SO,
WHO HAS FORWARD 100 WORKED WITH?
I
could not ask for a better client list so far. In some cases,
I was contacted by the company directly, in other cases, I
was brought in to support projects for Trend Influence, Modo
Group and others for the companies below. In all cases, the
experiences were interesting and absorbing. Here's a starter
list of clients and brands:
CIBA Vision
Ford
Grupo Modelo (the people that make Corona beer)
Harley-Davidson
Kimberly-Clarke
ITE (International Truck & Engine)
Microsoft
LG
Levi's
Taco Bell
Toyota
Tupperware
Unilever
Vitamin Water
And
let's not forget the prior clients (in Jeff's Pre-Forward
100 life) of
P&G
The Coca-Cola Company (USA and Global)
The Minute Maid Company (Owned by The Coca-Cola Company)
In
addition to the above, there are also many interesting non-profit
clients. Many of the locally based clients may not ring a
bell, but here are some highlights:
PSI (Public Health)
No Limits Media (Changing Perceptions and Education relating
to Disabilities and Achievement)
Common Ground Consulting (Social Responsibility and Human
Potential)
African Women Health Education & Empowerment (Refugee
Assistance)
Forward100 Network Summit (using life course sociology tools
and frameworks, and social networking to assist job seekers)Forward100 Food Bank Project (organizing volunteers to assist
the Atlanta Community Food Back in their Product Rescue Center)
OK,
those were the non-profit headlines
here is more context
for those interested:
PSI
(Population Services International, www.psi.org) - Washington,
DC based group that does a lot of amazing life saving and
life improving work in the poorest parts of the world. Their
areas of impact include addressing treatments and prevention
relating to:
HIV
Malaria
Water treatment
Child Survival
Reproductive Health
Tuberculosis
Family Planning
and
MANY other important areas of intervention. PSI is really
interesting for a lot of reasons
they use a lot of private
sector methods (e.g., branding, distribution, advertising)
to impact public health. Elsewhere on this site I referred
to learnings I have earned through some stumbles
while
there were many great aspects of working with PSI, I also
stumbled in several ways
while frustrating and a little
embarrassing (rookie mistakes) initially, this turned out
to be a great gift because it taught me no fewer than 8 important
lessons about working with non-profit organizations
all
future projects have benefited as a result. This project also
taught me that there is an amazing opportunity to help groups
like PSI develop more effective donor resonance stories
not
what this project was meant to be about, but a great residual
for future thinking and consideration.
For
anyone interested in specific points of contact / expertise
in public health, I highly recommend you check out:
Dr. Craig Lefebvre (leading thinker on a ton of public health
topics and innovation)
Sally Cowal (was really impressed with her passion for so many public
health projects that are often overlooked
plus, she introduced
me to the great work that her field of expertise is doing
with P&G's PUR brand in terms of water filtration in the
3rd world. Plus, she is really cool).
Another
group that I had the privilege of interacting with is No Limits Media. I learned from a good
guy there named Dan Jones that this group is special for many
different reasons. First, gotta love the idea that many of
the PBS pioneers (the good people who brought us Sesame Street,
Oscar the Grouch (my personal favorite), and many other great
memories and educational interactions) still want to help
people through media later in the careers.
Many
of these PBS pioneers are involved with all kinds of great
projects with No Limits Media, including the awesome www.BeyondLimits.tv
program and The Gift: A Photographic Exhibition Exploring
Life Beyond Limits. Their goals of positively changing how
people think about those who live with disabilities is truly
impressive. Please consider checking out their links above
or here for more information.
As
unfortunately happens in times of recession, corporate donations
to this great group are not what they used to be
if you
have any funding or donor suggestions for them, please consider
pinging them at info@nolimitsmedia.org.
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box #937
Brookline, MA
(Board Chairman: Artemis Joukowsky
Email: artemis@joukowsky.com Phone: 508-650-2077, Executive
Director: Daniel Jones, Phone: 617-277-7633).
Hope
I get to reconnect with these people, especially between April
and October since I hear their chairman has rock star season
tickets at Fenway Park.
Let's
talk about Common Ground Consulting. I have known its founder,
Mr. Craig Bowman, for over 20 years. Proof that 1 person can
truly make a difference at the local, state, national and
international level. Love what he has done, love what he continues
to do. For 19 years, Common Ground Consulting LLC has
been providing world-class consulting services for community
based, national, and international nonprofit/NGO (social profit)
organizations. As a leading social sector futurist, Craig
has spent his career developing a philosophy of leadership
that harnesses passion and trust as a bridge between human
potential and social responsibility. Please check out this site for more
very important stuff relating to social
responsibility.
Forward
100 has been fortunate enough to support Common Ground's work.
It is really interesting how a lot of the non-profit projects
and clients have fallen into my path through serendipity.
This is the case with my work with The African Women's Health, Education and Empowerment Center.
The nature of my support for this group is helping them with
their local efforts in Atlanta and Decatur, Georgia to assist
in the many life transitions affecting hundreds of war refugees
who have resettled in this area. Until my discussions with
this group's president, Doris Mukangu, I had very little idea of the sheer hardships many of these
relocated refuges often face, despite getting out of genocidal,
war-torn parts of the world. Imagine the terror involved in
fearing that your family will be separated, killed, tortured
or other horrendous type of violence, only to be lucky enough
to relocate to the US, only to be discriminated against in
housing, jobs, and elsewhere, wrongly seen as illegal immigrants
in the eyes of ill-informed locals (note: these refugees are
green card holding, tax paying, extremely hard working individuals),
and trying to assimilate in terms of language, customs, and
culture. We are trying to learn of "best practices"
regarding refugee assimilation from other parts of the country
these
are often grass root, church based efforts at local and city
levels
if you happen to know of any examples or references,
Please send Doris or me a link
Many Thanks!
And
what about this recession? Forward 100 has been stepping up
with an interesting use of lessons learned from life course
sociology and social marketing. The Forward 100 Network Summit
process is being piloted here in Atlanta and, soon, in other
domestic markets to help good folks in job searches to help
each other out in win/win manners. Over 60 days have been
invested this year in meeting with specific talented, smart
and earnest professionals who, for no fault of their own,
have been on the frustrating end of restructurings and layoffs.
The Network Summit process is being refined and will be published
on this site soon in hope others might consider replicating
it in their local areas.
August
2009 marked the first ever Forward 100 Food Bank Project
helping
the Atlanta Community Food Bank through a great group of organized
volunteers. Our task is to help with the Product Rescue Center. Great
Organization + Great Cause + Specific Tasks + Cool Group of
Volunteers = Great Impact + Great Time. Our team's work led
to the rescuing of over 4,790 pounds of food and beverages,
which will yield an additional 3,190 incremental meals for
those families in dire need in the Atlanta area. Can't say
enough about the GREAT team that worked on this project.
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