feed (the most recent 20 or so) at the time I visited – I was looking to see how balanced the messages were so created some categories and tallied the messages where they fit:

Self Promotion with Links: 6
Self Promotion without Links: 6

Questions with Links: 4
Questions without Links: 3

Fundraising with Links: 1
Fundraising without Links: 0

Affinity Promo with Links: 4
Affinity Promo without Links: 0

Information with Links: 0
Information without Links: 3

I think the numbers are pretty balanced!  The messages are true to mission/vision of the museum by including retweets (or forwarding on the messages of others), links to websites other than their own, compliments, transparency, and inclusion.
If you use Twitter for your organization, try measuring the messages with the above categories and see how balanced your messages are!  Or create new categories and see how the numbers work out.

Quality Twitter-ing from Individuals

Of course it’s always hard to lay yourself on the line by putting forth strategy, guidelines, or even tips.  Because, hey, look at me – oh wait, I’m not perfect either :)

Dan Bowsher, of Newbury, UK, nails the value of Twitter, I think, in his comment on The Evening Standard’s piece about Twitter (emphasis:

Twitter is not something you can gain any value from if you dip into it for a couple of hours. Twitter is about engaging with and building a community of people and allows you to tap into information, trends and opinions far quicker than traditional media. To that end, I find it invaluable. The fact that Twitter also enables developers to create applications that allow users to capitalise on its functionality, is also a major benefit.

Quality content on an individual user’s perspective is really rooted in engagement. Days when I feel like I’m disconnected, Twitter and email are too quiet, or I’m out of the loop with news and conversation, it’s becuase I haven’t connect with anyone.  Replies on Twitter are made using the @ and someone’s user name, like @amyrsward if you wanted to talk to me.  All I need to do is start listening, by browsing recent posts, and then responding to individuals using the @ to jump into the conversation, ask questions, or provide responses.  And as quickly as that, I’m back in.

It’s definitely a good idea to measure or gauge the balance of your individual Twitter stream as well, but it isn’t as easy as examining the organizational stream.  Here, because of the above point that conversation and engagement is key, it’s more important to measure between @ messages and standard messages.

Remember:

  • You are, every day, building that personal-brand, but that doesn’t mean you get to be blowhorn
  • Potential clients, bosses, friends, or significant others could be reading what you say
  • People are ultimately good and have come together on free community tools like Twitter to share information, you should too
  • You get out what you put in; don’t be disappointed with the tool if you don’t have the time to set it up or use it

Ultimately, the Golden Rule of Twitter: Provide the links, information, conversation and content that you would like to find in everyone else’s stream, too.

Happy Twitter-ing, all!

Published on December 10, 2008 by Amy Sample Ward. 4 Comments

New Post at SSIR: Becoming a Hot Spot with Quality Content

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Originally posted at SSIR – why not leave a comment over there!

We are still working to get nonprofit organizations online and to move websites from ‘electronic brochures’ to a more modern presence, but the main bulk of organizations are there though struggling to get to the next level. They have a website that’s more than a carbon copy of an event handout, they have members who want to subscribe to something and funders who expect them to be resources to the sector. How do they meet those expectations?

Quality content drives traffic, increases value and in turn can increase the number or engagement of members, visitors, potential donors. So, how do they create the quality content, then?

  1. Hear It: There are a lot of ways to listen to your members and your field. Subscribe to RSS feeds from organizations working in the same field, funders, members’ blogs, etc. Listen for topics of interest, questions that come up and conversations that are ongoing for tips as to what people are looking for more information about. You can use Twitter to listen to your community as well and pinpoint conversations that are important to focus on. Don’t feel bad about asking, either, because your community is probably waiting for an opportunity to tell you what they want/need.
  2. Write It:  Blogs are expected to be updated often but everyone has experienced the strain of either too much work to do or nothing to write about. If you are listening to your community, your list of topics should be more than you have time to cover. If you have too much other work pulling at your time, enlist another team member or two to share the blogging responsibilities. The best thing to do, especially when starting out, is to create a blog schedule so you can work it into your larger work schedule and not push it down the list.  But, blogs aren’t the only things that should stay fresh—your website should stay up-to-date and pertinent as well!
  3. Aggregate It: An easy way of ensuring that your website has new information is to create a page, or parts of pages that are fed by content from an RSS feed. This could be a feed from a Del.icio.us tag that you and your organization uses, or it could be from a news website, a funder’s site, or a sector-specific site. Pulling information in from other places on the web means there is more information available for your website visitors and with less work by you or strain on your time.
  4. Share It: Be sure that you are allowing people to subscribe to your information, on your website and your blog, with RSS. Just because your website is the (if you’re doing everything right) go-to spot for news, information, and resources in your field, doesn’t mean people want to visit your URL to get that information. More and more people are using RSS and will expect to be able to use it with your website, too. Be sure to include your information in other outlets as well, so people who may not know it’s there can find out: include links and highlights in your e-newsletter, alert people to new content via any social media outlets you use (such as Twitter, Facebook, other blogs, etc.).

Read the rest of the post at Stanford Social Innovation Review’s Opinion Blog here.

Published on December 9, 2008 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

Looking for a new favorite organization?

Published in community. 5 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Free Geek!

