BetterWorld  was out this past weekend supporting the 29th anniversary fundraiser for Reston Interfaith,  a leading service provider promoting self-sufficiency for those in need of food, immediate shelter, affordable housing, quality child care, and other human services.  Reston Interfaith offers comprehensive programs for about 20,000 people each year in Reston, Herndon and northwest Fairfax County....

BetterWorld Telecom helped feed breakfast this past week to over 500 people at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco!...

“Will Our Plugged-In Planet Have a Green or Black Future?” As originally featured on kansascity.com by Scott Canon Chances are the Internet has changed something about your life. How you shop. How you stay in touch with school buddies or look for a job. ...

BetterWorld’s Ali Gunertem recently helped out at a fundraiser for earthquake relief for the citizens of Van, Turkey. Generously hosted at the home of the Virginia businessman Terry McAuliffe and coordinated with Turkish Philanthropy Funds, the event raised funds for the 7.1 magnitude earthquake that occurred in eastern Turkey near the city of Van in October, 2011....

As originally featured in SustainableIndustries.com by BetterWorld President Matthew Bauer. A three part series: Reading the tea leaves, accepting the inevitable and bringing focus to the most promising sector of our economy. For eons, civilization on Earth evolved slowly, innovation and change took place over decades and centuries, until the past few hundred years. Suddenly, an explosion of invention and progress gave society airplanes, cars, global wars, computers, skyscrapers, the Internet, global movement of goods and money, beauty, opportunity and destruction on a level never imagined. For the first time since we pulled our knuckles off the ground, humanity had gotten way out ahead of itself. So who could blame us for buying into the religion of growth for growth’s sake, materialism, globalization and all the ensuing collateral damage. ...

Excerpted from BetterWorld Insights Newsletter. Happy New Year! Delancey Street Donation On behalf of our customers, we're celebrating this holiday season with a donation to the Delancey Street Foundation. Now in it's 40th yr., Delancey is a community where people with nowhere to turn, turn their lives around. If every community had a Delancey Street it would truly be a BetterWorld....

BetterWorld’s Matt Bauer recently visited The Wendel Forum, a radio show dedicated to focusing on the legal side of the green economy. Interviewed by Bill Acevedo, The Green Business Practice Leader at Wendel Rosen, Bauer spoke of BetterWorld’s journey as a company, bringing purpose and mission to an industry traditionally not involved in the green economy and sustainability efforts. ...

As originally featured in Washington Post.com by Matt Bauer, President, BetterWorld Telecom. By all accounts, the telecom carrier industry is set to grow again in the coming year. In a world of 7 billion people, almost every one of them owns a handset. And more than 10 percent of the globe is now wired on broadband. BetterWorld has been a part of the telecom industry’s tremendous growth and was fortunate to make the 2011 Inc. 5000 List. We are on pace to be there again in 2012 due, in part, to industry growth, growing demand as our customers use more teleconferencing and telecommuting and BetterWorld’s firm commitment to social and environmental sustainability. This commitment has engendered customer loyalty through tough times, and it helped us build partnerships and goodwill rarely found in our industry. ...

We were thrilled to receive this review from one of our newest TechSoup Global nonprofit customers, FishWise: FishWise provides innovative market-based tools to the seafood industry, enabling consumers and grocery retailers to support marine conservation through their seafood purchasing decisions. Letter from Fishwise: I was hired to organize a growing non-profit office of eight. ...

Volunteering BetterWorld’s Salem Kimble was out dressed as an elf volunteer recently, face painting students at a holiday fundraising event for St. Leo the Great School in Oakland, CA. “It’s such a great experience to give back to the local community,” Salem said, “it’s wonderful to work at a company that values giving back too.” To our BetterWorld Family With holidays coming up, we’re lucky here at BetterWorld Telecom to have much to be thankful for, from our partners and affiliates to all of our wonderful customers. We wanted to take a moment to give a shout out to a few folks we’re thankful for this year. ...

