Giving in More Ways Than One

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We need a better world. And to have that better world, we will need better models. Ned may be the brand behind better worlding to come.

Mark Grimes, founder and serial enterpreneur committed to doing good, describes Ned:

Ned (a philanthropic franchise) is a small retail location in Portland, Oregon that is part better world membership group, part community center, part retail, part office space, part Starbucks, part 10,000 Villages, part Grameen bank, part Ashoka, and very interactive…all aimed at creating a better world experience. It exists in both the real world physical location…and online. The brand of doing good things. This effort has been bootstrapped, meaning being done with a budget of near zero and tons of sweat equity.

Ned will have weekly and monthly meetings on better world topics ranging from Millennium Development Goals, poverty, trafficking, HIV/AIDS, education, art and much more. There will be group documentary screenings, speakers, and various ways to people to connect with their community (and globally). Space will be given for free to local nonprofits for members meetings, board meetings, and fundraising events.

Product sales information “goes beyond” traditional fair trade in that it will be (and buy from organizations that are) 100% transparent (open) about finance, governance and operations. Ned truly desires that each and every transaction (financial and social) make the world a little better place in some small way. A percentage of gross and net sales will be distributed to grassroots local, regional, national and global nonprofit, nongovernmental and community based organizations. The Ned Giving Project members (invitation only based on personal friendship, reputation, and trust) who pay a $31 monthly membership fee (90% going to the orgs) decide the monthly categories of giving, and the groups that receive the funds.

Mark is certainly meeting my criteria for doing good in the world. I look forward to seeing Ned grow and replicate.

I am not the only one noticing. There is already a review on Tribe.