Database... Protecting your data and managing risk

Got data backup?

Several high-profile stories have hit the news media in the past few months about losses of data, sometimes because of the inadvertent theft of equipment holding sensitive information.

In addition to those well-publicized cases, there are other facts: a hard drive crashes every 15 seconds; 2,000 laptops are lost or stolen daily; one in five computers suffers a fatal hard-drive crash during its lifetime. This would be bad enough, but 40 percent of small- to medium-sized businesses don't back up their data at all.

Experts in the field of data protection and security recommend the following:

• Risk management is number one. No matter how much insurance you have, you will never totally cover your loss. Educate employees about phishing and have a reasonable backup plan.
• Evaluate your current backup plan. Consider the newer backup technologies such as virtualization, which allows you to run multiple servers on one computer, for example.
• Develop and implement a system. Don't just leave it; designate somebody with the absolute responsibility of implementing the risk-management system.
• Anticipate your likely loss. Recognize that trouble can come from different places. Also, realize that security breaches can occur no matter the level of your firewalls.
• Have the appropriate insurance that deals with what's likely to happen. Also consider your cyber exposure as a separate and unique exposure.
• Try to get your host to indemnify you. It doesn't hurt to ask your software provider if it will provide coverage.

8 Steps to raising money on eBay

Use of the eBay online selling system, which is very popular with individuals, is proving to be a real help for nonprofit organizations. Utilizing a name and vehicle with a huge recognition factor can be a great help in fundraising.

In their book Fundraising on eBay, Greg Holden and Jill Finlayson offer suggestions on what must be done up-front by organizations that might have experience with online dealing but are new to eBay.

Their suggestions:

• Register with eBay and MissionFish. This includes both setting up accounts and setting selling preferences, as well as signing up for PayPal or other online payment solutions.
• Obtain inventory/donations. This involves both soliciting and collecting donations from individuals and companies.
• Create event branding. This can be as simple as naming your event and creating your personal page on eBay or as advanced as having graphic artists and web designers create a logo and selling templates.
• Photograph items. Most items sold on eBay will need at least one photograph.
• List items for sale. It means filling out the Sell Your Item form for one or two items are possibly using software to expedite the listing process.
• Market auctions. Publicize the event and be willing to leverage online marketing opportunities.
• Manage auctions. If your descriptions are complete and clear, there will be less need to answer questions, but you must answer emailed questions.
• Complete sales. Collecting the money is not enough. Pack and ship items.

Finance ... Acting quickly when fraud is suspected

The consequences of employee fraud at a nonprofit are so many and so potentially devastating that organizations must be prepared to act quickly and decisively when employee fraud is suspected.

Wrongdoing by a nonprofit employee will very often have implications for the entire organization, from casting a taint on the nonprofit or its mission to legal and financial responsibility in the case of monetary loss. The consequences can be huge.

At a recent national conference, attendees learned from Gerard Zack, founder of the Nonprofit Resource Center and president of Zack Accounting and Consulting, that there are certain initial steps that must be taken when someone in an organization suspects fraud.

The critical first step is risk assessment. The organization must determine what access the suspect has, what other types of fraud schemes the suspect could have perpetrated, given his/her level of responsibility and access, what the likelihood is of multiple perpetrators (collusion), how long it could have been going on and what technical complexities could have been involved.

After that, the organization must:

• Document all allegations,
• Obtain and document all pertinent information, documents and records,
• Identify all bank accounts involved and consider closing or freezing them,
• Determine who needs to be interviewed,
• Perform background checks if considered necessary,
• Develop details of an investigation plan.

PowerPoint slides are not enough if you're lazy

Do you want to wow donors at your next presentation? Do you want to show the donor whales that you're up on the latest with all the technological bells and whistles?

If you do, just remember, less is more, and more is more.

That means less text on your PowerPoint slides, and more attention by to the audience.

In a book titled "Guide to PowerPoint," expert Dave Paradi offered the results of polls he has taken among people who have been in the audience for slide presentations. His findings show that people do not like a presentation in which the speaker leaves all the work to the slide show and none to him or herself. Remember, an audience does not see all the work a speaker has put into a PowerPoint presentation. It only sees the results.

Among the points to remember with a talk featuring a presentation such as PowerPoint:

• People do not like too much text (that is, too many words) on each slide.
• Speakers should not read off a slide. People do not like being told words they can read for themselves.
• Visuals should be used to make a point and help hold a conversation with the audience. Think of visuals as material to be commented on.
• People want bullets points rather than large groupings of words.
• People want text that is big enough to see from the back of the room.

