A few years ago I was on the board of a startup non-profit. Our programming was going pretty well, but raising money was really hard. We had meetings with a few grant makers, but we didn’t impress them enough to get any money. A grant maker’s job is to give away money, but they need to offer more than that if they want that money to be put to the best use. Grantmakers for Effective Organizations is a Washington, DC based non-profit that is “committed to advancing smarter grantmaking practices that are most critical to bolstering nonprofit success.” They’ve been working towards a non-profit ecosystem with “more grantmakers providing general operating support, an increase in support for nonprofit leadership development as a capacity-building strategy, and more grantmakers seeking input from grantees and community members to shape effective solutions.”
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Earlier in the week we took a look at Balboa Capital, a company that helps businesses finance equipment. While they offer a great service to companies that need help making capital expenditures, their motive is profit driven. Some businesses need a different kind of help by utilizing the right technology to improve your business, and that’s what Mission Asset Fund offers. They’re a San Francisco, CA based non-profit that is “transforming the financial services sector with the best tools for finances so that all hardworking families have a shot at achieving their dreams.” How do they do this? It ranges from conducting groundbreaking research to social lending.
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I haven’t worked in a real office since my internships during college, but that office had a great cafeteria. The food was always pretty good, and the view was spectacular. The chef also made really great cookies in the afternoons. A lot of companies aren’t big enough to have a cafeteria, but they still want to offer in-house food options for their employees. That can be a huge hassle, but not with Cater2.me. They are a San Francisco, CA based company that “was founded with the goal of connecting inspired kitchens with the masses.” A lot of companies have complicated systems for ordering food in. Cater2.me does all of the administrative stuff so that employees stay well fed and productive.
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This morning I got to do something pretty cool. A friend who is doing research on trout in the Au Sable River invited me to go electrofishing with him. What does that mean? We put electrified probes in the water, stun fish, and then net them. What’s the point? To surgically implant telemetry devices that allow the fish to be tracked so that my friend can write a thesis on their behavior. All of the tracking gear that he uses is produced by Advanced Telemetry Systems. They are an Isanti, MN based company that aims “to provide researchers and managers in ecology and biology with animal tracking and monitoring products of the highest quality and reliability.”
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Events are inherently social. A lot of time who is going to be there matters more than what is going on. Yet all of our major social networks are about showing off what we’ve already done. If we’re going to broadcast our lives, it might make sense to let other people in on the fun. Fever is a New York, NY and Madrid, Spain based startup social network that is “changing the way people make plans.” Their idea is to take event discovery away from the calendar and make it all about the people.
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Think back to all of your years of school. Your teachers created a lot of content that helped you learn, but they also got a lot from educational publishers–textbooks, worksheets, tests, and more. Developing that content can be a painstaking process, so a lot of the times the publishers look outside for help. Since 1982 they’ve been turning to Quarasan, a Chicago, IL based “full service conceptual developer of content for publishers of educational materials and products.” They say that they cover the Pre-K-16 market, which, I think, means that they also develop materials for undergrad.
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You can do almost anything with someone else’s money–build a house, buy a car, go to school, shop ’til you drop, start a business, etc. Sometimes it’s a good idea, and sometimes it’s a really bad idea. One of the smartest times to borrow money is for upfront business expenses that will pay back over time. This is the kind of lending that Balboa Capital does. They’re an Irvine, CA based company that “has been providing equipment leasing and working capital loans to US businesses for over two decades.” They are in the business of keeping other businesses in business.
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This year Amy and I signed up for a CSA (it stands for community supported agriculture). It’s essentially a share of a nearby farm’s output for the growing season. That means we get a ton of locally grown fruits and vegetables every week, and it forces us to eat them. I already feel healthier because of it. The only problem is that it’s pretty expensive. We can solve a lot of societal problems “by increasing affordability and access to fresh, locally grown food.” That’s exactly what Wholesome Wave does. They’re a Bridgeport, CT based non-profit with a mission “to empower people in underserved urban and rural communities to make healthier food choices.” Not only can this be good for the environment and public health, but it can also stimulate local economies.
