Campaign Countdown 2006

Rio Trip Winner: Jason Yax!

2006-01-09T09:27:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

Last Friday amidst informal community meetings, a staff gathering, and community leaders from over 7 Rio city neighborhoods using the computers at the Casa to develop their community programs, we did the drawing to see which of you Pledge signers would win a trip to Rio for two to visit CatComm in person in 2006.

Jason Yax, a young doctor from Michigan, was selected!!! His name was literally pulled out of a hat by Edson Cardoso, a youth leader from Nova Iguaçu on the outskirts of Rio, previously coordinator of the Casa. Edson was at the Casa to get the word out about the grand opening of his community garden next Wednesday, January 11th.

Congratulations, Jason! Jason has recently graduated from his residency and now works as a hospitalist at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, MI. He is applying for Infectious Disease fellowships for 2007. In the interim, he is also looking into international medical volunteer opportunities and taking classes of personal interest. As a medical student Jason did a 4 week rotation at the UNESP medical school / hospital in Botucatu, about 100km west of São Paulo. He also visited Salvador, Bahia in 1995 as a college student on Semester at Sea. This will be Jason's first opportunity to visit Rio de Janeiro, and CatComm, however. He plans to bring his younger brother Justin Yax, also a doctor who has dedicated himself to international infectious disease research in places as diverse as Sri Lanka and Ecuador.

We look forward to welcoming Jason and Justin to Rio this year and to take them on visits to community health programs in the city's favelas.

Following this experience, we hope to make visits to Rio a regular feature of future CatComm outreach efforts. If you'd like to strengthen these efforts further, please consider donating airline miles.

This is the last email I expect to send to this general Pledge List. Those of you who have not yet signed up to get regular updates from CatComm, please visit our homepage http://www.catcomm.org/ and sign up for our e-newsletter, which goes out periodically. Otherwise, you may not hear from us and follow our work in the future. And those of you who have not yet made your first monthly or annual contribution to CatComm, please revisit last week's message or email me directly (theresa@catcomm.org) for help in doing so.

Finally, I am launching a new blog that I will be updating with the help of CatComm interns from around the world for those who are interested in following our work in Rio closer up. Visit http://www.catcomm.org/ for more, or bookmark the blog at: http://casacomcat.blogsot.com.

Warm wishes for a fabulous 2006!

And thank you for all you have made possible for Catalytic Communities and hundreds of communities worldwide in 2006 and beyond!

Theresa Williamson
Executive Director
theresa@catcomm.org

Original Pledge: "I will set up a $10 monthly donation to CatComm (or $120 annually) but only if 199 other people will too, and only if one philanthropist will match our joint donations dollar for dollar." (www.pledgebank.com/catcomm)

How to Make Your Donation

2006-01-03T09:31:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

Thank you once again for signing the Pledge "I will set up a $10 monthly donation to CatComm (or $120 annually) but only if 199 other people will too, and only if one philanthropist will match our joint donations dollar for dollar," which has now been met!

As promised, in this email I will provide a variety of options as to how you can make your $10 monthly or $120 annual donation to Catalytic Communities in 2006. At the moment US$120 = GBP 70 (pounds) = BRL 282 (Brazilian reais). Don't forget, your contribution is tax-deductible in the USA. And thank you to those of you who have already sent your Pledge contribution!

Here are five donation options; if none suit you and you would like help finding a better approach, please contact me directly (theresa@catcomm.org). Here goes!...

OPTION #1

Check - mail your $10 check each month, or $120 annual contribution, to Catalytic Communities, PO Box 42010, Washington, DC 20015, USA. 100% of your $120 comes directly to Catalytic Communities if your check is US-issued.

OPTION #2

Wire CatComm's US bank account - Set up a monthly or one-time wire transfer directly to Catalytic Communities' US bank account using the following information: Recipient: Catalytic CommunitiesBank: CitibankAccount #: 66796954Routing #: 254070116100% of your $120 comes directly to Catalytic Communities if your account is US-based.

OPTION #3

Wire CatComm's Brazil bank account - Set up a monthy or one-time wire transfer directly to Comunidades Catalisadoras' Brazil bank account using the following information: Recipient: Comunidades CatalisadorasBank: Banco ABN Amro Real SA no. 356Agência/branch: 1360Account #: 6001403-5CHIPS UID 012995SWIFT ABNABRSP100% of your $120 comes directly to Catalytic Communities if your account is Brazil-based.

OPTION #4

Credit card, bank transfer, or debit via PayPal - if you subscribe to PayPal service online, or plan to do so, you may make your contribution via PayPal by visiting our homepage http://www.catcomm.org/ and clicking in the upper left on "PayPal." For those who do not know PayPal, it is a highly trustworthy Internet-based payment service powered by Ebay, which accepts contributions in just about any currency type. 97.5% of your $120 comes directly to Cataytic Communities, as PayPal keeps 2.5% for offering their services.

