Charity Swear Box
Do you curse a lot? Do you curse a lot on Twitter? Just like if you had a swear jar at home, Charity Swear box will donate a dollar for each swear word your tweet. This creative social media tool for good was created by James Dow and Jay Gelardi, and is a easy, low involvement way to raise funds for charity. Creating something fun, that users already do, results in an easy to use, exciting campaign for good, for the world. If you know someone or seen someone who swears all the time, show them the Charity Swear box and tell them to put their bad words to good use. Watch the lovely explanatory video here, and sign up now as our friends at Fuck Cancer are the featured charity!

Snoball
Today’s savvy digital audience prefers information tailored to them, based on their preferences. News articles, friends reommendations, local events etc., combine for a more personalized experience online. Snoball sees this and is a way for users to donate to charity in an way that’s easy, social and fun. Based on a users preferred activities, and tied to everyday interests, the user is in control of their giving. Create an event, invite your friends to join, when your friends join, the snowball grows through customizable micro-donations or one-time gifts. The concepts behind snowball, and its personalized features, make fundraising results happen easily. The tool is useful because it is automated, fun and group based around events, all to create a “snoball” effect. Still not sure? Watch their video.

TousDonateurs
A recent comScore report notes television ads work substantially less effectively on Millennials than on older generations. However, the presence of key creative elements in advertising were shown to relate strong to successful advertising. TousDonateurs is French site where the advertisers donate to charity if users watch their ads. Users go to the site and select a charity that means something to them. They then watch several 30-second long ads, answer a quick question (to confirm the ad was watched), and the advertiser donates a euro on behalf of the viewer. We already watch 4 billion online videos each day — why not watch with purpose.

WeTopia
WeTopia is an online social game where players can contribute to real world problems. The Facebook game is all about players having fun while raising money for children’s charities. The game is free to play, and users create villages and help the community. When a player purchases a virtual good, that action results in a donation to a real world cause. With so many people playing social games, WeTopia is a way for players to contribute to a cause in a social way. WeTopia has many partners including Save the Children, Children’s Health Fund and others. Brand partners include Clorox, Mattel and Dippin’ Dots. It’s also great to note that in the past Zynga has donated millions of dollars to causes via Zynga.org group.

For even more creative social for good projects,  check out the 50/50 make or break initiative. The inititave is based around a challenge: to launch 50 projects in 50 days then raise 1million pounds for famine relief in East Africa. Looking for inspiring projects or want to get involved? Click here: 50/50 make or break initiative

Here are some of the things we’ve done to cook up a delicious workplace culture at the office. Feel free to copy these ideas in your own workplace.

Introduce new team members with fun facts and favourite foods

As the team expands, there’s a bevy of new faces in the office and it’s always our goal to make each new addition feel welcome. New team members are introduced via company-wide email and, as an icebreaker, we share some fun facts about the person, including their favourite foods. It’s a terrific talking point and something that most people can identify with or feel comfortable inquiring about.

Deadlines meet dinnertime

We’re a tech company with deadlines to keep , so it’s no surprise when people surpass regular 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. hours to get a job done. Here at Invoke, we sometimes bring in dinner to keep everyone going while they diligently finish up projects. To make it easier, we’ve been testing (and using)  Food.ee and having the food come to us. There’s nothing like sharing a meal while working to galvanize a team and remind everyone of shared goals.

Find food trucks together

Remember going into fits of delight when you heard that old, familiar ice cream truck jingle roll by on your street? Well, finding a food truck together can be nostalgically thrilling. Just ask our developer, Jon Chui, who goes into paroxysms of joy when he spots the Tacofino truck rolling by.

Come Friday lunch, Invokers can be found joining our friends at HootSuite for Food Cart Fridays or using the Eat St. App to locate food truck finds near our new location and sharing our discoveries, and our lunches, with the team.

