Cast A VOTE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE by Nov 5

Grameen Foundation (NetIP’s chosen philanthropy initiative partner) and Qualcomm’s Wireless Reach™ Initiative are currently in THIRD PLACE for the Partnership Award being sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its Business Civic Leadership Center.  This partnership was nominated for their work to provide mobile phone-based business opportunities to the poorest in Indonesia.

This prestigious award is part of the annual Corporate Citizenship Awards — the nation’s premier recognition for companies that are actively creating social change.

Not only can you help bring attention to the power of microfinance to transform lives, but you could even win cool stuff if you vote by the deadline, Nov. 5.

We need your help to pull out a win!

Here are five things you can do:

1. Vote for Grameen Foundation and Qualcomm at the Corporate Citizenship website today. One email address equals one vote … so vote with all of your email addresses!
2. Voters between Oct. 21 (12 a.m.) and Nov. 5 (11:59 p.m.) are eligible to be entered into the drawings for these prizes:
   *Best Buy Gift Card, $100 each (2)
   *Global Giving Gift Card, $25 each (4)
   *Wegmans Gift Card, $100 each (2)
   *Pair of Round-trip JetBlue Tickets (U.S. only)
3. Invite your networks to join our webinar on Friday, October 29 (noon – 1 p.m. EST), with Sean DeWitt to learn more about our Village Phone work in Indonesia – and then vote.  They can register here.
4. Customize the email below and send it to your network.  You don’t need to live in the U.S. to vote so please cast a wide net.
5. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and repost the weekly updates to your networks.

Every vote counts – so we’re counting on you to help us reach the winner’s circle! You can learn more about the award at www.corporatecitizenshipvote.com.

Remember to cast your vote(s) by Nov. 5!

About Grameen Foundation

NetIP’s South Asia Poverty Alleviation Mission

Grameen Foundation, a global nonprofit organization, helps the world’s poorest people access financial services and technology solutions by providing financing, technology support and management strategies to the local organizations that serve them. It also spearheads technology initiatives that create new microbusiness opportunities for the poor, provide telecommunications access for the world’s rural poor, and improve their access to health and agriculture information and other services.

Founded in 1997, Grameen Foundation has offices in Washington, D.C., Seattle, Washington, Hong Kong, Ghana, the Philippines and Uganda. Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank and the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, is a founding member of its board of directors, and now serves as director emeritus.

Please take the time to make a donation today and be a valuable contributor to our quest to end extreme poverty in South Asia.

Contact Ruby Bola, Philanthropy Chair, at ruby@netip.org with any questions or suggestions on how we can better reach our $10,000 goal this year.

LAST CHANCE – Few Hours Left to Help Grameen Foundation Fight Poverty

Vote Now  – www.takepart.com/membersproject/vote

http://www.grameenfoundation.org/vote

Grameen Foundation is in the final countdown. It’s still in a tight race with a very strong competitor where EVERY vote counts. After battling for the last 12 weeks for a $200,000 grant from American Express, the Foundation is hoping to put this money to good use helping the world’s poorest.

NetIP, our support is crucial. With an outreach to over 40,000 South Asian Americans and the drive to succeed, we have the voters Grameen Foundation needs to get this grant and help empower the poor in South Asia – and throughout the world – by providing access to microfinance and technology.

Let’s create a world without poverty!

If you’ve already voted, thank you.  If not, please take the time now – it will only take a couple of clicks and minutes of your time. You can vote once from each e-mail address you have.

And no matter what, please encourage everyone you know to vote for Grameen Foundation before 11:59 p.m. PDT on Sunday, August 22nd. This is the last weekend!

A vote for Grameen Foundation is a vote to make poverty history!

Thanks,
All of us at Grameen Foundation

P.S. After you vote, please spread the word to your friends!

Tweet this:

Join me and #netipna in fighting global #poverty w/ #microfinance & VOTE 4 @GrameenFdn to win $200K! http://bit.ly/Vote4GF #Vote4GF

Tell your friends on Facebook. Copy and paste this text as your status:

LAST CHANCE! Vote before 11:59 p.m. PDT to help Grameen Foundation create a world without poverty by providing microfinance and technology products and services to the world’s poorest, especially women. Make a difference! http://bit.ly/Vote4GF plz RT

URGENT ACTION REQUEST – Your Vote Could Help Grameen Foundation Win $200,000 to Fight Poverty!

