A time for giving thanks

Update: we have now collected $1,765,00..thanks!

What better day to do a post thanking a bunch of special people than the actual day of Thanksgiving, at least here in my home country of the United States.   Who am I thanking?   Each and every one of the (so far) 83 people who took part in my HR Carnival of Global Giving.  The thing was enormous, and yielded more donations than I ever anticipated.   I’ll tell you the total amount and the charity that was randomly selected at the bottom of this post.

The Money People

Here are the names of the people who have generously contributed financial support.  If I have omitted anyone, it is unintentional.  Please let me know if I did!   Otherwise, let me extend each and every one of you on the list (except for me, of course!) my heartfelt gratitude and thanks for your support and generosity.   We did a good thing here!

• Karla Porter
• Mark Stelzner
• Kris Dunn
• Joan Ginsberg
• Lance Haun
• Steve Boese
• China Gorman
• Michael VanDervort
• Susan Burns
• Naomi Bloom
• Talented Apps
• Fran Melmed
• Robin Schoooling
• Mike Krupa
• Tammy Colson
• Kevin Grossman
• Leanne Chase
• Angela Rosario of Jobing Tampa
• Meghan M. Biro
• Lisa Rosendahl
• Shauna Moerke
• Larry Wilson
• Paul Smith
• Jennifer V. Miller
• Joan Schramm

A little mo’ money?

If you had a post published, and didn’t donate, I’d like to ask just this one time that consider doing so.  If each person who posted, but isn’t on the above list could send in $6, we would achieve a pretty magical number for this little impromptu experiment in social media fundraising.   How magical, you say?  Check out what we have raised so far!

And the winning charity as determined by a random number generator is….

the charity sbmitted by Dan McCarthy of the Great Leadership blog.   Dan is a colleague from the Smartbrief Workforce advisory board, but someone I haven’t met in person yet.   Dan submitted Children Awaiting Parents as his charity of choice.

Children Awaiting Parents, Inc. (CAP) is a national, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization governed by a volunteer board of directors. For 37 years, they have been dedicated to finding adoptive homes for America’s waiting children.

CAP’s mission is to recruit foster and adoptive families across the United States for children who have been waiting the longest for a family. Our waiting children are often older, minorities, sibling groups who wish to be placed together, or children with emotional, mental and/or physical disabilities – children who are typically categorized as “special needs” or “hardest to place”.

How much will be donated?

Operating on the generous assumption that each of our generous contributors will fund their full commitment (despite coming up  little short of 100 posts), we have currently raised a grand total of $1,530.00!

If each person who supplied a post would donate just $6, we would be able to donate over $2,000 to this wonderful organization.   We just need another $470!  Can you help us get there?

How to donate

Whether you are on the current list of contributors, or just considering it now, we need to get the funds to Children Awaiting Parents.   Given that we are scattered all over the world, I am going to suggest that the fastest way for everyone to make their donation is to use this link to send your money and go ahead and make your donation directly.  I would just ask that you make your donation on behalf of the 2009 HR Carnival of Giving.    If you have already sent me a check, or donated through postadollar, I will make sure that those funds are included along with my own donation.

Once again, my deepest thanks to all of you, and please enjoy a safe and happy holiday season, wherever you may be!

Michael VanDervort

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Charity Work is Hard Work

Wow!   I am overwhelmed.

First, by the generosity of people who have chipped in to make this an awesome fundraiser for some lucky charity.   Secondly, by the amount of time it has taken to pull this monster together.  I have been typing non-stop (with the exception of one work emergency) since 5:30 am this morning.

Be forwarned, I haven’t done great proofreading, tested all the links, or even made sure thay I have every post that was submitted.  I will clean up detail work later this evening after I go shopping for a turkey and some other things that need done now.

If I missed you, email me at michael.vandervort@gmail.com or tweet me, and I’ll fix it!

HR Carnival of Giving

There are now a total of 77 83 85 86 submissions to this edition of the HR Carnival, with a couple more expected.  Even though we didn;t hit 100, you all did a helluva job.  I haven’t selected the winner yet, or calculated the exact amount of final donations.  I will do that tonight and post it tomorrow, but some lucky charity is going to get several hundred dollars rom you generous folks.  There are a number of very kind folks who deserve special recognition for their generosity. Hopefully, I caught you all in the text that follows.  If not, the oversight is due to time constraint. If you will please let me know, I will will fix it.