4 keys to successful Web social marketing

Social networking and Web 2.0 are the latest buzzwords for nonprofits on the technology front. YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Technorati, what does it all mean, and why should nonprofits bother with all of this stuff anyway?
What's it got to do with mission?

As few has 10 years ago, the Web was a new channel. Today, the Web has become a platform, said Jo Sullivan, senior vice president of development for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), during a recent nonprofit direct marketing conference. There are media and cultivation opportunities for nonprofits, as well as user-generated content of all kinds, including audio, video and editorial.

"If your Web site is the face of your organization, then the 'www.' can make up the rest of the body parts," Sullivan said.

Sullivan suggested nonprofits be creative and look for alternatives to build 2.0 components into measurable things they are already doing. Other actions she suggests nonprofits take include:

• Build Web 2.0 toolkits for donors to use, such as toolbars and donation links to post on blogs and personal pages.
• Keep an eye on search engines such as Google and Technorati, to see what people are saying about your organization.
• Work toward new ways to measure the audience, such as a Web survey to see how many more members or supporters have you on their blogs, etc., and flag them. Go back in six months to a year and determine the value of that segment.
• Develop and implement a conversion strategy that would drive Web 2.0 traffic to become registered users on your site and then on to donors. Remember to measure it all the time.

Greenpeace International - Eight Countries, Six Languages

If you market a campaign as global, you better show people it's global.
That was the motto brandished by Greenpeace International during the planning stages of the nonprofit's global "The Great Whale Trail" tagging campaign. The accompanying Web site had the same global objective, with the added and very ambitious goal of combining activism with fundraising -online.

"What we're doing, in a sense, is inventing the wheel," said Ryann Miller, fundraising innovation consultant at Toronto-based HJC New Media, which partnered with Greenpeace to develop the online peer-to-peer fundraising aspect of The Great Whale Trail campaign. "This is not direct marketing. This is not direct mail. So, it's a lot harder for us to project what a campaign is going to end up looking like. We're still seeing what the potential is."

The Web site (http://secure.greenpeace.org/visitor/index.php?event_id=main), said Miller, is modifiable by each participating Greenpeace national regional office (NRO), but the main points remain congruent throughout. The custom-built platform includes a sidebar located on the right side of the page, which displays three ranking lists, "Latest Donors," "Global Top Fundraisers," and "Top Fundraisers," each updated automatically. "We built this tool and this campaign so that it would work in each and every country office," said Miller.

Still in the early stages of the project (it was launched at the beginning of November), Greenpeace International New Media Fundraiser Alexandra Merory, based in the Netherlands, said the group is not ready to share how much has been raised. She did speak to the uniqueness of the effort, and to its sometimes-unexpected successes.

"The Great Whale Trail tagging project has been an important project as through the scientific research," said Merory by email. "We approached the issue in a new way, and through the social network fundraising we allowed supporters to engage with the campaign in a different way."

According to Merory, the nonprofit managed to roll out the peer-to-peer fundraising in eight countries with very different markets, and in six languages. The participating countries include places where whaling is a big market, such as Japan and New Zealand, but there were also a few surprises. "Happy" surprises, said HJC's Miller.

"Hungary is a great example of a smaller regional office that is more nimble, and eager to take a chance and a risk," Merory said of the landlocked eastern European nation. Greenpeace's NRO in China also found success with the effort, as evidenced by the reigning "Global Top Fundraiser," Joe Wu of China, whose individual Web page (all in Chinese except for the dollars raised) shows that Wu garnered eight sponsors and raised $1,050 (as of Dec. 13).

Traffic to the group's Google Maps Web page, which uses satellite tracking to show the migration of threatened humpback whales has been impressive, said Merory. (Note: the posting of the whales' location is delayed to ensure whalers cannot locate them) And as a not-so-side note side note, a contest to name one of the whales resulted in "a huge viral explosion," she said, with more than 115,000 votes cast worldwide for the winning name, "Mr. Splashy Pants."

The contest was cited on several Web sites. People created their own "Vote for Mr. Splashy Pants" groups on Facebook; and, the "Mr. Splashy Pants" Web site earned the top spot on the user-generated site Reddit.com.

