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Making a difference through social networking
07/28/08
Nancy Lyons
Let's all be thankful for modern technology. In today's world social networking has revolutionized the way we communicate and share information with one another. Most people are familiar with broad range sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Trio is even joining the trend by recently launching its own social networking site specifically for nonprofit organizations called, The Nonprofit Nook.
Knowing that the heart of Trio is helping nonprofit and health care organizations we research and locate other
organizations that have similar visions. When I was researching topics for this issue of Connect Three, I came across
Idealist.org. I had never heard about this particular Web site but was interested in learning about it.
In my research, I learned that Idealist.org is an interactive site for people and organizations to exchange resources
and ideas, locate opportunities and supporters, and take steps toward building a world where the mission of
Idealist.org can be met.
Their mission is to have a world where all people can
lead free and dignified lives.
The site is really cool. From a humble beginning in 1995, Idealist.org has always maintained a vision to provide
a meeting point for individuals and organizations that seek to improve their communities, whether through
promoting volunteerism and nonprofit careers or by facilitating connections between people that can lead
to personal and collective action.
In the beginning, they were named the Contact Center Network and their focus was on setting up
meeting places for people to get together but with the take-off of the World Wide Web they quickly
refocused. The same year they began, they realized that they could reach a much larger audience
by making an interactive Web site instead of focusing their efforts on setting up physical
locations where individuals and organizations could meet.
Today the site posts more than 13,000 nonprofit job listings, 1,000 internships and 13,000
volunteer opportunities. The site also has more than 226,000 organizations and people registered as
users. Reaching so many individuals and having such an interactive site where people can connect
to try and make the world we live in a better place Idealist.org is truly making a difference for the better.
Kudos to Idealist.org and its supporters. If you are a nonprofit, be sure you are listed.
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