My friend Harry Thomas emailed to say he's volunteering to help an innovative Seattle-based non-profit called Community Voice Mail (CVM) get off the ground.
CVM offers voice mail for those who can't afford it, or even afford phone service to begin with, or whose circumstances preclude phone service -- the working poor, the homeless, runaways, abuse victims, foster kids, etc.
CVM is one of 10 finalists in a cool and innovative contest I didn't even know about -- Amazon's Nonprofit Innovators contest. The 10 finalists were selected from almost 1,000 qualified entries by virtue of their "unique approaches and breakthrough solutions that most effectively improve their communities or the world at large."
The 10 winners are up for votes at this Amazon page. The public is invited to vote for their favorites by donating up to $1,000 to each through Amazon.com. All 10 nonprofits will keep the funds they raise; the organization that raises the highest dollar amount through Amazon.com by September 30, 2005, will be awarded a matching grant of up to $1 million from Amazon.com.
CVM's also got a viral marketing effort -- encouraging the spread of this flash video which is a cute, animated explanation of what they do. They are also participating in a Community Problem Solving site where the general public can suggest marketing ideas.
You are all encouraged to click on the Amazon site to donate (and thus vote for) CVM. But, since you are all terrifically creative, Harry wondered if IdeaFlow readers would be interested in generating more ideas on how CVM could possibly move from the underdog position to actually win $1 million from Amazon?
If you have any ideas, email me (renee at ideaflow.com) or just add your comments to the Community Problem Solving site.
I have one idea -- Hurricane Katrina struck after Harry sent me his email, and my first thought was that CVM could provide voice mail services to the refugees. We have thousands of Katrina refugees here in the DFW area, and many of them are saying they won't go back but will try to build a life here. They could use CVM's service as they try to move from the shelters to jobs and housing of their own. And also to try to reunite with friends and family from whom they were separated during the evacuation.
Here's an article about CVM from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Renee Hopkins Callahan started IdeaFlow and serves as chief blog-wrangler. She is 
1. Karma Martell on September 6, 2005 8:16 AM writes...
Hello Renee,
Though I am not familiar with Mr. Thomas or his relationship to Community Voice Mail, I thank him and you for bringing CVM to more people's attention. I welcome all suggestions and efforts from professional colleagues.
I recently began handling marketing PR for CVM and I can tell you that thanks to a last-minute contribution from the Cisco Foundation and connectivity from SBS, CVM will be on the front lines distributing their voice mail service to those in need in DFW and other cities that now host refugees. This will be done in cooperation with the Red Cross. There will be an official announcement shortly, which I will send to you when ready. We are also working n a celebrity angle.
It is more crucial than ever that people contribute to CVM so that they can expand their reach to more homeless people and disaster victims. Community Voice Mail has an animation, http://eleft.com/998 meant to go viral, that links to the Amazon donation site. It explains their service and helps shatter the stereotypes of homelessness and who it can affect (though hurricane Katrina has done a pretty good job of that lately. Are you listening, Trent Lott?) The animation does not go into CVM's part in the Katrina outreach as that is brand new information. I encourage people to post the link and email it to all those who are sensitive to the issues of homelessness in general and who want to help Katrina evacuees.
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