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http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/147/fast-talk-james-eberhard.html
Eberhard, 32, started Mobile Accord to help not-for-profits organize their mobile efforts. Its mGive platform -- which launched with 10 seconds of TV time during the 2008 Super Bowl -- has helped collect $41 million for Haiti.
"When the earthquake hit Haiti, the U.S. State Department asked if we could set up a text donation program for the relief effort. We immediately contacted the Red Cross. Within a day, we had raised $2.3 million; by the end of the second day, it was $5 million. Our goal was always to use mobile devices to make a social impact. Typically, a nonprofit registers on our Web site and we manage everything from sending donation-confirmation text messages to tax receipts, to aggregating the carrier payments.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/147/fast-talk-jack-and-carmen-barker.html
The Barkers -- Jack, 47, is the inventor; Carmen, 50, runs the business -- are behind the Sunspring, a portable, solar-powered water-purifying system.
Jack: "Everyone was shipping in bottled water to Haiti, but that's not a sustainable option. The Sunspring produces more than 5,000 gallons of water per day, every drop microbiologically safe to drink. The unit is constantly storing energy and can run at night or on a cloudy day. We installed 17 units in Haiti, 10 of them donated by GE."
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"One Sunspring costs $25,000, but it lasts for 10 years. If you sell the water at just 4 cents a gallon -- 20% of what water is going for right now in Haiti -- the payback period would be four months. You can create a local microfinance model; NGOs can help support hospitals, community centers, or schools. This can be sustainable within itself."
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/147/fast-talk-claire-bonilla.html
Bonilla, 37, coordinates emergency communication solutions for stricken communities.
"In a time of disaster, you're often stuck starting with a damaged structure. We partner with NetHope, a nonprofit that brings satellite and wireless Internet connectivity to disaster sites, so we don't have to rely on the infrastructure in the area; our work can be done in the cloud, hosted at Microsoft's global data centers. Together, we provide situational awareness and mapping capabilities, and improve goods distribution.
We create tabletop disaster simulations so we immediately know the appropriate protocol when disaster strikes. Within hours of the event, my core team reaches out to Microsoft staff in the impacted area, and we become a geo-diverse virtual team working around the clock. ……**…Projects that would normally take a year are completed in five days."