50 Years, Produced by Jeff Dupre and Show of Force:

Cool video with music composed by Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe:

“$15 for $25 worth of microloan credit to help global entrepreneurs on Kiva.org.”

My first thought upon seeing this was: who pays the other $10? The [not-so] small print below today’s Groupon says that it’s paid for by Groupon (and sponsors). Up to $500,000 of the $800 million to $2 billion in revenues the Chicago-based startup will reportedly take in this year.

That’s a hefty write-off donation for most, and possibly a perk for some Groupon sponsors, and a nice, lucky penny pitched into the pond by a company that allegedly turned down a $6 billion or so buyout offer from Google earlier this month.

Billions in revenue. Huge numbers. It’s important to note how individuals and corporations choose to spend their philanthropic capital and I really like the way Groupon does it here: Empowering regular people to give by subsidizing our donations. I’m sure Groupon wishes it could boast about the kind of repeat transactions that a Kiva.org — where the average user has made 6.5 loans — and what better way to grow it’s community during the holiday giving season by encouraging the habit of giving (or lending) while otherwise luring subscribers to habitually consume on first site of bargain.

Last month, a Kiva.org Groupon raised lead to $100,000 in microloans and Oprah Winfrey promoted Kiva to her audience (for her part, Winfrey was the most charitable celebrity of 2009 with $40 million in donations to various charities, according to The Giving Back Fund. Today’s Kiva Groupon was trumped by a DonorsChoose coupon, which was 60 percent subsidized by the Pershing Square Foundation ($10 for $25). Last May, Groupon and Pershing Square teamed up with DonorsChoose to raise $1 million in funds for public school classrooms in need.

Last week, 17 billionaires, including Steve Case, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren Buffet, Michael Bloomberg and Carl Icahn, announced their intention to give the majority of their wealth to charity — the Giving Pledge.

In an age where it’s so easy to set examples — for better and worse — it’s comforting to see more and more bold acts of goodwill.

I’m a repeat Kiva lender. Are you?

Looking forward to hobnobbing with the Hollywood greenies at this Saturday’s RETHINK:GREEN charity event in Culver City.

The event benefits LA’s Environmental Charter Schools and includes an award presentation from the Environmental Charter High School‘s (in Lawndale) Green Ambassadors. Winners include Matt Petersen, President & CEO of Global Green USA; Mark Gold, President of Heal the Bay. ECHS is celebrating its tenth year and Environmental Charter Schools opened an accompanying middle school this fall.

Attendees will be privy to a an organic & sustainable wine, spirit and local food tasting and organic food truck cuisine. There will be a silent auction including works of art by Shepard Fairey and others as well as travel, spa, fashion and other lifestyle items from environmentally sustainable businesses.

Featured celebrity hosts include Ed Begley Jr., Rachelle Carson Begley, Lisa Ling, Anna Getty, James Kyson Lee, MTV’s Buried Life Crew.

RETHINK:GREEN Event — Saturday, Nov. 6th, Celebrity & VIP Arrival 6pm, general admission 7pm at 3121 S. La Cienega Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90016. More info at Rethinkgreenevent.org. Tickets.

Originally posted at LAist.

Online fundraising platform Razoo launched a new DonateAnywhere widget this month and I’m excited to be selected to the #ZooGooder team of a dozen or so chosen to lead a series of discussions on fundraising in the digital age of social media.

Join us for our first weekly Twitter chat at 6 p.m. PT / 9p.m. ET and. John Haydon will be co-hosting the first one. To participate, use your favorite Twitter client or service and follow the #zooGood hashtag.

In addition to these weekly chats, I chose to raise funds for One Economy Corporation with a goal of raising $8,000 by the end of the year. Not an easy choice given the breadth of my endeavors and pet projects and the 1.5 million or so fundraising causes listed on razoo.com. But after much internal deliberation and debate (and cross-research on sites like Charity Navigator) I decided that One Economy will have the most effective global reach with the money I raise as part of the #zooGood campaign. One Economy brings broadband into low-income households and builds and maintains virtual and physical community centers to provide underserved communities the training and tools needed to leverage the internet for information and local resources on education, jobs, health care and other vital issues.

