News from the past week:
With Valentine’s Day approaching, single Idealists might be sliding down the slippery slope of romance-related depression. If you’ve tried all of the standard online dating sites, and if making eyes at the cute guy on the R train isn’t working, you might try GiveAndDate.com.
GiveAndDate is an online dating site for socially conscious New Yorkers. It’s different from most online dating sites in that it combines philanthropy and phlirting (their spelling, not mine, though I wish I’d thought of it). Here’s how you do it: sign up, choose from a list of available New Yorkers, pay a “Love Tax” which includes making a donation (as little as $1) to a local charity, “pass a note” to express interest, and cross your fingers for a response.
Featured charities include: Williamsburg Collegiate, Animal Haven, Solar One, and the Council on the Environment of New York City.
Go ahead and give it a try. As the website says, “Worst case scenario: You helped people.”
To ramp up your social impact—and the potential for a love connection—search for a volunteer opportunity that might be the perfect activity for a first, second, or third date.
In the news recently:
On Monday, February 1, you can learn about opportunities for volunteering abroad at the Idealist.org Global Volunteering Fair at Barnard College (LeFrak Gymnasium at 117th Street and Broadway, 6:00-9:00p.m.).
At the fair, you can meet with over 20 different organizations that are looking for international volunteers:
There will also be two workshops: Affordable Volunteering Abroad and International Volunteerism 101.
Click here for more information and to register (it’s free!).
“If you can make it, read it or think it, we’re probably open to it.” So say the organizers of Brooklyn Brainery, a new group organizing cheap collaborative classes in… well, just about anything.
Want to learn how to describe a painting you like? Where meat comes from and how to bone it, cook it, and savor it? It’s a little too late to register for classes for the inaugural session, which meets through February at The Gowanus Studio Space. But if you like the idea of learning something new for cheap ($25 for four classes), you’ll want to stay tuned to their course listings for the next session.
Every course meets once a week for a month, and the organizing philosophy is that no teacher is an “expert” in the formal, hierarchical sense. So if there’s a skill you’d like to share or explore with your neighbors, you can also reach out to organizers Jen Messier and Jonathan Soma to propose a class. Rather than being a traditional teacher who lectures and grades pupils’ work, you could wind up leading what they call a “book club on steroids”—a small, collaborative learning group tackling fun topics through discussion and a few course materials.
Follow @bkbrains on Twitter, or sign up for the mailing list at brooklynbrainery.com.
If you love the idea of collaborative, informal learning, check out this podcast we produced a couple of years ago. Organized by volunteers in Washington, DC, Learn-A-Palooza brought neighbors together in donated spaces—from coffee shops to home goods stores to the Idealist office—for a day of free classes with titles like “How to Dance at a Party” and “How to Get Out of a Speeding Ticket.” The day was fun, well-organized, and low-key but full of learning. That’s why I’m excited to learn more about Brooklyn Brainery.
Did you know that NYC’s streets and sidewalks are partly to blame for our dirty rivers and beaches? Minds In the Gutter explains:
Every time it rains in New York City, our combined sewer system gobbles up stormwater running off all hard surfaces – roadways, sidewalks, rooftops and parking lots – into the same network of pipes that carry our sewage. This system quickly reaches capacity, and the stormwater and sewage overflow into local waterways on the order of 27 billion gallons per year. This limits how New Yorkers can safely access the waterfront, and impairs our estuary ecosystem. It’s also a waste! Almost 30% of NYC’s surface is made of streets and sidewalks that contribute to this problem.
If you can think of an innovative way to improve the situation, submit it to the Minds In the Gutter project.
The project’s sponsors (NYC Environmental Fund, Storm Water Infrastructure Matters, and the North Brooklyn Compost Project) are looking for submissions from anyone with ideas—engineers, designers, environmentalists, community leaders, regular old pedestrians—by February 15.
The submissions that are accepted by the expert judges will go into an exhibit and a book, and will help inform the future of the city’s water systems.
First, some news from us: Idealist is in the running to win a million dollars from Chase Bank. If you’re on Facebook, please vote for us here. Thanks!
Lots of other local news from the past week:
Do you often work through your lunch break? Do you forget to get up from your desk for hours at a time? Are you stressed about your next event, grant proposal, or program launch?
Why not take a little break?
Fellow nonprofit BodiBalance is offering dance classes to help you de-stress during lunchtime on Wednesdays. Bring proof of your nonprofit employment (a business card, letterhead, etc.) to get in for free!
It’ll benefit your health as well as your work, since you’ll likely be refreshed and ready to attack that planning meeting with gusto when you return to the office. And it could even facilitate some coworker bonding—unless you’d rather use the time to escape from them. Read More
We’ll keep updating this list as we hear of efforts being organized around NYC. Please add anything we missed to the comments. Thanks!
Benefit events:
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News from the past week:
