More than a few organizations attempt to connect volunteers with ways to pitch in. WiserEarth stands out because it connects users with jobs, events and volunteer opportunities associated with a variety of non-profit organizations. It's a user-edited database where you can find ways to make a difference, make a living and make friends based on your values. So far it has listed over 100,000 organizations.

Currently, WiserEarth also developing an API to help share their database with more organizations and grow their network. They've decided to crowd-source the funding for this project: the individuals and organizations they're helping are invited to pitch in and to show larger investors how valued WiserEarth is. If you'd like to pitch in or learn more, click here.   Read more...

COMING AGAIN TO A PAVEMENT NEAR YOU...

CHALK4PEACE is a global chalk art project for peace that will happen again this year on five continents. Over 100,000 young artists of all ages joined us last year; and since 2006, the event has covered more than eighteen football fields' worth of sidewalk.   Read more...

Global Spirit is Link TV’s new series focused on the pan-cultural experience of what it means to be human. The series will examine the relationships between mind and spirit, science and metaphysics, and mental and physical well-being as approached by the world’s ancient wisdom traditions and modern science. Called the first “internal travel” series it intends to give viewers an experience that just might change them.   Read more...

If I could turn back the clock, I would change my ways. I would recycle, ditch the old car and buy only durable and environmentally-friendly products. If it was only to save my own soul and avoid this unbearable feeling of guilt.

After 60 years, I finally realized that true change comes from the consumer, not the manufacturers.   Read more...

You might wonder, how can drinking green tea help you lose weight?

Green tea originates from China and is still widely drunk all over East Asia. In history, green tea has been attributed many positive effects: among others that frequent usage would have a positive effect on the chance of heart diseases, cancer and weight loss.   Read more...

People in Need Partnership is a new kind of ‘sponsorship’ program that helps form genuine relationships between people in extreme poverty and others. Modern technology presents us with a lot of missed opportunities. Instead of making the world more fragmented, we can use it to cultivate deeper relationships with more understanding. That is the goal of PINP.

You can form a relationship with a child slave, or a girl or mother from a starving family, for $15 - $25 per month. You will have many opportunities, through messaging, photos and videos and many other ways, to become a real partner and friend, as well as providing crucial assistance.   Read more...

I just got back from my second visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - a two-day business trip to help a Riyadh-based consultancy with its communications initiatives. Getting there, being there and even leaving there created a host of mixed feelings, some of which I share in the video clip.   Read more...

Hello, my dear wizards of Ode,

I am a first-time writer for Ode, attempting to make a humble contribution to the benefit of the learned readers, writers and lovers of Ode in particular, and the world in general, for all seeking inspiration on how to live life at least one day at a time, if not willing to learn to live one moment at a time.   Read more...

When my father succumbed to Parkinson’s at the age of 61, it forever sensitized my brain to all things Parkinson’s. My spirits have been buoyed over the years to learn about advances in science that show great promise for, if not curing the disease, at least improving the quality of life for those suffering from it.

So when a celebrity like Michael J. Fox talks about his experiences living with Parkinson’s, I listen. He was interviewed recently on ABC’s Good Morning America show, highlighting his new book Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist. What especially struck me about the interview was what he learned when visiting the Himalayan country of Bhutan.   Read more...

My World, My Choice! is an educational program that engages students to make sustainable choices. Sustainable individual choice is the atomic linchpin of sustainable living and decision-making. It is the integral core from which stem the well-being of business, society and the environment.

The first step to making sustainable choices is to understand the meaning of sustainability - which is to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Young children, being the future generation, are the ideal recipients of this educational program - for this is the best age in which to sow the seeds of understanding of the sustainability principle.   Read more...