One of the great benefit of working in a co-working space is the chance to meet new individuals who have different perspective or expertise than what one currently possess.  That happened to me today when I met one of the professors of psychology from San Jose State.  She came into the office asking to borrow a stapler and we ended up discussing what I do and what she does for a living.   Then came the subject of Neuroeconomics as one of the new trending specialties in studying human behavior and economics.

I do not know anything about the subject so I googled it.  Here's one of the books I found on Scribd and I would like to share it with you (and for my own reading pleasure of course).

Your Money and Your Brain; How the New Science of Neuroeconomics Can Help Make You Rich

I was perusing the web pages of AIGA tonight and came across this article:  New Challenges from the Lowballers... and What to Do, written by Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua (very unique last name).  Anyway, click on the link and be reminded that as creatives, we have to maintain our self-respect when it comes to submitting a bid for projects.   Besides, do you really want to work WITH someone who undervalues your contributions to a project?

At Socient, although we work primarily with non-profits and civics, we make sure that our pricing stays the same on every project bids submitted.  It takes certain hours for certain tasks to hit certain milestones; because of our experience, we know how to optimize those hours (through best practices), which in turn allows us to continue to serve this sector.

I am currently blogging in the Fresno State's University Business Center while attending the webinar from the folks at "The Chronicle of Philanthrophy".  I am tweeting too (follow @socient).   Here's a quick list from the webinar:

List of Fund-raising strategies for a bad economy:

1. Ask your donors to expand their giving.
2. Hold onto your donors; pay special attention to older people who gives regularly.
3. Reassess all of your fund raising approaches
4. Provide creative, meaningful feedback and engage donors in new ways
5. Make sure your cause fits into efforts to meet social needs
6. Ask donors how the economy affects their charitable plans
7. Seek monthly gifts
8. Improve donor records
9. Collaborate with similar organizations on fund raising and marketing

For more quick thoughts, go to my twitter page.

I'm excited to finally introduce a more engaged website for Socient.  I look forward to sharing useful information here which will mainly focus on social entrepreneurship and web marketing suitable for non-profit organizations.