MobileImpact.Org

Charting Our True North

It was only a year ago that MobileImpact.org was born.  It was an idea to think about how we can connect the unconnected and leverage the bounty of used phones to accelerate access for the 3 billion people on the planet who do not have this revolutionary technology.

I started the work with a handful of trusted and committed supporters.  One expert in nonprofit development and youth engagement, another on international development, and a network technician with a passion for social justice and human opportunity.

MobileImpact.Org traveled to South Africa in October to MobileActive08, an international conference of mobile experts for social change.  We went to learn the ropes, test our concept, and see if we might find a partner or two to test our idea about mobilizing used phones for good.  We found CHoiCE community health in Tzaneen who agreed to partner with us and see what value we could provide.  Their needs were simple and direct -- connect 50 partners in the field for sustainable communications channels.  Though it took longer than I would have hoped, I'm proud to say we completed the project and fulfilled the order.  On June 21st, it was confirmed that 50 phones and a grant for $500 had arrived at CHoiCe.  We look forward to learning the effectiveness of the tools in the coming months.

Then, we reflected on our work over the last year -- from idea, to start-up nonprofit, to international partner, to phone-raiser for Earth day, and collaborator with a local cell phone refurbishing company.

We noted the presence of programs like SafeLink Wireless, a US government sponsored wireless connectivity for low-income users in the US; the abundance of Cell Phone Collectors and campaigns out there, and asked, what is the core question motivating our work...

What is our true purpose?

"...Connecting the unconnected..."

That thought lingers in the air for us at MobileImpact.Org.  

While we believe in cell phone recycling as vital and will continue to support nonprofits and NGOs doing extraordinary work to leverage cell phones for social change (both have been core to our strategy thus far), we still find that MobileImpact.org's True North lies elsewhere.  Indeed, we have one simple answer:

MobileImpact.org seeks to connect the unconnected to provide opportunities for a better life through sustained communications access.

Expect more on how we intend to pursue that target, in small and direct ways, in the coming weeks.  And, MobileImpact.org has an exciting announcement to share very soon as well.

Brad

Launching Our Logo

Today, Earth Day 2009, at the conclusion of our first campaign for used cell phones, we are proud to launch our new logo.

The design is meant to tell our story, and inspire you to act, through simple words and images.

The Foot Print represents Development & Opportunity for growth of people and communities. The Earth represents our aspiration to serve communications access and innovative cell phone projects on a Global Scale, and how our efforts support recycling and safe reuse of mobile phones. And the Cell Phone represents a Powerful Tool for both giver and beneficiary to impact lives.

And, we introduce our tag-line:  Give One Phone. Change The World.

We believe its possible if we're able to mobilize collective action and leverage these powerful tools to advance individual and community development on a global scale.

Special thanks to our Logo Designer, Sara Apol.  And to all who donate your used phones, and continue to support our growth, we are very grateful.

Who MobileImpact.Org is Helping

As we charge forward to Earth Day and complete our first major campaign in just 28 days, now is a good time to remind you who we're helping and supporting with this effort.  Click on any of the pictures to learn more.  These come from our friends at Choice Community Health.

So, please, sign up and donate your phones today.

To print the prepaid label and mail your phone today, click here.

Compassion, Care and Commitment

Today, I received a note from our friends at CHoiCe Trust.  They are excited by the current campaigns on Facebook and eager to share information about their great organization.  Take a look and click on the pictures to learn more about our partner.

I was struck by the line right at the top of the first page: "COMPASSION, CARE and COMMITMENT = CHoiCe Caregivers."  It's a good motto, and as simple as it seems, its what we're trying to leverage through Facebook and the used cell phone campaigns -- your compassion and care for others, and a small commitment to act and donate your used phones.

For CHoiCE, we're committed to helping connect the Community Based care network so that this organization can do its great work even more effectively.

Thanks for the effort to join and please, invite your friends.  I hope these stories and the work of CHoiCe helps inspire you further.

Donating Used Phones -- Who, How, What, When, Where & Why

Many people have been asking lately about the process for donating phones for MobileImpact.Org.  I thought now would be a good time to take the age-old approach and answer the basics:

Who?  

You and ... your friends, your co-workers, classmates, family, neighbors, teammates, sorority sisters, fraternity brothers -- anyone with a used cell phone.

How?

There are 4 very simple steps:

1. Print the PREPAID mailing label (It's the photo below and on this web-page -- we can email it to you if you prefer)
2. Place used cell phones (as many as you want) into a box suitable for mailing
3. Paste, Tape or otherwise Affix the PREPAID mailing label on the box
4. Mail the Box 

What?  

