The Daily Tell

The Noyce Foundation, a philanthropy that provides support to young science students across the country, recently announced a $1.7 million donation to the 4-H Council towards its science, engineering and technology program.

The foundation, created in the memory of Intel co-founder Dr. Robert Noyce, believes this partnership with the 4-H system will help it achieve its goal of attracting a million young people to work in science, engineering and technology by 2013. The 4-H’s SET program provides a non-formal, out-of-school education experience that offers hands-on learning that applies national science teaching standards and encourages critical thinking to foster youth development.

The 4-H Council, the nonprofit arm of the national organization that works to provide youth with leadership experience and life skills, believes the donation will bring benefit to society by investing in the education of the next generation.

"Noyce’s investment will allow 4-H to expand state and county-level SET leadership teams which are integral to reaching our goal of addressing the nation’s critical workforce shortages by building the next generation of youth excited about careers in science, engineering and technology," said National 4-H Council president Donald T. Floyd, Jr.

4-H, supported by its adult dedicated volunteers, now helps 6 million young people throughout the year, with 5 million involved with its science, engineering and technology projects. Through summer camps and after-school activities, 4-H projects involve environmental protection, agriculture, animal science, computer science, renewable energy, robotics, and rocketry.

Children in 4-H programs are nearly two times more likely to go to college and are 25 percent more likely to start giving back to the community, according to youth development research by Tufts University.

Two other foundations named after major computer tech creators gave to nonprofits helping students go to college. The Gates and the Hewlett foundations recently contributed $3.6 million to the Academy for College Excellence to help unprepared students learn computer skills.

Whether it’s through one hour of volunteering or one dollar given to a worthy cause, everyone can be part of something big with a little effort. This is the idea behind the Members Project – an initiative that helps philanthropic-minded Americans vote, volunteer or donate to help make a difference.

American Express is partnering with TakePart to initiate the Members Project 2010. Anyone with a passion for giving back – whether they are an American Express Cardmember or not – can do their part through the project. Participants can decide what change they want to see and start making it a reality by visiting the Members Project website as well as its Facebook and Twitter pages.

Officials hope that people involved will also use social media to promote the charities they support and spread the word about the Members Project. TakePart, a subsidiary of Participant Media, is dedicated to using entertainment media to drive philanthropic action.

Now, the organization is proud to partner with American Express in these efforts. "Partnering with American Express, TakePart will help inform, inspire and activate users with tools to really make a difference," said Christopher Gebhardt, general manager of TakePart.

"We are unleashing a multitude of ways for everyone to help change the world one step at a time," said Nancy Smith, American Express’ vice president of global media, content and community. "American Express and TakePart have a vision and are deeply committed to empowering people to successfully do something bigger."

Officials at American Express refer to this campaign as corporate "cause marketing." Cause marketing might be described as companies using their influence to raise awareness and funds for social issues. Pepsi’s Refresh campaign, which awarded multiple grants to various nonprofits, is another demonstration of cause marketing.

Corporate cause marketing might help organization leaders streamline their funds toward relevant programs and projects and reduce the need for nonprofit marketing budgets. According to onPhilanthropy.com, nonprofits currently spend more than $7.6 billion a year on marketing, public relations, and advertising.

The Everything Channel, a technology marketing and sales firm, conducted a "technology makeover" at a California elementary school with the help of a local nonprofit volunteer action center, the organization announced recently.

As many public schools struggle to meet student needs in a difficult economic period, members of the marketing firm along with volunteers from the nonprofit L.A. Works installed six new library computers and updated the operating systems of 34 others as well as provided new keyboards in the elementary school’s computer lab.

Administrators at Dayton Heights elementary school said that without the employee volunteer initiative, the school’s computer system wouldn’t be able to adequately serve its students.

The new technology was presented to students, school officials and community leaders during a ribbon cutting ceremony.

"We are very grateful for the business community’s generosity in helping us revitalize the library and computer lab at Dayton Heights Elementary School," said Brutchey. "Everything Channel and members of the technology industry have set aside valuable time to help us improve the facility of one of our community partners. We appreciate this tremendous support of our mission to increase volunteer participation and build the capacity of our nonprofit partners."

Also involved in the IT makeover partnership are several technology companies, such as Microsoft, which was the underwriter of the program. Samsung, a major electronics company, donated a printer, two monitors and two projectors for classroom audio visual presentations.

In addition to the technology makeover, Everything Channel employees helped beautify areas around the school and one volunteer painted a mural nearby.

Other initiatives to help under-served students by supplying technology are sprouting up in other parts of the country as well.

Take Stock in Children, a nonprofit based in Florida that supplies mentors and college scholarships to low-income and at-risk students, recently distributed 10 anonymously donated laptops to the children it serves.

The World Health Organization estimates that 1.4 million children around the world are blind. Perhaps more startling, a report from Unite For Sight says that up to 70 percent of childhood blindness is likely preventable.

Unfortunately, health care around the world does not meet the needs of the 135 million visually impaired people on the globe. But Avarind Eye Care System is hoping to change this.