OPTION #5

Credit card via Network for Good - if you don't want to sign up for PayPal and would prefer to go through a very reputable nonprofit donation-receiving service, you may choose to use Network for Good, powered by GuideStar (the US's clearinghouse of nonprofit information and transparency), also by visiting our homepage http://www.catcomm.org/ and clicking in the upper left, this time on "Credit." Network for Good's site also allows you to specify you would prefer to make an automatic monthly contribution, saving you hassle down the road. 95% of your $120 comes directly to Catalytic Communities, as Network for Good keeps 5% for offering their services.

Thanks, once again, for your support!

Warmest wishes,

Theresa

Woo hoo! Pledge is Met!!

2006-01-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

Early on December 31st I arrived in São Paulo airport, on my way back to Rio from almost 3 months Stateside, to find a welcome Internet connection where I could check on the status of our Pledge. To my excitement, the Pledge had not only been matched, but it went over! By the end of the day, the Pledge closed with 231 signers, 32 over target!

Woo hoo!

The results of this Pledge drive were multiple:

We were able, on very short notice, to focus our energies on getting signers for the Pledge, whose joint contributions would total half of CatComm's 2006 budget, and as such allow us to expand and grow our work solidly in 2006 as we develop a sustainable funding base.
Our networks of supporters and those aware of our work grew dramatically. Not only did the Pledge attract well over 150 new supporters, but the number of visitors to CatComm's site grew solidly from a total of 11,000 in September, to 13,000 in October, and 15,000 in November and December. Twelve new volunteers signed up on our site during the Pledge period. Pledge signers include individuals from four continents.
During the Pledge drive period, the Omidyar Network's online community gave a $10,000 grant to Catalytic Communities, which was used, along with an anonymous contribution, to yield the match necessary to make the Pledge effective.
The Pledge attracted the interest of Social Edge (the Skoll Foundation's social entrepreneurship website) and various blog postings during its 6-week duration. Check out the rest of this Campaign Countdown blog to read each posting.
And the results are still coming in!

As a result of our successful use of PledgeBank, I have signed another pledge on their site: www.pledgebank.com/myresolution, pledging 5 hours of my time each month, specifically to helping develop PledgeBank in Brazil. I encourage others to join, too. I want to see this wonderful tool grow!

So, here is the message I sent out to all signers:

Hello friends!

Happy New Year and thank you for making our pledge successful! Rest assured, your commitment to the Pledge to CatComm Sustainability (www.pledgebank.com/catcomm) will make an enormous difference to the work we do in Rio de Janeiro and around the world in 2006.

Over the next few days you will be receiving two final messages from me: one detailing the various ways you can donate your $10 monthly or $120 for 2006 to Catalytic Communities; the other announcing the winner of our drawing for a trip for two to Rio!

Once again, thank you for your commitment to networking and bringing visibility to community solutions worldwide. We did it!

Warmly,
Theresa Williamson
Executive Director
Catalytic Communities
http://www.catcomm.org/

Jean's last email request

2005-12-29T07:20:00.000-08:00

Here's what Jean Russell, Omidyar.net member, life coach, and now CatComm volunteer, wrote today in her last request to friends to sign the Pledge:

Support your global social entrepreneur

One more day to go and only ten signers needed to meet our pledge! Signing the pledge enters you into a drawing for a trip to Rio!!!

$10,000 of the match for this pledge came from my online community, Omidyar.net where social entrepreneurs roam the wikis!

Theresa and the pledge received visibility at http://www.socialedge.org/ via the Global X blog.

This is the foundation started by Ebay founder Jeff Skoll—yes, another social entrepreneur champion.

And, I am currently writing a recommendation for Theresa to become an Ashoka Fellow for Brazil. If you watched PBS: New Heroes, you know what I am talking about!

I would be so ecstatic if my friends close this pledge. We have the match, everything is in place. Will you join us?

"I will set u p a $10 monthly donation to CatComm (or $120 annually) but only if 199 other people will too, and only if one philanthropist will match our joint donations dollar for dollar."
— Theresa Williamson, Founder and Executive Director

Deadline to sign up by: 31st December 2005 189 people have signed up, 10 more needed
Country: United States

More details
Should this Pledge be met, all signers will be put in a drawing for a free trip for two, including travel and accommodations, to Rio de Janeiro!Not only that, but meeting this pledge will allow CatComm to thrive in 2006! It's as simple as $10 a month! We are counting on you to help us meet our 2006 core budget.Catalytic Communities' mission is to develop, inspire and empower a global network of communities generating and sharing solutions.CatComm connects communities through spaces both physical and virtual. The "Casa," our model networking hub in Rio de Janeiro offers a space for face-to-face events and Web access for community leaders across that metro region, while our Community Solutions Database and other online tools make searchable, detailed, community-generated solutions to everyday challenges available across languages and borders.Over 500 leaders from 72 city neighborhoods depend on our Casa. Over 11,000 people in 65 countries use our website monthly. Over 100 community success stories have been documented to date.Please get the word out about this Pledge. Visit the Campaign Countdown blog at http://catalyticcommunities.blogspot.com/ for support materials.For information about the Rio drawing visit www.comcat.org/pledge.Please visit http://www.catcomm.org/ for more information.Note: CatComm is a 501[c][3] tax-exempt organization in the USA and a registered non-governmental organization in Brazil.