A little while back BetterWorld was out at GigaOm's RoadMap conference listening to Jack Dorsey, famed Founder of both Twitter and Square, a new company poised to cut the red tape on transactions and merchanting. This is just some of the wisdom he had to share in his interview with Om Malik, Founder of GigaOm. **Role of Technology ** Jack believes that technology creates empathy, which helps to end conflict. In this way, it makes the world feel closer and moves us towards a more compassionate future. Country boundaries are convenient for organization, but really are arbitrary; the human tendency is to create “temporary autonomous zones”, or places where people come together for a purpose and then naturally disperse. Both Twitter and Square bring peer-to-peer interactions to the forefront and allow for more transparency and access, to share information (Twitter) and goods (Square). ...

(This blog was originally posted as a guest blog on Triple Pundit by Matt Bauer) Throughout the late 19th century and for all of the 20th Centuries, most forms of communications and media, from telephony, to radio, movies and TV, all went through the same cycle. Initial experimentation, innovation and when their use began to spread, all were the target of business in an effort to control the medium. Eventually ownership of these communication mediums became concentrated in one or just a few corporate entities. In all cases, innovation was stifled; smaller business and opportunity shut out, and centralized command established. ...

Several of the BetterWorld team made it out to the west coast this past week, visiting great customers like New Resource Bank, Fair Trade USA, Clif Bar, Mother Jones, Uber, Cafe Gratitude, the Hub SoMa, Walden House and more!...

(This posting was originally a guest blog for TechSoup Global) If you work for a nonprofit or library in California, your organization might be eligible to reduce your telecom expenses by half. Thousands of eligible organizations in California are not aware of the California Teleconnect Fund (CTF) and missing out on this great benefit available to them. BetterWorld Telecom is one of only a select few telecom providers certified and approved to provide services eligible for reimbursement through the CTF program. We also have a donation program with the non-profit TechSoup Global, providing access to discounted telecommunications service. When combined with the California Teleconnect Fund discount, this offering creates an amazing opportunity for eligible nonprofits. ...

San Francisco Board of Supervisors President and SF Mayoral Candidate, David Chiu, today held a press conference at the Hub SoMa and laid out his plan for San Francisco to become the beacon and capital of Social Entrepreneurialism, starting with a plan for the City to provide contract bid preferences to CA B Corps or Benefit Corporations. BetterWorld has stood by Supervisor Chiu through this process, which began at a Silicon Valley Leadership Group event a few months ago and culminating recently in a roundtable with Supervisor Chiu with many SF Access Economy and B Corps leaders, including Jeff Marcous of Dharma Merchant Services, Brian Back of Sustainable Industries, David Brodwin from the American Sustainable Business Council, Alex Michel from the 5M Project and others....

The BetterWorld team was fortunate to attend two very different events this week that both shed a great deal of hope and inspiration on our short and long term future. With nothing but bad news coming out of the mainstream media, no solutions coming from Capitol Hill and Wall Street clinging mightily to its profits, it is the story of the millennials, the Access Economy, and the Shared Economy that help paint a pathway towards a more socially and environmentally sustainable The 12th Annual Brower Youth Awards: Not a dry eye in the house as a packed house at the beautiful Herbst Theatre across from City Hall in downtown San Francisco listened for almost two hours to the stories of 7 incredible, young changemakers. The recipients hailed from places as diverse as the Bronx, Santa Cruz all the way to Appalachian West Virginia. Their stories held a common bond of both frustration with the current system, and their own beautiful answers for helping to change things in their communities and beyond. This year’s Brower Youth Award recipients are: ...