"This goes back to the psychology of it all," said Miller. "If you tell me that a campaign is global, I want to see that it's global. It fosters a much greater sense of connection and interaction with people around the world, united for this one single cause." - Marla E. Nobles

Netscape Users: Migrate Data Now

You spend years getting used to something and then it's snatched away. Netscape Navigator, the once-popular Web browser now owned by AOL, will not be supported after February 1. At one point during the 1990s, Netscape was used by more than 90 percent of people surfing the Web.

Old versions of the browser will be available for download, but won't be supported. "Organizations are going to want to find an alternative now and start the migration process. It's not terribly difficult, but it can be a little tricky, and it will take time," said Holly Ross, executive director of NTEN, a nonprofit technology organization.

According to AOL, the number of users has slipped to less than one percent because of competition from Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE), which is used by an estimated 80 percent of Web surfers.

AOL bought Netscape Navigator in 1998 from Netscape Communications Corporation but reportedly recently had multiple staff defections to Mozilla Foundation. It was developed by Marc Andressen, co-author of Mosaic, the first popular Web browser, which he wrote in 1992 while a student at the University of Illinois.

"Netscape Navigator is not dead; it's just been taken off life support with no new updates being released. For most of the Internet community, the news that support will cease is like hearing that some ancient rock and roll legend has died," said Tim Mills-Groninger, former associate director of the IT Resource Center in Chicago. "Some people morn by listening to their collection of the artists' music and go to work tired from staying up too late. "Most just say 'huh, I thought he died years ago.'"

For many people, according to Mills-Groninger, the choice of browser has been a fashion statement, with Navigator usage "shifting from a turn of the Century 'I'm a cool early adopter who will not be swayed by monocultural juggernaut that is Microsoft' to 'I'm comfortable and maybe a bit lazy and when I get around to upgrading from my Pentium II Windows ME machine I'll upgrade to Firefox."

The risks of staying with Netscape Navigator a while longer are the increased chance of a machine exploit by malicious code and that something will break -- either in not being able to interact with a Web site as the designer intended or Navigator not installing on a new machine, he said.

Protecting Your Data

Perhaps more worrisome than security breaches, which occur relatively infrequently outside the university arena, consider industry statistics for data loss, compiled by online back-up firms Data Deposit Box and Protect Data:

• A hard drive crashes every 15 seconds;
• 2,000 laptops are stolen or lost daily;
• One in five computers suffer a fatal hard-drive crash during their lifetime; and,
• 40 persent of small- to medium-size businesses don't back up their data at all.

If this is what's occurring in Corporate America, tradition holds that the nonprofit sector is much further behind.

Experts in the area of risk management, including AH&R Insurance's Mel Whiteley, Laura S. Quinn of Idealware, EarthJustice IT director Peter Campbell, and the staff at mindSHIRTTechnologies, managed services provide to Seeds of Peace, provided the following recommendations for protecting data:

• Risk management is number one. No matter how much insurance you have, you will never totally recover your loss. Make sure that employees are using reasonable passwords (mix of numeric and apha, six and seven characters) to access their own computers. Educate employees against phishing, and have a reasonable back-up plan.
• Evaluate your current back-up plan. Consider the newer back-up technologies such as virtualization - which allows you to run multiple servers on one computer, moving to disk rather than magnetic tape; utilizing "snapshots," which makes restoring data quicker and easier; and synchronizing one disk to another disk 24/7 using continuous data protection.
• Develop and implement a system. Don't just leave it to the wind; designate somebody with the absolute resposibilty of implementing the risk management system.
• Anticipate your likely loss. Recognize that trouble can come from different places. Also, recognize security breaches can occur no matter the level of your firewalls.
• Have the appropriate insurance that deals with what's likely and probable to happen. Also, consider your media exposure - basically, your cyber exposure - as a seperate and unique exposure.
• Try to get your host to undemnify you. It doesn't hurt to ask your software provider if they will provide coverage.

-Marla E. Nobles

DON’T BE LEFT BEHIND BY TECHNO TERMS

As nonprofit leaders navigate the ever-changing world of high technology, they find themselves encountering terms that can be arcane or confusing.

At a recent national conference on nonprofit technology, several words and terms were explained for the benefit of those unfamiliar with them.