No team member left behind

Inquire about food allergies and dietary restrictions. You can’t bank on everyone being able to eat absolutely everything. To ensure that you don’t feel terrible every time you offer your peanut-allergic coworker some of your trail mix, do be mindful of your coworkers’ dietary restrictions. There’s no reason why everybody can’t be included in food sharing and food fun at the office.

This week, we jumped at the opportunity to help give back. Everyone at the Invoke office stepped away from their computers and into their grubby work clothes for an afternoon of volunteering at Grandview Elementary School. It took a lot of work to clean out and build a natural playground, but it was totally worth it. The combination of fresh air, hard work and a great crew made for one of the best team building events we’ve ever had.

The event was organized by ING DIRECT, which set out to transform the existing space into a natural playground and community hub for the neighbourhood to enjoy. The Orange in the Community program is a hands-on way to give back to the communities in which ING DIRECT operates.

It was so great to see all the Invokers laying decorative mosaic tiles, planting trees, raking weeds, and owling.

The event was very well organized, with refreshments, snacks, entertainmnent for attending children and music. We were working alongside about 100+ people including ING CEO Peter Aceto.

It was wonderful to help give back to this great community. Some of us may even pick up gardening after this. Check out all the photos on our Flickr page.

(American, Humorist, Writer, Lecturer; 1835-1910)

Although our first memories of riding a bicycle most likely involved a box of Band-Aids, a tube of Polysporin and our parents losing our utmost trust, most of us have grown a strong relationship with this two-wheeled mode of transportation.

Bike month was in June and is put on every year by the Better Environmentally Sound Transportation (BEST) association. BEST began in 1991 with a small group of dedicated cyclists intent on sharing their passion and vision for community building and environmental sustainability through bicycling. Quickly BEST became the local voice for cycling issues and the organization coordinates various events throughout the year including National Environment Week and Bike Month in June.

Vancouver bike stats

The city has generated some interesting statistics that you may or may not have known about cycling in Vancouver:

• There are currently more than 400 lane-kilometres of bike routes in the city.
• Approximately 60,000 trips are made on a bike every day in the City of Vancouver.
• 15.9 per cent of residents in Vancouver cycle or walk to work.
• 41.4 per cent of residents in the downtown core and West End cycle or walk to work.

Invokers ride

The team at Invoke love to bike – every month is bike month at our office. Besides the fact that the parking situation and bylaw officers in Railtown do not support gas-guzzlers, Invokers bike to, and from, work, to lunch and even to sales meetings.

Our lobby has become the parking lot for all our bikes and at any one time there are at least 10 bikes sitting amongst the sleeping office dogs. Some people have mistaken our lobby for a bike store, while others have attempted to walk in and snag one for their own, along with an aforementioned office dog.

Meet the Invoke Cyclists

Name: Kate
Bike’s name: Gwen
Type: Single speed, bright blue Norco with a pink lock
Why do you bike: I bike because then I can sleep in more in the morning.
One time, at Invoke… there were so many bikes I couldn’t get into the office. #firstworldproblems

Name: Jon
Type: Three bikes, two motos
Why do you bike: I ride because it’s fun and I can have more than half a pint and still be legal to ride it.
I love my bike because… It only takes 7 minutes to bike to the office (one Stones song). In this hood it takes longer than that to find parking, and you’ll probably get a $35 ticket too.

Name: Andre
Bike’s Name: Wally
Type: Hybrid blue norco – more on the roadie than mountain bike side
Why do you bike: I bike because it makes me feel good in the morning, and I really dislike transit.
I love my bike because… It lets me zoom by drivers stuck on Main Street and lets me sleep more. It’s also pretty fast.

Name: Sean Tyson
Bike’s Name: I don’t name bikes. That’s weird.
Type: Vintage 1960s Raleigh Triumph (british racing green, original Brooks leather saddle, 3-speed Sturmey-Archer hub)
Why do you bike: Biking is the most therapeutic thing ever. It helps me decompress after work, helps me wake-up before work, and it allows me to drink copious amounts of alcohol since I don’t have to worry about driving. It’s also really fun. The new bike lanes are great but I actually enjoy navigating douche bag drivers on the road. I also like not polluting the world.