Vote Now  – www.takepart.com/membersproject/vote

http://www.grameenfoundation.org/vote

As you may know, NetIP has chosen to raise funds and awareness for Grameen Foundation’s work in South Asia.  NetIP believes in Grameen Foundation’s mission to enable the poor – especially the poorest – to create a world without poverty. We do this by providing cutting-edge products and services in microfinance and technology, enabling those in need to change their lives forever.

With a small action – just a couple of clicks  – you can help make that world without poverty a reality.

Grameen Foundation is battling for first place – and $200,000 in funding – with just one other organization in the Community Development category in American Express’s Take Part Challenge.

We need every NetIP member to vote TODAY (before Sunday at 11:59 p.m. PDT) – and next week too!  Voting ends next Sunday, August 22^nd.  You can vote once per week from each e-mail address you have.

Please help – it’s an easy and effective way to make a difference in our fight against global poverty.

Thanks,

All of us at Grameen Foundation

P.S.  After you vote, please spread the word to your friends!

Tweet this:

Join me and #netipna in fighting global #poverty w/ #microfinance & VOTE 4 @GrameenFdn to win $200K! http://bit.ly/Vote4GF #Vote4GF 

Tell your friends on Facebook. Please copy and paste this text as your status:

Vote before 11:59 p.m. PDT to help Grameen Foundation create a world without poverty by providing microfinance and technology products and services to the world’s poorest, especially women. Vote now and again on Monday! http://bit.ly/Vote4GF

From Bottom Billion to Next Billion

Republished with permission from The Grameen Foundation

Luckshmi Sivalingam is a Program Officer for Grameen Foundation’s Solutions for the Poorest program.

Before joining GF, I interviewed fifty clients of a Nepal savings and credit cooperative as part of an impact assessment. I saw that particularly for those living in extreme poverty, the solution to changing their situations can’t be limited to providing access to microfinance’s traditional product: an enterprise loan.

THP client on her new farm in West Bengal

Nearly all the clients I spoke with said that if they’d undergone appropriate skills development or received training on value addition for the goods and services they were selling, then their microenterprises could have generated the additional income required for them to progress out of poverty.

The Solutions for the Poorest team at GF is joining a small but growing group of microfinance practitioners that are looking at how the industry can better meet the needs of the very poor.  One approach we are testing couples livelihoods support with microfinance in a financially sustainable manner, contributing to what has been termed the “double bottom line.”

Solutions for the Poorest has partnered with BASIX/The Livelihood School India, a pioneering livelihood promotion institute, to design an integrated and sustainable methodology to provide financial and non-financial services to the extreme poor—individuals that BASIX wouldn’t typically serve through its everyday microfinance activities.  Also, my colleague, Malini, and I recently travelled to Calcutta to visit Bandhan’s Targeting the Hard Core Poor (THP) program.  THP targets female-headed households, like Shahida Bibi’s, with no or very erratic opportunities to make income. The program provides these women with the skills and assets required to jumpstart a microenterprise.  Supplemented with confidence-building measures, this support cultivates a seemingly limitless entrepreneurial spirit.

Shahida, her seven children, and her disabled husband survived on just $2 a week. Shahida was a housemaid, but without any productive skills and regular income, she wasn’t considered creditworthy by other MFIs.  THP provided her with four goats to help generate a more consistent income stream. This income has allowed Shahida to provide for her family while also nurturing the habit of saving.  In eighteen months, she sold one goat for $43 and diversified her income stream by buying chickens, selling eggs, and later selling coconuts and vegetables to her neighbors.   Shahida has now grown into a real business woman, generating a weekly income of Rs. 2,000 (about $42 dollars).  She’s already planning for additional ventures.

Shahida and her children share their story

Addressing the issue of global poverty in a holistic and practical way has made the past month’s immersions in Solutions for the Poorest initiatives an intellectually stimulating and inspiring experience for me.  I look forward to continuing our work to propel the bottom billion into the next billion.

Vote for Grameen Foundation & help us win a $200,000 grant to fight global poverty! Learn more about how you can help!

