4Basra

If you are reading this after receiving a message through Boardmatch, first of all welcome to 4Basra’s website and thank you for taking the time to visit.

There are nearly 400 candidates on Boardmatch, all with a varied and impressive track record. I’m hoping to find a number of people who would like to help with the following:

• PR and communications – initially with a focus on the medical community in Ireland
• Strategy
• Fundraising
• Volunteer management and motivation
• Registering as a charity
• General organisational development and management

I hope to hear from some of you soon.

 

 

We have now raised a total of €1,000 (£675) as a result of the Big Issue article in the UK.

All donors have received a thank you letter incorporating some news and further information on our current aims and the situation in Iraq.

4Basra has been nominated in two categories of the Irish Blog Awards: Best Newcomer and Best Specialist Blog.

Please vote so we make the shortlist!

And please…no spamming them.

I’m not sure how regular this will be, but when I have a moment I’ll try to mention some other social entrepreneurship, non-profit and charity blogs and some of the subjects they cover.

One exceptionally interesting article which caught my eye is by Sandeep Junnarkar. This incisive piece describes the process of fundraising for his Lives In Focus multimedia blog project and proves what can be achieved.

Closer to home, another inspiring story (registration required) is that of Irish Independent Business Editor Tom McInerney’s project to support orphanages in Chernobyl, Belarus.

It’s encouraging to know other journalists have been moved so much by what they have seen first-hand or read about that they decided to get involved in the story rather than just report it.

The chief executive of Britain’s largest insurer, Aviva is stepping down from his post and taking off to Africa. He’s keen to see what he can do to help.

Interestingly enough, according to the School for Social Entrepeneurs’ website, courses run in Belfast to support budding social entrepeneurs are fully subscribed at the moment.

Here in southern Ireland, University College Cork run an MBS degree in Co-operative and Social Enterprise. In Dublin, both the Trinity MBA and the Dublin Institute of Technology MBA feature strong social entrepreneurship elements.

A Social Entrepreneurs summit took place recently in Zurich recently, just before the World Economic Forum in Davos.

I would’ve loved to have gone to meet other like-minded people and more importantly to see if I could pick up any badly-needed tips or advice on one or two things in particular: time management and management and co-ordination of volunteers.

Meanwhile, in The Guardian, neuroscientists reckon they’ve found the brain’s charity spot.

In Business 2.0 magazine, Richard Branson has some tips on being a great leader - if you’re a fan of Branson, also see the website of Virgin Unite, ‘the independent charitable arm of the Virgin group’ – and several other top business brains have some advice on how to do well by doing good.

And finally, in Fortune magazine, the resident ‘Ask Annie’ writer gives advice about what non-profits are looking for in new staff.

$12 billion (or about €10 bn / £6bn).

It’s a sickening number. Particularly when you read this is the amount the US threw at Iraq (or flew in by the pallet-load, to be more accurate).

This amount of money would more than pay for 20 state-of-the-art 400 or 500-bed hospitals.

In the context of the current situation in the country, it really beggars belief that someone somewhere took this insane decision.