Year of the Citizen Philanthropist

1 New Trier High School (Illinois): Built 6 Biogas Plants for clean cooking gas and organic fertilizer <img align="right" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/citizeneffect_production/blog_assets/41/project_featured_media-1.png" alt="" />This year, 4 teenage girls from New Trier High School in Illinois showed Citizen Effect teen power - bringing music together for to help a community in need.  Alison, Neeha, Leyla, and Nasreen, part of the Amnesty International Club at New Trier helped solve the energy Crisis in Sonalnagar Village this year! The girls sponsored a concert, “Jamnesty” at their high school, bringing together friends, family and community. Jamnesty successfully raised the funds need to build 6 biogas plants to produces clean cooking gas and organic fertilizer for the families of Sonalgar.  With the construction of the biogas plants, members of the Sonalgar community no longer need to spend many hours searching for firewood, and presence of biogas stoves improves their health as they are no longer inhaling dangerous smoke. We love the girls quote, after the concert and successfully raising their funds – they commented. “I feel like Bill Gates!” What the girls of New Trier show us is that you don’t have to be Bill Gates to directly impact a community in need.  It is, however fun to feel like him! You too can successfully bring your friends and family together.  <a href="http://www.citizeneffect.org/projects/sonalnagar">Read more >> </a> Coral Z. (Arizona): Provided education to 50 high-risk children <img align="right" alt="" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/citizeneffect_production/blog_assets/43/project_featured_media-2.png" />Coral Zayas, partnered this year with Coprodelli to fund a multipurpose Classroom in Peru. This classroom serves  50 high-risk children and 30 parents and provides the 50 children and their families with a space for tutoring, studying and community development workshops. Coral’s approach:  Coral showed Citizen Effect this year how to be a truly creative Citizen Philanthropist!  She raised the funds for Subtanjalla by incorporating many aspects of her life, in a true Citizen Effect way. An amateur photographer from Flagstaff AZ, Coral is an Americorps Vista alumni and also works in the nonprofit world. As you can see giving is a large part her life. For her Citizen Effect project ,she sold her photography prints online. To promote her photography locally, she approached restuarants, and coffee shops to show off her work and raise money. She is also getting involved in local art walks. The great news,  some establishments liked Corals work so much, they have invited her photography to be a permanent fixture for sale!  Her Citizen Philanthropy project has now blossomed into a growing opportunity to sell more of what she loves, and be part of the local art community! To bring her friends and community for some Charity fun, she also held a Dancing for Charity event, a Holiday Dessert Party, and a white Elephant Holiday party.  Coral is all about having fun for a cause! Coral was also the recipient of a great “random act of kindness” when a complete stranger supported her project, completing her goal.  She immediately chose another project and is now building a Mulitmedia Classroom in Chinca Baja!  Coral’s attitude and ferver is admirable, never ending for the kids of Peru. <a href="http://www.citizeneffect.org/projects/coral-subtanjalla-caeclassroom">Read more >></a> Henry & Erin (Illinois): Improved the health of at 1,586 refugees in the Meheba, Zambia <img align="right" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/citizeneffect_production/blog_assets/45/project_featured_media-3.png" alt="" />Henry and Erin partnered with FORGE this year to Improve the health of at 1,586 refugees in the Meheba community in Zambia, through the FORGE Health Services Project – combating HIV, Marlia and other health care issues for the Meheba commuity. Hank and Erin’s approach:  This couple decided to have a holiday with an impact this year. Turning what they would normally do, reaching out to friends and family during the holiday season, the two completed a holiday card campaign and asked for donations to their project  instead of traditional Christmas gifts.  Henry also got clever, learned about traditional Zambian food, and started bringing in Zambian lunches for his colleagues at work.  Erin supplied a gift of art for those friends who made certain minimum donation.  Support from friends and family have continued to pour in, and Hank and Erin celebrated the season thankful for what they can create together.  <a href="http://www.citizeneffect.org/projects/forge-health-service">Read more >></a> Citizen Effect Impact <img align="right" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/citizeneffect_production/blog_assets/47/livesimpacted.png" alt="" />With the Citizen Philanthropists, we've had impacted thousands of lives. We have some great initiatives planned for 2010, beginning with our new online platform for social change. If you haven't been back to our site lately, please take a look. We've worked hard to bring you the easiest and most capable tool for becomming a Citizen Philanthropist. Let's work together to make 2010 a great year by increasing our impact! Stay in touch: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/CitizenEffect">Become a fan on facebook >></a> <a href="http://twitter.com/CitizenEffect">Follow us on Twitter >></a>   1

2009-12-30T15:31:16Z

Year of the Citizen Philanthropist 2009 was the year of the Citizen Philanthropist. But you don't have to take our word for it, <a href="http://mashable.com/2009/12/22/social-good-trends/">read Mashable's article on citizen philanthropy >></a> And 2009 was a great year for Citizen Effect. As we look back on our accomplishments in 2009, we wanted to take a moment to thank you - the Citizen Philanthropists - and celebrate our shared success. We have so many interesting projects and so many success stories to share with you. We can't fit all the projects in one blog post, so we thought we'd highlight a few particularly impactful projects and the Citizen Philanthropists that made it happen.

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Year of the Citizen Philanthropist

2010-01-05T19:16:53Z

year-of-the-citizen-philanthropist