To make a donation to the Grameen Foundation, NetIP North America’s 2010 Philanthropy Partner, click here.

Celebrate Holi with the NetIP Family and Support an Important Cause

On behalf of NetIP’s North America Board and Chapter Officers, here’s wishing our readers and the NetIP Community a happy and colorful Holi. Cultural Awareness, along with Professional Development, Community Service and Political Awareness, is a core pillar of the Organization and our chapters are committed to providing a unique platform to promote South Asian Culture across US and Canada. It is in this spirit that many of our chapters are hosting fun and unique Holi events in the coming weeks that also have a strong community support undertone (many of the events are to support Grameen Foundation’s effort in Haiti) If, like me, you spent the day inside an office wishing that you part of the festivities, you’ll love what’s on offer. Check out just some of the exciting activities planned in various cities -

“HOLI COW” by NetIP LA-OC — A Beach Party Organized for the Haiti Relief Efforts

A fun Holi event to benefit Haiti

A spectacular afternoon at the Will Rogers State Beach, under the warm March sun, as NetIP LA-OC & AIF celebrate the “Ultimate Holi Beach Party of the Year” to benefit the AIF Haiti Relief Fund. You’ve all been wanting to help out with the Haiti relief efforts and this is your chance to do so in style and with tons of fun. Come as we celebrate our culture and heritage through vibrant colors, water, sand and games. Bring your family and friends to this joyous occasion and experience our hospitality through these festivities!!

Click here for NetIP LA-OC’s Holi Facebook event

——————————-

“HOLI HUNGAMA” by NetIP New York — An Evening of Fun, Fashion & Flair

Holi Hungama - An evening of fun, fashion and flair

A fashion show courtesy of BIBI Magazine, music by DJ Sammy J, performances by NYC Bhangra a lot more! Don’t miss this exciting evening by NetIP NY!

A percentage of the proceeds will go to support the Grameen Foundation.

Click here for NetIP NY’s Holi Facebook event

——————————-

The Sixth Annual Holi Hungama by NetSAP DC

NetSAP DC's Holi Hungama

Join NetSAP DC to celebrate Holi in the Park! Everyone is welcome to attend and this event is free to members and non-members.  Bring your own gulal (holi color) and picnic baskets and play holi with some new NetSAP DC friends! Gulal can be purchased at most South Asian stores in the metro area.

Given the recent devastation in Haiti, NetSAP DC will be collecting monetary donations for the Grameen Foundation’s Haiti Fund.  We will also be collecting nonperishables and toiletries for the Arlington Food Bank.

Click here for NetSAP DC’s Holi Facebook event

——————————-

“Holi Hai” by NetIP Dallas — Bid Goodbye to Winter and Embrace the Spring with Holi Festivities

Come join NetIP Dallas as we wave goodbye to WINTER and embrace the SPRING!! There’s no better way to kickoff this spring season with friends and family than smothering them with gulal (holi color). Just think of how much fun a snowball fight is.. and now imagine doing the same thing with colored powder! A limited amount of colors will be provided by NetIP Dallas, but it is recommended that you purchase your own at a local South Asian store (darker colors are more fun) =)

Network of Indian Professionals 7th Annual Officers Leadership Conference

The City of Angels welcomes the Network of Indian Professionals

7th^th Annual Officers Leadership Conference

Celebrating 20 years of South Asian Empowerment

Los Angeles, CA, Feb 10^th 2010: The Network of Indian Professionals’ (NetIP) 7^th Officer’s Leadership Conference (OLC) was held Feb 5 to Feb 7, 2010 at the Wilshire Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles. The OLC served as the national kick-off for the 2010 NetIP calendar year. It provided an open forum for leadership to be recognized, for officers both new and returning to network and form good working relationships. The goal of the OLC has always been to provide an opportunity for NetIP chapter leaders to discuss opportunities and challenges, as well as to collaborate on leading practices as an organization. NetIP North America is the parent organization to its 24 chapters.

“The main goal of this leadership conference was to Inspire and Motivate all our chapter leaders from 24 cities. Based on the overwhelming response, I believe we surpassed our highest expectations. NetIP as an organization has incredible potential, and we’re on our way to becoming a household name, not just in the South Asian community but across North America.” -Shubha Rao, VP Internal Affairs, NetIP North America. Rao’s team put together and managed the conference and logistics in less than 8 weeks.