Lastly, living in Holland made me a much more pragmatic biker. Over there, if stuff is in your way (people, cars, garbage, etc.) you just go around it. You don’t give dirty looks, you don’t get upset, you just navigate the object like it’s a game. Keep on pedalling and keep on smiling. No need to get agro.

Bike apps to help your commute

Fancy tracking how many miles you’ve put down? Stranded on the side of the road with a defunct chain? There’s an app for that. Here’s a list of some neat bike apps we like to use:

Bike Doctor
Bike Doctor is like a pocket mechanic – ready to help you out whenever and wherever. The app provides detailed instructions and repair tips for any part of your bike. Tap on the “Bike” button to bring up a picture of a bicycle, tap the part of the bike with a problem, and a list of repairs relating to that part appears. From cleaning and lubricating, to doing a brake upgrade and repairing a flat, Bike Doctor has you covered.

iBiker
iBiker was voted the best wireless fitness product in 2010 by The Wireless Association. This app tracks your rides and maps your routes outdoors using geo-location, and records metrics such as weight and blood pressure. It’s free, but if you want you can upgrade to full functionality with heart rate monitors, speed and cadence sensors, power meters and foot pods. Workouts will never be the same.

Spokes NYC
Biking in NYC has never been easier now that there is Spokes NYC. The app is a bicycle routing application designed to generate ideal bike routes with turn by turn directions. Other features include a bike rack locator pointing you to one of over 5000 bike racks citywide and a bike shop locator. Our favourite feature is the ability to report thefts from a given bike rack or location allowing you to alert fellow cyclists.

The Vancouver Canucks have more than 114,000 followers on their Twitter account (@VanCanucks) and nearly 447,000 Likes on Facebook. The team leverages its colossal fan community by organizing game-day tweet-ups, sharing unique pictures, videos, and running contests and ticket giveaways.

“Connecting with one another is a part of the culture of sports and it is a part of the fan culture,” said Peter Chow-White, an assistant professor of communication at Simon Fraser University.  ”The connection to social media builds layers on top of the fan experience. The experience extends further than in the stadium or on TV — they are able to experience this in real-time in their own lives using social media.”

In other words, social media isn’t creating something new – it’s simply building on what sport already does. Chow-White points out watching sports is not an individual venture.

“A core part of our culture is in terms of connecting with one another and social media facilitates these connections,” Chow-White said. “Fans love to talk – talking about sports is as important as, or more important than, the sport itself.”

Shannen O’Brian, executive director and founder of  Create Change, leveraged this connection and shared the Canucks community in Ghana. Shane Smith, videographer for Create Change, shared a video he had taken at a school in Ghana – they constructed a rain water harvesting tank using donations from Vancouver citizens, and brought along a Canucks 2011 playoff towel. The video has since spread all around the Canucks fan community. Create Change believes that by tapping into interconnectedness with the help of social media, it helped them share the connection and community around the world and helped make people aware that anyone can use the power of these groups to effect positive change in the lives of others.

Richard Loat, the go-to alternative media source for the Vancouver Canucks, is also a strong advocate for using social media for a good cause. Loat founded Five Hole For Food a cross country hockey road trip and food drive which has evolved into a social media effort of networks and partners.

“[Social media] has opened up the fan community and made the fan experience unique, and even more social,” Loat said. “Teams like the Canucks have been very receptive to social media and it has removed the barrier between the fan and the team.”

So what is the future of social media in professional sports organizations? The Vancouver Canucks have a mobile app, something other teams may want to look into.

Chow-White said social media is still going through an experimental stage.

“It’s going to expand, but a lot of people still don’t know what to do with it,” he noted.  ”Learning how to incorporate social media into a business model and figuring out how to connect with fans will be an important factor.”