Happy Holidays

I think you will find a lot of good reading in this edition of the Carnival.  I think we did some good as well.  Wherever you are, wherever you may be, please accept my heartfelt thanks and wishes for a happy holiday season, no matter which faith or season you celebrate.   Today, we helped make a difference. well done, dudes and dudettes!

The HR Carnival of Giving is now Open!

First up is Karla Porter, who is hopeful enough to place her trust in HR, and thinks that the rest of us should do so as well.  Karla obviously has a soft spot for the underdog professionals, and for the four legged kind as well.   Her preferred charity is the Humane Society of Cozumel Island.   Thanks for sending along the $2 in donations as well via Post a Dollar, Karla!

Jake Flanagin of the Maximize Possibility hits us up with 5 Ways to Keep Accountability from Becoming a Buzzword in Your Organization by Chris Young.

From Germany, Laura Schroeder explores the lighter side of human capital management on her blog Working Girl.  Here is her take on Gen Y, stress, and performance, amongst other things.  It is called Always available, Always broken.    Laura’s favorite charity is Repower America.  Good luck, Laura – thanks for jumping into the Carnival from across the pond!

One of the FOT team, Kelly Dingee drops by with her spin how one might go about Sourcing a Sourcer.  Kelly was indecisive about her favorite charity, giving dual shoutouts to charity:water and Donors choose – both charities she learned more about at TWTRCON.

Chris Ferdinandi from Renegade HR shares his thoughts on having a conversation about your work culture with his post  “Social” Media: How to have a conversation about your culture”.

Cathy Missildine-Martin shares her ideas on how HR can add to profits.  If Cathy is lucky when I draw for the winning charity, maybe the Samaritan House of Atlanta will reap a little profit thanks to her submission of their organization as her favorite charity.

Mark Levinson brings a big brained topic to the Carnival, sharing his intellectual insights on a really big topic (and an animal that NEVER forgets) with his brilliant piece,  The Elephant in the Room: Using Brain Science to Enhance Working Relationships.  He gives us a very smart charity choice as well with Kiva!

Mick Collins of InfoHRM shares some strong ideas on writing a mission statement for workforce analytics.  He keeps the strong coming with his charity nomination, LiveStrong.

We are coming into the holiday season, and it seems as though it is always hard to find the right thing, or locate that one person you need to talk to because they are visiting family in Wyoming or whatever.  Erik Samdahl shares something else that is hard to find with a post from the i4cp site called Workforce Planning Is the “Missing Link” for HR by Jay Jamrog.

Larry Wilson from the HR Commons blog shares some uncommonly insightful thoughts on what might be coming next for human resources.   He also shares a singular charity with his choice of ONE.

Jason Seiden likes to call things the way he sees them, and he thought his post on work life balance or the lack thereof would be perfect for the Carnival.  Thanks for sharing, Jason!

Joan Ginsberg loves animals.  She also blogs about them sometimes.  She shares her thoughts on what HR can learn from pet owners.   Joan also submits the Michigan Humane Society for her charity.   Joan was also one of the generous folks who stepped up and added their generous support to this little charitable initiative.  Thanks for your generosity, Joan!

Another generous soul that added to the charity pool is Lance Haun.  Lance just celebrated his wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago.  (by listening to HR Happy Hour if I remember correctly!) and this got him thinking about other anniversary events.  Check out why Lance thinks work anniversaries still matter.  Typical of Lance, he submits the ThyCa Research Fund in honor of his wife, a survivor.

Paul Smith rolls into the Carnival with a Hollywood-inspired post from his new site, Welcome To The Occupation.  You might say he was channeling his inner Breakfast Club.  The post is titled I’m Doing Society A Favor…So? (a tribute to John Hughes).  For his charity, Paul submits MANNA.   Welcome to the Carnival, Paul!

John Hunter strolls onto the scene with a post from the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog called Learn Lean by Doing Lean.   For his charity, John submits Kiva an organization which he promotes on his blog.

