All posts by Evan Leong

The AFP Conference was our second attempt to engage a larger group and see how we can help. After going to the HANO Annual Conference with just Kari Leong and Ikaika Honda, we found that by not being inside the conference as a formal session, it was super draining on our energy to talk to everyone on a one on one basis. Although we got some good results from the HANO conference we knew that our energy was finite and limited. That’s when we decided to bring a group of 20+ people to the AFP Conference. Read more

Here’s another great Asia produced short video on the power of paying it forward. Yes, I teared up a bit watching it.

This report has great personal stories from leaders of corporate America and how they use their companies to make a difference in the community. If you are debating on what to implement and how it may impact your organization then hopefully this will give you some good ideas.

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From Wikipedia:
“Pronoia can be defined as the opposite of paranoia. A person suffering from paranoia suspects that persons or entities (e.g. governments/deities) conspire against them. A person enjoying pronoia feels that the world around them conspires to do them good.”

At Kokua.org, we are trying to spread pronoia. We believe this can be done by creating a giving community where everyone has each other’s back. They come together to help each other and when they leave they still try to help others in the group. See our success stories page and see some examples of how it works.

Let’s all focus on helping each other and spread pronoia!

The Taproot Foundation created a great report from intermediaries in January 2014 to get a better understanding of how pro bono skills based volunteering/consulting is doing, what’s holding it back and how it can improve.

One thing that stood out to me is the following statement:

“WHAT’S STOPPING THEM? CONNECTING TO MORE, AND BETTER-PREPARED, NONPROFITS.
Nonprofit readiness–the ability of a nonprofit partner to fully and effectively engage pro bono resources—-remains a concern for intermediaries who provide those resources: the most common reason for turning away a nonprofit applicant was that the intermediary did not think the nonprofit was prepared for pro bono in general or for the particular service they applied for.”

Looks like there’s still a lot of work to do to get organizations ready. Who’s up for the challenge?
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One way to develop leadership in our companies and help our community is to allow employees to offer pro bono services and expertise to help community organizations. The Taproot Foundation put out this great guide with interview from Fortune 500 leaders and how they implement this.

This was sent to me by my friend Yuko Chiba who works at Enterprise Honolulu. It’s a great example of being a giver and what it can do for others. It’s also a great feel good ad but we’ll look past that. I tend to disagree that the only reward the guy gets is to feel good and happy emotions. What comes around go around. This can create a pronoia effect for him where people have him best interest in mind too. I don’t think he can send out that much good energy and not have some of it come back.

Check out the first interview that I did with Attila for his Think Tech show. This was just after we did a test run at the HANO Annual Conference and were planning to try again at the AFP conference. After the AFP conference we decided to do some internal testing on ourselves before going back to another conference and we found out that our small group model was way better than our conference model.

This article was originally published at: http://www.honolulumagazine.com/Honolulu-Magazine/December-2011/30-Volunteer-Ideas-in-Hawaii/

By: Amy Hanson, Tiffany Hill, Christine Hitt and Christian Vetter

‘Tis the season to give. Why not give your time and volunteer at one of Hawaii’s many nonprofits? For each cause in the state, there’s a local nonprofit striving to make a difference in the community. You’re bound to find something that suits your interest and fits your schedule, whether it’s helping low-income children, cleaning up a beach or assisting in an opera theater’s upcoming production.
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This article was originally published at: http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/02/interview-silicon-valleys-networker-teaches-secrets-making-connections/

By: Eric Barker

It might be surprising that I know Adam Rifkin. What’s not surprising is that Adam Rifkin knows me — because Adam knows everybody.

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