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I often find that the best ad agencies have websites with very few words on them. Instead of telling you how great they are, they show you. That’s what they do for their clients, so they should be doing it for themselves as well. A perfect example is Innerspin. They’re a Los Angeles, CA based agency that “is focused on growing global brands through effective brand building and digital capabilities” (those are about half of the words on their site right there). Apparently they won Season 2 of The Pitch on AMC, so they must be pretty good.
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New York City is the ultimate place to go shopping, but it can be extremely intimidating. Not only is hard to know where to go to find what you want (or get a deal), but a lot of the higher end stores can have attitude. If you want to take shopping in NYC seriously, you need professional help. That’s what Fashion Update offers. They’re a New York, NY based company that offers tours that will help you “find designer name merchandise for less than a fraction of the retail cost.” There’s also, apparently, a magazine with the same name that helps you track down bargains and an attached PR firm called In Your Face PR. To me the fashion tours are the most interesting business.
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I wrote a lot of research papers in college, which means that I spent a lot of time poring over academic journals, research papers, and even primary sources. While there is something kind of fun about digging to find facts to support your thesis, I can’t say that I miss it. But I’m sure that there are plenty of you would absolutely love it if you could spend all day searching for sources on ProQuest. In case you’re not familiar with them, they’re an Ann Arbor, MI based company that “is committed to empowering researchers and librarians around the world.” They do this through a variety of products and services that will help you find the information that you need. When Google can’t find what you’re looking for, there’s a decent chance that ProQuest can.
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The key to effective marketing and advertising is distilling a brand, product, or service into a simple message that the target customers can relate to. For some products that’s really easy, but there are plenty of markets where it gets really complicated–like healthcare and life sciences. If you’re a business in one of those industries, you can’t hire just any advertising agency. You need people who understand science but still excel at marketing… the kind of people who work at HDMZ. HDMZ is a Chicago, IL and San Francisco, CA based healthcare and life science marketing agency. They’ve been around since 1936, but they’ve kept up with the times by excelling at understanding their clients’ businesses.
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Fashion trends are fascinating. I generally dress the same way that my parents dressed me when I was four, but I understand the urge to get ahead of the latest styles. Some people just have a sense for fashion and can pull it off on their own, but most need help. That’s why the fashion media is so big. The Internet is only making fashion move faster, and that means that the media has to be faster too. StyleCaster Media Group is a New York, NY based company that aims “to bring style to the people, empowering millions of readers to discover and share their style through inspiring features, expert tips, and innovative resources.”
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Yesterday we looked at an L.A. based non-profit called The Music Center that is all about supporting the live performing arts. Today’s organization is also based in Los Angeles, CA, but their focus is on movies. The American Film Institute is a non-profit that calls itself “America’s promise to preserve the history of the motion picture, to honor the artists and their work and to educate the next generation of storytellers.” The organization was founded in 1967 with Trustees including Gregory Peck, Sidney Poitier, and Francis Ford Coppola, so there was nod bout that they could what they set out to do.
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My career as a musician was short-lived. I started playing the snare drum in fifth grade, got a full set in sixth grade, and sold it after 8th grade. I guess the performing arts weren’t for me (my acting career ended when I stuck out my tongue in the middle of a church Christmas pageant). Luckily, I didn’t have parents who dreamed of watching me perform at The Music Center in Los Angeles, CA. It’s a non-profit that is “one of the largest and most highly regarded performing arts centers in the country, and the place to experience the most innovative and critically-acclaimed performing arts in the nation.” Los Angeles is considered by many “the creative capital of the world,” and The Music Center only helps cement that position.
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Think about all of the e-mail lists that you’re subscribed to. Now think about how many of those e-mails you delete, mark as spam, or totally ignore. Every one of those senders includes you when they brag about the size of their lists, but you’re pretty much worth nothing to them (you may even have negative value). Businesses that do e-mail right know that keeping your lists manicured is a smart business decision. Unfortunately, that’s a lot easier said then done, which is why company that are serious about e-mail use FreshAddress. They’re a Newton, MA based company that helps “companies that depend on email to drive revenue by building, updating, segmenting, and cleaning their email lists.”
