Each Friday, the another jennifer blog shares stories of those who incorporate philanthropy into their everyday lives – personally and professionally – in a creative and unique way. If you have a story you’d like to share, please contact Jennifer. You can view past posts from the series here.
When I saw the subject to a recent Mom Bloggers for Social Good newsletter, I was intrigued. It read “Win a Trip to DC and Advocate for Newborns.” The newsletter included information about how to stay in the conversation about the Every Newborn Action Plan. At the end, it included a link to visit in order to win a trip to Washington DC to “see first-hand how international development is solving the world’s biggest problems” with Social Good Moms partner, PSI.
For some reason, I felt like this was a trip for me. I checked my calendar to see if there was any big conflict on the date of the trip, visited the link, and put my name and email into the form. While I almost never win anything, and barely enter myself into contests, I had a good feeling about this trip.
Guess what? I won!
If you’re not familiar with PSI, here’s a great description from their website:
PSI is a global health organization dedicated to improving the health of people in the developing world by focusing on serious challenges like a lack of family planning, HIV and AIDS, barriers to maternal health, and the greatest threats to children under five, including malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia and malnutrition.
A hallmark of PSI is a commitment to the principle that health services and products are most effective when they are accompanied by robust communications and distribution efforts that help ensure wide acceptance and proper use.
PSI works in partnership with local governments, ministries of health and local organizations to create health solutions that are built to last.
I’ve had several fortuitous events happen to me in the past few months, and this is one of them.
I’ve been talking with various people over at PSI over the last week or so. They are all great, and I am truly looking forward to meeting everyone in person. They are planning an amazing day for me which they are calling a Development Boot Camp. My day will include presentations on social marketing, some of PSI’s programs and public private partnerships, a brown bag lunch at USAID, and coffee with the CEO.
If you read this blog or know me well, you know this is the stuff I geek out to. I am looking forward to learning about PSI’s programs, how they work, and how we all might be involved.
You might be wondering why PSI had such a contest. Margaret Cohen, PSI’s Senior Manager of Online Engagement, tells me that it is a creative way to reach out to potential individual donors. While some organizations may offer such trips as an incentive to donate, PSI used the contest (that only required a name and email address) to simply find “effective altruists” who are looking for sustainable solutions and want to spend their money smartly when giving. They wanted a curious global citizen who was looking for more than just a free trip to DC so they can showcase how PSI is doing development differently.
Well, I think it’s safe to say they got the type of person that they were looking for. And you can bet I’ll be talking more about the concept of “effective altruism” while I’m there.
While it is a quick trip, I do plan on posting updates throughout the day of my “boot camp” on social media (hit the buttons on the top of the page to follow me, if you aren’t already!) and will aim to blog about it for next week’s Philanthropy Friday.
What do you want to hear from me while I’m in DC with PSI?
