Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast

Climate Protests, Ashton Kutcher resigns, and FB Fundraising updates (news)

UN General Assembly Marked By Climate Protests Both In U.S. And Abroad

On September 16, 2023, thousands of climate change protesters, predominately youth activists, poured into the streets of Lower Manhattan as part of a global week of demonstrations leading up to the UN General Assembly, according to The New York Times. The New York protests specifically targeted Wall Street, with activists blocking traffic, staging sit-ins, and demanding governments and corporations take bolder action on climate change. Speakers accused Wall Street of financing fossil fuel projects that contribute to the climate crisis and called for divestment. The demonstrations remained largely peaceful despite arrests, capping a week of worldwide youth climate strikes and protests aimed at urgently pressuring leaders to address the climate emergency. Climate activists, especially “Just Stop Oil” members in Europe, have made headlines for seemingly aggressive tactics that critics say undermine their cause.

 

 

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• Berlin's Brandenburg Gate spray-painted by climate activists | Reuters

• Ashton Kutcher resigns from anti-child sex abuse nonprofit after Danny Masterson support letter backlash | Fox News

• Facebook Fundraisers No Longer Provide Free Processing | Whole Whale

Day of Service for 9/11 & Pay Gap at Nonprofits (news)

Opening of New Performing Arts Center Coincides With Commemoration of The Events of September 11th

Every year, the week of September 11th is a week of commemoration. New York is filled with stories of this day — stories of loss, of bravery, of sacrifice, of reunion. But perhaps most visible, the physical World Trade Center, yes a place of reflection and commemoration, is also piece by piece becoming a place that has been rebuilt in the spirit of American persistence.

 

The WTC, operated by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, has announced the opening of its new performing arts center, as reported by AP. “The memorial is here for people to come and grieve and pay their respects. The museum is for people to learn, be aware and never forget,” says Khady Kamara, PAC NYC’s executive director. “And the Performing Arts Center is here for people to celebrate life and really celebrate the resilience of New Yorkers and of the country.”

 

The opening comes at a time when arts have struggled in the City, and could provide a meaningful jolt to the creative ingenuity that in many ways defines what makes New York great.

 

Other efforts to turn tragedy into action and resilience are highlighted by the work of nonprofits like 9/11 Day, which encourages folks do good deeds each year. It has become the largest day of service in the United States.

 

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Summary

 

• Candid's 2023 Nonprofit Compensation Report finds female CEOs make 73 cents for each dollar male CEOs make  | Benzinga

• Renee Bach Documentary ‘Savior Complex’ Previewed in First Full Trailer – Rolling Stone  |  Rolling Stone

• How to donate to Morocco earthquake victims | The Washington Post 

   

Elon Musk blames Anti-Defamation League For... (news)

Nonprofit Brings NARCAN over-the-counter

A lifesaving medication that reverses opioid overdoses will soon become more accessible, thanks to an innovative nonprofit company. Harm Reduction Therapeutics has received FDA approval for RiVive, the first over-the-counter naloxone nasal spray created by a nonprofit.

 

Available in early 2024, RiVive aims to save lives by providing broad, low-cost access to this critical drug. Unlike big pharma, Harm Reduction Therapeutics is focused on equipping hardest-hit communities – not profits. At least 200,000 doses will be distributed free of charge where they are needed most.

 

This creative approach could be a game-changer in expanding access to naloxone, a medication that can mean the difference between life and death for those experiencing an opioid overdose. Harm Reduction Therapeutics exemplifies the power of nonprofits to drive real change.

 

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• Elon Musk blames Anti-Defamation League for ad sales slump, threatens lawsuit  | Axios 

• More schools that forced American Indian children to assimilate revealed  |  Washington Post

• Worker defrauds Massachusetts nonprofit out of $100,000 worth of Apple laptops, officials say  | WCVB Boston

From Dark Money to Digital Petitions: Reclaiming Government With Tech | MapLight.org

Daniel Newman, president and co-founder of MapLight, joins to discuss how their technology improves government transparency and direct democracy. MapLight builds software for state and local governments to provide easy public access to campaign finance data, e-signatures for petitions, and other services. Their goal is to counter the undue influence of money in politics by empowering citizens and journalists to hold officials accountable. Newman argues digital petitions could enable more grassroots, people-powered ballot initiatives. However, institutional resistance and polarization often block reforms, even those that would help voters across the political spectrum. Newman wrote the book Un-Rigged to explain major democracy reform issues in an accessible, solutions-oriented way.

 

Links:

Maplight.org

Un-Rigged Book

Daniel on LinkedIn

60 Years after a Dream (news)

60 Years after a Dream

August 28th marks sixty years from Martin Luther King Jr.'s iconic "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington in 1963. To remember the event, tens of thousands gathered again at the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday to declare that King's dream of racial equality was still unfulfilled.