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When my wife gets sick, I swear that she takes her temperature every 15 minutes (she also considers 98.6 a fever because her temperature is normally lower than that). I don’t even bother taking my temperature unless I’m worried that I’m very sick. Thermometers can be important tools for tracking health, but most of us don’t use them to our full potential. Kinsa is a New York, NY based company that is changing the way that people take their temperatures and monitor their health. They’ve developed a smartphone compatible thermometer that combines with an app to provide a completely new type of health tracking technology solution.
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I live in the third biggest city in the country, yet I often feel like there’s nothing to do. Part of that is because most of the things that I like to do are outdoorsy and Chicago isn’t the best city for people like me, but most of it is because I’m not aware of all the cool things happening around me. There seem to be a million startups that have tried to solve this problem, and none have really succeeded yet. Maybe UpOut will change that. They’re a San Francisco, CA based company that “is changing how locals discover unique events in their city.” They do this by pulling in event calendars from a variety of sources and curating the list to only show the most interesting ones.
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School’s out! You probably don’t want to think about tests and finals right now, but it might be worth bringing back the painful memories. Good study materials are one of the keys to excelling in school. Unfortunately, I hated taking notes, highlighting my reading materials, and making review guides. It wasn’t laziness–I felt that these activities interfered with real learning. Luckily most of my friends were more concerned with getting good grades, so I’d generally find a way to bring enough value during review sessions to piggyback off of them. Today technology has removed the need for making friends in your classes thanks to Course Hero. It’s a Redwood City, CA based company that “was founded in 2008 by a Cornell University student who missed a class and realized there had to be a better way to get caught up than awkwardly asking a stranger for notes.” Luckily this guy skipped straight past abusing friendships and instead built a platform that “provides a suite of digital educational resources that help you learn as efficiently and effectively as possible.”
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I don’t listen to talk radio very often, but on long drives when I get bored of music, I switch over to the AM band. If it’s on, I’ll listen to Dave Ramsey. He’s “an American financial author, radio host, television personality, and motivational speaker” who is mainly focused on helping people get out of debt and stop paying the “stupid tax.” His company is called The Lampo Group (but they smartly use the DaveRamsey branding when it comes to posting jobs), and it’s based in Brentwood, TN. The Lampo Group’s mission is to provide “biblically based, common-sense education and empowerment that gives HOPE to everyone in every walk of life.”
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When I was growing up, there were always rumors of a kidnapper driving around town in a van (the color of the van would change from time to time, but it was usually brown), my family would get mailing with pictures of missing kids on them, and milk cartons had pictures of missing kids as well. In my mind there was a kidnapping was an epidemic. Today the big fear seems to be online child predators. I’m not sure if much has really changed, but there will always be missing kids, and the best way to find them and get them back in a safe place will be to get the word out. That’s what the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children does. They’re an Alexandria, VA based non-profit that “opened in 1984 to serve as the nation’s clearinghouse on issues related to missing and sexually exploited children.” In fact, the organization is authorized by Congress to assist law enforcement in a variety of ways.
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I always get confused by the terms modern and contemporary. To me they sound like they should mean the same thing, but they don’t–at least when you’re talking about art. Modern means that it was “produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s,” while contemporary means it was produced very recently. MOCA is the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and they are the only museum in L.A. that is entirely dedicated to contemporary art. Their definition includes works that date back to 1940, so I guess some of their contemporary art may also be modern art–though I definitely could be wrong about that.
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A lot of people like to listen to something while they’re working, studying, driving, or exercising. I’m not one of these people, but when I do listen to something, I prefer to be a passive listener. That’s why I like the radio. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of crap on the radio. The Internet is full of great “radio” stations, but discovery can be a pain. TuneIn is a Palo Alto, CA based company that “enables people to discover, follow, and listen to what’s most important to them — from sports, to news, to music, to talk.” They offer access to more than 100,000 live radio stations and 4 million podcasts. They have 50 million users, which seems pretty big considering that I hadn’t heard of them before.
