The Daily Tell

After three years of work, engineers in India have succeeded in developing the world’s cheapest tablet laptop.

The device will cost Rs. 1,500 – roughly the equivalent of $35. That’s an incredibly cheap price when measured against the cost of the only other widely available tablet PC on the market, Apple’s iPad, which will run a consumer nearly $500 for its lowest-end model. Compared to the price of other consumer laptops, which can range from around $300 to more than $2,500, the device could change the face of technology in the developing world.

Perhaps most importantly, a $35 computing device could be an enormous boon to nonprofits dedicated to providing computers for schoolchildren in impoverished countries who often lack access to bathroom facilities, electricity and running water – let alone access to the internet or word processing.

In 2005, Nicholas Negroponte of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed a $200 laptop, at that time the cheapest device available. Negroponte recently announced his success in creating a $99 laptop made for his nonprofit group, One Laptop One Child, that can run Google’s Android operating system. The price is expected to drop to $75 by 2011, but so far, nothing can compete with India’s impressive achievement.

"This is our answer to MIT’s $100 computer," human resource development minister Kapil Sibal told the Economic Times at the device’s unveiling.

The $35 prototype – which Sibal eventually hopes to sell for only $10, and which India’s government will subsidize for students – is capable of word processing, web browsing and video conferencing. For a small additional fee, it also has an available solar-power option that will be enormously useful in rural areas that do not always have access to electricity.

According to the Associated Press, India is already home to a number of stunningly cheap innovations, such as a $16 water purifier, a car that costs less than $3,000 and, perhaps most impressively, open-heart surgery that costs only $2,000 – without insurance.

If they decide to embrace Sibal’s device, nonprofits like One Laptop One Child could benefit handsomely from such innovative and low-cost design. One Laptop One Child states on its website that its mission is "to empower the children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child," something the $35 laptop seems prepared to deliver.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has selected 78 new charitable initiatives in 18 countries, it announced Monday.

Each of the 78 causes will receive $100,000 in the most recent round of Grand Challenges Explorations. The money, which will fund research projects, will tackle issues such as strategic placement of insect-eating plants to reduce insect-borne diseases, inexpensive cell phone microscopes to diagnose malaria, and the relationship of nano-particles to vaccines.

"Grand Challenges Explorations continues to generate unique and creative ways to tackle global health issues," said Dr. Tachi Yamada, president of the Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program. "We are convinced that some of these ideas will lead to new innovations and eventually solutions that will save lives." The Grand Challenge Exploration is the Gates Foundation’s $100-million effort to improve healthcare around the world.

A major part of the investment will go toward research in vaccines. This research includes sweat-triggered vaccine delivery, a "seek and destroy" laser vaccine, and treating worm infections to improve vaccine effectiveness.

The announcement comes on the heels of the Gates Foundation announcing a $4.5 million fund in order to research planet cooling clouds, reports the Vancouver Sun. The funds will be used by climate researcher David Keith of the University of Calgary and Ken Calder of the Carnegie Institution for Science.

Caldeira told the Sun that the money has gone to different researchers – this includes approximately $300,000 to Armand Neukermanns. Neukermanns, a researcher who is also involved with the Gates Foundation’s Silver Lining Project, is planning to conduct the first cloud brightening project trial the world has ever seen.

"David Keith and I allocated funds to Armand Neukermanns to use laboratory experiments to establish whether it would be technically feasible to produce sea water sprays (in order to cool the atmosphere)," Caldeira told the Vancouver Sun in an interview.

Community college presidents need to boost graduation rates by nixing weak remedial programs and offering new ideas and cutting edge technology instead, according to one of the founders of the largest foundation in the country.

Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, commented on the need for high-tech school solutions at the 90th Annual American Association of Community Colleges Convention in Seattle. She backed up her words with a large investment in initiatives that encourage schools to offer accelerated academic catch-up.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donated $110 million in grants to design new efforts to replace traditional remedial programs with initiatives that are proven to boost graduation rates.

Melinda Gates says research demonstrates that improving remediation is the best community colleges can do to increase the number of students who complete their studies.

"Either community colleges can keep doing what you’ve been doing, in which case you will gradually find yourself able to meet fewer and fewer of your students’ needs, or you can innovate," says Gates. "You can educate your students according to new models that yield dramatically better results for a fraction of the cost."

Fifty-seven million dollars will be distributed in grants over the next two years. Half of the foundation’s commitment has already been given to programs and colleges. The remaining grants will be given based on success of the earlier investments.

The foundation is looking for colleges and programs that collaborate well with high schools and middle schools to prevent remediation and offer multimedia tools to boost remedial studies. They also want to see programs that can efficiently blend accelerated learning with career training.

While 11 million students attend community colleges each year, more than half of low-income students start their post-secondary education at a community college.