 

Speakers like Rev. Al Sharpton called for an end to systemic racism, hate crimes, police brutality, gun violence, voter suppression, and other civil rights abuses that they said have persisted or worsened in recent years. 

 

Although the crowd was smaller than the original 250,000, attendees carried "Black Lives Matter" signs and wore "I Have a Dream" shirts to continue the push for justice and progress that King began decades ago. Many voiced disappointment at how much work remains to fully achieve King's vision of liberty and justice for all.

 

Sadly the weekend also saw a racially motivated shooting in Jacksonville that left 3 people dead. The attacker orginally tried to target a historically black college before getting noticed by campus officers. The Florida Governor has pledged $1m to increase security at HBCUs in the state. This moves the U.S. past the 470th mass shooting attack this year. 

 

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• Nonprofit Health System Says It Is Ending Policy That Denied Care to Indebted Patients | nytimes.com

• Morning Report: A Nonprofit that Doesn't Exist Is Raking in Major ... | Voice of San Diego 

   

   

 

 

Who are YOUR people? What is THEIR journey? | The Open Lines Marketing Framework

Interview with Lindsay Dayton LaShell, Marketing Activist at Open Lines Marketing. 

 

Discussion covers social trends on LinkedIn and the Marketing Framework Lindsay has developed:

Adopting the Framework is an eight-step process

1

Who else is on your playing field?

Call it competitive or landscape research if you want, but understanding who else your audience is finding when they should be finding you is an essential first step to understanding your unique opportunity.

2

Who are your people?

You have probably done some amount of audience research already. Maybe you’ve been in business a while so you know your customers well, but this exercise will open your eyes to new ways of understanding them and their needs.

3

What is their journey?

This unique exercise will introduce deep empathy into the buyer's journey that your customers experience. We use their words, their objections, and their understanding of their situation to get new levels of understanding of our own opportunity to reach them.

4

What are you offering?

Having a great product or service doesn’t guarantee sales. In this step, we look deeply at your brand messages to understand who you are in order to ensure that your content resonates with the people it’s created for.

5

Where does their journey take them?

Like literally, where? Do they look for answers in their email inbox? Do they look on Facebook? Do they look to their friends and family? Wherever they are looking for answers, we will craft a channel strategy to meet them there.

6

Where is your best time spent?

Making your to-do list shorter is one of the promises of the Framework. To do this, we’ll get super strategic in identifying the most powerful opportunities and prioritizing them for greatest impact.

7

What does success look like?

What will your business be one year after you start implementing the Framework? Asking this question allows us to begin seeing the difference between the urgent and the important in the day-to-day work of the business.

8

What will it take to get there?

We know that great marketing requires consistent execution of well-informed tactics. We also know that we prioritize things we think are important. The last step is to literally schedule the work that needs to be done, so that you feel confident that you have the information and the time you need to DO IT.

 

Telemarketing Scam Costs Charities $22m (news)

Telemarketing Scheme Indictments Surface Warnings On Safe Donation Practices

On Thursday, federal officials arrested Richard Zeitlin and Robert Piaro for allegedly defrauding donors of tens of millions of dollars that were meant for political nonprofit groups supporting causes like aid to military veterans and breast cancer research, according to reporting from The New York Times.

Zeitlin, who ran telemarketing call centers, is charged with fraud, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy. Piaro, who served as the treasurer of several political nonprofit groups, is charged with wire fraud and mail fraud. Both individuals could face significant prison sentences if convicted.

 

The indictment says that Zeitlin instructed employees at his call centers to mislead donors. It also says that Piaro made fraudulent claims about how donations would be spent.

 

About $22 million of the $28 million raised went to companies providing telemarketing services. Piaro paid himself about $526,000 from the money raised.  

 

Investigations into Zeitlin and Piaro revealed that a significant portion of the money they raised for groups was kept by their companies or spent on fundraising vendors. This story underscores the necessity for transparency, accountability, and vigilance in nonprofit fundraising and management.

Why Don’t Governments Want Direct Democracy Online Petitions?

We interviewed Evan Ravitz, Guide, Photographer, Writer, Editor. He is the Founder, Strengthen Direct Democracy. They won the 1st ONLINE petitioning for direct democracy (and only).

petitions.bouldercolorado.gov

https://www.facebook.com/groups/309502612936293/
http://EvanRavitz.com

 

Evan's Summary of the Issue

"There is one country in the world that for centuries has enjoyed more government by the people than all others put together, with people now voting four times a year on citizen initiatives anyone can get on the ballot -and voting a fifth time for candidates.

 

That country is Switzerland, with one of the world's lowest poverty rates, the highest median net worth and the highest newspaper readership -because people can do something about what they read! Their high speed trains run on time and the country avoids wars.

