by Skellie
Bloggers are very privileged to be able to share our creative output with so many people, and in some cases, to profit from that creative output. We’re able to do this because we’re not living in poverty. We can afford to run computers, electricity, pay internet bills, purchase domain names and hosting–something that many people can’t do, and will never do.
Blog Action Day 2008 presents an excellent opportunity to remember this, and to avoid taking the privileges we have for granted. That’s why I’m glad to take part this year, with this post.
Here’s a challenge: today, do at least ten things to help in the battle against poverty. Don’t worry–I’ve made it kind of easy for you. Below are 30 things you can do. Some take a few hours, others a few minutes, others only a few seconds. Some you’ll only able to begin today, others you’ll be able to begin and end. Best of all, (almost) none of them require you to leave the chair you’re sitting in right now.
If you like the idea of helping out but are strapped for time, why not just contribute $10 to a low-interest loan for an entrepreneur in the developing world?
I’ll be donating 5 cents to Kiva.org for every visitor to Skelliewag on October the 15th. That’s $1 per 20 visitors. I want this number to be as high as possible, so I appreciate any visitors you can send my way. Please remember that there are no advertisements or affiliate links on Skelliewag, so I don’t benefit from this. I’ll give you an update on how much we raised when October 15th is over.
30 easy ways…
- Give social media votes to articles and news dealing with poverty.
- Lend $1 to an entrepreneur in poverty for every new person who subscribes to your blog in a given time period. You can adjust this number to more or less, depending on how much you want to give and how many subscribers you already have.
- Lend $5 to an entrepreneur in poverty for every one person who links to your blog in a given time period.
- Invest 5% of online eBook or service sales from your blog into a Kiva.org loan.
- Donate your blog or website’s October 15th earnings to a poverty-fighting charity.
- Donate spare or old technology to a family living in poverty (an old computer, for example).
- Donate $1 for every 1,000 page views or visitors to your blog or website in a given time period (i.e. one month).
- Join or create a Facebook group dedicated to reducing poverty.
- Use Twitter to share a good article on poverty (and reducing it).
- Use Twitter to share one important fact about poverty.
- Invite 5 friends to join Kiva.org and create a lending group.
- Share Blog Action Day posts in Google Reader.
- Send your favorite poverty-related website some SEO juice by linking with good anchor text.
- Create and share a desktop wallpaper to remind people about the battle to solve poverty.
- Donate your freelance skills (i.e. web development) to a poverty-fighting organization.
- Create a Flickr photoset of images that tell a story about poverty.
- Sell unneeded items on eBay or Craigslist and donate the proceeds to battle poverty.
- Create a video to raise awareness about poverty and share it on YouTube.
- Review a product on your blog or website and use an affiliate link. Lend your earnings to another entrepreneur somewhere else in the world.
- Donate unused hosting space to a poverty-battling organization.
- Email your local representative about your ideas on battling poverty in the area.
- Use your blog or website to tell the story of someone who overcame poverty. If your site is about online business, for example, you might tell the story of an entrepreneur who lived in poverty during a period of their life.
- Encourage your blog’s reader-base to donate or lend to battle poverty today.
- Lend 50 cents through Kiva.org for every person who comments on your next blog post. Make sure to tell your readers that’s what you’re doing, as you’re bound to get more comments that way. If your readership is small, you might raise the amount to $1.
- Give a poverty-battling organization some free advertising on your blog or website.
- On October 15th, submit 15 articles on poverty to your favorite social media service.
- Send a fantastic article on poverty to all your StumbleUpon friends.
- Shout an excellent article on poverty to your fans and friends on Digg.
- Have you heard about 1% for the Planet? This year, try 1% for Poverty with your blog or website’s earnings.
- Participate in Blog Action Day! (if it’s still October the 15th, it’s not too late).
Skelliewag features daily discussions on content creation, great ideas you can use, and design tips. Join the community by subscribing!
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62 Comments, Comment or Ping
Dave Navarro
31. Run a promotion for one of your products and give a cut to an anti-poverty charity.
That’s what I’m doing
Stumbled!