The William J. Clinton Foundation, founded in 2001, is engaging the online community in an effort to raise money, asking users to learn more about climate change at the same time, the organization announced recently.

Named the "Take Initiative" campaign, it focuses on Earth Day activism, allowing supporters to sign up for Clinton Foundation-supported green projects and to take an online quiz on climate change.

For every person who visits the campaign’s website and takes the quiz, the foundation is donating $2 toward buying solar flashlights for people living in tent villages in Haiti. The Clinton Foundation says if 100,000 people take the quiz, it will reach its goal of sending 20,000 solar flashlights to improve safety conditions in the country that was ravished by earthquakes at the beginning of the year.

The campaign will conclude on April 22, 2010, when President Clinton hosts a special online forum with volunteers from across the country.

President Clinton says his nonprofit wants to address climate change issues to encourage individuals to make contributions that will bring to benefit to society.

"My foundation invites everyone to join us in the fight by taking initiative in their own homes and communities," says President Clinton. "I look forward to a lively and interesting dialogue about what we can all do to build a more sustainable world."

The Clinton Foundation has previously helped implement more than 250 energy efficiency building retrofit projects in more than 20 cities around the world.

President Clinton also recently partnered with President Bush when the two established a relief fund for Haiti and appeared in television ads together reaching out for support.

The Golden LEAF Foundation has given $24 million to a North Carolina nonprofit to implement a state-sponsored plan to bring internet access to North Carolina, the philanthropy announced recently.

The nonprofit MCNC will use the grant in part of its Broadband Technology Opportunities program, which, if federal grants come through, will be a $111 million implementation project. The foundation says this will help 69 counties across North Carolina that are currently underserved for broadband connections.

The implementation will call for 1,448 miles of fiber for a broadband internet infrastructure.

Dan Gerlach, president of Golden LEAF, says that the broadband fiber project will have an uplifting affect on the communities it will reach.

"These areas of the state are struggling to transition their economies," says Dan Gerlach. "The foundation board of directors views this initiative as an opportunity to provide essential infrastructure, take advantage of federal matching dollars and invest directly in efforts to grow stronger communities. Access to fiber in these areas will help level the playing field by providing global connectivity for business and educational opportunities. Rural North Carolina cannot be left behind."

The grant is part of a larger initiative by the Golden LEAF Foundation to increase broadband internet capabilities and stabilize costs in 179 public school districts, community colleges, libraries and other public institutions.

The Golden LEAF Foundation has done extensive work with communities in the state that have tobacco-dependent economies. The Golden LEAF board had previously awarded a $40 million grant to MCNC to assemble the federal grant proposal, enlist partners for the planning, and develop a sustainability model for the plan.

Among other grants recently given by the Golden LEAF Foundation, the organization gave $136,000 to match a federal grant for the state to provide additional broadband access, laptops and workers to 35 libraries in North Carolina. The William and Melinda Gates Foundation also matched the grants for the state proposal.

Many wealthy philanthropists tend to keep a low profile, but a new online video forum will give a face – or faces – to the British culture of major giving.

AmbassadorForPhilanthropy.com was launched this week by the Bristish government’s ambassador for philanthropy, Dame Stephanie Shirley. The site is comprised of brief YouTube interviews with major donors, aiming to "give philanthropists a voice."

Shirley told Civil Society she thinks this website is essential to fulfilling her newly-created role as the nation’s first philanthropic ambassador. She thinks it will help banks increase donor-advised funds and build a philanthropic summit to advise the government.

AmbassadorForPhilanthropy.com features some of the UK’s top givers talking about what motivates them to donate. In one sense, the site has the potential to speak to the consciences of others with the means to give about why they should contribute.

David Erasmus, who donates to American organization Acumen Fund – which fights global poverty – says, "Who is my neighbor? In the old days maybe it was the guys down the street; but actually now it is these guys in Africa. I feel responsible to connect in and be a part of the solution."

The site also has the potential to showcase the missions of nonprofits around the globe. Currently, the participating philanthropists’ favorite organizations become the topics of conversation for the duration of their interviews. Soon, the site will allow international charities to join and promote their missions by participating in discussions about their work, reports Civil Society.

Roberta d’Eustachio, chief of staff for the ambassador of philanthropy, told the source that the site expects a charity and social enterprise membership to reach "at least 10,000 organizations worldwide, with the largest slot going to the USA."

Here’s hoping this PhilanthroTube site becomes as visited as YouTube and global organizations see donations as a result.

Facebook has more than 400 million users worldwide. The social network is open to anyone who has access to the internet, providing them with a forum to voice their opinions and share their concerns about their communities. Countless nonprofits have used the site as a way to spread word about their mission and raise needed funds, and Facebook is the tip of the proverbial internet iceberg.

Imagine if the potential power of the web was harnessed to empower the billions of underprivileged people in the world – giving them opportunities for teaching, learning, enterprise and a better life.