- Jean Russell
Spinorb
http://www.spinorb.com/

Social Edge's Global X blogs us...

2005-12-20T16:12:00.000-08:00

Today, December 20th, Social Edge, a website of the Skoll Foundation, began a 3-part story the result of a recent interview with me in California. Here goes...

Not too long ago, Global X met Theresa Williamson, a social entrepreneur who strongly believes in fate...
Read on: PART 1

Theresa Williamson launched Catalytic Communities in 2000. She had noticed that many communities were very good at innovating at the local level, but they couldn’t share their innovations with other communities...
Read on: PART 2

Theresa Williamson, the social entrepreneur from Rio, was born in England from a British father and a Brazilian mother. She was raised in the U.S., and she describes herself as “a product of globalization.”...
Read on: PART 3

CatComm Announcement: Omidyar Network Community Award!

2005-12-16T09:07:00.000-08:00

This week CatComm received word that the Omidyar Network has granted us a $10,000 community award in support of our Casa community networking hub and website's Community Solutions Database in 2006!

Here is our posting on the Omidyar Network's site...

Posted to: Local Global group on the Omidyar Network site by Theresa Williamson, Fri, 16 Dec 2005

For the original post & responses, visit: http://www.omidyar.net/group/localglobal/news/22/

Hello All!

I am just thrilled right now to be writing with some wonderful news: I've received word from Susan Megy that Catalytic Communities has been chosen to receive a $10,000 community award from the Omidyar Network to support our Casa in Rio and the Community Solutions Database on our site at http://www.catcomm.org! Woo hoo!!!!

Now bare with me as I have many, many people to thank, all of whom have made this year for Catalytic Communities, and for me!

Thank you to Onetters Jean Russell, Michael Maranda, Norbert Mayer-Wittmann, Brandon Sanders, Rose Vines, Anne Marie Bellavance, Ted Ernst, Mark Grimes, David Bale, Julie Caldwell, Christina Jordan, Michael Herman, Sally Duros, Greg Murray, and Sue Braiden for being catalysts in this process!!! Thank you also to Lenore Cowen, John "Eyeclectic", and Antony Wachira for your support and interest in this work over the past months!!

Daniel Bassill, Tom Steinberg, Chris Macrae, Ellison Horne, Gabriel Grant, and Justin Bellew have shared your complementary efforts with me this year -- all of you are undertaking projects with fantastic opportunities for collaboration with CatComm's work, and I can't wait to explore these ties more thoroughly in 2006!

In addition to the Onet Community, there has been something ultraspecial about the reception CatComm has been given by the Omidyar Network staff. The three staff members I've met, Thomas Kriese, Susan Megy, and Dena Jones, have been encouraging in a way that I have seldom experienced elsewhere, and are helping to change my perception of what is possible as we slowly and carefully undertake this important work of changing the world, one community at a time...

I can't stop there, however!! 2005 has been a pivotal year in my life, having gone through immense changes in my internal and external, personal and professional life. As such, I find myself reflecting as the year comes to an end, and realizing what an immense role Onet has had in the transition I've experienced since mid-year, which not coincidentally was when (A) the most difficult period in my life began taking a turn towards recovery, and (B) I found myself in Chicago amidst an amazing, supportive group of people...

In these few short months on Onet I have found like-minded people, from all walks of life, ready to brainstorm and provide significant insights on just about any topic CatComm could hope for as we strengthen our work, several of which have taken CatComm on as their own, something I dreamt about before... I have found friends, a few of whom I know I will be close to for the rest of my life... I have realized the power of online communities in a way that, even with the work we are doing!, I had not dreamt of being possible before... and now this?! What an amazing way to complete 2005, with the vouch of support from the Onet Community that is this Award.

There is something so special about this network, I can't stop telling the world about it! And now to have this work recognized in this way, too! Wow, I couldn't feel more realized. Thank you, everyone.

CatComm's 1st e-newsletter

2005-12-13T10:00:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!

We're thrilled to announce that today CatComm's first e-newsletter was sent to our mailing list of 3000+.

To check it out, or send a copy to a friend, simply click here.

:)
Theresa

What Jean said in her blog...

2005-12-08T18:22:00.000-08:00

Today Jean Russell, consultant and life coach, posted on her blog:

Pledge for catalytic communities

Do good and a chance to go to Rio!

Pledge a small gift of $10 a month or $120 a year to Catalytic Communities, a very innovative nonprofit, based in Brazil and accessible globally, helping community organizers to share resources, document efforts, and gain visibility. This is leveraged gifting, people. By helping Catalytic Communities, you help the small and local community organizers who depend on this important community resource. Further, Catalytic Communities collaborators began this fall to model what they do so more physical spaces can open. Additionally, they can expand their reach and the usability of the community project database.

The pledge!
More about Catalytic Communities.
More about the Rio trip for pledge signers.
Check out the blog of updates on the pledge.

Sign the Pledge, Win a Trip to Rio!

2005-12-06T19:34:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's as easy as that!

