Technology delivers hope to refugees around the world

According to the United Nations, every minute, 24 people leave everything behind to escape war, persecution or terror. Worldwide, there are 65 million people who have been forcibly displaced from their homes. It's overwhelming to think about how much violence in the world there is to have that many refugees. To that end, the U.N. has recognized June 20 as World Refugee Day as a day to send a message to governments across the globe that they "must work together and do their fair share for refugees." Read More

At this year’s Media Impact Forum, we asked two important questions: “What do we want from media innovation in the public interest?” and “How do we get it?” To explore answers, we brought together leading thinkers, funders and media innovators to share their ideas and projects for an inspired digital future. The key theme for the morning was inclusion—from providing tech opportunities for all to ensuring access to knowledge for all. Wendy Hanamura of the Internet Archive served as the emcee, and David Rousseau of the Kaiser Family Foundation as the day’s host, welcoming attendees to the foundation’s Menlo Park headquarters. Watch videos from the day here. What do we want? We started with Van Jones who masterfully grounded our conversation in contrasting stories of hatred and exclusion versus those of love and inclusion. In the agricultural age, he noted, African Americans were property. In the industrial age African Americans were also at the bottom of the economic ladder and the last to be included in industrial revolution. Now with digital age, how will we create one that includes everyone? The good news? It’s only after we have a breakdown that we… Read More

Media Impact Funders convened a funder discussion at the Washington offices of Microsoft Corporation on the eve of the annual Nonprofit Technology Conference organized by the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) earlier this month. Our Executive Director Vince Stehle moderated a vibrant discussion with Jane Meseck, Director of Global Citizenship for Microsoft, Kathy Calvin, President and CEO of the UN Foundation and Amy Sample Ward, Executive Director of NTEN. Also present for the discussion, many nonprofit technology luminaries and early movers, including Rebecca Masisak, CEO of TechSoup Global, Bill Strathmann, CEO of Network for Good, Social Media expert Beth Kanter and early NTEN advisor Richard Zorza. The occasion marked 15 years from the initial grants that were made to help establish NTEN and it brought together three of the original funders who collaborated to create the organization. At the time, Stehle ran the Nonprofit Sector Support Program of the Surdna Foundation, Calvin was head of the AOL Foundation and Meseck was at Microsoft. In many ways, NTEN has grown farther and faster than any of its founders ever dreamed. Over the years, NTEN has grown to serve a community far beyond the numbers initially envisioned by founders, with more than 10,000… Read More