Safaricom, Africa-tech and Google in Africa

One of the things that many Afro-optimists share is an excitement about the way that technology is providing new opportunities for the passion, energy, and talent that’s so apparent in young people across the continent.
Last week, Google announced (hattip Appfrica) that it was launching a blog dedicated entirely to its work in Africa, which has [...]

CARE Connections: can individual humanitarian organizations create successful social networks?

CARE, one of the largest relief and development organizations in the world has just launched “CARE Connections,” a social network for CARE supporters to discuss relief and development issues. The email announcing the launch was inauspiciously titled “Move over Facebook, here comes CARE Connections.”
I think its a smart recognition on CARE’s part that there is [...]

Boston beer, small business philanthropy and the era of trust

There was a cool article in the Boston Globe about a week ago about a partnership between Boston Beer Co (brewers of Sam Adams) and Accion USA to set up a nonprofit loan fund that helped small business owners with grants of between $2,000 and $20,000. The fund also provides entrepreneurs with consultation and mentorship [...]

From ReadWriteWeb: “Software Company Ditches AdWords for…Kiva?”

In a stunningly intriguing idea, Portland, Oregon based Jama Software is ditching Google’s AdWords program, feeling that their return on investment simply wasn’t high enough. Instead, they’re donating the money they would have spent to Kiva.org, the direct peer2peer micro-lending nonprofit that allows individual users to fund global enterprises.
They believe that the buzz they generate [...]

Thank you from Assetmap.org/Uganda

From the Assetmap.org/Uganda team,
Thanks EVERYONE who supported the Assetmap.org/Uganda project. It was inspiring for us to see the number of people who were excited about tools that would let them support community-led development efforts in this remarkable region. With your support, we were among the top 20 vote getters and will head to California to [...]