The blogger with the most infectious giggle ever, and the Carnival’s main operator Shauna Moerke jumps on the merry-go-round with her take on why it is important to know some people, but not just any people. For her charity pick, Shauna stays Minnesota local and selects Open Arms Minnesota.

Steve Boese is going to be a part of our HR Social Media Street team at the HR Florida 2010 State Conference.  (call for presentations extended until December 28th!)  Steve is also one of our generous contributors to the Carnival in more ways than one.  Steve is matching my contribution dollar for dollar, and also throws in his two cents on applying some of the principles that professional basketball scouts (talent evaluators) use to the workplace.   For his charity, Steve recommends Heritage Christian Stables, an organization that does therapeutic horseback riding programs for children and adults with various developmental challenges.

Margo Rose, aka HR Margo has written a post especially for the Carnival.  Her touching and personal post deals with why finding a cure for diabetes is so very important to her.  Her charity of choice is the American Diabetes Association.   Thanks for being a part of the Carnival, Margo!

Allen Robinson of the Logic Writer blog comes to the defense of our favorite professional organization for human resources professional.  Find out why he believes that SHRM is not the harbinger of the apocalypse in the uniquely titled post, Why SHRM is not the Anti-Christ of HR.  When I read it, I learned that Allen and I are both alumni from the University of Michigan.  Go Blue!  In another unique move, Allen nominates his own employer organization, Volunteers of America North Alabama as his preferred charity.

The host of the last regular Carnival, Ben Eubanks from Upstart HR did a great job of promoting the concept of using the Carnival venue as something more than just an anthology collection of blog links.  He inspired my idea to try to do something for charity in this round.  You should go read his about how to make the carnival (or any post) matter.  I agree with Ben who says “I think it would be awesome if people would take the challenge. They’d be surprised at what it may accomplish.”   Ben also supports his employer as his favorite charity, which also happens to be Volunteers of America North Alabama .

Wally Bock of Three Star Leadership brings to the brink of leadership, writing about The Center for Creative Leadership and their newly issued their “Leadership Gap” report, including an interesting list of things that survey respondents think won’t be important for leaders five years from now.  You should have a look, but please Mind the Leadership Gap!  Wally also tells me he wouldn’t mind if the Salvation Army was the recipient of our donation.

Gautam Ghosh rides the roller coaster all the way from India, sharing his thoughts on Building Open Organizations.   Gautam tells us that his favorite charity is CRY India (Child Rights and You)

Jessica Lee, the brilliant editor over at Fistful of Talent gives Tim Sackett the day off with pay to go to the amusement park for doing a great job telling us what to do once you become a new manager or HR manager.   Since Jessica asked me to choose a charity, I picked one from Washington DC on her behalf:  DKT International which promotes family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention all over the world.

Melissa Prusher (Dude!) from the DEVON Group shares this post on finding a mentor.  The favorite charity at the Devon Group is Lunch Break in Red Bank NJ.

Laurie Ruettimann, the anarchist riot grrl of the HR world shares her perspective on Employee Wellness Programs and Health Insurance with us.  She would also like to share our donation with her favorite charity, Kalamazoo Animal Rescue.

Justin Hillier joins us from Europe with a post off the ERE site by wondering Is your social media strategy, 120, 240, or 360 degrees?  His charity is Livestrong aka the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Susan Burns of Talent Synchronicity is another one of our generous supporters offering a matching contribution of $100 to our cause.  Check out this post in which she shares her thoughts on Talent Camp.  Susan nominates Women Thrive Worldwide as her charity.

Meghan M. Biro tells us her reasons for starting a new blog in her guest post on The Red Recruiter blog called Why blog?.

Jane  Perdue of the life, love, and leadership blog points out that Integrity is A Non-negotiable Leadership Requirement. She also points us to her charity nomination, the Center for Women.

From the blog Deeply Rutted, Shennee Rutt urges us to ride the fast rides in her post, Rock ‘em, sock ‘em and knock ‘em!  Her charity is the Lupus Foundation of Pennsylvania.

Dan McCarthy of the award-winning Great Leadership blog asks should Leadership and Management Development be a national priority?  Another priority for Dan is his favorite charity, Children Awaiting Parents.