Wonderful news came today when, thanks to a recommendation by Omidyar.net member Mark Grimes, CatComm searched and uncovered the possibility to host, including travel & room & board, two visitors to Rio in 2006!

So we have converted this into a challenge:
Every signer of the CatComm Pledge at www.pledgebank.com/catcomm will be entered into a drawing for two round-trip tickets to Rio de Janeiro, including room & board!!! But here's the catch: the raffle will only go into effect if we get the 399 signers we need for the Pledge itself to take effect!

Here's what we can currently offer the lucky winner:

1. Two round-trip tickets to Rio de Janeiro
2. A week-long homestay near Ipanema, Copacabana beach, or the Botannical Gardens neighborhood (or hotel)
3. A visit to CatComm's unique Casa community networking hub and opportunity to meet with Rio de Janeiro community organizers
4. A tour of a local community, or favela, by local community leader(s)
5. A city tour
6. These three activities will be accompanied by a translator and organized by CatComm staff

For more information about Rio & signing the Pledge, including wonderful PHOTOS, click here: www.comcat.org/pledge

We can't wait to welcome a lucky winner and guest to Rio!!!

What Demetri said...

2005-12-06T19:22:00.000-08:00

Here is what friend Demetri Bonaros wrote his friends about the CatComm Pledge earlier today (thanks, Demetri!)...

Friends,

Catalytic Communities (http://www.catcomm.org/) is a DC and Rio de Janeiro-based non-profit organization facilitating the sharing, across languages and borders, of community solutions to everyday challenging problems. Theresa Williamson, CatComm's founder, has set up an online pledge of $10/month for 2006 ($120 for the whole year) and is looking for 399 others to join by Dec. 31 to join her (www.pledgebank.com/catcomm). Currently 60 people have signed the pledge. If CatComm makes its goal of 400 pledges by December 31, one of these 400 folks will
win two round-trip tickets & accommodation for a 7-day visit to Rio de Janeiro in 2006!

During the holiday season, this is our chance to support a terrific organization while giving ourselves a respectable shot at a week-long vacation in Rio.

You can go to www.catcomm.org and www.pledgebank.com/catcomm for more information about the organization and the pledge; and, even if you don't sign the pledge, please forward this to others you know who may be interested.

Best regards,
Demetri

What Jean posted on Onet...

2005-12-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

Onet Connects: Connection Transforms--Please Pledgebank CatComm

Posted on www.omidyar.net/home by Jean Russell

Posted to: Community - General by Jean Russell (485):

What happens when 2 people from Onet connect? For many of us, the connections have been transformative.

Here is one example: Theresa Williamson (Catalytic Communities aka CatComm) connected with Onet members through the Chicago member gathering in late July 05. Through that event, she met several people willing to collaborate to build with/from her organization. See the Local/Global group which contains threads about CatComm.

Theresa historically has spent 30%+ of her time in fundraising. Her organization rests in the space between typical foundation giving plans. What might an alternative be for raising funds for CatComm?

If CatComm needs $100,000, for example, they could get one donor to give the full amount, 2 donors to give $50,000, 10 donors to give $10,000, or 100 donors to give $1000...or many combinations...

Thus, when Theresa discovered Onet Citizen Tom Steinberg's Pledgebank, a new path opened up. What if CatComm used Pledgebank?

http://www.pledgebank.com/catcomm

If 400 people pledge to contribute $120 or $10 a month, and those contributions are matched by a philanthropist ($48,000 matched once with $48,000=$96,000), then the minimum operating budget will be covered. Additionally pledgebank, which started in the UK, will have a very successful launch in the US with this major pledge.

What does this mean?

Theresa will be able to use what she is uniquely talented to do with Catalytic Communities. She will be able to devote her energy to the org rather than to funding the org.
Pledgebank will gain visibility as a clear path to giving.
Onet will, once again, have changed how citizens here do things, one more success story among many for what is unique and wonderful about the space we have here.

What can you do?

Pledge. Show your support of an organization that, much like onet, creates a space for connections to happen, for resources to be shared, for projects to be witnessed and replicated, and seeks to enable more and more people to make their difference in their own way.

Go to: http://www.pledgebank.com/catcomm today.

The more signers we have, the more momentum we build, the closer we get to the goal. The more momentum we build, the better chance we will have of drawing in media attention and sharing the dream with more and more people.

For more about Catalytic Communities, go to http://www.catcomm.org where you can read about it in English, Spanish, or Portugese.

For more about Pledgebank, see http://www.pledgebank.com/explain.

Click here about Onet Citizen Theresa Williamson.

Or find Onet Citizen Tom Steinberg.

See also Sustainability at CatComm for more.

Hot! Latest Newsletter!

2005-11-29T15:03:00.000-08:00

CatComm's latest newsletter is hot off the press!!

Feel free to use this as a tool in getting the word out about CatComm. In particular, I included a letter that explains the urgency of the PledgeBank pledge in meeting our needs so that CatComm can continue to develop in 2006 and beyond. See posting "A Letter to the CatComm Community" from earlier today. Make sure to share this letter within the context of the newsletter itself, which hightlights our work and achievements since September 2000.

