ammado, An exciting new platform for social involvement
I recently had a great meeting with Terry Farris and Alan Keliipuleole of the newly launched ammado web platform. It’s an impressive web-based application for helping multi-national corporations engage their employees and customers in social sector activities such as volunteering or donating. It’s the brainchild of an Irish tech entrepreneur, Peter Conlon. I know Terry because he was UBS’ point guy on philanthropy in Singapore and Asia before joining ammado.
The challenge around something like this is critical mass, and the ammado team seems to be aiming very high in terms of execution. The site already works in a dozen languages and support for giving in more than twenty currencies. So, a high tech company with operations all over the world can engage their employees in each country to get involved with local charities, operate matching gift programs and so on. They also have a charitable gift-card concept for employees or customers (buy $250 of product, get a $10 or $20 gift card for your favorite charity).
I’m just delighted to see technology being used to encourage this kind of involvement. Companies that take advantage of this kind of technology are going to be more competitive in recruiting and retention of employees, and fare better with customers. I just read a great article by David Altschuler entitled the Scrooge Effect, and he used the example of Wal-Mart. Over the last two years, Wal-Mart has made huge efforts to engage socially and change their image from being a Scrooge. Has it ever paid off for them (their stock is one of the few ones up over the last year)!
The challenge around something like this is critical mass, and the ammado team seems to be aiming very high in terms of execution. The site already works in a dozen languages and support for giving in more than twenty currencies. So, a high tech company with operations all over the world can engage their employees in each country to get involved with local charities, operate matching gift programs and so on. They also have a charitable gift-card concept for employees or customers (buy $250 of product, get a $10 or $20 gift card for your favorite charity).
I’m just delighted to see technology being used to encourage this kind of involvement. Companies that take advantage of this kind of technology are going to be more competitive in recruiting and retention of employees, and fare better with customers. I just read a great article by David Altschuler entitled the Scrooge Effect, and he used the example of Wal-Mart. Over the last two years, Wal-Mart has made huge efforts to engage socially and change their image from being a Scrooge. Has it ever paid off for them (their stock is one of the few ones up over the last year)!
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