We have partnered with The Wireless Source,the second largest cell-phone refurbishing company in the US.  The wireless source receives your phone(s) in the mail, clears the data from them, and, if they are still useful, prepares to resell them.  If your phone has no resale value, as one of only a few ISO environmentally certified agents, it recycles the phone and its precious metals to prevent toxic waste. The company has agreed to a partnership that contributes a majority of the phone's value to MobileImpact.Org.  

Then, with the resources we receive from your used phone, we invest in solutions for NGO and nonprofit partners internationally and in the US.  Today, means low cost communications solutions -- phones, airtime, data centers, etc -- to advance their development projects.  Our aspiration is to eventually design innovative ways to connect the 3 billion people in the world who today have no sustained communications access.  We hope to grow to that stage.

Some details worth noting:

• Phones in any condition are acceptable
• Chargers and sim cards are not required   
• This is environmentally friendly 
• Your data and privacy is protected 

If you have any questions, please, email me directly: Bradford@MobileImpact.Org 

When?

Now, Tomorrow, Earth Day, or Whenever you have a used cell phone.

Where?

Right from your home, office, school -- and you know where the phones are -- in glove boxes, desk drawers, etc.

 
Why? 

MobileImpact.Org is the idea that we can powerfully leverage used cell phones to advance social justice and community development on a global scale.

The truth is, almost all of us have these used assets sitting in our homes and we don't know what to do with them, how they could be useful again, and what difference it makes.  And though it takes a couple steps (PLEASE PRINT THE LABEL AND MAIL THE PHONE ... :)), the truth is its an incredible way for you to contribute to a nonprofit that is advancing communications access and reducing cost barriers on behalf of community projects around the world.

It's the right thing to do.

Again -- email us if you have any questions.

And, thanks for your support.

A Campaign for CHoiCe Community Health

CHoiCe Trust is a connector. 

This small yet powerful group, located in the foothills of Tzaneen -- the "fruit-basket of South Africa" --- reaches across hundreds of miles to train and resource independently employed health workers to support diverse communities all across the Limpopo Province.

When we teamed up with CHoiCe, they explained the difficulty of staying connected to their network of service providers and the 50 Community Based Organizations (CBO) they provide capacity building, training, and oversight for in the field.  Many of these are one person operations, and it can take days and sometimes weeks to follow through on critical messages, which are often urgent.

The principal problem, of course, is costs.  Many fieldworkers survive on an income of 30R per day, or about $4 US.  And, while communications access and cell phones are a priority, its easy to see how, with families to feed and other basic needs to satisfy, paying for more airtime is often a priority that falls off the list.  This seems especially the case when your trying to serve sick people in your village.

So, what we proposed was a simple campaign to mobilize used phones and empower CHoiCe with a centralized capacity to better connect the CBO network they work tirelessly to support.  It's a win-win-win in our view -- CHoiCe will get to be better at fulfilling their mission; MobileImpact.Org will accelerate community development through used cell phones; and You, that's right, You can make a difference by donating your used cell phone to support the project.

CHoiCe has agreed to help all of us understand the impact of their work in South Africa, and will be sharing 12 personal stories during the campaign of people who have been supported by their incredible programs and services.  Today, we learn about Mlangeni and his journey to recovery from Tuberculosis -- and the importance of staying connected to his health providers.

The campaign will run through March 31st.  Look for more stories and updates as we move along, and thanks for your support.

Can We Build a Movement?

1,000,000

That's a big number.

Yesterday we launched our Facebook Page and a campaign for one million phones by Earth Day.  In my last post, I was worried about mobilizing one phone.  Just one.  Today, a million.

So its bold and audacious.  But I hope it generates interest and gets you to act.  

This raises an altogether different question: How do we build a movement? I know, used cell phones, a movement? But I've studied movements and believe we have potential.

• First, we have a clear mission: accelerate social justice and international development
• Second, there is a simple and specific action to get involved: donate your used phone
• Last, it's an easy way to make a meaningful difference and feel apart of something larger

But the most important part, people need to believe we can accomplish great things, together.  I know these are big lofty ideas, but when we really think about it, donating used phones, and building a movement together has strong potential -- potential to improve lives and development efforts around the world.

One. A million. I hope we land at least somewhere in between.

What matters is we get involved and act when and where we can.

A New Chapter

MobileImpact is the idea that we can powerfully leverage used cell phones to advance social justice and community development.

Its an idea that has thus far been untested.  That's about to change.