The World Wide Web Foundation aspires to break down the barriers to creating and consuming web content to empower people to bring about social and economic change. The international nonprofit organization develops programs to transform the web to a medium that can have a positive global impact.

One of the foundation’s current projects is working to train entrepreneurs in Africa to use the web as a platform for delivering content and services that will be beneficial to their communities. The project is funded by mobile company Vodafone Group.

Vodafone Group donated $1 million toward the African outreach projects and toward research on what needs to be done to make the web more accessible to people in developing countries.

The telecommunications firm believes a mobile partnership is essential to the success of World Wide Web’s mission because more than 70 percent of the world’s population has access to mobile or fixed devices capable of displaying web content, while just 25 percent of people around the globe actually use the web.

"It is clear that the creation of the world wide web combined with the growing ubiquity of mobile technology presents us with a unique opportunity to drive positive change," said Vittorio Colao, CEO of Vodafone Group.

Members of the foundation are also enthusiastic about the participation of a mobile company in their mission. "In developing countries, mobile phones can be used to get online, but few people have access to the web," said Berners-Lee, founder of Web Foundation. Hopefully, breaking barriers to mobile web access could make internet empowerment a handheld solution to social issues.

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.

According to figures from the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, about 1 million people across the U.S. struggle with the disease with another 60,000 diagnosed each year. But funding from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research recently donated $3.5 million to research projects which hope to better understand the disease.

The foundation, started by actor Michael J. Fox in 2000, announced this month that it was awarding $3.5 million to nine research organizations who we are studying the LRRK2 gene – which is thought to be "the most common genetic contributor to the disease," according to the MJFF.

In addition to receiving funding, the nine research groups will share results of their testing and create a consortium to get a better understanding of LRRK2 with the hope of creating therapy for those suffering from the disease.

The MJFF has targeting LRRK2 as a high priority and has allocated almost $17 million to studies and initiatives focused on LRRK2.

Earlier this month the foundation awarded $1 million to seven other research projects developing research tools and technologies to help fight the disorder.

Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991 and made a public announcement of his ailment in 1998. To date, his organization has donated close to $175 million to organizations researching the disease.

It would appear that the fundraising done by the MJFF pales in comparison to the costs associated with Parkinson’s each year. According to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, the disorder costs nearly $25 billion each year in the U.S. alone – which includes direct and indirect costs associated with the disease.

For thousands of jobseekers in the nonprofit and volunteer sector, Idealist.org is the number one destination to find opportunities to make a world a better place. A project of the nonprofit group Action Without Borders, Idealist.org is a comprehensive website featuring job and volunteering listings, event announcements, and networking opportunities. Idealist.org gives nonprofits an opportunity to showcase their work and connect with similar-minded organizations and individuals. Idealist.org also hosts job fairs and networking conferences for the nonprofit sector.

A large percentage of Idealist.org’s budget comes from small fees the website charges organizations for job postings. Not surprisingly, the economic meltdown of 2008 has had a devastating effect on this portion of Idealist.org’s budget. Nonprofit groups went through extensive hiring freezes, and cut back on posting job listings. As a result, Idealist found its budget nearly cut in half, leaving them in the red for $100,000 a month. For sixteen long months, Idealist.org has managed to survive on a leaner budget, but they are now at a fiscal breaking point.

Idealist.org is now reaching out to the community that they have assisted for more than fifteen years. The organization is calling on anyone whom Idealist has helped find a job or volunteer opportunity, or has simply been inspired to make a difference in this troubled world. Idealist has set a fiscal goal of $500,000 to stabilize the website. The team at Idealist is seeking to diversify its revenue stream so it will never face this fiscal crisis again. But Idealist cannot achieve this goal without your help. To date, more than 6,100 Idealist supporters have stepped forward, raising an impressive $200,000.

$500,000 may seem to be a lofty goal. But Idealist.org is a complex, multi-purpose site that connects 70,000 people with 90,000 organizations around the world, with information in English, Spanish, and French. Idealist also holds dozens of events across North America, including nonprofit career fairs, graduate school fairs, and global volunteer fairs. To hold all these projects together, teams in New York, Portland, Oregon, and Buenos Aires work hard to maintain Idealist.org, Idealistas.org, and Idealiste.org, ensure the integrity of the organizations featured on the websites, reply to tens of thousands of emails, and write and publish resources for the benefit of nonprofit workers and volunteers.

By donating to Idealist.org, you can play a small but crucial part in the gradual recovery of our battered world economy, as Idealist.org continues to help thousands of people locate jobs and volunteer opportunities. By helping to put people to work in areas where the need is greatest, Idealist.org is a proven source of hope and economic opportunity. When you donate to Idealist.org, you’re not just donating to a single organization. You’re helping to sustain the entire network of nonprofit organizations.