Pro Bono Blog

The new interface of social responsibility

It is officially done! C@rma has been incorporated since last week...it is now an official business and no more a “hobby”..but wait a second, if my objective is impact, why did I created a Limited Sirket and not an NGO? Could we combine impact and profit?

Why crowdfunding?  SMES, being in Turkey or across Europe, are the drive that is enabling the economy to grow. Unfortunately, the last years, access to finance has been more and more complicated preventing these SMEs to plays their role. Could crowdfuding be a solution? 

How can we convince professionals to engage probono in a long-term support of an NGO? We gave them a teaser. We gathered 20 of them with 6 NGOs in a 2 hour brainstorming session at the offices of Baker McKenzie. Output? “We want more”

Fark ettik ki, bir çok insan “demokrasi”, “sivil toplumu geliştirmek”, “çocukların korunması” vb. alanlarda sosyal etki yaratmak istiyor ancak nasıl yapacağını bilmiyor. Birçok STK’yı tanımıyor, aktivitelerinden haberdar olamıyor, destek vermek konusunda da emin olamıyor. Bunu değiştirmek istedik ve bu yüzden C@rma’yı yarattık.

Social Good Summit Istanbul meet-up for 2014 will be organized for the second time in Turkey in 23 October where people around Turkey will engage, listen, respond, and have their ideas heard on how technology and new media can help achieve equality for all by 2030.

People around Turkey and high level professionals from Twitter and Devex will share thoughts during the Social Good Summit event on how technology and new media can help achieve equality for all by 2030.

The forum focuses on the immense potential of cross-sector collaboration, challenging the silo mentality and offering a creative space for new forms of social engagement. We explore how successful cross-sector partnerships can benefit not only the particular actors involved in the process, but also become the driving force for positive social change and impact society at large.

First C@rma Meet up to gather together NGOs which did not know me with the ones who did.

It has been now close to 3 months we are live...I can't prevent old corporate reflex and think we reached the "famous" 100 days so time to take a step back and see if we are on the right track..

“It is never good enough”…Looking forward, we have always something which needs to be done and is not yet done..a newsletter, poster to attract students, call back that corporate, follow up that NGO….but then looking back at what we have done the last 100 days, I think we can be thankful to all of you for what we have reached already!

Since the launch last month, C@rma has proposed close to 10 volunteering opportunities. However, I keep receiving the same questions again and again. So, I thought it would be useful to develop further the concept of volunteering and more specifically Skill Based Volunteering.

The International Labor Organization is defining volunteering as: “activities or work that some people willingly do without pay to promote a cause or help someone outside of their household or immediate family“.