Lisa Rosendahl of Simply Lisa is thinking of taking away your supervisor card, so Card carrying supervisors, take heed!  Lisa has submitted the Autism Society for her charity.

It’s Kelly Mitton , sending in a post from her new blog Thryving after she saw the notice on the HR Carnival scroll across Facebook.  Kelly tells us  How to Build an HR Mentorship Program.  Kelly chooses the Food Bank of Western New York as her charity, still supporting  Buffalo even though she is in Texas now!

Naomi Bloom uses the 2 for 1 special matinee rate to get in the Carnival, telling us that The Road from HRM to Business Results is Littered with Misguided Metrics Part I and Part II.   Naomi recommends the American Cancer Society as her charity.  Naomi was also kind enough to make a nice donation in support of this charitable fund raising effort, which is greatly appreciated!

Benjamin McCall of RethinkHR.org steps away from the miniature golf tournament long enough to share What Golf has taught me about HR.  Benjamin told me to pick any charity, so in keeping with the topic of the post, we will go with the Tiger Woods Foundation.

Amit Bhagria visits from Young HR Manager to give his overview on Career Opportunities with an Ego.  Since Amit didn’t provide a charity, I am assigning the Association for India’s Development on his behalf.

Dawn Bugni from Dawn’s Blog visits to suggest if you “Think threatening to leave to get a raise is a good idea? Think again.” Her charity selection is Monty’s Home.

Trish Mcfarlane offers an amazingly personal piece on why she supports the March of Dimes called Carnival of HR and Charitable Giving.  It is well worth taking the time to give it a read.

Graham Salisbury of HR Case Studies in the United Kingdom shares a blog post that seemed to attract some enlightened and amusing comments called Phwoarr! Nice legs, shame about the policies! His charity web site is St. Catherines.

Our friend Lois Melbourne from Aquire drops by the funhouse to tell us about a need for the cure to breast cancer, and her support the the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Veronica Ludwig takes a moment to ask “What’s with the attitude?“  For her charity, Veronica nominates Helping from Heaven: the Lexi Kazian Foundation.

The TalentedApps team shows how HR has a great opportunity to improve the way risk impacts strategic success for the business with HR: Why Broaden Your Risk Perceptive?.   They also add their support for the American Cancer Society.

Victorio Milian, the Creative Chaos Consultant creates fresh content for the Carnival with his Kindergarten, Recruitment, and Poker-What needs to change? Victorio also likes the New York Public Library as his charity.  He also asked that I add this audio file on his behalf.

Dan Nuroo travels all the way from Australia to visit the Carnival to help us prepare for holiday shopping by telling to be sure to Knock with our elbows.   Dan’s charity preference is the MS Society.

Alicia Arenas from Sanera PDC makes her Carnival debut with her social media take titled I‘m OK, You’re OK: Social Media Self Esteem.  I am assigning Challenged Athletes as her charity.

Robin Schooling drops by to say “I’m not a blogger, not do I believe I ever will be.  And since I cannot contribute via the post for the HR Carnival of Giving, I would like to donate $25 to the overall “pot”.”   And MY favorite charity:  www.rosaliemanor.org a social service agency in Milwaukee focused on empowering families, supporting first time moms and dads and preventing teen pregnancy.  100 years plus of service to the Milwaukee community – but also locations dating from even earlier in Canada and NYC.

Gareth Jones of the Inside my Head blog from the United Kingdom warns us about HR and the Talent Catastrophe.  Charity assigned is Human Rights Watch.

Mervyn Dinnen of the T Recs blog reminds us that candidates have feelings too.   And his charity link is UK November – it’s a men’s prostate cancer charity, and most of the guys in his office are growing moustaches to support them.   You can click on the donate page and give to the cause rather than an individual.

Eric Peterson from SHRM provides this post related to diversity he calls a Closet with a View.  The charity assigned for Eric is the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute.

Fran Melmed writes to tell us about the five people who really deserve your thanks.   Fran also strongly recommended a post on giving thanks by Amanda Hite which I am including as well.   The charity I am assigning here is Groundspark.  Fran was also generous to add $100 to the donation kitty.  Thanks for your generosity, Fran!