Check out the PDF newsletter.

Michael Herman blogs the Pledge

2005-11-29T14:58:00.000-08:00

Michael Herman has just blogged our Pledge here. Michael works as executive facilitator, consultant, coach, and colleague, in meetings, markets and movements, in groups, organizations and communities -- to get the most important things done, in the easiest possible ways.

Here's what he wrote:

Support CatComm at PledgeBank

SmallChangeNews

PledgeBank is doing this year, in grand style, much of what a number of us have been working on since last year, in small ways, as SmallChangeNews. Theresa Williamson, an Omidyar Network friend and colleague has posted this there:

“I will set up a $10 monthly donation to CatComm (or $120 annually) but only if 399 other people will too, and only if one philanthropist will match our joint donations dollar for dollar.” — Theresa Williamson, Founder and Executive Director

Deadline to sign up by: 31st December 2005 So far… 39 people have signed up, 360 more needed

Meeting this pledge will make CatComm permanently sustainable! It’s as simple as $10 a month! Catalytic Communities’ mission is to develop, inspire and empower a global network of communities generating and sharing solutions.

CatComm connects communities through spaces both physical and virtual. The “Casa,” our model networking hub in Rio de Janeiro offers a space for face-to-face events and Web access for community leaders across that metro region, while our Community Solutions Database and other online tools make searchable, detailed, community-generated solutions to everyday challenges available across languages and borders.

Theresa and CatComm are doing some really fantastic work in Rio. We could use more of her model up here in the States and elsewhere around the world. This funding will help make that possible. Please support CatComm as you are able!

- Michael Herman

A Letter to the CatComm Community

2005-11-29T10:00:00.000-08:00

This letter, explaining the importance of the PledgeBank initiative, has just been published in CatComm's latest newsletter. I thought it was important to post it here, too, so those debating whether to support the organization get a sense of the present urgency:

Dear Friends,

Catalytic Communities has come a long way over these past five years. As the only organization working actively to build a global network of grassroots community leaders, hundreds of community groups now depend on us to bring them together, to facilitate their learning through peer networks across borders.

But a nonprofit organization is not an easy thing to sustain, especially in trying times when there are so many vital demands on our philanthropic monies, when urgent catastrophes tug at our heartstrings.

That is why I am calling on you now. Catalytic Communities finds itself today at its most fragile moment in five years. This is ironic given the exciting position we are currently in, the reputation we have built, the brilliant team we now have to take the work forward, the planning process we have just completed for three years of promising work to come…

But it is the current reality: if CatComm does not receive US$96,000 in pledges by year’s end to cover its basic costs in 2006, we will have to reduce our current programs, compromising much of what we have built over the past five years.

For this reason we have launched the PledgeBank challenge, to bring realizing this year-end goal within the reach of our current network of supporters and collaborators. If 399 people join us in committing to a $10 monthly donation at www.pledgebank.com/catcomm by December 31st, our work will be able to continue throughout 2006, and beyond.

I hope to greet you with a heartfelt **thank you** message on January 1st, that together, we have done it! Please help us meet the Pledge.

Sincerely,

Theresa Williamson
Executive Director

What Patrick said...

2005-11-25T19:27:00.000-08:00

Patrick Donohue, founder of BRINQ (www.brinq.com), sent out the following message to his network in support of the CatComm Pledge...

To see his original message, click here: http://www.brinq.com/news/CatCommPledge.html

Here is the full text of Patrick's message:

Dear Kady,

I want to share with you an opportunity to support an organization I really believe in and one that I think you would find worth supporting as well.

Over the last year-and-half my work has taken me deep into low-income communities in Kenya and Brazil, developing business models to combat poverty while enabling huge new markets and opportunities. One key lesson we’ve experienced is that often it’s the small and passionate organizations that are creating the greatest results. Catalytic Communities (CatComm), in Rio de Janeiro, is one such organization, employing an innovative model to combat the problems of poverty in the developing world.

Catalytic Communities is organized around the belief that for every problem a community faces there exist other communities throughout the world experiencing similar challenges, many who have come up with solutions to such problems on their own. CatComm therefore focuses on creating a new type of community: a global network of community leaders generating and exchanging local solutions, both via CatComm’s physical spaces in Brazil and its virtual spaces (http://www.catcomm.org/, http://www.comcat.org/, www.ComCatz.org)

I discovered Catalytic Communities after a chance encounter last year with their founder, Theresa Williamson. I was so inspired by what CatComm was doing in Brazil that I convinced the World Resources Institute to fund a teaching study of the organization, which will be taught at business schools to demonstrate the power and challenges of locally grown solutions. Catalytic Communities just celebrated its 5th birthday and is now seeking to be replicated throughout Latin America and around the world. Support from people like you and I can enable it to grow its world-changing network and enable thousands of communities to become self-sustaining partners in the world. If we and 399 others make this commitment, CatComm’s annual budget will be met in 2006, and that’s giving as little $10 a month.

