MarkThink

Taproot Pro Bono Works to Improve Your Career

Congratulations to the Taproot Foundation for continuing to help nonprofits and individuals navigate this economy. In the last week they've been featured twice in the New York Times (From Ranks of Jobless, a Flood of Volunteers and Even Pro Bono Work Requires Doing Your Homework First) and appeared today on Fox News (see below).

Taproot is on a mission to bring the pro bono model from the legal industry to other professions and markets. By providing the support and infrastructure for nonprofits and volunteers, Taproot creates an environment for individuals and the nonprofits to succeed.

Taproot helps experienced professionals effectively put their skills to work. The recent rise in unemployment is driving up interest in volunteer work and Taproot -- and other organizations like them -- are allowing people to make their [unplanned] time off a period of meaningful pro bono consultancy. This is not just semantics; professionals can expand their experience and networks and do good by doing good work.

The growth in pro bono volunteers in this down economy is a silver lining to a very difficult employment environment and it lays an excellent foundation for future growth as people recognize their talents can benefit nonprofits and their careers.

(Video via Fox News: Charity Boost: Newly Unemployed Turning to Volunteering)

Support One Laptop per Child's Give One, Get One

I'm encouraging everyone to consider supporting the One Laptop per Child's Give One Get One     program this year. It's an great way to help improve education for children around the world and at home.

(via TypePad)

Thank You, Paul Newman

I was surprised to find how much Paul Newman's passing affected me on Saturday. He was a favorite actor of mine since I was a kid and I grew to appreciate him as a person the more I heard -- myths and truths -- while at Kenyon College. There are very few people who have led such a successful life on such a big stage.

There are a ton of great obit pieces out there. I especially appreciate the impressive remembrance from an obviously grateful Kenyon College.

Here's a highlight from the New York Times, commenting on his limits as an actor and strengths as a person:

When a role is right for him, he’s peerless,” the film critic Pauline Kael wrote in 1977. “Newman is most comfortable in a role when it isn’t scaled heroically; even when he plays a bastard, he’s not a big bastard — only a callow, selfish one, like Hud. He can play what he’s not — a dumb lout. But you don’t believe it when he plays someone perverse or vicious, and the older he gets and the better you know him, the less you believe it. His likableness is infectious; nobody should ever be asked not to like Paul Newman.

Thanks, Mr. Newman.