Oct 15th, 2008
Tess
Great list, Skellie, some really good easy ideas that will have an effect.
Oct 15th, 2008
Rick
Suggest that clients/friends/family donate their old computers to a family or child with no computer. I find that adding Ubuntu (or Xubuntu) for older computers gives someone without a computer a safe, easy to use, and completely modern and functional computer. IF that computer happens to be a laptop, the new computer owner can use it at local hot spots for free Internet access.
Computers can provide knowledge…knowledge is power…and power can propel anyone out of poverty.
Oct 15th, 2008
Franklin Bishop
I love all these ways of battling poverty with technology. I have been reading a lot of different things on poverty this morning and I’m so glad that bloggers take time away from writing information about their niche and instead writing about something as important as poverty.
Oct 15th, 2008
Jill Florio
you’ve got my digg and stumble! Great list.
Oct 15th, 2008
Marelisa
You can also write an article for your local newspaper so that people who normally don’t read blogs can also become more educated on poverty. Stumbled.
Oct 15th, 2008
Akemi "spiritual entrepreneur" @ Yes to Me
I love Kiva, too, because they treat people with respect. I just wrote my post for this Blog Action Day mentioning Kiva.
As the saying goes, “Give a man a fish and he will eat one day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat all life.”
Oct 15th, 2008
Sandra Foyt
Teach the kids in your life about the poverty in their community, and around the world. Help them learn how to take action, and enable them to wipe poverty within their generation.
Oct 15th, 2008
Evelyn Lim
I’ve also just published a post for Blog Action Day.
I must say that I enjoyed your list very much. You’ve certainly made it easy for your readers to pick up just one item to go with it. Thanks for sharing!
Oct 15th, 2008
Halans
32. Share your (wireless) internet connection with your less fortunate neighbors….
Oct 15th, 2008
Ken Allan
Kia ora Skellie!
Count me in!
Ng? mihi nui
from Middle-earth
Oct 15th, 2008
Rethabile
Thanks for the post and for the action.
Oct 15th, 2008
LiveWellSimply
Good ideas! I’ve been scouring the web and my own neurons for some of these very ideas. Let’s continue to spark great discusions and even greater action to help reduce poverty around the world.
Oct 15th, 2008
Lady Fi
I’ve been publishing Blog Action Day posts for three days now and am donating money for every comment that people leave on my posts. The money will be invested in kiva.org and The Global Fund. So, if you have time, come on over!
And great initiative and list!
Oct 15th, 2008
plonkee
If it’s been stumbled, this could cost you a lot of money. Hope you’re feeling rich.
Oct 15th, 2008
kouji haiku
my 5 cents.
i love kiva.
am currently unable to make a donation though, so i put up its banner on my blog (as well as that of freerice and goodsearch).
saw this post via the front page of blog action day. it’s great that you’re participating.
Oct 16th, 2008
Arun
You could create a slideshow on poverty and share it on SlideShare. You’ll find a spotlight on Blog Action Day on the SlideShare homepage. http://www.slideshare.net
Oct 16th, 2008
Emil
A wonderful list - it is almost a tag
I will definately attempt some of them!
Oct 16th, 2008
Connie Bennett
This is a great list. Linking to it from my blog. Thanks! Connie
Oct 16th, 2008
bethP
You’ve been tweeted! Nice list.
I’ve blogged about the potential for online fundraising to combat poverty at:
http://www.onlinefundraisingblog.com/2008/10/online-fundraising-to-combat-poverty/
#32. Create a personal fundraising page to raise money for a non-profit organization working to end poverty.
And I’m donating my earnings today to the Grameen Foundation!
Oct 16th, 2008
twig
Thanks for the prompt!
You’ve inspired me to write a post I have wanted to generate for a while
Now hopefully a few more people will know the flip (flop) side of poverty…
Oct 16th, 2008
Jaycee
Just linked your site from my blog. Good list. Nice to know you’re donating 5 cents per visitor.
