Our first SOFII Star of the month is… John Lepp, Agents of Good

The SOFII team were unanimous – the first SOFII star of the month had to be awarded to John Lepp. Over the past year, John has shown such dedication, patience and expertise in building the new SOFII site. All of us from SOFII are very grateful to all of his hard work and we are really pleased with our new website!

John has long been an admirer of SOFII. He loved the idea that there was an online, ever-evolving museum of fundraising which he could access, at anytime. However, John freely admits that he found SOFII difficult to use because of the overload of links and images. Instead of merely complaining about the problem, John decided to do something about it. Realising he and his business partner Mark Haak had the skills to completely redesign SOFII and improve its functionality; he got in touch with SOFII’s founder Ken Burnett and offered his services.

Ever since, John and the team at Agents of Good have undertaken a massive project (bigger than any of us realised) involving sweat, blood and tears and undoubtedly a good few curses along the way. Despite this, John has approached the project with superhero-like patience, commitment and determination. His light hearted approach and acceptance of our technical limitations made him a joy to work with.
So, thank you John for believing in SOFII and for playing such an important role in shaping the future of fundraising. We really needed your talents and are very lucky that you decided to share them with us.
And special thanks to….

Dean Reeds for all of his hard work and patience with the new website – we couldn’t have done it without you.

Truth be known, there are many others who deserve to be acknowledged who have done more than their fair share of work to get to this point.

Dean Reeds, programmer and great guy, has had the patience of 1000 saints as we have changed our minds over and over on every little detail you can think of. And totally hasn’t freaked out. Not publically anyhow.

Kimberley Mackenzie, SOFII’s unofficial cheerleader, supporter, fundraiser… every time I needed a brain to pick, she was there. Every time I needed some insight or support, she was there. Every time I wondered if we would ever get through this, she reminded me we would.

Mark Haak, partner and designer. Helped greatly to create the look and feel as it is/and will be when we launch next week. He had no idea what I was talking him into well over a year ago. And he never complained when he found out.

Carolina Herrera, SOFII octopus. She has had her hands on everything, since the beginning. She has helped, supported and keep us all moving along regardless of what else was going on around her.

Ken Burnett. Ah, Ken Burnett. Ken and I need to share a pint or two, (you buy mine Ken and I’ll buy yours). Without Ken’s vision of a online showcase of fundraising that people from all over the world can learn and steal from, we wouldn’t be here. His leadership, patience, guidance, persistence and humour has made this journey worth it. I thank you Ken.

And finally, you. Thank you “YOU”. You are what we do this for. YOU are not only the star of the month, but the stars of SOFII. It exists for YOU because regardless of what we have done, you are the ones who have created it with your thoughts, successes, failures and knowledge. We are creating a legacy that (hopefully) generations of fundraisers will find insightful, useful, inspiring and world changing for many, many years to come.

We are soft launching this week for a last sneak peak for a few folks with a full on launch the week following (baring some major mishap) and we look forward to your thoughts.

Extra thanks and love to whoever photoshopped the poster.

A QUICK UPDATE: The New Sofii is now live… Head on over and let us know what you think.

I’m just back from filming our first international video documentary on a non profit in Jamaica and every time I return from working on a new project – whether its helping a client with their project or getting involved first hand – I am reminded exactly why I became an Agent of Good.

I’ve seen my share of extreme poverty first-hand in places like Ethiopia, Uganda, El Salvador, Panama and Costa Rica and rolled up my sleeves to get involved in building wells and clean water projects, building homes and schools, or spending time with AIDS patients, disabled and elderly from all walks of life.

And every project I have seen or worked on I have learned that it always comes down to the people. Anyone who is impacted by any aid project has an incredible story to tell. Real stories of despair and hardships and, sometimes, of hope and inspiration.

I want to share an all to common scenario…

A young Jamaican woman struggles to survive with a degenerative disease and no way to make money to care for herself. She is uneducated and has almost no options so she falls into prostitution. She doesn’t consider contraception or know her options (or can’t afford them). She now has kids to feed and when they are barely old enough she sends them to the streets to beg for money. As the child gets older he isn’t as cute and not as successful at begging. She continues to bear children, each begging for money or finding other ways to get by. Years pass and she now has 8 kids and some are showing signs of the same degenerative disease she was born with.

