Toward the end of September, Stephen and I attended the ArtezInteractive conference hosted by online fundraising and marketing company Artez. The conference explored ways of effectively fundraising using the Internet. The conference had some fantastic speakers who spoke on topics all very relevant to our growth as an online fundraising organization. Two very notable speakers were Ted Hart and Dan Pallotta. Ted Hart is the co author of a book called People to People fundraising that we used extensively for our first grant applications and to provide critical research for the Esther's Echo model. His site can be found at www.tedhart.com. Dan Pallotta is the author of a book called "Uncharitable" that reviews the challenges faced by non-profits from a variety of sectors that results in stunted work and confused performance indicators. One of the very interesting points he raised is the question of "overhead costs." Overhead is used to describe costs of NGO operation that is not directly linked to the work of the NGO itself but rather to expenses such as administration. Typically, donors are trained to look for NGOs that spend less than 20% on overhead. These are considered "good" or "responsible" organizations. Dan warns that this measuring stick fails to take into account the real world impact of a particular organization. For example, organization A may spend only 10% on administration while Organization B may spend 20%. We are trained, as donors, to donate to organization A. But if we actually visited organization B and found that staff treated much more equitably, that the overseas operation was far more sound and reporting was far more accurate, we would most likely switch our donations to B. He also argued that some real world problems are not being addressed because of the focus on overhead costs as these problems are simply more costly to deal with, require more logistical infrastructure and unique skills. More on uncharitable can be found at Dan's web site www.uncharitable.net. There is also a post Stephen made on the Esther's Echo Facebook Page

Hey Crew,

It's been a while since I made  a post. I wanted to talk about September in the next few blog entries since it was a great month both personally and for Esther's Echo .

Mid September Steve and I found ourselves at the U2 360 concert in Toronto. I have been an enormous U2 fan for years. The band's ability to speak truth through music is inspiring. I have never been able to actually make a concert before however. The last time U2 was in the Toronto area was 2004 and I will still in Sierra Leone. There has been speculation that this will be U2's final tour/album. I was, therefore, compelled to make it to this show. Dazzled by the uniquely designed 360 degree stage, the open roof of the Skydome and U2 classic and newer tracks, we made our way down as close to the stage as possible. Part of the performance was dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi, the democratically elected leader of Burma who has suffered under house arrest for nearly 15 years. When U2's "Walk On" was played, the band asked the audience to remember the political prisoner and hold masks of her up in support. The concert also featured an enormous video of Archbishop Desmond Tutu calling for peace and a speech from crew aboard the International Space Station. Bono certainly knows rock. He also certainly knows how to network. The concert was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. I do indeed hope that others were as inspired as me to take up or continue causes to support meaningful social change. As Bono once said..."when you listen to rock music. It should make you want to change the world"

We had a whole whack of photos on a friend's camera that the memory card is currently missing for. When I locate it, I will throw on some others. I did dig this one up below from Facebook.

Matthew being interviewed by Much Music at U2 360 With  Aung San Suu Kyi Mask in Hand