Group items tagged

My subject of discussion on posterous this week was about Grand Rapids trying to pass a millage for the Rapid this May. Improved public transit has proven to spur economic growth in "dying" cities (or areas of cities). Better transportation means better employment, incentives to build businesses, and saving money on gas!

Anyone who doesn't have a car can use this trip planner on the Rapid's website to get anywhere in Grand Rapids. Non profits could fine this tool very useful to help clients get from one place to another if they don't have reliable transportation. Hopefully a mobile app is in the works!

The Johnson Center at Grand Valley State University publishers a peer-reviewed, scholarly journal on philanthropy. Link is to a free trial of an online edition of the journal.

This is a website that I found off of the GVSU library database collection. You can use this to look up a foundation or nonprofit. There are many different search categories too. For example, you could look up all of the foundations in Michigan, but then narrow your search to a city like Grand Rapids, or a county like Kent.

This is the story of a man who gave someone $10 everyday for a year after losing his job. He is also going to be speaking at the YNPN conference in Grand Rapids.

Here is the website for another speaker, Rosetta Thurman, who will be at the YNPN conference in Grand Rapids. She is also the author of "How to Become a Nonprofit Rockstar".

This is the blog of one of the speakers, Jessica Journey, who will be at the YNPN conference in Grand Rapids.

I know they've held similar events in Lansing and Ann Arbor (not sure about Grand Rapids). I've heard mixed longer term results from the work: some of it sticks, some doesn't. Would be interesting to do a "one-year later" follow up on these.

I did some volunteering with this organization this past weekend. A group of about 50 students from Grand Valley went and disassembled over 230 computers. CompRenew Environmental recycles old electronics (tvs, computers, microwaves….basically anything with a plug) and keeps them from going into landfills. They then refurbish the electronics and sell them, or they disassemble them and sell the parts, or just recycle them. All of the money they get from the recycled electronics goes to education in over 44 countries. CompRenew is a really neat company. Hopefully their idea will spread and more cities will be able to recycle old electronics.

Goodwill and MacMedia both have related recycling / refurbishing interests around the state: http://www.goodwillwm.org/donate/computer-recycling--reuse and http://www.macmedia.org/care.html, respectively.

Responsibly recycle your electronics.

Heads up on a local technology event, February 16th, at 5:30pm at Wealthy Street Theater. Keith Brophy will be discussing new tech trends for 2011 that will effect the way we do business, connect with one another, and what we can look forward to in the future. I've heard of these presentations before, and that they are both entertaining and interesting. If I didn't have night classes, I'd probably be going!

This website is a great way to find non-projects in the Grand Rapids area. All nonprofits in the county are listed.