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Back-to-school season is officially underway and it’s always during this time that we at Change Communications rue the sad state of public education in our country. Instead of kicking rocks, we want to do more to improve the quality of public education for children in American, no matter their socioeconomic status. To that end, we’re lucky to work with PLAN (Bay Area Parent Leadership Action Network), a non-profit organization comprised of parents and caregivers that advocates for low-income families in public education.

PLAN‘s message is positive and inspiring. The hard-working advocates at PLAN believes that the schools most affected by a failing education system can be reformed if parents unite, become educated, and are given adequate tools to make a change. Through a diverse mix of networking forums, leadership trainings, and action campaigns, PLAN offers parents the powerful tools they need to help reform the school systems in their communities.

As a 501(c)(3) dependent on rapidly shrinking grants, PLAN is currently seeking sponsors for their upcoming fundraiser gala ceremony in December. In addition, PLAN is always seeking annual corporate sponsors. If you know of a company that believes in building a voice for children throughout the Bay Area, please send an email to melia(at)parentactionnet.org. You can also make donations on their Website. It’s time to get with the PLAN!

If you’re anything like us, then you haven’t seen Parry Gripp’s insanely catchy “Baby Monkey (Going Backwards on a Pig)” YouTube video just once. You’ve seen it 10, 15, oh, maybe even 20+ times (we really don’t want to admit how many times we’ve seen it). The video is adorable but what makes it stick in your craw is Gripp’s hilarious song. The talented Gripp is hardly some one-hit-YouTube-wonder. The lead singer of Nerf Herder (calling all “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” fans!), Gripp is a multi-talented musician. And a guy who is incapable of writing a non-catchy song.

Kihon Games‘ Creative Director, Dan Kopycienski’s daughters were just like us. They couldn’t stop watching Gripp’s video. And when Kopycienski caught wind, the game guru in him immediately thought “why isn’t this a game?” As the creator of PoxNora (from Octopi; later acquired by Sony Online Entertainment), Kopycienski knows a thing or two about creating infectious, addicting, viral games. And so, an iPhone game was born.

The “Baby Monkey (Going Backwards on a Pig)” game for the iPhone, iPad and iPod is now available at the iTunes store for a mere $0.99. It promises to be as addicting to your thumbs as the song is to your ear.

We’re thrilled to work with Kihon Games and Parry Gripp to ensure that you never get “Baby Monkey (Going Backwards on a Pig)” out of your head and heart!

Purchase the “Baby Monkey (Going Backwards on a Pig)” game here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/baby-monkey-going-backwards/id447960108

And for more cuteness, watch Parry’s trailer for the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PDwhaWHyDHk

By now, most of us know that the smallest acts are often the most powerful.

Fundraising in this difficult economy has become a tremendous challenge for most non-profits, established and emerging. How do you get people to give when they can barely provide for themselves? In times like these, non-profits have to turn to creativity to raise funds.

International humanitarian relief non-profit, Good Neighbors, has come up with a very simple way to raise funds to feed hungry children in developing countries. By partnering with a generous donor who appreciates interesting ideas, Good Neighbors will donate 25 cents for every new “like” on their Facebook Fan page. Their goal is ambitious – they want to feed 32,000 kids – and entirely feasible.

Like it or not, Facebook is still the most widely used social media platform, and the one with the most cost-effective marketing opportunities. By tapping into a participatory community and asking them to do something they already do on a daily basis (liking fan pages), Good Neighbors is leveraging a basic act into a very powerful one. It’s not revolutionary, it’s not ingenious, but it’s creative and powerful and should accomplish Good Neighbors’ goal.

