A $500 grant from MyQuire – Thanks for your support!

We just heard from Rachel at MyQuire that Many Hands has been awarded $500 as the winner of MyQuire’s inaugural non-profit grant (See the press release). Many Hands won the grant by adding the most new members to our MyQuire network. Thank you MyQuire!

And many thanks to all of you who responded so quickly to our last-minute newsletter request and signed up. Thanks also to the members of the 30DC Nonprofits group on Facebook who signed up as well.

Now that you have signed up, we hope you will help us make the best use of the MyQuire tool, both for collaborating on projects and general community building. There is a Many Hands group set up on MyQuire, and a couple of projects posted on the group page (including designing a logo, which might interest some of you Art Institute types from Oregon). Feel free to join the Many Hands group, get involved in (or suggest) a project, or just leave a comment. Let us know what you think.

Check out MyQuire – and help Many Hands win $500!

Posted by Bill McKinney:

One of the resources we discovered at the boot camp is an online collaboration space called “MyQuire.” It’s a free service that allows groups to share projects, documents, calendars, tasks, etc. A few of us have joined and are learning how to use it. If you have any need to collaborate with anybody online, you should check it out – but only after you read on…

Here’s the cool thing… Since I joined MyQuire as a result of the bootcamp, I am eligible to win $500 for Many Hands by adding the most people to my network by September 15. All you have to do to help is sign up (it’s free) and then send me a friend request. Here’s how:

• Go to MyQuire and register.
• Once you’re registered and logged on just click on the “search” function, then enter “Bill McKinney,” make sure “profiles” is selected, and hit the search button.
• 
• When my profile pops up, click on the “Send a friend request?” icon.
• Now we’re in business. I’ll receive your friend request, I’ll add you to my list of friends, and you’ll be in my network. If we’re lucky you have just helped raise $500 for Many Hands. That was easy. Thanks!

As long as you’re there, have a look around. Feel free to contribute to any of the groups or projects I’ve set up, and let me know if you want me to contribute to anything you may set up.

Don’t forget to send me a friend request after you’ve registered. Thanks!

Craigslist foundation nonprofits bootcamp

Just got back from Berkeley after attending the boot camp.

Incredible experience, incredible energy, incredible community of committed people.

We’ll be too busy working on the Thirty Day Challenge to do much of anything here until September rolls around, but are looking forward to the chance to start implementing what we learned. So many tools, so many ideas, so many contacts and connections to follow up on, so little time….

Nonprofit Bootcamp – San Francisco August 18

This looks like too good an opportunity to miss. It will cut into our “weekend catchup time” in the 30 Day Challenge, but why not add some real world networking into the online community building mix.

Craigslist Foundation – Boot Camp
Join Craigslist Foundation for a day of knowledge, resources and networking, all focused on how to start and run a vibrant nonprofit. Nonprofit Boot Camp is designed to educate and empower the next generation of nonprofit leaders and social entrepreneurs.

A few of us from Many Hands will attend so we can cover as many of the workshops as possible. If you are going to be there, leave a comment and we’ll figure out how to run into each other.

Powered by ScribeFire.

It’s not what you know…

How cool is this? Amy’s first post on the Thirty Day Challenge forum was picked up by the currently most popular guitar-playing internet marketing anti-guru on the internet.

Why I love the Thirty Day Challenge – Reason 12
Bringing families together -21st century style
I spotted this great post on the forums….
Oh and by the way – to the Hundreds of teenagers and Seven year olds on the challenge. I’m really sorry for blowing Facebook and Second life for you by showing it to your parents. I know it’s tre’ uncool to get added by ma and pa – but hey it’s for a good cause
….

30DC and Nonprofits? – Thirty Day Challenge Forums
Hey Dad! This is great. Never thought I would find you on facebook – I can help with making the group work (since you have issues)! Now can we talk about something other than 30DC for a change?
Love you – a

Good thing her avatar is wearing shades…

Nonprofit Thirty Day Challenge?

What does the Thirty Day Challenge have to do with a nonprofit organization – especially this nonprofit, whose main purpose isn’t fundraising. Isn’t the Thirty Day Challenge all about making money online?

Well, yes and no. Although the challenge is to earn $10 online in 30 days, the focus is on becoming a Web 2.0 master. Sounds pretty relevant to an organization trying to evolve itself to Many-Hands 2.0.

Don’t know if a “.org” can join the 30DC (maybe Ed has some advice) – but a few of its members already have. What we learn in the Challenge we’ll try to apply to Many Hands – along with developing our own money machines of course (how else can we quit our jobs and spend all our time volunteering?).

One obvious idea from the first few days of training is to create a Many Hands group on facebook. We’ll send Mack over to set that up right now. Anything else we should be doing?

What’s going on at Many Hands?

What’s next for Many Hands Foundation? When do we return to Silindile to finish the building? What about the library project? What about Bhekisipho’s business plan? What about laptops, internet access, training? How come it’s been nearly a year since the last work team returned from South Africa, and there’s nothing much about it on the website – no team member pictures or journal entries?

That’s what we’re trying to figure out.

We’re a small organization, but we have a big vision. We believe that volunteers can change the world, one small project at a time. We see the value as not so much in the actual work we do, but in the human connections we make – across language and cultural divides, across borders, timezones, continents, oceans – while working together for a common good.

So how does a small volunteer organization with no administrative budget make a big difference? How do we support volunteer work teams locally and nationally and globally when it’s just a handful of people doing all the work? How do we seek out and discuss and promote new projects, or let people know what we’re currently doing, when only one person knows how to update the website without breaking it?

By sharing the load. By perceiving ManyHands as more a community than an organization. By looking to the community for the resources we lack as a small group of volunteers. By becoming ManyHands 2.0.

What exactly does that mean? We don’t know yet. We’ll share our ideas and report our progress in this space, but we really don’t know yet. What do you think it means?