Post written by Jolkona intern Almudena Rodriguez

I had the pleasure to represent Jolkona at How To Be A Changemaker: Combating HIV/AIDS and Eradicating Poverty through Social Enterprise, A Conversation with Thailand’s “Mr. Condom” on June 9, an event hosted by the World Affairs Council.

Known as Mr. Condom for his humorous and unorthodox approach to family planning, Mechai Viravaidya founded the Population and Community Development Association (PDA) in 1974 to address unsustainable population growth in Thailand. The talk he gave at TEDxChange explains some of the innovative methods PDA used to promote family planning and condom use in Thailand — efforts that helped reduce Thai family size from 7 children per family in 1974 to only 1.5 children per family in 2003.

Mechai’s World Affairs Council talk focused on the Village Development Partnership (VDP), a rural anti-poverty project in Thailand for which he won the 2007 Gates Global Health Award and the 2008 Skoll Foundation Award for Social Entrepreneurship. The VDP model empowers local communities to improve their quality of life by articulating their needs and aspirations and creating a tailored development plan. Sponsoring companies and organizations provide funds for communities’ development projects in exchange for tree planting. This unique partnership between the private sector and the communities they sponsor has proven successful and sustainable for more than 22 years.

Lesson of VDP’s success that can be applied to Jolkona are summarized in the following diagram:

Even though this model was designed for the Thai population that VDP worked with, it can be applied to other countries and modified accordingly. Portions of this model are already part of Jolkona’s vision.

For example, we support grassroots organizations that collaborate with the communities they serve to develop solutions to local problems. In Sudan, Jolkona partner MADRE works with a local organization to provide seeds, supplies and training to women farmers who have traditionally been denied access to farm aid and credit. Our donors can also support several projects that help low-income people become entrepreneurs, such as a program to teach business skills to low-income people in the US and an initiative to prepare the most disadvantaged Haitian women to receive microcredit. Similar to the VDP model, our donors are empowering the communities served by our nonprofit partners to determine their own destiny.

Almudena Rodriguez is Jolkona’s 
Marketing Coordinator Intern. Originally from Spain, Almu is a firm believer in the need for marketing and communications for any business or nonprofit to reach its full potential. She has an MBA from La Coruña in Spain and a degree in Marketing from the marketing Institute of Ireland. In October 2010, she relocated to Seattle. In her free time she likes skiing, hiking, cycling and staying in touch with her friends spread all over the world. Follow Almudena on Twitter @Mayona80.

Whoa, May was an incredible month in the life of Jolkona. We were a nominated for Best Startup Nonprofit in the Seattle 2.0 Awards, our “Kids Give Back” idea was in the Pepsi Refresh Contest, and we hosted our first event, the Jolkona Meet-up.

Thank you for your votes: Seattle 2.0 Awards & Pepsi Refresh Contest

We’d like to send a big thank you out to everyone for helping us vote and get the word out for Jolkona in the Seattle 2.0 Awards. We’d like to congratulate TisBest Philanthropy who won the award.

In April we shared our experience submitting an idea for inclusion in the Pepsi Refresh Contest, and in May our Kids Give Back idea was open for voting. Thank you, again, to everyone who voted for this idea—especially those who voted every day. We finished the month in 341st place.

Jolkona Meet-up: Our First Event

Question: What’s one thing you hope for when hosting an event (especially your first event)? Answer: A packed house.

And that’s exactly what we had the great fortune of accomplishing—a sold-out out event! We were scheduled to host this happy hour event in the private dining room inside Seattle Art Museum’s restaurant, SAM Taste. But after watching the available tickets disappear in the days leading up to the event and counting heads for our staff and partners, we decided an hour before the event that room would have too much elbow-rubbing and not enough comfort. Luckily the great staff at SAM Taste let us move the party to the “patio” which overlooked the foyer of the museum, and provided more space and an incredible backdrop!

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Last month, Seattle 2.0 announced the finalists for the second-annual Seattle 2.0 Awards, the premier tech awards that honor and celebrate “the best of the best” from the tech startup scene in Seattle. One of the categories this year is Best Nonprofit Startup, set out to recognize the startup has done the most to apply technology to solve social problems—and Jolkona Foundation has been nominated!

We are humbled to be a finalist for this award and honored to be nominated along with other amazing nonprofits. Finalists were chosen by a committee and you get to vote on the winners.

We’d appreciate your support by voting for Jolkona as “Best Nonprofit Startup” in the Seattle 2.0 Awards. It only takes a few minutes to cast your vote here on Seattle 2.0′s site.

We would like to thank the selection committee and everyone behind Seattle 2.0 for the nomination! And we’d like to thank you for your support as we continue to inspire and empower a new generation of giving.

Winners are announced at the Seattle 2.0 Awards ceremony on Wednesday, May 19th. The awards ceremony sounds like a fun night. In addition to announcing the winners, they’re hosting a Poker Tournament and a Startup Showcase. Some of us from Jolkona will be in attendance, will you?