Dr. G. Venkataswamy founded Avarind Eye Care System in the 1970s with a mission to offer visitors outstanding eye care. Today, it draws patients from around the world. Avarind doctors perform 300,000 eye surgeries each year – 70 percent of which are subsidized for the poor.

Avarind – which currently operates five hospitals and manages four others – has worked with more than 260 eye hospitals in India and other developing countries to expand their ability to provide eye care. It has also participated in establishing national eye care plans for India, Rwanda and Eritrea.

For its outstanding service, Avarind Eye Care System has been awarded the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s annual humanitarian prize. Foundation leaders believe that Avarind offers unparalleled care with an admirable eye for social justice. "There is no compromise on quality or care," Hilton said.

The eye care provider will receive $1.5 million, which will be used to help the organization achieve its goal of managing 100 hospitals worldwide by 2015 to provide sight to millions.

Officials are thrilled to be given this honor. "The worldwide visibility and recognition that comes with the Hilton Humanitarian Prize will allow us to bring our healthcare model to alleviate suffering in many more parts of the world," said Dr. P. Namperumalsamy, Aravind’s chairman.

The prize will be presented to Avarind at the Global Philanthropy Forum’s ninth annual conference on April 20.

When people think of Malibu beaches, images of clear blue water and sunny sand come to mind. Unfortunately this pretty picture is just an imaginary image due to of mass pollution that has left parts of the Santa Monica Bay coast in disrepair. The City of Los Angeles used to treat the bay as a daily dump site, and the region is still slowly recovering from the damages.

Heal the Bay is a grassroots movement that has been working to improve the bay’s coastal environment. It uses research, education, advocacy initiatives and – as its most recent project demonstrates – community action to pursue its mission.

Recently, members of the organization got a helping hand from Cycdor volunteers as they cleaned up 50 pounds of trash at Zuma Beach in Malibu. Together, the Heal the Bay and Cydcor team combed Zuma Beach for plastic, Styrofoam, bottle caps and other debris.

"We are excited to partner with local businesses like Cydcor," said Natalie Burdick, Heal the Bay’s constituent development manager.

Cydcor is a California-based provider of outsourced, face-to-face teams. The 80 volunteers who helped with 2010 Heal the Bay demonstrate Cydcor’s commitment to community philanthropy.

"Their connection to the ocean and commitment to protecting it are important for building greater awareness and generating funds to support our efforts to make Southern California coastal waters and watersheds safe, healthy, and clean," Burdick said.

For their part, Cydcor volunteers felt cleaning Zuma Beach was a particularly meaningful experience because it struck close to home. "I feel very privileged to be part of an organization like Cydcor that has a passion for our environment and places emphasis on giving back to the community," said Austin Waggener, data management leader.

In addition to the Heal the Bay project, Cydcor partners with independent organizations across the country to help them accomplish their goals. Recently, the company donated 27 large boxes of items to American soldiers through the Any Soldier program.

The environmental group Heal the Bay was featured before on The Daily Tell.

Clean Out Your Office, a Massachusetts company that specializes in the disposal of electronic waste, is donating dozens of discarded computers to an after-school program based in Boston.

Through a partnership with Victory Generation, a faith-based nonprofit organization with a mission to build and sustain after-school services in low-income communities, the company delivered nearly 100 PCs to 11 schools and church centers. COYO plans to supply more computers to the after-school sites and has also made the goal of the partnership to give each of the 543 after-school students in the program a computer for their home by June 30, the Daily News Tribune of Waltham reported.

Janine Spinola Taylor, director of education for Victory Generation, called the charity donations from Clean Out Your Office a "win-win" situation that will surely be a benefit to society by giving less fortunate students a more equal playing field.

"It shows an after-school program meeting another business and collectively they serve the needs of children who do not have a computer," Janine Spinola Taylor, director of education for the partnership, told the news provider. "Without a computer, they are not able to compete in school and do the after-school work. The computer divide would have only increased."

If it were not for the company’s charity, the after-school program would have to pay from $200 to $300 for a refurbished computer, according to COYO’s cofounder.

COYO picks up its computers from small corporate customers – universities, law firms, and IT companies – that pay for the removal and recycling of monitors, copiers, printers and servers. COYO now waves $17.50 in recycling fees to customers who will donate their computers to Victory Generation.

For businesses and organizations in other areas who would like to donate, computerswithcauses.org offers to pick up computers and donate them to a school, veterans center, homeless shelter, or another cause affiliated with its global computer education program.

When it comes to marketing a product, companies selling consumer products sometimes aren’t afraid to act a little kooky, whether it be car dealerships yelling at you through the television or seafood restaurants taking advantage of multiple meanings for fresh in their advertisements to fish for a laugh.

Now, one brand is using those same strategies to bring benefit to society.

Paper towel brand Bounty is giving back to the community – and perhaps trying to promote its brand at the same time – by traveling around the country with an oversized shopping cart holding a six-foot Bounty roll in an attempt to raise awareness of hunger problems in five states.