Even though schooling is free they can’t work if they attend class. They can’t afford the uniforms or school supplies. Her kids are essentially wild. No education. No structure. No rules. They have never worn shoes or eaten with utensils (the family doesn’t have a table anyways). She expects her kids will find ways to support her and they become her retirement plan.

Her kids have no positive role models. They see the drug dealers cruising the streets in their cool cars with hot girlfriends and fall into the lifestyle.

Its a viscous cycle.

But this is where I see hope. Incredible individuals and groups are building homes and wells for clean water, providing education and making a real difference in their lives. They have dedicated themselves to helping others and they are the real inspiration.

Stay tuned. In the coming weeks we will be building our short youtube documentary on one small non profit to help them tell their story and showcase the great work they are doing to make life better for those in Jamaica.

And we’ve decided to honour you and that philosophy this year by sending you a gift of “nothing”.

Well, not nothing, but something. Actually, something very special.

We think that nothing says Christmas joy more than giving a new toy to a child, especially a child that has so little.

So this year, in lieu of client gifts we decided to provide toys for children at a home for disabled children in Uganda.

These photos tell it all.

Our local contact, Joseph, writes “I am happy to inform you that we successfully delivered the toys to the children who have disability at Cheshire Children’s home. It is a home where these children are treated for a short term maybe 2 months or there about. It was quite exciting to this community. We are grateful for this generous donation from Agents of Good.”

We are fortunate to have some great connections in Africa thanks to a month long volunteer project by Agent Mark in 2007. He was in Ethiopia and Uganda with Rotary and saw first hand the immediate needs of so many while at AIDS hospitals, clean water and school building projects. Thanks to his project and his continued involvement over the past 2 years there are hundreds of school children that now have access to clean, healthy water.

It is important that we take this opportunity to thank you for your support, respect, the awesome projects and growing relationships we’ve developed together and most importantly, for being one of us.

You are truly an Agent of Good and we wish you and your family the very best wishes for the holidays,

Mark, Jen and John

OK, maybe that’s taking it a bit far for some organizations, but there is truth in that statement.

Technology has changed and its time you took notice. Why should a non profit care about technology? Because it will give you the power to easily communicate to your donors and build a community around your cause – every charity knows the benefits of that.

Gone are the days of asking your IT guy to make updates to your site content. Gone are the delays, extra charges and excuses. Most organizations don’t make updates to their site because it costs too much or takes too long. What if you (yes, you) could do it all yourself?

By using an “open source” content management system (CMS) you can update you own content. What does that mean? In plain English – there is web software readily available that allows you to easily edit content, add pages, photos and more to your site. You can review and approve content before publishing it live. You can have different staff logins for different sections of your site (ie. one person updates news, another updates events, your chapter has their own section to update etc). All this with no software to purchase or download on your PC. No licenses to worry about. No big development fees. No complicated training or learning curve. None.

I can hear you now, “Really?”

Yes! If you can fill out a basic form on a web page – you can add content to your site. If you can format some simple copy in Microsoft Word – you can format copy for your website. This includes uploading photos, adding downloadable PDF files and, wait for it, even video. You have control. Anytime, anywhere (well, anywhere you have an internet connection and a computer). You can even add new pages to your site, allow your staff to add events to an event calendar, upload photo galleries from you latest event, approve content before publishing it live and let viewers subscribe to newsletters you email to them (which is also easy to make your own branded e-Newsletters, more on that some other time).

But wait, what about the cost? The investment in the infrastructure. The training. The hosting. The support fees. You’ll be surprised how affordable the technology is today. We’re not talking tens of thousands. We’re not even talking ten thousand. And these open source systems run on common web servers or many of our clients are hosted for as little as $15/mo including more space and bandwidth than you will probably need. Training is usually a short session to get the basics and you’re updating your site in no time.

All of your content, your “data” is stored in a database so its fully searchable, editable and reusable. Google will love you. And this way future updates to your site design don’t require recreating content. We simply redesign your site templates and you’ll have a completely new site look with the same content management abilities and great content.

And don’t get me started on the things we can tell you about your users on your site. How they are finding you? What content they are viewing? Where they are coming from? We can tell you.

That’s just the beginning. The opportunities are endless. We can add blogs, tie in with online donation systems or build event and campaign microsites with the same easy to update features.

It’s real. It works. And it’s incredible.

So, what are you waiting for?