In a huge stride forward for business and communities alike, Governor Brown signed into law the historic Assembly Bill 361, creating a new class of corporation, a benefit corporation. The legislation, introduced by Assembly member Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) legally requires benefit corporations to prioritize positive impact on society and the environment, while meeting higher standards of accountability and transparency. Current law requires corporations to prioritize the financial interests of shareholder over the interests of workers, communities, and the environment. The California legislation is unique, providing the strongest consumer and investor protection, with more rigorous transparency provisions than the states that have so far enacted benefit corporation legislation. California is the sixth and largest state to enact benefit corporation legislation and has a strong existing base of entrepreneurs connected to sustainability. ...

Dozens of sustainable business and organizational leaders descended on Washington, D.C. this week for the 2nd Annual American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC) Conference. The myriad of member organizations and business members that make up ASBC, now include and represent over 100,000 businesses across America. We discussed sustainable policies from the Jobs Act to Toxic Chemical Legislation with members of the EPA, representatives of the Obama Administration, and over 30 congressional and senate offices, many times with the members themselves....

BetterWorld had an amazing time at Dreamforce recently, learning about the latest and greatest happenings in the cloud. With a jaw dropping 45,000 attendees, this conference was beyond buzzing with activity. Inspiration was clearly in the the air as Salesforce outlined where it is headed and the future flexibility of business as a whole. The overwhelming mantra of the conference was a drive to shift to the cloud for all aspects of business operations and the tool kit that Salesforce itself provides (let along its partners and tag-along industries) addresses the majority of a business' core competencies. The main events included a great conversation with Executive Chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt and several keynotes highlighting new services in the upcoming Winter ‘12 release of Salesforce. ...

Normal.dotm 0 0 1 189 1080 East Bay Green Tours 9 2 1326 12.0 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false New York, NY, Aug. 26, 2011(GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Inc. magazine this week ranked BetterWorld Telecom number 3,531 on its fifth annual Inc. 500|5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. The list represents the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy–America’s independent entrepreneurs. Online retailer ideeli tops this year’s list. BetterWorld Telecom joins some of its sustainable customers like Clean Currents and Honest Tea, as well as partners Vocalocity and Granite Telecom, alongside great industry change makers like Zipcar, Pandora and Linkedin, among other prominent brands featured on this year’s list. ...

BetterWorld team members Matt and Glenn had a great time visiting the Coastside Children’s Programs facility in Half Moon Bay this past week, getting their communications in top shape. Coastside Children’s Programs has been serving children and families from diverse multicultural and socio-economic backgrounds since 1975. Administering child care and development centers that provide quality educational, recreational and skill-building activities through a preschool, and before and after school programs, as well as full-time activities during the summer, they create a fun, nurturing and safe environment for children to learn at their highest potential. ...

BetterWorld is thrilled to welcome the Walden House to the BetterWorld customer family! The mission of Walden House is to give hope and change lives for people affected by substance abuse and mental health conditions. They do this by offering behavioral health services and tools for living to youth, adults, and families throughout California. Their services aim to relieve the burden of societal problems by promoting wellness, healthy relationships, productive living, and community involvement. Recently Walden House in San Francisco merged with Haight Ashbury Free Clinic to better serve local residents. ...

BetterWorld is happy to welcome Bigelow Laboratory to the BetterWorld customer family! Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences is a nonprofit research organization based on the coast of Maine which studies the ocean. Their research ranges from microbial oceanography (examining biological productivity and phytoplankton community dynamics in the world’s oceans at the molecular level – phew!...

** Giving Back** BetterWorld Telecom was founded with a vision of giving back and engaging with the communities we serve. We believe in the value of giving both our time and 3 percent of our top of the line revenue back to the areas that are key to our collective future, such as children, our environment, education and insuring fair trade....

** Telecom for Good** BetterWorld Telecom provides services that enable and support a virtual work environment, as a donation partner with TechSoup Global. However, BetterWorld itself works as a virtual team, with team members scattered literally across the U.S. With TechSoup’s focus on virtual work this month, we thought we’d share some of the tips and practices we use to make ‘virtual work’ work for us....