Attendees from NetIP’s 24 chapters, from coast to coast graced the conference to give feedback and learn about the goals and vision for the organization as a whole. Day one at the conference included a surprise live on-air segment with Brand Strategist Pooja Dhawan and NetIP’s media partner, Hum Desi Radio.

Sundip Arora, President, Network of Indian Professionals of North America was pleased with the conference and the performance of his board. “20 years on, NetIP has made unbelievable strides and leaders from chapters around the continent got a first-hand feel of our progress at our Officer’s Leadership Conference. My goal this year for the OLC was for Chapter Officer’s, new and returning, to Learn, Share, Inspire and Be Inspired. We achieved this through two days of intense collaborative sessions and workshops. NetIP North America is very proud to be part of the biggest OLC in our history and to have set another defining moment for our 20th anniversary.”

Along with ambitious plans to streamline technology across the 24 chapters and the North America parent Organization, NetIP revealed its new intranet which uses google collaboration to make internal communication and reporting seamless. The new VP of Technology, Anish Mistry, explained his efficient plan for the year ahead which included a revamped NetIP.org website and his goal to increase back-end content management efficiency.

Sri Narasimhan, NetIP North America’s VP of Finance and Administration, and his team went over legal, tax and financial reporting requirements for the incoming Chapter Officers. Latha Nehru, VP External Affairs, and her team explained NetIP’s Grameen Foundation initiative in Haiti as well as their plans to forge alliances with other non profits in an effort to raise visibility for NetIP.

The Los Angeles-Orange County (LA-OC) chapter of NetIP helped manage logistics and hosted the evening socials for the weekend. “I was very excited to see that months of hard work had culminated in a successful OLC. The conference setting and venues allowed chapter leaders to network and share ideas in a both professional and social environment.“ -Sapan Shah, President, NetIP LA-OC. The Los Angeles Orange County chapter of NetIP was the host for the conference.

Director of Operations, Santosh Perla, kept the momentum going right from the weeks before the conference with an eagle eye on deadlines. At the conference he kept attendees motivated and energized during a packed presentation schedule.

“More than a forum to share ideas, the OLC was a showcase of the many resources NetIP-NA provides to individual chapters seeking to make an impact in their respective communities.  Our chapter left the OLC with a greater understanding of the tools available to mobilize our membership and enhance the value of the NetIP brand locally.” Ashwin Janakiram, President NetIP Chicago

This year NetIP’s largest event, the Annual Conference is being held in Seattle on August 20-22, 2010. Conference Co-chairs Neha Sharma and Sarika Punjabi presented their conference strategy and theme “Unique by Nature”.

“This OLC was my first NetIP conference experience and I was blown away by the professionalism of the organization. The high caliber of the young professionals in leadership positions in NetIP was very inspiring. It was a great opportunity to connect with people across North America and share experiences. I hope to bring the insight, enthusiasm and strength of NetIP National and other local chapters back to NetIP San Francisco Bay Area. NetIP has great potential for national and local impact on the young professional South Asian community.” Purvi Patel, President NetIP San Francisco Bay Area.

At the conclusion of a weekend packed with valuable take-aways, action items and resources, NetIP and its chapters are uniquely positioned to forge ahead amongst its demographic. NetIP provides the only platform for South Asians in North America to network and grow in their professional and personal lives.

About NetIP

The Network of Indian Professionals (NetIP) is a professional, non-profit organization dedicated to the overall achievement and advancement of South Asian professionals. The primary focus of the organization is to foster a bond among South Asian professionals to unite and support each other locally, as well as to give back and contribute positively to the communities in which they live and work.

Today, the organization includes over 5,000 members and more than 40,000 subscribers in 24 cities across United States and Canada. NetIP has become a premier networking brand over the years. It is the unequivocal voice for an emerging group of South Asians, who excel in every aspect of western society, from business to politics to the arts. The rise of NetIP and its affiliated chapters reflects a general “Coming of Age” by South Asian professionals.

# # #

If you’d like more information about this topic or to schedule an interview contact Pooja Dhawan, Brand Strategy for NetIP North America, by email at pooja@netip.org