(ISF) The 21st century monks get it about ePhilanthropy

Dear ISF Colleagues,

I thought that you might be amused by this blog article, describing a
conversation in which I explain ePhilanthropy (in general) and
ChangingThePresent.Org (in particular) to the superior of a monastery,
and he gets it in about two seconds:

<http://blog.deborah.elizabeth.finn.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/10/3220783.html>



Best regards from Deborah

Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Cyber-Yenta
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
deborah_elizabeth_finn%40post.harvard.edu">deborah_elizabeth_finnpost.harvard.edu
www.cyber-yenta.org

Recommended reading:
"Universal Declaration of Human Rights&quot;
<http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights>;

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What surprised me is how information-technology savvy some Buddhist monks are. My daughter made friends with a group of Buddhist monks in a teaching monastery while she was in Yangon, Myanmar (Rangoon, Burma).

These monks have laptops and high-end digital cameras, and use them to communicate all over the world. My daughter, now back in the States, regularly communicates with monks in Burma, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India using VOIP and e-mail. They share photographs using Facebook and
other services. What also surprised me is how well some of the places
are wired for the Internet and cell phones.

They sure shattered my stereotypes of Buddhist monks and monastic life.

-----original message-----
>&gt;I thought that you might be amused by this blog article, describing a
conversation in which I explain ePhilanthropy (in general) and
ChangingThePresent.Org (in particular) to the superior of a monastery,
and he gets it in about two seconds: <http://blog.deborah.elizabeth.finn.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/10/3220783
.html&gt; >>

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Nice post, Deborah.

It's ironic: at the same time the nonprofits that most of us are so passionate about are struggling for funding, people in this country spend $250 billion a year buying presents for one another. That's billion with a b.

How can a nonprofit capture some of that money? Heifer and a few other pioneers have shown that granular donation opportunities are the trick to promoting donation gifts, that is, donations made in a friend's name in lieu of a traditional present.

ChangingThePresent.org provides nonprfits all the necessary elements to capture some of that gift money, including granular gifts, wish lists, registries, and beautiful printed greeting cards.

Imagine the impact we could have together as we promote "donation gifts"; as a social norm. Imagine the funds your organization could capture if they had a way to tap into their share of that money. Now they do: http://changingthepresent.org/nonprofits

Robert (disclosure: our company provides services to this nonprofit website)


-----original message-----
>&gt;I thought that you might be amused by this blog article, describing a conversation in which I explain ePhilanthropy (in general) and ChangingThePresent.Org (in particular) to the superior of a monastery,
and he gets it in about two seconds: http://blog.deborah.elizabeth.finn.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/10/3220783.html >>

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