More about One Economy in the video below:

This is a cause that I have long been passionate about and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to focus on it more publicly in the coming months. One Economy Corp is a top (4-star) rated charitable organization according to Charity Navigator and it has been expanding its geographic focus areas over its 10-years to cover the Middle East, Africa, and North America. More recently, One Economy launched PIC.tv, the Public Internet Channel website, which has boundless potential that I find very exciting as a long-time web producer and content creator myself.

So let’s see if we can hit $8,000 in two months, while helping to bolster One Economy Corp’s profile as a leading charitable protagonist for leveling the playing field, proliferating the spread of broadband and computer ed into underserved communities, and creating opportunities and local resources in cities and villages worldwide.

I’m dropping my first $10 in the bucket and you can too — the widget is on the right side of this blog. Your support is greatly appreciated – if you’d rather not donate money, thanks for reading this far and for your generous re-Tweet and/or Facebook share! You can also fan One Economy on Facebook and check out the Digital Connectors page (some of whom met recently with FCC chairman Julius Genachowski in SF).

Thanks and see you on the #zooGood hashtag!

Check out the other ‘zooGooders causes and websites at the links below:

• Andre Blackman of Pulse and Signal.
• Tom Dawkins of Out There and Back Again.
• Nicole D’Alonzo of Niki’s Notes
• Abby Flottemesch of Atlas Corps
• John Haydon of his eponymous blog, http://www.johnhaydon.com
• Rachel Matthews of A Southern Fairy Tale
• William Neuheisel of DC Central Kitchen
• Armando Rayo of El Mundo de Mando
• Jennifer Roccanti of Miriam’s Kitchen
• Amber Rodriguez of Noah’s Kitchen
• Jenna Sauber at Lagniappe
• Andy Sternberg of his eponymous blog, https://andysternberg.com/
• Andrea Weckerle of CiviliNation
• Jennifer Windrum of WTF Lung Cancer

Read more about the ‘zooGooder program on its main page.

Thanks especially Geoff Livingston for contacting me about this campaign on behalf of his firm Zoetica.

Unable to attend a CitizenGulf Benefit tonight? You can still donate directly by clicking the icon below. Tag your tweets and photos #CitizenGulf so we can see them here. Thanks for your support.

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PHOTOS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY:

The main DEETS:

The Central Social Aid & Pleasure Club — 1348 14th Street, Santa Monica (former 14 Below space, now fully revamped and reopened)

An 18-minute Katrina documentary will be screened at 8pm, introduced by the (Venice-based) filmmakers.

3 bands will perform! Le Switch, Big Moves, and Hiram Rimmer. Stranger Danger DJ duo will bookend the night’s music to keep us dancing until bar close at 2. Bar opens at 5 for happy hour. Event start is 7:30.

There will be an entire room of art inspired by and depicting the Gulf Coast from Katrina in August 2005 to the present day Oil Spill disaster. Some will be available for a charity auction.

HOW MUCH: Just $10 toward a fund set up specifically for this CitizenGulf National Day of Action. Citizen Effect and Catholic Charities of New Orleans will put forth all of the proceeds from these 20 events toward extending an after school program that was started in New Orleans after Katrina into coastal parishes and provide fifty children with a safe environment that will give participants access to interactive learning opportunities, self-esteem building workshops, therapeutic art activities and other activities and services needed by the children affected by the spill.

There will also be a food truck in The Central’s private lot — Dante Food Truck

All the main details and RSVP at http://citizengulfla.eventbrite.com (shorturl: http://bit.ly/CitGulfLA)

The main DEETS:

The Central Social Aid & Pleasure Club — 1348 14th Street, Santa Monica (former 14 Below space, now fully revamped and reopened)

An 18-minute Katrina documentary will be screened at 8pm, introduced by the (Venice-based) filmmakers.

3 bands will perform! Le Switch, Big Moves, and Hiram Rimmer. Stranger Danger DJ duo will bookend the night’s music to keep us dancing until bar close at 2. Bar opens at 5 for happy hour. Event start is 7:30.

