EffectiveUI and 15 Million Elephants Help ‘Fight the Famine’ in East Africa with Action Emblem

“Fight the Famine” Action Emblem is part of the 50/50 Project to raise £1 million for Africa’s worst famine in 60 years

DENVER – Nov. 8, 2011 – EffectiveUI, an award-winning user experience agency, has joined forces with 15 Million Elephants, a social enterprise focused on using technology to support the missions of non-profit organizations, to develop a digital awareness and fundraising application: the “Fight the Famine” Action Emblem. The application is part of the 50/50 Project, which called for digital agencies to create 50 projects in 50 days that would raise £1 million for famine relief in East Africa.

Funds raised through the “Fight the Famine” emblems go directly to UNICEF, which has stepped up its efforts to provide aid to those in need in the Horn of Africa. According to UNICEF, an estimated 13 million people are at risk, and tens of thousands have already died. To donate to the cause and display the emblem, visit http://5050.gd/projects/fight-the-famine.

Action Emblems: The “Digital Bracelet” for a Cause

Action Emblems, created by 15Million Elephants and developed in partnership with EffectiveUI, are digital symbols that non-profit supporters can display in their digital communications, including Facebook, email, blogs and websites. Similar to a cause-related wristband or ribbon seen in the physical world, Action Emblems create visibility and awareness for a cause online. Unlike bracelets or ribbons, however, the emblems provide the unique ability for people to immediately take action by clicking on the emblem to make an online donation and/or become an instant ambassador for the cause by adding the emblem to their digital communications.

“Non-profit organizations have had a hard time with social media because it’s not tangible like a ribbon, lapel pin or bracelet, which is a common way to raise awareness,” said Jason Manke, who drives social media strategy to fundraise for more than 100 non-profit organizations in his role as media director at Community Shares of Colorado. “Action Emblems shift the medium from one’s physical self to one’s digital self – focusing not on what people could wear, but rather on what their Facebook pages, email signatures, and websites could display.”

Technology for Good

According to Pingdom, there are nearly two billion email users sending an average of 17 emails per day (excluding spam). This led the team to focus on email integration as a critical component to the Action Emblems. The development team built a solution that automatically adds the emblem to email signatures, while also adding “Emblem On” and “Emblem Off” buttons to the compose-mail interfaces of Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail, making it easy for supporters to decide when to include the emblem in their communications.

A mobile-optimized version of the experience features the ability to add the emblem to Facebook and Apple’s iOS Mail.

“When we heard about the 50/50 Project, we knew that the emblem could achieve widespread awareness for a cause that needs more visibility,” said Anthony Franco, president, EffectiveUI. “Our team contributed to an application that we hope will bring fundraising power to the online world, not only changing the way non-profit organizations reach donors, butalso the way people show support for their cause. We’re proud to be part of 50/50, working alongside other leaders in the digital world to help supportrelief efforts for the crisis in Africa.”

EffectiveUI will match funds raised through the Fight the Famine Action Emblem.

About EffectiveUI
Founded in 2005, EffectiveUI simplifies complex experiences, bringing value to people’s lives. By researching and articulating user needs, our team of customer insight, design and development experts create custom applicationsthat improve digital interactions and enhance emotional engagement with a company and brand. Focusing on customer insight, EffectiveUI has worked with some of today’s top companies – including AAA, Boeing, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, eBay, GE Health, Navy Federal Credit Union, CenturyLink, TIAA-CREF and American Greetings – to provide a strategic vision and to increase revenue, brand awareness, customer loyalty and usability.

To learn more about EffectiveUI, visit www.effectiveui.com, send an email to info@effectiveui.com or call 888-310-5327.

About 15 Million Elephants

15 Million Elephants is a social enterprise that provides people with a highly effective way of promoting worthy causes through Action Emblem digital symbols, thereby giving nonprofits and non-governmental organizations a better way of raising awareness and funds. The organization has launched a pro-bono public beta of its ‘Fight the Famine’ Action Emblem, which is raising awareness and funds to support famine relief in East Africa. Thecompany name comes from “On the Origin of Species,” the seminal work of Charles Darwin, who wrote about 15 million elephants in explaining the power of exponential growth.

In mid-November, 15 Million Elephants will present the “Fight the Famine” Action Emblem application at Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford – Europe’s most prestigious entrepreneurship forum.

Supporting Resources

• “Fight the Famine” Action Emblem
• 50/50 Make or Break Project
• EffectiveUI
• 15 Million Elephants

Lijun is the 2nd from the right

I had the pleasure of working with Lijun in Nigeria 5 summers ago at Access Bank.  It’s great to see she recently won the 2nd annual Excellence in Business Leadership Award.

Congrats!

Excellence in Business Leadership Award Ceremony recap

At a ceremony at Saïd Business School on 19 May, Dean Colin Mayer formally announced that Lijun (Cecilia) Jiang (MBA 2006) is the winner of the second annual Excellence in Business Leadership Award. The ceremony, attended by approximately 50 faculty and students, was a wonderful recognition of Ms. Jiang and her accomplishments in the Chinese banking sector.

Kate O’Brien and Abby Gray, current MBA students who organized the award this year, as members of the Women in Business Special Interest Group, opened the program by thanking a number of parties who helped make the award possible: Dean Colin Mayer; Inspiring Women in Leadership and Learning (IWILL); the Alumni Relations Office; the Award’s founders; the 2011 Selection Panel; and Kathy Harvey from Executive Education.

Dean Colin Mayer then spoke about the importance of the Award and recognized the two highly commended nominees, Kylie Wright-Ford (MBA 2004), Global Co-Director of Research for professional network company Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG), and Susana Frazao Pinheiro (MBA 2005), founder of Local InSight, a social enterprise that empowers communities to minimize the impact and spread of diseases. He then announced the winner of the Award, Lijun (Cecilia) Jiang (MBA 2006).

