by Willy Franzen on February 27, 2010
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it or not, but I’ve spent the last week in Florida. It’s been a partial vacation, but I’ve spent most of the time working (since it’s been cold and rainy here). One thing that I’ve noticed down here besides the terrible weather and bad driving is that immigration is still a major issue. With Florida’s proximity to Cuba and Haiti, the state runs into a lot of immigration issues. It may be refugees arriving by boat or raft, or it could be immigrants flocking to the state to work in agriculture. Whoever they are and wherever they’re from, they are eligible for support from Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, a non-profit “legal assistance organization dedicated to protecting and promoting the basic human rights of immigrants.” The organization is based in Miami, and they’ve been around since 1996.
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by Willy Franzen on January 31, 2010
I don’t usually do this, but this is important. I find many of the non-profit jobs that I feature on One Day, One Job on Idealist.org. It’s the best resource for non-profit jobs on the web, and it’s a non-profit itself. The organization is in trouble right now, and they need money. If they’ve helped your job search in any way, go to their home page and make a donation—I just did. Even $5 will help.
If Aspen is known for anything, it’s known for skiing and affluence. In 1945 Walter Paepcke, a Chicago businessman, was so inspired by the town’s natural beauty that he wanted it to be known for something else—”as an ideal gathering place for thinkers, leaders, artists, and musicians from all over the world to step away from their daily routines and reflect on the underlying values of society and culture.” He started by organizing events in Aspen like “a celebration of the 200th birthday of German poet and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,” and then he founded The Aspen Institute. It started as a “forum based on the writings of great thinkers of the past and present,” but now it’s evolved into something more. It is now a non-profit organization that fosters “values-based leadership” and provides “a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues.” It’s certainly an ideas-focused organization, and it is now headquartered in Washington, DC with offices in Aspen, CO and on the Wye River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
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by Willy Franzen on December 12, 2009
I have to say that democracy is a pretty darn good thing—even if it is the only government system that I’ve ever known. It certainly has its flaws, but I’m not sure that we’ve found a better way to ensure the freedom of a nation’s citizens yet. I don’t think that there is a lot of debate about whether spreading democracy is a good thing—most of the debate centers around what are appropriate ways to spread it. The National Endowment for Democracy is a Washington, DC based “private, non-profit, grant-making organization” that aims to “strengthen democratic institutions around the world through nongovernmental efforts.” They’re funded through “an annual appropriation from the U.S. Congress through the Department of State;” however, they are not a government organization. They make grants to pro-Democracy groups across the world with the goal of helping democracy evolve naturally in a way that suits the nations culture and history.
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by Willy Franzen on October 31, 2009
Happy Halloween! Yesterday we took a look at Mars and talked about Halloween candy, but today we’re going to take a different tack. Since we’re told from an early age that candy will rot our teeth, I figure that Halloween is the perfect time to discuss a dental non-profit. It’s also appropriate because many people would consider the dentist to be way scarier than even the most deranged Halloween costume. After a little searching, I came across Children’s Dental Health Project. They’re a relatively small Washington, DC based non-profit organization that “advances policies that improve children’s access to oral health.” Now, this definitely does not mean that I think that anyone should give out toothbrushes for Halloween, but make sure you brush after eating all that candy.
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by Willy Franzen on October 25, 2009
I love rivers (mostly because they’re where I usually go fly fishing). They’re the lifeblood of our society, and even though we’ve figured out ways to move water on our own, they’re still a huge part of our infrastructure. There’s no question as to why most major cities sit on the banks of a large river. The problem with that is that it means that many of our greatest rivers have been subjected to significant abuse. Dams, pollution, irrigation, and overconsumption have left many of our rivers in pretty sad states. American Rivers is a Washington, DC based non-profit that hopes to fix this. They describe themselves as “the leading conservation organization standing up for healthy rivers so communities can thrive.”
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by Willy Franzen on September 12, 2009
We all need someone to call us out when we step over the line. Maybe it’s a parent, sibling, significant other, teacher, friend, or random guy on the street. For corporations it’s Corporate Accountability International, although I’m not sure there’s a lot of love going between the two parties. I don’t know when corporations became such a bad thing, and to be honest I still think that corporations do a lot more good than bad, but a great part of living in such a free society is that there’s always someone out there looking to hold you accountable. Boston based Corporate Accountability International demands “direct corporate accountability to public interests.” That means that when a corporation puts the food that we eat, the water that we drink, or the air that we breathe at risk, Corporate Accountability International will be causing a stir about it.
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by Willy Franzen on July 26, 2009
I doubt many of you would disagree with the assertion that the “mainstream media” has some major issues that need to be worked out. Take the coverage of Michael Jackson’s death. Yes, he was a great entertainer. Yes, the way that he lived his life was totally perplexing. Yes, people are fascinated by him. But did we really need all that coverage? It’s just one example of how our media is failing us, but I’m sure that Free Press would be willing to give you many more examples. They are a non-profit, “national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the media through education, organizing and advocacy.” Free Press advocates “independent media ownership, strong public media, and universal access to communications,” and they do this through a number of campaigns: Save the Internet, Stop Big Media, No Fake News, Local Radio Now, Stamp Out Postal Rate Hikes, Save Our Spectrum, Community Internet, Public Broadcasting, Pentagon Propaganda, White Spaces, and Rate the Debates. They’re based in both Washington, DC and Florence, MA, and they’ve been working since 2002 to fix what they call a failing media system.