 

Half the US states also  have direct democracy, but there is a simple reason it hasn't made us nearly as successful as Switzerland: It is much easier to get initiatives on the ballot in Switzerland than in any US state, for two reasons:

 

1. Less signatures are required proportional to population in Switzerland than in any US state, about half as many as Colorado.

 

2. The Swiss can leave petitions unattended in stores and offices, but here, each person's signature must be witnessed and notarized. In Colorado, that now costs about $2 million!

 

Boulder's first in the country online petitioning solves the same problem, but with much better security, since people and politicians here couldn't be trusted with leaving petitions unattended as in Switzerland. Look at all the stolen yard signs before every election.

 

Here, citizens are infantilized, not empowered, by  deceitful and manipulative governments. The result is Trump and contempt for government. In 2018 oil and gas hired petitioner harassers, paid petition companies to stop petitioning, and hijacked petitions, to try to stop drilling setback Initiative 112 in Colorado. Online petitioning solves all these problems and dozens more.

 

In systems theory the ability of natural and artificial systems to detect and fix errors is paramount to survival. Voters have every incentive to fix our errors, since we have to live with them, whereas politicians have an incentive to cover up errors, to protect donors and careers that also enable them to escape the consequences of their actions. (Examples on request.)

 

Of course we need both representative and direct democracy, as in Switzerland. There are studies (available on request) that show that representative government works better in conjunction with direct democracy. A good example is that the first nine states to legalize cannabis did it by initiative and by now there are about 21 states with legal recreational cannabis, with about 7 getting it by legislation. When the people lead, the leaders will follow, If only for the tax money."

 

 

 

Resources

Maplight's free offer of custom open-source online petitioning software is available to ANY city or state that has ballot initiatives: https://www.maplight.org/post/maplight-offers-free-software-to-governments-for-digital-signature-gathering

NYC Asylum Seekers in the Street & Milk Money Story (news)

Asylum Seekers Left Stranded Outside Hotel Draws National Attention To NYC’s Migrant Crisis

New York City has seen an unprecedented influx of migrants in need of assistance over the past couple of years, with that trend culminating in a high-profile debacle outside the Roosevelt Hotel, where migrants were left stranded on the sidewalk. Throughout last week, images of over 150 migrants sleeping outside the sidewalk of the apparently full midtown hotel (which had been converted to an emergency shelter) sparked national media attention as NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ office declared the city’s beds full. The migrants unceremoniously were moved on Wednesday night according to reporting from Gothamist and other outlets, apparently housed with the assistance of faith-based nonprofits and advocacy groups. More than 56,000 migrants are currently housed in the city’s shelter system in widely reported poor conditions. An additional emergency shelter appears to be coming online in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, which will be added to the more than 200 locations serving migrants. Exacerbating the crisis is that the influx of migrants (many of whom may legally qualify for asylum) comes as the Governor of New York estimates a housing shortage of approximately 800,000 units.

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• Harry and Meghan Announce the Winners of $2 Million in Grants For Responsible Tech |  Vanity Fair
• Deep-pocketed dairy industry continues war on plant-based milk as FDA hears comments on new draft guidance  | OpenSecrets 
• Niger: NGOs warn further instability and sanctions could exacerbate humanitarian needs of the most vulnerable including women and children  |  The IRC

 

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Humanitarians Sound Alarm On Conflict & Atrocities In Sudan While Donors Fall Short (news)

Humanitarians Sound Alarm On Conflict & Atrocities In Sudan While Donors Fall Short

Aid groups and international organizations are increasingly sounding the alarm on the humanitarian cost of conflict as Sudan’s civil war rages on. On April 15th, 2023, fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary organization. These two entities were united as part of an anti-democracy regime that came to power during the 2021 coup—but ruptures have emerged—with civil war, violence, and ethnic cleansing threatening humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan. International donors have fallen short, pledging just half of the $3 billion the United Nations estimates is needed in aid. International NGOs have warned about severe obstacles to providing aid including safety concerns, lack of bureaucratic cooperation, and severely limited humanitarian entry points. Analysts call for international NGOs to instead refocus efforts on providing localized aid to community-based organizations. While the Save Darfur Coalition’s highly publicized campaign in the mid-2000s generated significant and sustained international awareness, Google Trends highlights how digital engagement with news of the current conflict returned to its baseline almost immediately after news of the fighting in April—despite the ongoing increase in need.

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Summary

• Alix Dorsainvil: What we know about the American nurse kidnapped with her child in Haiti | CNN 
• Bernie Sanders endorses plan to create nonprofit electric utility in Maine | Maine Public 
• Twitter threatens to sue nonprofit that documented rise in hateful tweets; founder decries 'unprecedented escalation' | 13newsnow.com WVEC