Bounty, owned by Procter and Gamble, says it will donate one roll of paper towels to a food bank in each state whenever someone becomes a fan of its Facebook page. The company has pledged a total of $50,000 worth of paper towels to the food banks.

"Our goal through this campaign is to make a huge difference in the lives of those in need," said Chris Brown, a marketing executive for Bounty. "Local food banks are critical to serving people in need in communities across the country, and our hope is to incite people into action so together we can make a difference."

Last fall another product-sponsored charity used similar social media-based strategies in its own campaign.

Pantene, a hair products brand that is also owned by Proctor and Gamble, informed visitors in a Facebook status update posted in October that for each new fan their page received by the end of the year, they would donate 10 cents to their Pantene Beautiful Lengths program. The program facilitates hair donations to women suffering from cancer.

More than 70 percent of young Americans start some kind of secondary training or education program within two years of receiving their high school diplomas, yet many never make it to graduation day.

According to the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, roughly half of the students who start four-year bachelor degree programs full-time finish in six years. America was once first in the world but now ranks 10th with respect to the percentage of young adults with a college degree, reports the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development.

America is quickly slipping behind global competitors, which is especially alarming in light of the fact that in just 10 years the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce predicts that more than 60 percent of jobs will require at least a bachelor’s degree.

A new nonprofit organization hopes to change the grim outlook for America’s youth in the global workforce by increasing the number of Americans who earn a college degree. Complete College America focuses on implementing changes in educational policy at the state and national levels to boost college completion rates.

Seventeen states have already formed partnerships with the organization to work on local college completion rates. Now the nonprofit and affiliated states will get a little help thanks to a $12 million gift from foundations including the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the W.K Kellogg Foundation, the Ford Foundation and more.

The funds will be used to provide colleges with guidance on applying for and effectively using federal funding to produce more degrees. The money will also be used to give schools technical support and start degree completion initiatives on campuses.

Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, thinks this gift is an investment in America’s future. "Our hopes for preserving a vibrant democracy and the promise of social mobility that lie at the heart of the American dream depend on more students earning their college degrees," he said.

Intelius, a Bellevue, Washington information broker company, is helping preserve America’s World War II heritage. New York’s Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum offers visitors a unique learning environment – the entire museum is an artifact. The USS Intrepid served in WWII, Vietnam and the Cold War. It was also a NASA recovery vessel during the 1960s space race.

The nonprofit institution built on the national landmark is committed to both interpreting the history of the USS Intrepid and showing how this living artifact intersects with global issues and scientific innovation.

Now, Intelius is offering the museum a $25,000 grant to fund upcoming Power of One programs. Power of One is Intrepid’s speaker series that brings successful professionals to speak to students about how they found ways to succeed under challenging circumstances.

The speakers emphasize a commitment to hard work and innovation, much like the crew members of the Intrepid who operated as a "city at sea" during warfare. The museum hopes that these speakers will bring to life the struggles of heroes that came before and inspire youth to join the ranks of contemporary heroes who continue the tradition of national innovation.

With the Intelius grant, the museum will provide students with panels of speakers through the summer. In addition to funding this speaker series, representatives from Intelius will join the museum in introducing guest lecturers to participating students.

Intelius CEO Naveen Jain is happy to support this program; the recent grant continues the company’s efforts to help educate America’s youth. Intelius has been a longstanding sponsor of the Bellevue division of the Boys & Girls Club, and it also sponsors several youth-oriented events each year.

"We’ve experienced how being involved makes a difference in many lives. Volunteering time, energy and resources is absolutely crucial in helping these organizations achieve their mission," said Naveen Jain.

With its wide array of interactive exhibits, thought-provoking shows and cultural features, along with a steady stream of young students and families coming in everyday since 1830, administrators at one of Boston’s biggest museums feel they could use an upgrade to their computer systems.

Now Microsoft has made it happen.

The computer tech company, known for its long history of contributions to charity, gave $1.9 million worth of software and other support to the Museum of Science in Boston, the museum announced recently. The endowments include the most up-to-date Microsoft Office programs as well as server and development tools.

In a statement, leaders at the museum celebrated a continuing partnership with Microsoft that has comprised of not only financial charity but corporate volunteerism involving Microsoft’s 1,000 Boston-area workers.

"This is a milestone partnership," said Ioannis Miaoulis, president and director of the museum. "We all look forward to the collaborations Microsoft will make possible, from corporate volunteer programs to new exhibits that showcase the latest innovations in technology."

The museum has been a beneficiary of Microsoft ’s philanthropy since 1997, according the statement. The computer company is not alone: Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and MathWorks, both of Massachusetts, stand along with Microsoft as what the museum calls its premier partners.

"We are pleased to support one of Boston’s most vital institutions," said Ted MacLean, general manager of Microsoft’s strategic alliances division. "The museum is undergoing exciting changes in the ways it presents information and delivers educational information. We are thrilled to help make these shifts a reality."

Microsoft founder and board member Bill Gates has made education the focus of his philanthropy, giving back to the community by recently pledging $335 million in grants to enhance the performance of teachers in four major cities around the country, Tampa Bay’s St. Petersburg Times reported.