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by Willy Franzen on April 29, 2009
I think that I’ve said it before here – I don’t like politics. I’m not talking about interpersonal politics, I mean government politics. I quickly get frustrated by the ineptitude of our elected officials (and often the media that covers them) and start yelling at the tv. I used to be what people call a “politics junkie,” but I just got sick of it. That was before political blogging took off (I’m not old!), but if I hadn’t tired of politics at a young age, I’m sure that I’d be an avid reader of POLITICO. Wikipedia says that POLITICO is “a political journalism organization based in Washington, D.C., that distributes its content via television, the Internet, newspaper, and radio.” They apparently have a newspaper that is circulated on Capitol Hill and a number of partnerships with major media outlets, but their website seems to have the widest reach.
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by Willy Franzen on March 25, 2009
As we learned in the most recent round of elections, the Internet matters. Even 4 years ago there was a lot of talk about the importance of campaign website, but not a lot of real value. Now it’s absolutely essential to use the web to organize your base and to reach swing voters. Add to that the fact that politics are recession-proof (unfortunately), and you’ll understand why Arlington, VA based Emotive is so well positioned right now. They’re a direct marketing company that specializes in online solutions for political campaigns, trade associations, and issue-based coalitions. If you want to see some of the work that they’ve done, you can check out the websites for The Governator and the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation. They offer complete solutions, so as they put it, “We’re not only going to build you a Cadillac, we want to be your chauffeur.”
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by Willy Franzen on December 15, 2008
It’s amazing to think that a publication started by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., and James Russell Lowell in 1857 is still kicking. The Atlantic has morphed from a focus on literary and cultural affairs to more broadly attacking the topics of foreign affairs, politics, economics, and cultural trends. It has also joined forces with National Journal and Government Executive to form Atlantic Media. Their publications are a little more advanced than Highlights and Mad Magazine, which is why a recent rebranding effort was probably necessary. Appealing to people’s intellectual sides just isn’t the best way to sell magazines, unfortunately. With lots of changes going on at Atlantic Media, and National Journal Group’s political trade journals still bringing money, now might be an interesting time to consider working at Atlantic Media.
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by Willy Franzen on November 23, 2008
Do you look at the labels on all of the food that you buy? Not only the nutritional facts but also the ingredients? If you answered yes, then you’re probably a health conscious consumer, or maybe you have a specific food allergy. Well what about the stuff that’s in your food that isn’t on the ingredients label? No mater what kind of drugs they pump into the cow that your hamburger is coming from, it’s always just going to be labeled beef. How about that bottle of water that you’re drinking from right now? It’s just water, or is it? A salmon from Lake Ontario is still just salmon, even if it’s full of PCBs (at least you can’t buy those in the grocery store). There’s a lot of stuff in our food and water that we don’t know about, which is why Washington, DC based Food & Water Watch exists. They’re “a nonprofit consumer organization that works to ensure clean water and safe food.”
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by Willy Franzen on October 4, 2008
Since diplomacy is “the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states” according to Wikipedia, one would assume that a diplomat is a representative of a group or state. Independent Diplomat is a non-profit organization that is trying to live outside that definition. Their mission is to provide the knowledge and experience of long time diplomats to countries that are disadvantaged or marginalized to the point that they don’t have the resources to effectively practice diplomacy. Started by a former British diplomat, Independent Diplomat has worked with nations that include Somaliland, Western Sahara, Kosovo, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to prevent and resolve conflict. They’re kind of like management consultants for diplomacy.
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by Willy Franzen on June 22, 2008
Almost every kid has experienced it: your parents yelling at you for something you didn’t do. They are absolutely sure that you did something wrong and there is no convincing them otherwise. It’s a horrible feeling. Now, imagine the legal system putting you in the same situation, but the consequence is a lengthy imprisonment for something you didn’t do. Tragically, this happens more often than we’d like to think. It’s likely impossible to have an effective judicial system that eliminates all false positives, but we can certainly do better. The Innocence Project is a non-profit organization that is putting DNA and forensic evidence to work to exonerate people who have been wrongly convicted.
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by Willy Franzen on March 15, 2008
When we first decided to feature non-profit entry-level jobs on weekends, we saw it as a way to do some good while adding variety to the types of jobs we feature each day. We didn’t realize that an impending (possibly already happening) recession might change the outlook for college students who are in search of a first job. We can’t predict how the economy will affect entry-level hiring, but we do know that non-profit jobs can be more stable during downturns. We’re not saying that a job at a non-profit is recession proof, but the nature of a non-profit (at least a well funded one) makes them a little less sensitive to a short-term recession. One example of a well funded non-profit that is hiring aggressively at the entry-level despite the threat of recession is the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, “a private, nonpartisan, not-for-profit institution dedicated to research and education on issues of government, politics, economics, and social welfare.”
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