Jon Ingham, who formerly held the very informal HR Carnival record for “most links” generously helps break his own record by sharing this post on Sustainability from the CIPD conference in the UK.  For his charity, Jon designated Oxfam International, which is mentioned in the post as well.  Thanks, Jon!

Susan Heathfield provides a great overview on the Paid Sick Leave Dilemma facing business today.  She chose the Salvation Army as her charity.

Jennifer V. Miller kindly helps us push toward 100 links by sharing her post on ways to ensure that you are creating a “positive bank balance” with your relationships.  Her charity selection is the Red Cross.

My buddy Frank Roche adds to the Carnival mayhem with a daily tip on for improving employee engagement.   For his charity, Frank gets Live United.

Mike Haberman who writes the HR Observations blog goes all Geena on GINA.   Mike’s charity is the Atlanta Children’s Shelter.

Debbie J. Brown of Bent Creek Books writes about her experience and thoughts as she traveled to HRevolution in Outliers and Unconferences.   Her charity is Room to Read.

Dorothy Dalton who writes the Future Perfect: Career Transition Strategies blog issues the battle cry “Let’s go girls…negotiate!“  It is a good post on an important issue. Go read it.  Her charity choice is UNICEF.

Michael Krupa of InfoBox shares some software tips for vendors.  Mike also generously shares his own money, offering to share $1 per post for all posts to the Carnival.   My Charity is the Golden State Greyhound Adoption.  Mike says “I own 2 rescued greyhounds and they are most magnificent, gentle and beautiful dogs I know.” Thanks for your compassion and generosity, Mike!

Tammy Colson of HR Junkyard is another generous contributor, sharing out of her own pocket for the charity pool (up to $100!) and also explaining Volunteering and What’s in it for you.  Tammy, thanks for helping make this effort work!

Kevin Grossman of HR Marketer gives us a post on the ways in which Human Resources weave the safety net for victims of intimate partner violence in the workplace.  Kevin also sent me an email telling me that he is also in for $1 per post for the charity donation as well ($100).  His choice of charity is the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Stephanie Kempa is a first time contributor to the Carnival and shares the following:  Your tweets have me interested in participating in HR Carnival — my post is “Why Twitter is Worth Your Time“.  I don’t profess to be a social media expert by any means, but wanted to provide an analogy to help people who are trying to figure out if it has business value or not. Stephanie, the post rocks and so does your choice of charity: YMCA Camp Manitou-lin, donations go to help send kids to camp who can’t afford to attend otherwise – camp’s motto is “building better people”, which is a very good thing!

Leanne Chase contributes to HR in many ways.  Today she contributes this piece on the disconnect between jobseekers and recruiters with the apropos title, Jobseekers are from Mars, Recruiters from Venus.  Leanne is also another generous contributor, throwing $50 into the pot.  Her favorite charity, described in her own words:   A charity I happen to really like is Angel Flight ( http://www.angelflight.com/) I cannot imagine needing to get a loved one somewhere for medical help or not be able to join a loved one in need due to financial pressures.  I think the work they did reuniting families separated during Katrina was wonderful.

HR Superstar Bonita Martin loves a party.  See what she has to say about performance in her post “Performance Reviews: Party, parting, or feedback?“.   Her charity is the All Stars Project.

Joan Schramm offers her take on How to Motivate Employees After Layoffs.  Her charity is the Mid-Atlantic Great Dane Rescue League (www.magdrl.org).  They are also on twitter at @magdrl – cool!

Sharlyn Lauby, the affable proprietor at the HR Bartender (as well as my friend and neighbor) serves up her usual sage advice with a very interesting post involving Workplace ethics and three monkeys.  After all, what’s a carnival without monkeys?  The circus? the zoo?  Never mind… For her charity, supporting Back to the Wild.

The HR Store is open for business and seeking customer feedback with the query “Awards aren’t retention tools? Or are they?“.  They are associated with a charity trust called ‘Divyadeep’ in their state (Karnataka) in India and here’s the link to their site.

