Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 27, 2011

The remainder of our funding comes from grants and donations. Benetech gets the majority of its funding from revenues: from product and services sales paid for by our users (or third-party payers who buy our services for our users). But, that remainder is incredibly important.

Open 140

Open Articulate Instruction Instructional 140

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 7, 2012

Because that's the sort of thing that social entrepreneurs want to get unrestricted money to do, getting money with these minimal restrictions is just about as good as receiving an unrestricted donation. The senior social entrepreneurs in the audience were listening in rapt attention. How does it interact with your existing, core programs?

Fund 154

Fund Social Liberia Money 154

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 18, 2008

In exchange for a fee to cover their costs, donations are fully tax deductible. I've heard it costs roughly 9% of donations, but that's not authoritative. This is a qualified nonprofit (i.e., has charitable status) that will steward the new program and take care of being a nonprofit and filing the annual returns.

Resource 123

Resource San Francisco New York Sponsor 123

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Through this scholarship, Bookshare will donate one new membership every Valentine’s Day to a person with financial need. This week, in remembrance of her birthday, we are pleased to announce the creation of the Mayrie ReNae Annual Valentine's Day Scholarship.

Teen 129

Teen Cancer Volunteer Accessibility 129

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 13, 2011

He has served as a board member and officer on several nonprofit boards and has donated his time for the Volunteer Legal Services Program of the Bar Association of San Francisco. Rob is committed to the success of social enterprises.

San Francisco 140

San Francisco Law Lecture Advice 140

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 28, 2008

If one book is sold in cities, another book will be donated to rural children. Their latest venture: Twin books are a pair of selected books for children. The owners of these two books will become a "twin".

China 100

China Social Children Student 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 31, 2007

The top group won a prize of $25,000, and that was Maplight, a group that connects political donations to legislative votes. Netsquared had picked 21 projects to run through two days of pitches concluding with voting from the attendees. Freecycle and Miro were the runners up. I love Freecycle! I think they could use more funding, too.

Netsquared 100

Netsquared Flickr Picture Fun 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

How to legally minimize the import duties on tablets and smartphones that are donated to us in the U.S., The recent Indian copyright amendment that creates an exception similar to Section 121 in the United States, which makes it possible for us to set up a Bookshare-style crowd-sourced library in India with local partner NGOs.

United States 134

United States Library Copyright License 134

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 22, 2009

It’s an impressive web-based application for helping multi-national corporations engage their employees and customers in social sector activities such as volunteering or donating. I recently had a great meeting with Terry Farris and Alan Keliipuleole of the newly launched ammado web platform.

Platform 100

Platform Singapore Asia Social 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 30, 2009

Guest blog by Pavi Mehta, Volunteer Coordinator Open source champion Mozilla.org kicked off seven days of service earlier this month: September 14-21st thousands of people donated over 6000 hours of their time to good causes in their communities as part of Mozilla Service Week.

Volunteer 100

Volunteer Tutorial Open Source Info 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 8, 2007

Of course, real checks sent to our real address marked as donations are welcome. Real nonprofits don't operate this way. This is another variation on the scams that have been around for many years. But, call us first, so we know that's what you really want to do!!

Grant 100

Grant California Contact Course 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 8, 2004

We've never had the ability to donate to Benetech or its programs as a link on our website. If you make a donation, let me know how it went. Bookshare.org - Donate Now page. Benetech likes to respond to customer demand, and this sometimes is surprising. Customer feedback is critical!

Method 100

Method Donation Benefit Job 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 16, 2014

To help now, please use the Donate Form on Benetech''s website and give whatever you can. As we look forward to 2015, we recognize that much work remains to be done, and we definitely need your continued support. Are you excited about technology benefiting the world? It’s not too late to pledge your support for our work.

Open Source 183

Open Source Africa Zimbabwe Malawi 183

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 4, 2007

Since retiring, she has donated time and energy and books to Bookshare so that all of us who cannot read print enjoy a wide variety of selections that are available nowhere else in accessible media. "To What makes Carrie unique is her dedication.

Award 100

Award San Diego New York New York City 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 2, 2012

The first publisher to donate books to Bookshare, years ahead of their peers, was O’Reilly Media. Each month, we add more than 2,000 new books to the Bookshare collection and more than three quarters of those books come from socially responsible publishers who want to make their work available to all readers.

Celebrate 145

Celebrate Google Literacy Library 145

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 10, 2005

One of our Bookshare.org users, Jay Leventhal, contacted me about making a donation at the end of the year. Jay made the donation the last Friday of 2004 and we are already at work figuring out how to implement the feature over the next couple of months, which will benefit not only Jay but thousands of Bookshare.org users.

Amazon 100

Amazon Search Philanthropy Fund 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 4, 2014

The follow-on funding we have to raise comes from philanthropic donations or grants. Rather, Benetech operates the technology-for-good enterprises originated in the Labs and takes them to scale to create the positive impact on society that our mission requires. We find and build the teams around the enterprises.

Technology 163

Technology Profit Application Method 163

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 7, 2010

While publishers do donate thousands of digital texts to Bookshare, the NYT bestsellers are added to the collection through a "people process." While I was there, I discovered how the NYT bestsellers make it into the collection. I used to think that publishers just sent electronic copies to Bookshare.

