Aug 21, 2014 | Monitoring and Evaluation, Social Impact, Uncategorized
A couple of years ago, I was chatting with a college friend who, like me, is passionate about entrepreneurship, tech, and combating social injustice. “Microfinance is the key,” he said. “You help women, you end poverty.” I think most of us have moved past that...
Aug 14, 2014 | engageSPARK Platform, Monitoring and Evaluation, SMS, Social Impact, Uncategorized
When I tell people about engageSPARK’s cool ability to “personalize” SMS messages – for example, automatically inserting each recipient’s first name at the beginning of each message when sending out 1,000 text messages – they generally respond with, “That’s awesome!...
Aug 7, 2014 | engageSPARK Platform, Humanitarian Agencies, Social Impact, Technology
When I discuss my career goals with people and talk about the things I’m interested in – namely, technology and social justice – the typical response I get is: “So you want to work for an NGO/Non-Profit?” I am a huge fan of numerous non-profits (in fact, engageSPARK...
May 15, 2014 | Businesses, engageSPARK Platform, Social Impact, Uncategorized
The Philippines needs more jobs, and some people are hoping that tech can play a part in the solution. I was packing relief goods in the Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) when I first began to realize the extent of the problem. My fellow packers were...
Apr 3, 2014 | Social Impact
Stories about using social media, mobile, and big data to fight crime abound these days. I started to type that “this might seem a little sci-fi to the average 70 year old grandma,” but the truth is: my septuagenarian grandma owns an iPhone, an iPad, a laptop, and...
Mar 13, 2014 | Humanitarian Agencies, Social Impact, Technology
We at engageSPARK are passionate about mobile (“m”), big data, and the opportunities that technology brings to community programs and the developing world. But there are possibilities for unintended – sometimes grave – consequences of this integration. Jenny Adlem...