Andy Spence from Glass Bead Consulting and the HR Transformer blog offers up some international flavour with this post on trends for social networking in the United Kingdom.  Andy’s  chosen charity is The Christie Charity in Manchester – Towards a Future without Cancer.

Mike Kohn at The HR Intern writes about another staple of this time of year for most HR practitioners in open enrollment, it’s the most wonderful time of the year!  Mike’s selected charity is the Human Rights Campaign.

Andy Headworth shakes off an overwhelming schedule to share the 25 things that Gen Y will just not believe ever happened!  Andy’s charity will be Leukaemia Research.

Mark Stelzner is also chipping in $100 for our donation pool.  Mark is the founder of Job Angels, and an all around great guy.  His post tells us 3 ways to kill a conversation!

Anita Santiago of Workforce Connection is a generous sharer on twitter.  Today she shares the idea that it is okay to toot your own horn.  Well done, Anita!  Her charity is Feed The Children.

The omnipresent Bill Boorman shares this post from his UK based blog Norton Folgate in which he ponders community and where he lives.  Bill is perhaps the most generous connector of all the people I know through social networking.  If you don’t follow Bill on twitter, you should be. His charity of choice is the is Round Table Children’s Wish.

HireCentrix asks that we please put the Human back in HR.  I couldn’t agree more!  The charity of choice here is Abilities United.

Ryan Estis likes to exhibit passion on purpose.  He also has some ideas on Meaningful Work.  His charity is also a meaningful one, the American Cancer Society.

Morgan Schwartz of Omaha.net submits a pair of posts on behalf of colleagues.  They are Workplace Bullying by Kathleen Nicolini and how to How to Explain an Employment Gap by Vickie Seitner.  Thanks to Evil HR Lady for directing them to the Carnival!   I am assigning the well known Omaha charity Boys Town here.

Beth Carvin of Nobscot provides a guest post to Human Race Horses about what happens when new employees lose their enthusiasm called Shiny Happy People Gone Bad.  Beth selects Feeding America as her charity.

Chernee Vitello aka the hightech recruiter asks an appropriate Thanksgiving question: Are you ready for some football? Her choice for a charity is also very seasonal with Christmas Sharing.

Kris Dunn is kicking $50 into the pot for charity. He also kicked in this post from his blog in which he calls a bunch of HR peeps “secretaries”.  Go see where you stand!  His charity is the American Cancer Society.  Thanks for the donation support, KD!

Erick Taft asks what is your organizational foot print? in a guest post on HRH.  Charity selection is Shoes That Fit.

Jenny DeVaughn shows us how to use social media to fight cancer!  American Cancer Society

Late Comers and Omissions

Stephen M. Geraghty-Harrison send me a post from HR Gumbo that I missed the first time around which is sort of an HR Christmas Carol.  Sorry Stephen, but you are in now, buddy!  Stephen wants to nominate the SHRM Foundation on behalf of HR Gumbo.

Speaking of SHRM, I need to add a big HRH Thank You to China Gorman for her $100 donation to this cause.  She promises she will have a blog post to use when we do this again next year.

Michael Long aka The Red Recruiter sends in a late post from his holiday travels.  Michael suggests that you punch your recruiting gloom in the face!  Michael has a charity but the link is on my phone and my phone is in the car from picking Michael up at the airport and it is pouring rain outside and ….he sent in his charity, which is Rotary!

Vinayana Talwar from Mumbai who writes the talent@coffee blog asks that I add this post about HR’s  unexpected encounters with Black Swan events.

Ruth Estwick aka HR Stalker provides a late entry via guest post on HR Junkyard.  Here are her thoughts on how HR should be walking the talk and be the Change.

Recruiting Animal sends along this audio message on Personal Chemistry In Hiring, and submits on behalf of a  cousin who has parkinsons disease via the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

Somehow I misplaced the original submission by Sarah White.  Let me correct that error now by offering you the chance to be the 85th post to the Carnival.  What a perfect day to read her take on The Gift of (thanks)GIVING.

Wendy Jacob sends along her thoughts on the personal benefits of social media.  For her charity, she submits Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Peter Gold from Hire Strategies submits a post called “who you calling stupid, stupid?“.  For his charity, he suggests cancer research. (see above)

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