"I will set up a $10 monthly donation to CatComm (or $120 annually) but only if 399 other people will too, and only if one philanthropist will match our joint donations dollar for dollar."
— Patrick Donohue

Deadline to sign up by: 31st December 2005Join us in empowering a global network ofcommunity solutions!

JOIN THIS PLEDGEat http://www.PledgeBank.com/catcomm/

At the same time, by joining this pledge, you will help launch PledgeBank.com in the USA. PledgeBank was launched earlier this year in the UK, and much like Catalytic Communities, PledgeBank leverages the power of networks to create change, revolutionizing the ability of civil society to organize itself around common goals You can learn more about PledgeBank at http://www.PledgeBank.com/

Please pass this message on to your friends, sharing with them what gets you excited about Catalytic Communities. Also if you are ever in Rio de Janeiro, I highly recommend visiting Catalytic Communities community hub in downtown Rio. Through CatComm I've experienced some incredible parts of Brazil I never would have seen otherwise.

All the best,
Patrick

“Everybody knows the proverb about how it’s better to teach a man to fish than just to give him a fish, but there’s a step beyond that: it’s better that a man’s neighbor is the one teaching him to fish, his peer. If some expert swoops in from afar you miss half the value of the interaction because of the inequality in that relationship. But if it’s his peer teaching him? Then the man is much more likely to offer something in return. You are much more likely to create a real sustainable relationship rather than just a new dependency.” – Theresa Williamson, Founder, Catalytic Communities

To read two articles we've written about Catalytic Communities see:
Side Effects - A Day in the Community http://www.BRINQ.com/workshop/archives/2005/09/20/side-effects-a-day-in-the-community/
Learning to Swim - Back in Brazil http://www.BRINQ.com/workshop/archives/2005/09/03/learning-to-swim/

JOIN THIS PLEDGE at http://www.PledgeBank.com/catcomm/

Tell Your Friends

2005-11-24T09:57:00.000-08:00

Here are some ideas of what you can tell your friends about CatComm when you encourage them to sign the Pledge!

ABOUT CATCOMM

From our 3-Year Plan Executive Summary:

Tailored solutions exist, isolated in communities across the globe, for virtually any mentionable social or environmental challenge. Community sewerage systems, housing programs, HIV prevention initiatives, actions for democracy, day care, religious tolerance, and forest preservation are but a few of the projects one may stumble upon in some of the lowest-income communities in the world, all organized by local residents. Yet these initiatives struggle to survive for lack of visibility and support. And others who could be inspired by them have no idea that they exist.

It is for these reasons that Catalytic Communities (CatComm) was founded in 2000: to develop, inspire and empower a global network of communities generating and sharing solutions. Communities generate solutions all around us. But these efforts have never before been networked and publicized, nor have their protagonists had widespread access to one another, broader visibility, or tools and resources that can support them.

CatComm provides a unique new approach to community empowerment. By developing physical and virtual spaces for community exchange, we are creating for the first time in history the basic infrastructure that allows communities to share solutions across borders. The "Casa," our model networking hub in Rio de Janeiro offers a space for face-to-face events and Web access for community leaders across that metro region, while our Community Solutions Database and other online tools (http://www.catcomm.org/) make searchable, detailed, community-generated solutions to everyday challenges available across languages and borders. Our full website is now available in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

When we began, a decision was made to develop CatComm during a slow and thoughtful “proof of concept” period working closely with local leaders. Rio de Janeiro was chosen as the pilot city. From its inception in late 2000 through the end of 2004, close relationships and trust were built with local leaders and needs were assessed. The importance of physical space and face-to-face interactions among community leaders, along with Web-based tools and spaces, was made clear. During this period CatComm became a reference in Rio de Janeiro among local leaders, and the organization’s network grew to well over 1100 by word-of-mouth.

Today, our website has grown to include over 100 thoroughly detailed community projects from eight countries, with an equal number of positive success stories relayed to us by community organizers making use of CatComm’s networking spaces: the Casa and website. Over 11,000 visitors come to our site each month.

Some quotes from friends:

Patrick Donohue explains: "Catalytic Communities is organized around the belief that for every problem a community faces there exist other communities throughout the world experiencing similar challenges, many who have come up with solutions to such problems on their own. CatComm therefore focuses on creating a new type of community: a global network of community leaders generating and exchanging local solutions, both via CatComm’s physical spaces in Brazil and its virtual spaces (http://www.catcomm.org/, http://www.comcat.org/, http://www.comcatz.org/)...

'Everybody knows the proverb about how it’s better to teach a man to fish than just to give him a fish, but there’s a step beyond that: it’s better that a man’s neighbor is the one teaching him to fish, his peer. If some expert swoops in from afar you miss half the value of the interaction because of the inequality in that relationship. But if it’s his peer teaching him? Then the man is much more likely to offer something in return. You are much more likely to create a real living relationship rather than just a new dependency.'"