I shouldn't say its untested entirely, just not by us.  In fact, there are lots of groups that seek to acquire used cell phones, some for financial returns, some for environmental reasons, even even some for social impact.  Given the glut of used phones in the US alone -- over 130 million annually -- one would think it should be easy to mobilize people to give phones which sit idle in our homes, cars, desk drawers and glove boxes.

But to be honest, It's hard work.  Take us for example.  We have a box now with over 4 used phones just waiting to be shipped to the refurbishing company so we can recycle and add resources to support our mission.  Every person I've talked to has a similar issue.  Apparently, we're not doing enough to provide both an easy method and a compelling reason for people to give their used phones.

What would be a compelling reason for you to give your used phone?  Is the pre-paid label a useful enough tool to donate?  I would love to hear feedback.

Back Online

After an extended break, we are back online and excited about the next steps.  We are now trying to follow up with the NGOs from South Africa, developing small projects to address their communications bariers.  The two groups we are working with specifically right now are TSOGANG, a water and sanitation group, and Choice, a community health group.  Both are based in Tzaneen, in the Limpopo province of South Africa.  

Also, we're working on a small scale method for NGOs to supply their communication needs and create a demand driven process, one that delivers tailored solutions for different organizations, and potentially leverages the ability for us to mobilize used cell-phones for social change.  I'm curious what simple questions would allow us to start these efforts for NGOs.  I'm thinking it will be 4-6 questions, no longer than one page.

Look for more updates every few days or so, but its good to be back online and back to work.

Big First Month

We’ve come a long way over the last 30 days.  MobileImpact.Org was born on October 1st at its first board meeting.  From there, we’ve traveled half-way round the globe to attend MobileActive08, interact with leaders across the field of mobile technology for social change, and since then, traveled much of South Africa to interact with practitioners, NGO leaders, and individuals from a range of economic and social circumstances.

Critically, we traveled to Limpopo province and the town of Tzaneen to meet with John Kings, local leader of the NGO Tsogang (means “wake up”), and the communications barriers his water and sanitation group and many NGOs and CBOs face across Limpopo in the areas of rural farming, health, construction, and social service delivery.

We’re now planning small pilots and support work for John and his network.  Today that means providing strategic insight and an opportunities analysis for his water sanitation group.  It will involve identifying methods to leverage used cell phones where appropriate, increase data reporting mechanisms with rural laborers, and overall, making the project more efficient and effective at addressing its communications challenges. Tomorrow, it may mean supporting the range of NGO’s and CBO’s across Tzaneen.  As we’re successful, we’ll find ways to expand our work to many others.

We look forward to developing the partnership and are grateful to John and the people of Tzaneen for entrusting part of its development strategies with MobileImpact.Org.  As a start-up, it can be difficult to find that first project which has the potential to be a win-win for all the parties involved.  So, we intend to move patiently, but purposefully and deliberately.

For us, from our research, attending the MobileActive08 conference, and interactions with professionals across NGOs, Cellular-Network providers, and individuals that suffer from communications barriers, a couple things are abundantly clear.  1) Affordable access and strategic use of cellular communications is a powerful tool in economic and social development; 2) the NGO sector in general can benefit greatly from a strategic framework to leverage communications technologies in its program models and operational systems; and 3) we can build a movement across the developed and developing nations to contribute used handsets to combat poverty, support economic and social development, and provide affordable and strategic access to communications technologies on a global scale.

So many opportunities exist in the space -- the volume is both exciting and overwhelming at the same time.  To succeed, we must adhere to a few basic principles as we grow and develop:

• Always be demand driven -- do not push your service, but find paths for others to access your capabilities and assets
• Design solutions that leverage everyone’s self interest and could potentially serve a million people or more
• Acknowledge your limitations -- don’t over-promise -- and people will accept and respect your current capabilities
• Listen
• Always focus on your strengths, find ways to maximize the strengths of others around you -- your results will be better and more impactful
• Take strategic risks

Those are some of the keys to our initial work.  As we get more precise on the full extent of our scope, I hope to return to those lessons and make sure we constantly seek to adhere and grow from them.

Its truly been an inspiring journey thus far.  As a start-up, we’re new to this work, and I know full well many challenges and hurdles are on the horizon.  But, as far as most nonprofit organizations go, we’ve had just as positive and productive first 30 days as one could aspire.

From a “big idea” 6 months ago to these first concrete steps supporting economic development in South Africa, the lesson is simple: we must listen and be patient with our dreams, but we must also be bold, and go after them.