Social Actions Receives $25k, Hires Paid Consultants

Posted by Peter Deitz on June 30, 2008 at 6:00pm

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I'm excited to formally announce the $25k grant that Social Actions received last week. In May, a family foundation based in California noticed our work.

They have made a short-term grant to help us build out the Social Actions search interface and open API and setup an earned income program by the end of September 2008. This grant is in addition to the two awards Social Actions received during the NetSquared Conference.

From the letter I received last week:

We hope this contribution will help Social Actions to leverage the work of existing social action platforms, enabling greater citizen participation in micro-philanthropy and ultimately broader social change.

A few people on the Social Actions google group asked about the funder. This was my response:

In some ways, we have Bill Somerville of Philanthropic Ventures Foundation to thank for the support. His book Grassroots Philanthropy: Notes of a Maverick Grantmaker was circulating at the Council on Foundations Conference in early May. I had reviewed the book on my blog several weeks earlier.

I spotted someone reading Grassroots Philanthropy at the very end of the conference, and started up a conversation. The conversation led to a discussion about micro-philanthropy, Social Actions, and this person's family foundation.

We met again when I was out in the Bay Area for NetSquared. One thing led to another. And here we are with the much needed infusion of resources.

I'll be posting a budget for how we can put these resources to use in the next three months.

The group's name is The Peery Foundation.

Continue reading this thread >>

Thanks to the generous grant, Social Actions will welcome its first paid consultants on July 7, 2008. I couldn't be more excited to have Christine Egger (Partner Relations, Lead Platform Liaison) and Joe Solomon (Social Actions Labs, Lead Scientist and Evangelist) joining the team. Over the last few days, the three of us have defined the scope of the two consultancy positions and listed my responsibilities as the project lead.

As we clarify these roles, we welcome feedback from anyone. Please feel free to join the Social Actions google group and share your thoughts. At the very least, you can add yourself as a member.

Tags: socialactions

Comment by Kare Anderson on July 1, 2008 at 9:24am: Peter
Kudos on the funding. I'd like to interview you for 15-20 minutes for podcast at http://www.movingfrommetowe.com/ re your favorite "Me2We" methods + success stories where 2 or more people accomplished more together than apart. By chance are you avail on July 29 at 2pm? - Kare

Comment by Peter Deitz on July 1, 2008 at 9:34am: Hi Kare, I'd be happy to contribute to your podcast. I'm hope we can add an additional 10-15 minutes to the call, so I can learn more about your work. I've added July 29 at 2pm to my calendar. Please email me with the number where I can reach you. All the best, Peter (peter@socialactions.com)

Comment by Tom Watson on July 2, 2008 at 9:51am: Big news indeed - congrats to the team!

Comment by Peter Deitz on July 2, 2008 at 2:55pm: Thanks Tom. Now is when the hard work begins. Our task is to build something truly useful to the online social activism / micro-philanthropy sector by September 2008 and to setup an earned income program at the same time. That's a heavy workload for the beautiful summer months. But we'll do our best. Thanks again for your comment.

Comment by Kare Anderson on July 3, 2008 at 8:30am: Hi again Peter
I wroteto you earlier (as you see above). May I interview you at (now) 2:45) PST for about 15 to20 minutes re Social Actions for http://www.movingfrommetowe.com

Comment by Chris Llewellyn on July 7, 2008 at 10:09am: Awesome work, Peter.

Am just having my first proper look around and it looks like you guys are really charging forward. As you say it sounds like you have an exciting but pretty hectic Summer ahead!