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I haven’t updated my business cards in years; in fact, I’m not sure that I’ve given anyone a business card in at least a year. I do most of my business online, so it makes sense that I don’t use a lot of paper products. More and more people are moving in my direction, so if you are going to use printed materials, they need to pop–they need to be able to compete with the interactivity of a website. MOO is an East Providence, RI based company that loves to print. They’ve even invented a word to describe what they do: “printfinity.” It’s a technology that they’ve developed that allows you to “print a different photo or design on every Business Card, Sticker or Postcard in a pack.”
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I’m pretty bummed that we’re going to have to wait almost a full year for a new episode of Mad Men now. If you need your fix, you’re going to have to take a look inside a real advertising agency. Today we’re going to do that for you, and the focus is going to be Mason Zimbler, an Austin, TX based “integrated agency rooted in the digital space.” They’re owned by a bigger company called Harte Hanks, but they seem to operate mostly on their own by combining “a love of creative” with a “desire for results.” They have quite a roster of big name clients, so they must be very good at finding that balance.
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One of the things that I miss most about living in Connecticut is my town’s Memorial Day parades. While it was mostly filled with the festivity that you’d expect, it was also a reminder of what Memorial Day is really about–celebrating the lives of those who died for our country. I like that the parade also put a big emphasis on honoring the service members who made it back home as well (especially since there isn’t a Veteran’s Day parade). One of the most important things that we can do for our vets as they transition back to civilian life is to help them find jobs that allow to them to put their military training to great use. That’s exactly what Hirepurpose is aiming to do. They’re a New York, NY based company that is “committed to addressing some of the incredible gaps that exist in the transition from military service to civilian career success.” It’s a jobs site, so you should check it out and see how it works for yourself. You have to sign up to check out their positions (I do know they’ve had at least one intern in the past), but why not give it a try and see how they’re “making it easy for military veterans and their spouses to discover great careers.”
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From what I’ve seen, the non-profits that work at the community level often have the most impact. They may be smaller, but they’re in touch with the most pressing needs and able to react quickly to them. A great model for big non-profits might be to work through smaller non-profits. In fact, that’s exactly what Local Initiatives Support Corporation does. They are a New York, NY based organization that “has connected local organizations and community leaders with resources to revitalize neighborhoods and improve quality of life” over the last three and a half decades. They do this by bringing together public and private resources and making it easy for partners to access them.
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One of the core functions of nearly every government is to provide a justice system. While one would think that justice and fairness go hand in hand, that often doesn’t seem to be the case. Our country may be way ahead of lots of other countries when it comes to fairness, but what we really need is “a society with safe, equitable and healthy communities, just and effective solutions to social problems, and alternatives to incarceration that promote positive life outcomes.” That’s what the Justice Policy Institute is seeking. They are a Washington, DC based non-profit that aims “to reduce the use of incarceration and the justice system and promote policies that improve the well-being of all people and communities.”
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We’re right in the thick of graduation season, wedding season is just picking up steam, and Father’s Day is just around the corner. Chances are that you’ll be buying someone a gift in the next few weeks. Hopefully you’ll find something perfectly personal for your grad, Dad, or favorite couple, but in the event that you don’t, you can still offer something personalized. That’s what Things Remembered specializes in. The Highland Heights, OH based company is “the nation’s largest and most prominent retailer of personalized gifts.” If it can be engraved, Things Remembered probably sells it (they also do some embroidery).
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I’m not sure that I’d call myself brand conscious as much as I’d call myself brand loyal. With clothing I try to find a brand that matches my personal style and fits well. For a while Vince had some great sweaters that I really liked, so I bought two more after my first and kept an eye on the brand. I never ended up buying anything else from the New York, NY based company, but they seem to have grown a lot in popularity over the past few years. They started out in Los Angeles in 2002 with “a highly-edited collection of women’s knits and cashmere sweaters,” but today they offer a “collection of iconic essentials that women and men would want to wear every day.”
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