Nelson Mandela, freedom fighter, international statesman, and former President of South Africa, spent 67 years of his life serving his community and fighting for the rights of humanity. Today, July 18th, is his 92nd birthday.

In celebration of the life’s work of Nelson Mandela, non-profit organizations 46664 and the Nelson Mandela Foundation invite the global community to join them in support of an official Mandela Day. Recognized by the United Nations, Mandela Day is an international day to honor the legacy of Nelson Mandela on his birthday and call people to action around the world to take time out to do something good for others in the community.

To celebrate Mandela Day, here is a list of ideas that come to mind. Since we’re based in San Francisco, many of the ideas below are local SF opportunities. What are your favorite ways of getting involved in your community?

10 Ideas & Resources To Find Volunteer Opportunities To Celebrate Mandela Day:

1. Check out volunteer projects or start your own at Citizen Effect
2. Provide technology mentorship at Community Technology Network in San Francisco
3. Check out volunteer opportunities at One Brick – San Francisco
4. Mentor youth through Glide in San Francisco
5. Become a coach or running buddy at Girls On The Run in San Francisco
6. Help build houses with Habitat For Humanity
7. Volunteer with Streetside Stories, to help youth with writing and video projects in San Francisco
8. Check out volunteer opportunities at Volunteer Match or Idealist.org – or put your professional skills to good use, in a few minutes or less at The Extraordinaries
9. Run For Teachers or join the AIDS Walk in San Francisco today
10. Have more time and want to travel? Hands On Disaster Response has a great program for volunteers who want to help out in Haiti

Suggested Reading:

To learn more about Nelson Mandela, this autobiography is a great read: Long Walk To Freedom: An Autobiography of Nelson Mandela

This is Part 1 of a 4-Part series with Dan Morrison, Founder of Citizen Effect.

Dan shares insights on “citizen philanthropy” and shares the behind-the-scenes story that inspired him to start Citizen Effect. In our next interview we talk with Dan about how a strong business background and a knowledgeable and talented advisory board are critical when launching a new business like Citizen Effect. You can catch Part II here.

Thank you Dan for your time to meet for this interview.

Behind-The-Scenes: Citizen Philanthropy & How Citizen Effect Got Started

Katrina: Thank you so much for joining. I’m here with Dan Morrison, the Founder of Citizen Effect. And Dan can you tell us a little bit about Citizen Effect?

Dan: Sure. Citizen Effect basically is a platform that empowers anybody to be a philanthropist. The whole idea is that you don’t have to be Bill Gates to save the world. So because of technology and the internet and mobile, you can actually reach and interact with communities halfway around the world and build relationships and have a real impact on their lives. You can actually pick your own project, and then we give you the platform to bring your family and friends all together to raise the money for that project. And probably the most important thing is we put you in direct contact with that community so you see the impact that you are having.

Katrina: How do you connect citizen philanthropists with global communities?

Dan: We go around the world to try to identify best-in-class organizations. They can be big NGOs, they can be small community-based organizations, but ones that have a really strong relationship in that community. And so they actually source the projects, implement the projects and manage all the projects, and they facilitate the communication between the community members there on the ground and the citizen philanthropists and all their donors.

Katrina: Speaking of a citizen philanthropist, can you just share a little bit, what is a citizen philanthropist?

Dan: The way we think of philanthropy is, it’s not just a giver, it’s not someone who just makes a donation. We’re actually looking for those people who just don’t want to give fifty dollars, they want to bring their friends and family together in a strong community relationship and raise five thousand dollars.

Katrina: How is citizen philanthropy different than donating to a cause online?

Dan: I think it’s important to understand that philanthropy is a long-term strategic investment and relationship that you have with another community. That’s what we consider as citizen philanthropy and how it’s different than just giving donations.

Katrina: Fantastic. And can you share, what inspired you to launch and start an organization and build this platform?

Dan: The inspiration for this is really a woman named Reema Nanavatyi. And she was one of the leaders of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) which is an amazing group in India. And I met her and she invited me to come see the work they were doing in northwest India. And I just toured around the rural villages for two weeks helping them and just, really, listening to their stories. And hearing these amazing stories about these poor farmers, these rye pickers, these poor artisans. And they obviously had a very difficult life, which I was completely foreign to – I’m a suburban boy from the western side of Chicago, and have no idea what it’s like to live that life.

And they’re also filled with hope and saw the potential of what was possible. And one of them came to me and said, “we don’t want your help, we don’t want you to tell us what to do, what we want to do is partner with you so we can take advantage of the opportunities right in front of us.” And, I think that was really the big motivation. And then the next woman came along and said, “you know I’m walking four hours a day for water, we know we can build this well in this community, and if we can do that, we’ll unlock the potential of all the women in the community, we’ll improve the health of the community…”

And so I went home and with friends and family raised five thousand dollars for the well. And that’s really how it started.

Thank you Dan, for time to meet for this interview.

Dan Morrison | Founder, Citizen Effect

About: Citizen Effect provides citizens with the tools and networks they need to work directly with communities in need around the world, enabling every individual to be a citizen philanthropist. Website: www.CitizenEffect.org

(Photo thanks to IFRC Flickr Creative Commons.)
Across the world, our hearts are broken for Haiti. For a people who have suffered so much and lived on so little for generations, it’s incomprehensible to imagine the added devastation of the 7.0 earthquake that hit the country last week. Many blogs have provided excellent posts on ways to help, including this post from Care2.

As events unfold each day, we’ve learned that the best way to help immediately is via cash donations to highly respected organizations like Partners in Health and Doctors Without Borders. Both organizations have a stellar reputation for effectiveness, integrity, a long-term established presence in the country, and success in achieving results.

The second question therefore is, “in what other ways can I help?”

Here are a number of other ways to help:

1. Help find missing people by tagging photos. Visit The Extraordinaries.
2. Volunteer your time and skills over the next 12 months. Search Global Volunteer Network. Also, Habitat for Humanity is expected to have opportunities to volunteer in coming months – updated info to be released soon.
3. Volunteer in design, engineering, or construction in the coming months. Visit Architecture for Humanity.
4. Recycle old mobile phones to provide disaster relief in Haiti.
5. Visit Care2 and click daily: with each click, sponsors donate to earthquake relief through Oxfam.
6. Provide relief to Haiti via iPhone app CauseWorld. Sponsors donate, you choose the cause (select Relief for Haiti).
7. Organize a fundraiser to support Partners in Health, a highly respected organization that has been working in Haiti for over twenty years.
8. Medical suppliers are requested to donate supplies. Check out the list of supplies needed by Partners in Health.
9. Download Music for Relief featuring Linkin Park, Alanis Morissette, and More Top Artists: Proceeds go to Haiti Relief.
10. If you play social games on Zynga, spruce up your farm, fish, or poker game with special virtual goods that support Haiti Relief efforts.
11. Stay informed. Great sources of info include Facebook Global Disaster Relief and New York Times.
12. Spread the word of ways to help via Facebook, Twitter, and word of mouth.

Know of other ways to help? Please leave a comment, thanks!

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Q: What are you hearing from your people regarding the (security) and slow pace of this? – Katie Couric

A: We’re speaking to our folks on the telephone daily via satellite phones… The overwhelming message we’re getting from our folks on the ground … is of the really extraordinary peacefulness and calm. Two of my colleagues said that the first two nights, the only noise coming from areas where there are 50,000 people lying in varying degrees of terrible distress with cradling loved ones and everything else, is that of singing, of taking care of one another, of washing each other, of great comforting of a community – not even taking care of only family members, but of really taking care of one another. – Ophelia Dahl, President, Partners in Health