March 25, 2010
If you’ve ever played World of Warcraft or heard a Lady Gaga song, then you’ve experienced the kind of popular entertainment produced by Vivendi, one of the world’s leading communications and entertainment conglomerates. But Vivendi is doing more than just creating blockbuster video games and chart-topping music. Vivendi is investing in something truly powerful: creating joy.
The Vivendi Create Joy Fund, the company’s corporate responsibility program launched in 2008, focuses on “bringing joy through communications and entertainment to young people in need.” Already, Create Joy is supporting an impressive range of projects making an impact around the world. One example I love is a program in Africa supported by Create Joy that centers on a multimedia bus in Burkina Faso. This bus, called Biblio’Brousse, “offers basic training in computer skills and multimedia tools for young people aged 15-20, in partnership with high-school educational teams.” More than 3,000 people have been trained to date.
A little closer to home, the Vivendi Create Joy Fund has been providing HopeLab with funding to support the research and development of the next version of our Re-Mission video game. With support from Create Joy, we’re working with young cancer patients across the country, giving them a chance to collaborate with us on the design of the new game.
We’re proud to be part of the exciting mix of programs supported by the Create Joy Fund and wanted to shine the HopeLab spotlight on the great work Vivendi is doing to improve young lives. So whether you are wondering around WoW’s City of Azeroth, learning on a multimedia bus in Africa, or finding yourself humming along to “Just Dance,” remember that joy was created by Vivendi.
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+8 rating,
8 votes)
March 9, 2010
Method, cited in an NPR story on legal efforts to protect double-bottom line companies, has built a thriving business on home-care products and social responsibility.
This morning NPR flashed a spotlight on an interesting, potentially powerful path ahead for social entrepreneurs – legal protections for double-bottom-line companies. Corporate law currently protects the interests of shareholders and holds companies accountable for maximizing shareholder value – i.e. making money. In this environment, companies that also value social good – environmentally friendly production practices, returning a portion of profits to communities, etc. – often see those values compromised as business success puts pressure on their legal obligations to shareholders. (The NPR story highlights Ben & Jerry’s and Method as case studies.)
Now a working group of California lawyers that includes attorney and blogger Todd Johnson is working to change that. Johnson and colleagues are asking, What if companies could truly mix profitability and mission? Johnson and his colleagues are rewriting laws to recognize “for-benefit corporations” that bridge the gap between the money-generating focus of for-profit entities and the social missions of non-profit organizations. It’s a space we’re watching closely at HopeLab. As Pat mentioned in an earlier blog post, we’re exploring ways to maximize the impact of gDitty as both a commercial product and a mission-driven project to fight childhood obesity.
Read or listen to the full story at NPR.org: Protecting Companies That Mix Profitability, Values
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+2 rating,
2 votes)
March 3, 2010
For the past year, a few folks at HopeLab have been obsessing over the quirky-fun sing-along TV hit Glee, just as work on our gDitty product kicked into high gear. So, when we were looking for a way to get audiences up to speed on gDitty development, we took inspiration from the rapid-fire “here’s what you missed” synopsis that opens each Glee episode.
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+5 rating,
5 votes)
March 2, 2010
Last week’s staff meeting was an unusual one:
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+1 rating,
1 votes)
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