Professor Eric Thun, who taught Ms. Jiang during her time at Oxford, then spoke about her work with Pingan Bank in China. He described Ms. Jiang as a natural leader, organizer, and mentor to others. He told about her contributions to the development of an SME lending platform in the Hangzhou province branch of Pingan, as well as her work with Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 women project and her gracious hosting of EMBA students on their visits to China.

Though Ms. Jiang was not able to travel to Oxford for the celebration, she submitted a short video that was shown during the ceremony. In the video, she thanked the organizers and the Selection Panel for the honor of receiving the Award. She explained how her time at Saïd Business School had helped her develop as a leader and further her career.

Peter Sherratt, who served on the Selection Panel alongside Jan Hall, Partner at JCA Group and Professor Sue Dopson, Rhodes Trust Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Saïd Business School, spoke about his experiences as Lehman Brothers’ Chief Legal Officer for Europe & Asia, and his recent work with girls’ education in Sub-Saharan Africa as
Chair of Camfed.

The ceremony was followed by an invitation-only dinner for the Selection Panel, IWILL, SBS faculty, and members of the Women in Business group.

Source: Oxford Business Alumni – News

Either way, you can check out their videos here: OxfordSBS

Or just view one of these samples:

BTW, students from 2006 there is a Grace spotting 5 minutes and 25 seconds into the video.

[youtube DqJEW1NyNTU nolink]

[youtube vxAU88LxLis nolink]

On the left you can see a picture of me teeing off during my practice round on the 13th hole.

Check out the article written in the Telegraph here. Charlie Rotheroe went on to win The Putter for his 3rd time: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2008/01/07/sgamat107.xml.

Lastly, I’ve embeded a few videos. The first is a 360 view of the course. The second is just a classic video of a chap swinging on the 10th tee box.

Driver

• Titleist 905R
• Aldila NV Green S-65 Shaft
• In my bag since Dec 2007
• Paid $99 at Roger Dunn (still have 60 days to exchange if I so chose to do so)
• Comment: I had to replace my Callaway 454 (still in the garage) and for $99 bucks I couldn’t pass this one up.

3 Wood

• Callaway Big Bertha (2004)
• Aldila NV Green S-75 Shaft
• In my bag since fall 2005
• Comment: This has been my go-to club for quite some time. I don’t for see replacing this one for a while.

Hybrid

• Ben Hogan 2i (19 degrees)
• Steel Stiff Shaft
• I have the old version, not the new Ti CFT
• In my bag since spring 2004
• Comment: I got this before playing Pebble Beach in ’04. I like it but I’m not in love with it. In fact, I tried the Sonertec for a few weeks but returned it.

Irons

• KZG Forged Evolution (3 ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú PW)
• In my bag since Dec 2006
• Comment: These replaced my Cleveland TA1s. This is a progressive set of mid-sized forged blades. I’m a big fan of these although it took a little time to get used to the relatively larger heads. They’re very similar to the Mizuno progressive irons. In fact, rumor is they’re made in the same factory.

Wedges

• Taylor Made Rac Satin 54
• Ebay purchase that I didn’t expect to win (got it for $35 or $40)
• Re-griped with pink decade grip
• In my bag since summer 2007
• Comment: I’ve liked my decision to move from my 3 wedge system (52, 56, 60) to the two wedge system (54 and 60). I’ve had to hone in my half and ?Ǭæ wedge shots to make up for the gap in distance.

• Titleist Black Nickel 60 degree wedge
• In my bag since 2003 (with a few exceptions)
• Comment: This club is probably something I’ll replace soon. It’s been a great club but the groves are worn down.

Putter

• Titleist Scotty Cameron Studio 5
• In my bag since the winter of 2004
• Re-griped with a USA grip in Dec 2006 before playing in my first Putter at Rye.
• Comment: This is my black pearl beauty. She could be the putter for me for quite some time. Who knows though, Scotty Cameron keeps coming out with great stuff- I really like the new Circa 62 putters.

Forget the age-old tales of having to walk uphill both ways in the snow to get to class?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùcollege students at Syracuse University in New York don’t even have to coordinate their own grocery shopping, laundry or cleaning, thanks to a concierge service that aims to motivate them by giving them a taste of the good life.

Student-owned and operated Precious Time is a personal assistant, errand and concierge service just for college students. Students can become members by charging pre-paid accounts with a minimum of USD 50, and money is drawn from the account to pay for services as needed, plus a percentage for Precious Time’s own profit. Services include placement and delivery of take-out orders from local restaurants, grocery shopping, house cleaning, flower delivery and booking tutors.

While a concierge service for college students may seem over the top, education at top colleges comes with a high price tag. So it’s not surprising that some students are willing to buy extra time by outsourcing domestic chores, so that they can fully focus on their studies. The concept could also do well on other campuses, and Precious Time hints at franchise opportunities on their website. What about concierge services tailored to other busy demographics who struggle to find the time for all the items on their ?¢‚ǨÀúto do’ lists, like working parents or small business owners?
Website: www.precioustimeny.com
Contact: drewaustin@precioustimeny.com

source: http://www.springwise.com/life_hacks/concierge_goes_to_college/index.php

Coincidently I was reading last months Wired and they highlighted a service out of India. Yes, anyone can outsource now. You can get pretty much anything done from Your Man In India. Check it out: http://yourmaninindia.com

YourManInIndia.com is a venture that caters to every conceivable service need in India of people all over the world. The company is uniquely positioned to be a Service Window for the world to get anything done in India. The venture is backed by a seamless technological backend, and best-in-class vendor support