There will be an entire room of art inspired by and depicting the Gulf Coast from Katrina in August 2005 to the present day Oil Spill disaster. Some will be available for a charity auction.

HOW MUCH: Just $10 toward a fund set up specifically for this CitizenGulf National Day of Action. Citizen Effect and Catholic Charities of New Orleans will put forth all of the proceeds from these 20 events toward extending an after school program that was started in New Orleans after Katrina into coastal parishes and provide fifty children with a safe environment that will give participants access to interactive learning opportunities, self-esteem building workshops, therapeutic art activities and other activities and services needed by the children affected by the spill.

There will also be a food truck in The Central’s private lot — Dante Food Truck

All the main details and RSVP at http://citizengulfla.eventbrite.com (shorturl: http://bit.ly/CitGulfLA)

The TWEETS:

3 bands 2 DJs 1 food truck. Original film + art. Will YOU be there Wed. 8/25 to support Gulf kids? http://bit.ly/CitGulfLA

Weds. @TheCentralSAPC $10 Gulf Coast Benefit @BigMoves @LeSwitch @HIRAM_RiEMMER_ 2 DJs original film + art + @kfcrip http://bit.ly/CitGulfLA

Los Angeles! #CitizenGulf is tonight! $10, help gulf kids, enjoy 3 bands 2 DJs, food truck, art, film. http://bit.ly/CitGulfLA

Let’s support education for Gulf Coast children – 5th anniversary of Katrina; families distressed from BP Oil Spill – http://bit.ly/CitGulfLA

What Your $10 #citizengulf Donation Does: The After School Assembly
Program to benefit the kids of fishermen http://bit.ly/dwaZ19 Join
us!

1 day left until #citizengulf! $10, help fishermen’s kids get a better
ed, enjoy summer’s last party. Register today! http://bit.ly/citgben

Thank you for your support on #citiznegulf. Don’t forget to
register. $10 goes a long way to help a Gulf child. http://bit.ly/citgben

Thanks!

But according to recent AdWords number crunches, BP is only paying an average of $1.33 per click or roughly $1 million each month (SearchEngineWatch, June 9). Perhaps as low as $1.22 per click.

Why so little? Nobody has been outbidding them in the AdWords marketplace. It’s time for some guerrilla tactics.

Here’s what I propose: Google should donate any revenues above $5 per click for any keyword to funds and charities dedicated to restoring the Gulf and/or to benefit those whose livelihoods have been shattered as a result of the Deepwater Horizon BP Oil Spill.

Yes, this is a crazy idea and it could throw AdWords of its hinges. So let’s just do it for ONE DAY. Google can’t change the rules for specific keywords but they can change the rules across the board. All it would take is a few noble souls willing to launch a bidding war with BP up to say – $20 per click. And Google’s word that monies will be donated (a great PR move in itself).

Justice is: clicking a search result and having $15 transfer BP to a non-profit Oil Spill fund. With each and every click!

Would millions of clicks accrue? ABSOLUTELY. Tens or hundreds of millions? I don’t know what the record is for most click-throughs from a Google Ad in one day. But I do know that Google has staged similarly engaging (and distracting) campaigns as recently as last month. We wasted nearly 5 million man-hours playing with Google’s PacMan 30th anniversary tribute, according to one report. BP has already wasted at least $50 million on TV ads. Why not make BP put its ad money where it should?

BP Logo mashup via Greenpeace UK‘s Behind the Logo flickr set.

All in all more than $572,000 was raised and it was an unforgettable, intimate gig for all at the 1,300-capacity theater. Here’s the setlist:

Edit this setlist | More Radiohead setlists

Video from the show…

Radiohead “Everything In Its Right Place” live at Fonda (Haiti relief)

Radiohead – “Morning Bell” (1.24.10 Haiti Benefit in LA)

Radiohead “Weird Fishes” live 1.24.10 Henry Fonda Music Box

by Gigi Graciette, Fox 11 News

Posted via web from Andy Sternberg’s posterous