RESULTS

In Rio de Janeiro alone, Catalytic Communities has documented over 80 community initiatives, from the manufacturing of ecological bricks and couches made of plastic bottles, to community sewerage and housing programs. We've found communities that peacefully rid themselves of drug traffickers, and communities that avoid them from the get go. Community soup kitchens, daycare centers, and cultural preservation initiatives. After school sports, theatre groups, and fieldtrip programs...
Today CatComm supports over 500 community leaders from 72 neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro at its Casa and, through its website, some 11,000 unique visitors monthly from 65 countries, that learn from the 110 community programs now listed in the organization's unique Community Solutions Database. Look where we've come in 5 years! Imagine where we'll be in 5 more!
More importantly, community groups from Rio's favelas and African communities have shared with us over 100 successes they have experienced thanks to their participation in this vibrant and growing network! To view these success stories, click here.

A Message to Current Supporters

2005-11-23T11:30:00.000-08:00

Dear CatComm Supporters,

As you know, Catalytic Communities cares about the way it raises funds. We are constantly developing new strategies for achieving financial sustainability while meeting our mission. PledgeBank, a new initiative launched in the UK earlier this year and which we are helping launch in the US, offers an amazing new opportunity for us to leverage our networks. There are three ways in which you -- our supporters -- are in a special position to help:

Confirm your commitment to Catalytic Communities by signing the PledgeBank pledge. Many of you are Sustaining Partners or regular investors in CatComm. You may even be committed to us at more than a $10 monthly or $120 annual level. All the more reason to sign the pledge! You will simply be confirming what you already plan to do! This is particularly vital in helping the Pledge "catch on fire!" Once we have the first 100 signers -- many of whom will be current supporters simply recommitting themselves -- the sooner we can outreach to broader networks through a PR campaign. To sign the Pledge, visit www.pledgebank.com/catcomm
Leverage your networks of contacts in support of CatComm! Do as Patrick Donohue did, and prepare your own mailing to 10-20 close friends asking them to join in this important effort. Tell them: for the price of a few gallons of gas each month, they will be ensuring that Catalytic Communities can expand its efforts in 2006. To view Patrick's sample email, click here.
Visit the Campaign Countdown Blog at http://catalyticcommunities.blogspot.com and leave comments testifying to your excitement and belief in CatComm's approach to development and social change!

Social Edge Plugs our Pledge

2005-11-22T13:24:00.000-08:00

Shortly after we launched the PledgeBank pledge today, Social Edge, the Skoll Foundation's site for social entrepreneurs, posted the following:

How a Brazilian Social Entrepreneur is Raising Funds.
Theresa Williamson, founder and executive director of Catalytic Communities, set up a $10 monthly donation on PledgeBank to make her Rio de Janeiro-based organization permanently sustainable. The twist: "I will do it only if 399 other people do it, too, and only if one philanthropist matches our joint donations dollar for dollar." More than 20 people have already signed up. Visit PledgeBank to find out more.

Pledge Launch!

2005-11-22T13:01:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

We are writing to ask you to lend a hand to our efforts this holiday season. You can make your simple commitment here www.pledgebank.com/catcomm and read on for more details.

As Thanksgiving approaches, most of us reading this message have a lot to be thankful for. We have a cosy bed awaiting us at night, more than enough nutritious food on our tables, friends and family we can count on. We also know that in places, some far away and some not so far, there are people who go without these necessary treasures.

But what we often overlook is that in those same places where people are in need of basic necessities, there are others with solutions. In Rio de Janeiro alone, Catalytic Communities has documented over 80 community initiatives, from the manufacturing of ecological bricks and couches made of plastic bottles, to community sewerage and housing programs. We've found communities that peacefully rid themselves of drug traffickers, and communities that avoid them from the get go. Community soup kitchens, daycare centers, and cultural preservation initiatives. After school sports, theatre groups, and fieldtrip programs...

We are now writing to ask you to sign a pledge this Thanksgiving, a pledge to sustain an organization that has for five years been undertaking a significant task: networking and bringing visibility to community efforts around the world, efforts that work, efforts that are normally ignored and undervalued, at the grassroots level. We are asking people for a simple pledge of $10 a month. By reaching out to 400 friends and supporters, we'll ensure CatComm's core 2006 budget! Join the 23 others that have already signed the pledge!

For the price of a few gallons of gas each month, you will be ensuring that Catalytic Communities can expand these efforts in 2006. Today CatComm supports over 500 community leaders from 72 neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro at its Casa and, through its website, some 11,000 unique visitors monthly from 65 countries, that learn from the 110 community programs now listed in the organization's unique Community Solutions Database. Look where we've come in 5 years! Imagine where we'll be in 5 more!

Rather than tell communities how to organize, Catalytic Communities was founded to create the basic infrastructure so that communities could share -- across borders within a region, and across the planet. But sustaining this work takes effort: it will take your commitment.

This is the place: www.pledgebank.com/catcomm.

Read the latest article about the CatComm Pledge on NextBillion.net.

We can't wait to see your beautiful names at www.pledgebank.com/catcomm! After December 31st the Pledge will be deemed inactive. We hope to be greeting you with a fabulous New Year's message on January 1st, that the pledge has been met! We need 400 signers until then, so help us get the word out! We will contact you in the New Year with various options to facilitate your donation process, including options of donating monthly and also up front.