Community 129

Community Files Student Language 129

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 22, 2006

Switzerland has donated more $2 million to clean the archive and support the staff. If you can help donate to Martus development or the archive project, please get in touch with us. Protecting sensitive historical data - and those who provide it - is an essential step in pursuing social justice in Guatemala and around the world.

Guatemala 124

Guatemala National Switzerland Camera 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 5, 2004

Books donated to Bookshare.org should be tax deductible, since Bookshare.org is operated by Benetech, a qualified tax exempt organization. Check out the Bookshare.org Amazon.com Wish List. This contains a list of books we'd like to add to our digital library for people with print disabilities, Bookshare.org.

Library 100

Library Gift Digital Donation 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 23, 2014

donations), but we focus exclusively on return to humanity. I have disruptive approaches to social innovation in mind, with an increasingly connected society where the cost of prototyping and deploying new products is extremely low, and where innovation is no longer the sole purview of well-funded for-profit corporations.

Literacy 158

Literacy eBook United Kingdom Accessibility 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 20, 2010

CSR offices should go beyond donations and include actively finding the socially beneficial uses of corporate assets. We believe this can be accomplished by: 1. Corporate leaders encouraging the pro bono or low bono use of their IP to social needs that are outside the corporation's markets. *

Proposal 100

Proposal Government University Switzerland 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 9, 2018

Our goal in working with the Internet Archive on the Open Library would be to experiment with a Wikipedia-style “please donate if you can” model to offer a global solution for free to everybody. We share the goal of bringing more books to American adults, but the vast Open Library vision inspired us to go even further.

Accessibility 135

Accessibility eBook People Copyright 135

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 30, 2009

From: Pavi Mehta Sent: Monday, December 21, 2009 11:36 AM To: Bookshare Team Subject: Thank You Notes from the Volunteers Hi All, Just wanted to send out these snippets of appreciation from volunteers (in response to what Carol Lake’s donation made possible).

Gift 100

Gift Accessibility Giving Volunteer 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 31, 2004

In our case, it is donations and reinvested income that we typically use. But, the bulk of what we need funding for is product development and marketing. And, that's less attractive to lenders! So, like your average high tech company, we need equity to get started.

Brazil 100

Brazil Tech International Method 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 20, 2004

One of the guys from Merck was surprised to see a generic form of one of their drugs, since Merck had donated a ton of this drug to Mozambique's government. A dispensary full of generic versions of drugs (which aren't generic in the U.S., of course), and the ability to treat two thousand people with the anti-HIV drug therapies.

Mozambique 100

Mozambique South Africa Africa NGO 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 21, 2006

And now publishers and authors are starting to pitch in by sending us content directly, such as the nearly 600 titles donated to us directly by O'Reilly Media, Inc., The great majority of books on Bookshare.org are there because somebody took the personal initiative to make that book accessible and share it. www.bookshare.org/oreillybooks.

Library 100

Library Phoenix Accessibility Files 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 5, 2017

When we were running low on the donated chips, I circled back to Intel and asked for their newest chips, the Pentiums. I have a feeling that these were some of the earliest big donations from Intel to social good, and Paul was the guy who made it happen.

United States 131

United States Course California Product 131

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 28, 2011

No more donations to our charity. If any single publisher or author of any one of the more than 130,000 accessible books in our library gets antsy, they can send a notice to VISA and MasterCard and say, stop money from going to Benetech and Bookshare. No more subscriptions from individual adults with disabilities. No need to send us a letter.

eBook 277

eBook China Copyright Library 277

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 21, 2011

Like many angels, Robert didn’t have the most money to donate to us, but he was sure he could find a way to utilize leverage to help us. But, Robert wasn’t just about giving me advice. He was a big believer in finding the precise intervention that would have the maximum impact.

Mentoring 174

Mentoring Indiana Press Profit 174

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 15, 2004

Brazil doesn't have a tradition of personal philanthropy, and there are no tax advantages to making donations. They've built a strong PR campaign using soap opera actors, as well as a product line made by their clients. Their major problem is (surprise) fund raising. And, the earned income piece of their stream is relatively small.

Brazil 100

Brazil NGO Children Problem 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 7, 2013

The balance comes from unrestricted donations to Benetech as a cool overall nonprofit organization!] Please consider donating today or reach out if you’re interested in partnering with us in other ways to help advance the global cause of human rights.

Burma 176

Burma Thailand China Bangladesh 176

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 25, 2010

This latter category included such great projects as Tech Soup Global, which distributes donated Microsoft products at a deep, deep discount (a service we’ve used at Benetech for years) as well as support for the efforts of NetHope in disaster relief.

Cisco 118

Cisco Images Files Children 118

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 9, 2008

No foundation or social enterprise should receive tax exemption unless its board is fully representative of the communities it claims to serve.

North America 100

North America Europe Asia Africa 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 2, 2005

A cat notices (lots of cats in Tunis), and hangs out for a donation. I stand outside in the small square outside the mosque, eating my pita, and fending off guys who wanted to tell me about the terrace (on top of the rug shop I'd already visited). The Tunisian guys seem to like the fact that I'm eating my pita, and say hi.

Tunisia 100

Tunisia Picture Delicious Course 100