Go Here Now: Brooklyn's CharitySub Reimagines Philanthropy

We're always on the lookout for new initiatives and ideas that fit into the Future of Money infographic that we shared back in December. In February, for instance, we told you about Carrotmob's "buycotts." Now we're thrilled to highlight a new website that's based right here in Brooklyn.

Straight out of Carroll Gardens, CharitySub makes supporting good causes simple and easy. Each month the website picks three worthy nonprofits that are working toward similar goals. Then its subscribers, who chip in a modest $5 per month, get to choose which of those organizations receive their money. This month's "Working Dogs" theme, for instance, offers the option of supporting Angel On A Leash's therapy dogs, Canine Partners for Life's service dogs or Connecticut Canine Search and Rescue.

To make sure that its subscribers' money will be put to good use, CharitySub carefully selects its charities based on their impact, fiscal responsibility and transparency. It also provides subscribers with statistics on their giving and shareable illustrated reports on how charities have used their donations.

By automating the giving process, taking care of the research and footwork and pooling funds to make a bigger impact, CharitySub is an exciting and inspiring example of how the power of emerging economic systems can be harnessed for good. The only hard part will be deciding which of those cute and heroic pups to support.

-- John Ruscher

GREAT CAUSE // Help Uproar Art Help Brooklyn Kids

Max Goodman helps young artists make moulds of their fingers at Uproar's table at the Maker Faire

We understand: It's a tough time to be donating We know your hearts are in the right place, but we also know holiday travel and gift-giving can be huge strains on your wallets. Still, we have a worthy cause that could absolutely use your help. Uproar Art teaches classes and gives private lessons in the arts, visual and performing; teaching low-cost classes in crafts, comic book-making, organic sculpture, and recycled art. Directed by our own jewelry instructor Max Goodman, the organization focuses on individual attention and teaching technical skills, as well as using sustainable materials.

This year, Uproar got its 501-c-3 non-profit incorporation, so they're hoping to expand their programs to do school residencies in Brooklyn. We don't have to tell you folks that this could be huge for the community--it would offer kids a creative outlet that the schools may not be able to provide otherwise (and many of us know how ruthlessly some schools are slashing their art programs altogether.)

Of course, since it's an official non-profit, any donation you make before the end of the 2011 (one-week alert!) will help you out with your taxes. But more than that, you'll be giving kids a chance to learn how to make things and maybe even have a hand in grooming the next generation of 3rd Warders.

All donations can be done straight through here.

--Layla Schlack

UNIONDOCS // Williamsburg Documentary Center Gears Up For Another 10 Years & Needs Your Help

 

A couple weeks ago we expressed our excitement about the new Bronx Documentary Center (which is set to officially open on October 22), but we'd also like to highlight another great documentary center right here in Brooklyn: UnionDocs.

Founded in 2002, UnionDocs is a multifaceted endeavor, encompassing film screenings, seminars and workshops, online publishing, collaborative projects and more. The center has produced events at MoMA and the Camden International Film Festival and partnered with Harvard University's metaLAB and the World Wildlife Foundation. It also hosts over 100 events each year and offers fellowships for emerging media producers, theorists and curators, giving them the resources to explore and develop their work.

UnionDocs just secured a new 10-year lease for its space at 322 Union Avenue in Williamsburg and raising funds on Kickstarter to upgrade the building to meet their growing needs. They're almost half way to their goal of $12,000, with a deadline of October 16, so help out if you can! Your donation could get you everything from an invitation to a private party celebrating the center's renovations to an Associate Producer credit on Looking at Los Sures, a major collaborative production that revisits Los Sures, a 1984 documentary film about the center's South Williamsburg neighborhood.

Check out a few of UnionDocs' upcoming events along with the video for their Kickstarter campaign after the jump.

October 8, 7:30pm: Moment of Impact - "Julia Loktev, the director of the critically acclaimed The Loneliest Planet (New York Film Festival 2011) and Cannes award-winning Day Night Day Night made her extraordinary debut with this sui generis documentary, an intimate family triptych. Loktev gets up close and personal with her parents after a freak accident immobilizes her father and renders her mother a full-time caregiver. What emerges, in carefully wrought 16mm black-and-white, is a candid, tough-minded, and moving portrait of individuals, relationships, and the crosscurrents of past and future in a difficult present."—Nicolas Rapold

October 9, 7:30pm: Three Artist Films with Albert Maysles - A screening of the short films Anastasia, about an American dancer in the Bolshoi Ballet, Salvador Dali's Fantastic Dream, a look at the surrealist painter, and Christo’s Valley Curtain, an Academy Award-nominated piece about the orange curtain that the artist hung between two Colorado mountains.

October 16, 7:30pm: No Bills: Stories of North Brooklyn - "No Bills presented audio oral histories about North Brooklyn through listening stations situated in construction fences and on the street to create serendipitous encounters for passersby, inviting them to engage with neighborhood’s history while standing at the sites of its developing future."

October 22, 7:30pm: Doxita: Inside/Outside - "Society has lines and boundaries that most people are expected to fit within. But many exists on the edge of those boundaries. Some try to fit in, while others embrace a unique path. These four films portray people on the edges -whether physically or personally – and while some might see them or the situation as “strange,” it is just the reality."

-- John Ruscher

ALUMNI CAUSE // Jeweler Christy Cole Struggles to Recover from Brooklyn Bike Accident

"I had come up with all of these ideas and was spending all this time at 3rd Ward--and then I had the accident and stopped being able to work," jewelry designer Christy Cole tells us.

The accident she's referring to occurred while biking through Greenpoint and encountering an inconviently-placed pothole, resulting in bad fall and ultimately a separated shoulder. Having no health insurance, Cole was slapped with a $20,000 surgery bill.  So, doing what any wise entrepreneur would do, Cole took to the internet to raise the cash for the operation.

"I actually raised enough for my down payment, so I had the surgery, but I've got a ways to go until I can pay all the doctors," Cole reports. "It's hurting less every day, but I've got a long way to go with recovery and physical therapy."

One of the things Cole says she's most excited about is returning to 3rd Ward--"I could be a spokesperson, I just love 3rd Ward!"--and of course, jewelry-making.

Some of Cole's creations.Cole originally moved to New York from Texas to go to acting school and upon realizing that acting wasn't for her: "I started taking classes to figure out what I did want to do, and I just fell in love with jewelry." As soon as she took her first class at 3rd Ward, she says her jewelry-design calling clicked into place. She describes her style as both edgy and organic, and we sincerely hope to have her back soon.

--Layla Schlack