Funding & Twixtmas

Earlier on in the month, I met up with the Director of UnLtd Wales, Gareth Bickerton to seek some funding for HFH. UnLtd Wales is a funder of social entrepreneurs. He stated, amongst other nice things, that HFH was the most innovative initiative he had seen all year and that there was a good chance of receiving some free funding. This funding can be used to progress 'do good' initiatives like HFH. If I'm lucky enough to be awarded some, I intend to enhance the HFH website so that users can access the micro volunteer database easier. I also intend to get a video made to explain the concept of micro volunteering.

Seeing as HFH seems to be getting noticed a bit more, I have decided to design a logo, which I hope conveys the concept that people can change the world from the comfort of their own home. The logo comprises one half of the globe and one half of a house. I tried and tried and tried to get a pair of pyjamas in the logo somewhere, but came up blank, so the current logo is the final design - unless somebody else comes up with a better one.

Was contacted by Andy Green of Twixtmas during the month to see if we could get a joint campaign going to encourage people to do things for worthy causes during the 5 day period between 27th – 31st December ie Twixtmas. A lot of people just lounge about during this period, so it's an ideal time for people who are time starved for the rest of the year to do some good works. We’ll see whether it was successful or not later on in January 2010.

Was also contacted by Sylvia Ng of Charity Champs to contribute to an internet chat session on micro philanthropy organised by the Canadian website Taking IT Global. The chat session hasn’t take place yet but I was posed several questions, the answers to which can be found here.

Til next time

BBC, UnLtd and a little seminar on the side

Forgot to mention in my last blog, that I was interviewed by the BBC on the back of the Runner Up award in Community Channel’s ‘Make a Difference’ competition. If you’re easily frightened, then don’t click through to the interview, it contains a picture of me prominently displayed.

HFH reached a small milestone during November. It now features over 500 plus actions/invitations in it’s database and there’s still loads more waiting in the wings to be vetted.

At the end of November, I attended a seminar entitled ‘Introduction to Social Media’ which explained about the magic and mysteries behind using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for creating awareness about your organisation. It was my choice of prize from the competition I mentioned above. Here’s a TwitPic of the event.

One of the twelve attendants at the seminar was a lady from UnLtd, who like me wanted to learn about the social media out there. I mention this as UnLtd is a charity that supports social entrepreneurs. Upon learning about HFH, she mentioned that I was the type of social entrepreneur they are looking to fund as well as support projects like HFH. I was quite surprised at this, as I hadn’t considered myself a social entrepreneur before. Still, I’ve sent an email now off to UnLtd informing them about HFH. We’ll see what happens from here.

And last but not least, I’ve received an invite from Social Actions to share HFH’s database with them. It will be done via RSS Feeds which I know nothing about, but hey a lack of knowledge about something has never stopped me in the past.

Til next time