I nominate Free Geek to anyone and everyone as your new favorite nonprofit, your new organization to donate to, and the organization to talk about when you need to look informed and passionate :)

Why Free Geek?

My great friend Marie compiled reasons why we love Free Geek:

  • Free Geek is one of the few organizations in the U.S. that can accurately say it recycles materials it can’t reuse in an environmentally and socially responsible way. None of its materials end up poisoning children on other continents. (Did you see the recent 60 Minutes coverage of this shameful subject?) Do you know where the ewaste you produce ends up? Watch what happens when you ask for documentation about its disposition (and watch the 60 Minutes piece!).  Free Geek has applied for BAN certification and we expect it to come shortly.
  • Free Geek is where the poorest people in the Portland area earn free computers and learn how to use them, gaining valuable job skills that can change their lives.
  • Free Geek is where you find immigrants and refugees building their own computers and taking classes in free software, helping them find a way in their new land.
  • Free Geek is a place where brilliant young geeks get recognized and encouraged.  I just met a 13-year-old boy there who already can program as well as any of the veterans in this magnet for brilliant geeks.  Free Geek is nurturing his talent in a way that wouldn’t happen otherwise.
  • Free Geek is where a man in his mid-80s finds a community that appreciates his talents and where he stays in touch with people.  He’s built more than 500 computers to help the needy get nerdy.  A very smart 5-year-old is now building computers there with his mom!
  • Free Geek truly means what it pays.  Staff members who are paid all get the same hourly rate. Yes, from the person answering the phone to the person dealing with big picture policy.
  • It’s the most grassroots and hands-on organization I’ve ever seen, helping the neediest people in our community.
  • I’ve never met a kinder or more giving group of people in my life.
  • It serves the most diverse group of people of any organization I’ve ever seen, in nearly every measurement: age, gender, background, abilities, disabilities, ethnic & racial, world views, etc. etc.

And…

Free Geek is a place where Marie‘s son, and my friend, and many people’s teacher, friend, and hero works.

Meet Blaine:

Blaine is an amazing person: he is calming and passionate and helpful and caring and supportive, and, well, amazing. He is one of those rare people in life that you feel honored to know, to hug and to call a friend.  Knowing what he gives to Free Geek and what the community gives back to him only furthers the proof that he is truly a hero! (super hero even?) :)

Here’s how Marie captured it:

As many of you know, Blaine was born with spina bifida and is paralyzed and lacks sensation below his armpits.  This past summer, Blaine received an award for “Volunteer Extraordinaire” at Free Geek in recognition that for the past five years, every day Free Geek is open and he is not really really sick, Blaine has been getting himself up and ready to go in and help that amazing nonprofit organization.  I get to see what it takes for Blaine to make his important contribution. What can I say?  He’s my hero.

I’ve always know what Free Geek does for Blaine, but I was stunned to hear what he means to Free Geek.  Recently some of his co-workers there shared some thoughts about what Blaine provides Free Geek.  When I heard these things, my heart soared like a hawk.  I wish every mother had the opportunity to hear people appreciate their son or daughter like this:

  • “Recently my niece signed up to volunteer at Free Geek, opting to work her way through the Computer Build program to earn a free computer.  My advice to her was, ‘Prepare to work independently, overcome great frustration, and when in doubt, stay close to Blaine.’”
  • “Blaine’s tutelage was instrumental in my making it through the Build program at Free Geek (launching me into other areas of contribution), and I know he has provided similar assistance to hundreds, if not thousands of other volunteers there.”
  • “Blaine is an amazingly knowledgable and patient instructor and coordinator of other volunteers. Despite his limited mobility, Blaine is able to help direct and answer questions of our volunteers, which in turn keep our organization running.”
  • “Blaine is among the most valued members of the Free Geek community and of its volunteer labor force.”
  • “Blaine helps teach others good work skills and reinforces the importance of showing up on time and doing your job with all you have, and he is always willing to learn more from others to share with his students.”
  • “I have been very impressed with Blaine’s patient and consistently upbeat contributions as a volunteer with the Free Geek build program.  He was extremely supportive and helpful to a young man from a Haitian refugee family who learned a lot from a series of afternoons with Blaine: about computers, people, tolerance and empathy from his supportive manner and patient instruction.”
  • “He is a beloved member of our community. It’s impossible to work with Blaine without appreciating his cheer and warmth. I’ve never seen him get irritated, even in the most difficult times; His equanimity helps us all to maintain our own sanity. He’s an inspiring presence.”

How to Support the Free Geek team & community:

It’s rough times, for everyone.  But Free Geek needs your support however you can give it.

  • If you are in Portland, OR: Take your no-longer-needed computer and other electronic items to Free Geek at 1731 SE 10th Ave., just a couple blocks south of Hawthorne.
  • If you aren’t in Portland, OR:  Make a charitable donation to this wonderful organization (tax deductible of course!). You can give through PayPal directly on the Free Geek site or through the Willamette Week Give Guide (and get some schwag for your trouble!).
  • Mail or deliver a check to Free Geek, 1731 SE 10th Ave., Portland OR  97214.  (Tell them Marie sent you!)

If none of those options speak to you, why not try one of these options:

The Short Version about 5 minutes long (viewed more than 50,000 times so far!):

Published on December 9, 2008 by Amy Sample Ward. 5 Comments