The Empowerment Plan Donates Coats That Double As Sleeping Bags

January 15, 2016January 20, 2016 Sean Mulligan

The brilliance of The Empowerment Plan is four-fold. They’ve developed a clever product that doubles as both a jacket and a sleeping bag. And if that weren’t enough awesomeness, the group donates the jackets they produce to the homeless. If their contribution to society ended there, they could walk away feeling pretty happy with themselves. But oh no, these are some true overachievers. The dual-purpose jackets are being made by a team of 20 formerly homeless employees, all now working and earning a living wage.

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Lava Mae Turn Buses Into Showers For The Homeless

January 11, 2016January 11, 2016 Sean Mulligan

The city of San Francisco was decommissioning a part of their bus fleet. It’s the type of news blurb that most of us greet with nostalgia. Oh sad, I’ll miss those old buses. But for Doniece Sandoval, it was a golden opportunity for social change. She contacted the city to ask what would happen to the buses. She learned of a donation program, acquired one, and Lave Mae was born.

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Dawson Place Partners With Amazon Local Love

January 8, 2016January 8, 2016 Sean Mulligan

I caught a news story about a great non-profit called Dawson Place in Everett, WA that I needed to share. Something pretty historic will be forever tied to this worthy organization: They were the first non-profit to benefit from Amazon’s Local Love program.

So what is Local Love, exactly?

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The Children’s Home Gets A 50k Christmas Gift

January 4, 2016February 1, 2016 Sean Mulligan

See video here.

It sounds like a movie. You’re the receptionist at a non-profit serving children in need. (In my film, perhaps the evil gas company rep has just come to turn off the heat and he laughs on his way out the door…) Suddenly, the phone rings. There’s a person on the other line asking you to check under the statue of Baby Jesus.

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OpenAI: A Non-Profit To Ensure Artificial Intelligence Benefits All Of Us.

December 15, 2015December 13, 2015 Sean Mulligan

In the hopes of avoiding a robot apocalypse (or with a less dramatic take, in the hopes of ensuring humans get the most from AI), Tesla founder Elon Musk and company have started OpenAI, a non-profit that plans on open sourcing artificial intelligence. Instead of creating AI to make money for shareholders, their goal will be to maximize AI’s enormous potential for all of humanity, profits be damned.

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