Sincerely,

Theresa Williamson, Mike Crum, Patrick Donohue, Jean Russell, and Shirley Salmeron

Please note:

If you already support CatComm, please consider confirming your 2006 commitment by signing the pledge.
Committed supporters interested in leveraging their networks in support of this campaign, click here for a page we've created with support materials. You can view our complete 3-Year Plan here, also.
This Pledge is valid through December 31st, 2005. If we do not get the full 400 signatures by then, the pledge will be deemed inactive.

If you would like to UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, please do not click on unsubscribe below. Instead, email unsubscribe@catcomm.org with the message "unsubscribe" in the subject line. Thank you!

Catalytic Communities is a 501[c][3] tax exempt not-for-profit organization.

email: theresa@catcomm.org

phone: 202-318-3223

web: www.catcomm.org

NextBillion.net - The Power of Peer Networks

2005-11-16T18:00:00.000-08:00

In an article on the Power of Peer Networks, Patrick Donohue, founder of BRINQ, discusses the promise and potential of CatComm's use of PledgeBank, a UK organization, to launch its year-end funding drive, by leveraging networks. Published in NextBillion.net, a site of the World Resources Institute, the article has been reposted here:

The Power of Peer Networks - Individuals vs. Scale

About CatComm, PledgeBank and replication vs. scale.

“Everybody knows the proverb about how it’s better to teach a man to fish than just to give him a fish, but there’s a step beyond that: it’s better that a man’s neighbor is the one teaching him to fish, his peer. If some expert swoops in from afar you miss half the value of the interaction because of the inequality in that relationship. But if it’s his peer teaching him? Then the man is much more likely to offer something in return. You are much more likely to create a real sustainable relationship rather than just a new dependency.” – Theresa Williamson, Founder, Catalytic Communities

Can individuals change the world? It's all a matter of leverage...

At BRINQ we've been exploring the creation of peer networks for local innovators in the Base of the Pyramid, particularly for innovation in toys and all things play! And although we've already written a number of recent articles about them, we thought it was a good moment to again bring up our friends in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, who exemplify the power of peer networks. Those friends of course are the folks at Catalytic Communities (CatComm) , who we recently entered into a partnership with to help fundraise and expand their local world-changing network globally.

Why our intense interest in Catalytic Communities? Raw admiration for their work aside, we're just heeding the advice of Njeri Muhia, an economics professor at Egerton University in Njoro, Kenya who mentored us on participatory methods for development. Njeri told us, "Instead of trying to build entirely new infrastructure in poor communities, first try doing something new with existing capacity and groups." In Brazil, Catalytic Communities has already built a powerful peer network of community leaders and innovators drawn from amongst Rio de Janeiro's 750 squatter communities (favelas) and such a resource provides huge opportunities to new ventures like ours. In fact, through our work on the Base of the Pyramid Protocol, we found that networks like CatComm's are invaluable in seeking out new opportunities for business and development.

Then there's PledgeBank, a UK based organization launched earlier this year that also leverages the power of peer networks. Pledges made at PledgeBank.com can be anything from fundraising for your favorite cause, volunteering at a local charity, to finally kicking that nasty nicotine habit. The key is that PledgeBank pledges go into effect only after you recruit enough of your peers to make the same promise: "I will do this if 1000 other people pledge to do so too!" PledgeBank therefore harnesses and encourages the power of individuals to become groups, and it doesn't even need to be people who know one another, just ones that share a common cause.

Both organizations enable individuals to band together to create new movements, to allow the local to join with the global, and in doing so change the world. Given that similarity,it's only natural that Catalytic Communities would decide to use PledgeBank for its 2005 fundraising drive.

Deadline to sign up by: 31st December 2005

Join us in empowering a global network of community solutions!
JOIN THIS PLEDGEat http://www.PledgeBank.com/catcomm/

It turns out that it's not the big foundations but the individuals like you and I who are the most powerful philanthropic force around. Lynne Twist, author of the book The Soul of Money and award winning fundraiser (she's raised some $200+ million for non-profits, all from individuals) gave us this statistic when we met her last week: of the $250 billion donated in the United States last year, the vast majority was donated by individuals, close to %80. And most of those individuals are in the $150k a year and under group, not just the Bill Gates of the world.

What does this all mean for business? Well, we believe that the organizations which learn to create peer effects - those that catalyze an explosion of grassroots innovation and growth - are the ones that will lead the future in the Base of the Pyramid. A successful model will not be one that just "scales", but instead one that embraces replication and adaptation. The former is about mammoth organizations whereas the latter is all about networks of individuals.

And if you don't have that network yourself, find a way to become a peer of one that does. All you need is a little leverage...

"All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual." - Albert Einstein

Additional Resources:
Catalytic Communities - also available in Portuguese and Spanish
PledgeBank - and CatComm's Pledge Challenge
Base of the Pyramid Protocol - BoP Protocol resources at BRINQ.com
Side Effects - A Day in the Community - BRINQ article about CatComm
Learning to Swim - Back in Brazil - BRINQ article about CatComm

Posted to the BRINQ Workshop - about CatComm, PledgeBank and replication vs. scale.