Help Good Neighbors feed hungry children here: https://www.facebook.com/goodneighborsusa?sk=app_128953167177144

Brands on a budget always get the short end of the stick when it comes to viral marketing opportunities. Unless a small business can afford to keep a design whiz, an engineering mastermind and a marketing guru in-house, chances are they’re struggling to achieve and maintain visibility and relevancy in today’s social media-driven market. North Social saw that disparity, and launched a suite of 18 Facebook applications designed to level the playing field for brands looking to grow their fanbase. For under $20 a month, any company can unlock North Social’s arsenal of easy to use, powerful applications, designed to help your brand build out and capitalize on the one thing that money can’t buy: creativity. All it takes is a good idea and with North Social’s apps, you won’t have to worry about finding the budget to execute that good idea.

North Social is truly changing the marketplace, and the way in which brands can now promote themselves. Change Communications is proud to work with North Social to provide businesses, individuals and brands of all sizes equal access to tools to help them build a better following. Super Like!

Synergies in Sync would like to change the world. More precisely, your world. This innovative organization works with individuals, companies and governments around the globe to help them spur change by means of social entrepreneurship, an emerging economic sector that strives to solve social problems through business practices. Giving these groups of social entrepreneurs the technology, strategy and education to execute their goals, Synergies in Sync takes a grassroots approach to empowering “changemakers” as they strive to alleviate problems in their own communities such as hunger, lack of education and crime.

Change Communications recently teamed up with Synergies in Sync to help them re-brand their organization and website. We worked closely with their team to take a very complex and still-relatively-unknown sector of philanthropy in social entrepreneurship and turn their mission and website into a simple, immediate and powerful experience for anyone who visits it. It’s all part of what we at Change love to do: help those who are helping others.

We at Change are dedicated to the same ideals of bold empowerment for those who want to improve the world and are inspired by the mission of an organization like Synergies in Sync and their founder, Dr. Lani Fraizer. It has been truly remarkable learning about the good that Synergies in Sync is doing for people around the world.

For more information about Synergies in Sync or to check out their brand-spanking-new website, please visit http://synergiesinsync.org/

Mom’s to do list:
1) Research preschools
2) Find a new story time for Emma
3) Sign Kevin up for tee ball
4) Ask other parents for safe and entertaining websites for kids
5) Repeat for 18 years

Since the dawn of time, parents have had few options for solving all of the things that pop up on their to-do lists. But now, Figling.com is here to help. Combining the listing and review features of sites like Craigslist (minus the creepos) and Yelp, Figling.com is a one-stop community resource helping parents find the best local events, classes, camps, schools, businesses and more that cater to families.

Change Communications is thrilled to welcome Figling.com to our family as they expand their online community resources from Los Angeles to other markets. Families can rejoice too, knowing that while their to-do list might not stop growing, they’ll finally have a one-stop option to make things a little easier.

Change Communications is very proud to announce our newest client/passion project, Good Neighbors USA. Good Neighbors is an international philanthropic organization dedicated to providing children and adults the tools needed to lift themselves out of poverty and improve their quality of life. Good Neighbors relies on a number of methods such as Child Development, Community Development, Health & Sanitation, Advocacy, Global Networking and Emergency Relief to do their incredible work.

One example of their many world-changing ideas is Project Cookstove. This blog post by writer/actress Pamela Ribon describes this simple and life-changing plan to help Guatemalan families improve their health, education and environment by replacing dangerous open fires and dirty stoves with clean, efficient and affordable ones. It’s just one of many ways that Good Neighbors is fighting the good fight.

Change Communications is thrilled to be working with Good Neighbors. To learn about their many projects or to help, please visit GoodNeighbors.org.

Yay! Thanks for stopping by! We know that our site can be a little hard to find. That’s because we at Change Communications believe in doing things a little bit differently. As you click around, you’ll see that Change Communications isn’t about upping our SEO or winning awards; just doing great work for the clients that we’re lucky enough to serve. We don’t intend this website to be a showcase for us; rather, a showcase for our amazing clients.

If you’d like to learn about what Change Communications can do for you, please visit our Contact page or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you, even if it’s just to tell us who your favorite football team is.

And you can always find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ChangeCommunications and of course Twitter.