Link: http://www.idealist.org

I received the following email and wanted to share it with anyone who is interested.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

As you may know, this month we are trying to reach every nonprofit organization in the country to invite them to post their jobs and volunteer opportunities on Idealist.org.

The biggest challenge we face in doing this, is that after 12 years of promoting Idealist solely by word of mouth (we've never had any money for advertising or marketing) we are suffering from a classic 'network effect' - while in some places we are very well known, in other places no one knows us, and therefore no one knows us…

In Ohio we are somewhere in between: some people are using Idealist, but many others are not.

At the bottom of this email you can see the number of nonprofit job postings we've had so far this month, state by state. As you can see, we should be doing much better in a state as big as Ohio.

And this is why I am writing you: to really jumpstart Idealist in Ohio we need your help.

Are there any mailing lists in the state where you could post this message? If you blog, or if you use Facebook or Twitter or any other networking tool, can you give Idealist a plug and invite your friends to join us?

Lastly, if you want to do more, let me know and we'll put together a team of people who want to help share Idealist in Ohio.

Thanks in advance for your support, and all the best!

Ami Dar
Executive Director
http://www.idealist.org

Job postings on Idealist.org, June 1-17, 2008

NY - 1816
CA - 901
MA - 855
DC - 719
IL - 334
WA - 323
MD - 260
PA - 254
VA - 201
OR - 157
NJ - 146
TX - 116
FL - 111
MN - 86
OHIO - 84
CT - 78
CO - 74
NC - 70
AZ - 60
GA - 60
WI - 58
MI - 45
MO - 36
ME - 34
IA - 32
LA - 30
VT - 30
TN - 25
NM - 25
KS - 24
NV - 24
DE - 22
RI - 21
AK - 18
NH - 18
OK - 18
MS - 15
MT - 15
IN - 13
SC - 8
UT - 7
KY - 6
AL - 6
NE - 6
WV - 4
ID - 4
AR - 4
HI - 3
SD - 2
ND - 2
WY - 1

For more details, here is two-minute video about why Idealist.org is a great place to post a nonprofit job:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-BQYIPILUU

I know that the end of April is here, but I don’t think that is any reason to not contemplate the fact that April is Alcohol Awareness Month, Stress Awareness Month, Donate Life Month, and National Humor Month to name what I am sure is not a complete list of April designations.

Now let’s work this one out with paper and pencil.

Becoming aware of their stress, people may become more aware of the importance of alcohol, which in turn, especially if the alcohol is Tequila, may result in the donation of life. Serioulsy, am I the only one who thinks drunken sperm must swim faster than the sober ones?

Now before you start to moan and groan in disgust, remember that April is National Humor Month. The site I found did not specify good humor or bad humor.

As I get older, for whatever reason I have started to feel the need to get involved. I often find myself asking the Universe for this, that or the other, but one day realized I wasn't really offering the Universe anything for its trouble. I believe in karma. To paraphrase Wiki karma is the sum of an individual’s deeds making him/her responsible for his/her own life, and the pain and joy it brings to him/her and others.

So the question became, get involved with what? I am not what you would call a real people person. I definitely prefer my cats to a chat with the neighbor or worse yet, a conversation with the stranger in line behind me at the grocery. No, a people person I am not. But I do love animals and nature and most things that humans seem to sacrifice in an attempt to get something for nothing. (I am not at all sure, however, I could install a composting toilet in my home, never eat processed food again, or try to figure out which package of underwear at the store is the most socially conscious choice - all possible topics for future blog entries.)

The combination of my love of outdoors, gardening, and nature in general and distaste for chemicals (and maybe a little push from the Universe) directed me to a local Metro Park and its lecture series on gardening a little greener. It was because of that lecture series I discovered that same Metro Park not only has a butterfly house, but seeks volunteers for the butterfly house. So I took the orientation and signed up.

I have always had a fascination with butterflies and working in "the House" let me see them in every stage of development, tell other people about them, and learn more about them for myself. To some I know it sounds tedious, but for me it is great fun. Of course, some people may be asking, "How the heck does explaining to someone why a butterfly is a butterfly and a moth is a moth ring up the karma points on the Universe's slot machine?" Is it too big of a reach to say it depends on your reaction/answer to the following question; "If you go back in time and step on a butterfly, does it affect the future?"

Forget for a moment that the true “Butterfly Effect” really has nothing to do with the idea of time travel. I didn’t know that when I first pondered that question. I came across that question somewhere around the end of grade school or start of junior high. Long before the movie (which I have never seen) and long before I read about the larger concept from which it derives. I have always remembered the day I read that question for the first time. That is the day my fascination of butterflies began.

I don't know why of all the moments in my life my brain holds on so tightly to that one, but it does. I don't know for certain why I decided to take the lecture series on green gardening, but I did. Now, I am a butterfly house volunteer. Will this fact change the world? If it did would I ever know? Maybe or maybe not. Either way I find it fascinating how a thread of a thought can survive in my brain for years eventually leading me to something that I have seemingly come across by coincidence.