Oct 16th, 2008
KivaB4B Team
HI all.
KivaB4B is contributing $10,000 to support Blog Action Day. KivaB4B is a new partnership between Kiva and Advanta Bank that lets you double the loans you make through Kiva, up to $200/month. It’s a very cool program. Check it out at KivaB4B.org. There’s also a very unique affiliate program they offer to blogs and other sites. There’s a description on the blog, http://b4bcommunity.org/2008/08/the-kiva-affiliate-program-hel.html
KivaB4B Team
Oct 16th, 2008
Mary
What if each state, or regions of a country, operated an official website listing all registered nonprofits, the population they serve, their mission statement, contact information, major donors, partners in service and links to websites? The sites would also be searchable by key words, so that if the donor wants to fund reproductive health, or children with single parents, or teaching low-income people to use technology, the donor can quickly find those initiatives and safely donate money to the organizations of their choice, online. Donors can also choose whether to have their names posted to the organizations’ websites, and donors could sign up to receive electronic news from the organizations. This initiative would seem to faciliate quickly matching nonprofits in need of funding with organizations seeking funds and facilitate communication between donor and recipient in relation to mission, outcomes and how success is measured. Likely this initiative would result in swifter, more efficient services delivered to those served by the organizations.
Oct 16th, 2008
julian
These are some really excellent ideas to a very grave problem. Now people just need to take action.
Oct 16th, 2008
Chanelle
Great post!
I run a virtual volunteering blog and mentioned some of your ideas on it for BAD08. You can see it here, http://virtualvolunteers.blogspot.com.
Looking forward to hear how much you’re donating to KIVA.
Chanelle
Oct 16th, 2008
Lando
Wow, this is one awesome list! The ideas are really creative. I’m definitely linking to this on my blog.
Oct 16th, 2008
Rohit
That’s very intelligent list of actions.
Hatsoff!!.
Oct 16th, 2008
ManforCharity
Wow what a great blog. Here is another site too. http://www.coolchtist.com - First Social Networking Website for Charity. The more people join and engage in this website then more orphan kids will be supported.
Oct 17th, 2008
Grandpa Shayne
From one techie to another, I think your list of suggestions is very creative. There is so much that we can do to share our blessings with those in need.
thanks, Grandpa Shayne
Oct 17th, 2008
Cynthia Wunsch
Thank you for participating in Blog Action Day! This is a great list and I’ve dugg your post. I posted my own BAD post at 12:03 am on the 15th, went to bed, and dugg and commented from 9 am on the 15th to 3 am on the 16th–sorry I haven’t gotten to you before now but with 12,000+ bloggers you can’t do it all in one day! Thanks to BAD I’ve met hundreds of wonderful bloggers who donated a few minutes out of their busy schedules, and a lot of creative thought to tie in their niche blogs to poverty.
Thanks again for a wonderful post!
Oct 18th, 2008
Bizzie Guye
Will someone read my blog?
Oct 23rd, 2008
KJ Sarma
I believe strongly the governenments are truely responsible for the poverty in the country. At least in india the type of corruption which goes with self servicing of the funds is greatly baffeling. it should come from with in that every individual should have determined to be truthful to his innerself. I have a brother who should also be comfortable like me .
Oct 25th, 2008
Johnny Coates
Nice list!.. hmmm… for the simplest thing to do, let us not look down on less fortunate people. And when we see them, let us wish them a good life. To be healthy and to be happy. This way, we send out positive vibes for them. It would definitely help them.
Also, it is not helpful to feel pity for them. Feeling pitiful implies that we know they don’t have something that we have. It is looking down on them. Understanding and caring for them is different from this one.
Oct 27th, 2008
Jennifer
I’ve read about Kiva - great list!
Oct 28th, 2008
MLRebecca
Thanks for posting this! That is a well-thought out and comprehensive list. I look forward to reading more about how your efforts turned out. Great post!
Nov 6th, 2008
Simple Meditation
Excellent content and style…keep up the good work!
Nov 22nd, 2008
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