Among the words:

• RSS. A format for storing online information in a way that makes that information readable on different kinds of software.
• Aggregation. Gathering information from multiple Web sites, typically via RSS.
• Blog. Originally short for “weblog,” a Web page that contains entries in reverse chronological order. An easy way for people to maintain a constantly updated Web presence.
• Blogroll. A list of recommended sites that appears in the sidebar of a blog.
• Mashup. A Web service or software tool that combines two or more tools to create a whole new service.
• Moblogging. Short for “mobile blogging,” refers to posting blog updates from remote or mobile equipment, such as a cell phone or camera phone.
• Newsreader. A device that gathers the news from multiple blogs or news sites via RSS, allowing readers to access all their news from a single Web site or program.
• RSS feeds. A constantly updated version of the site’s latest content, in a form that be read by a newsreader or aggregator.

Fundraising ... 10 ideas for making the ask

Ten is such a nice, round number. It's everywhere: The 10 Commandments. David Letterman's nightly Top 10 lists. How many fingers? Toes? And how high does volume go? That's right, 10.

In her book, "The Ask: How to Ask Anyone for Any Amount for any Purpose," Laura Fredricks presents "The 10 Guiding Principles For Any Ask."
Using the guiding principles as a "road map" for all your asks, she wrote, will make you "ready, focused, and energized to ask for gifts in your own winning style."

The 10 Guiding Principles For Any Ask:

• The more personal and sincere you are with the people you are cultivating, the quicker you will be able to make the ask.
• Every prospect must be treated separately and distinctly.
• Anyone asking for a gift must first make his or her own gift.
• Ask for a specific amount for a specific purpose.
• Consistent givers can and will make larger gifts.
• Always use we instead of I in any ask because that connotes that the ask is being done with all the strength and backing of the organization.
• Any organization's planned giving program must be coordinated with all other fundraising programs.
• Every campaign prospect must be asked for as specific amount, with guidelines on how to fund the gift and with a proposed time frame.
• At the initial ask, stay committed to the ask amount.
• The ask without the follow-through will result in no gift.

Donation Idea Had Very Little Spice For Taco Bell

Jacob Ellsbury's stolen base in Game 2 of this past World Series will go down as a minor footnote in the annals of baseball history. For Boston Red Sox fans, the stolen base ended up meaning little in the context of a four-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies.

For America it meant a free taco at Taco Bell as part of a "Steal a Base, Steal a Taco" promotion. Three guys in New England, however, tried to give that meaningless stolen base a little more meaning.

Mike Esordi, Ed Northby and Jeremy Milner work together at Care New England, a Providence, R.I.-based health system. They were at lunch having burritos - at Taco Bell no less - when the discussion turned to the previous night's Sox game. One conversation led to another and www.donateyourtaco.com was born.

The online petition asked people to forgo their free taco, which retails for less than $1, and instead ask Taco Bell to donate the equivalent to the American Red Cross for relief efforts for the San Diego wildfires.

The petition doubled from 2,000 yo 4,000, on the morning of Oct. 3o, said Escordi, and reached more than 9,200 before the 5 p.m. deadline while the web page had 15,000 unique visitors that day, representing all 50 states. Escordi, who used to live in Southern California, said Taco Bell basically turned them down, but they're working on Plan B. He's open to suggestions.

Ellsbury walked and stole second base in the bottom of the fourth inning. Julio Lugo grounded out to end the inning, stranding Ellsbury at second base and leaving the score tied 1-1.

-Mark Hrywna

Just a Dancin' Fool...

According to talk-show powerhouse Oprah Winfrey, all it took was a guy, a stage, a spotlight...and some killer dance moves.

The result: "Evolution of Dance," the little video that could... garner 60 million views on YouTube, that is, and notoriety as the most viewed video of all time on the user-generated site.

Just as Judson Laipply did with his shimmies and shakes through decades of popular dance moves --- including such flat-footed staples as the "running man" and the "roger rabbit" --- so can you. Here are some simple tips compliled by Collactive, which assists nonprofits, like Campaign for America's Future, with Web 2.0 technologies:

• Create a relevant, informative video
• Keep video short - preferably less than two minutes
• Select a catchy title and thumbnail shot, which is uaually the exact middle, or "center frame," of your video
• Choose a relevant niche category to got on "Most Viewed Today" list
• Target the "Most Viewed Today" lists, rather than "Top Rated," "Most Discussed," or "Top Favorites"
• Ask constituents to view and promote your video

-Marla E. Nobles

Web site layout becoming commonplace

As the whole idea of technology-related nonprofit operation becomes commonplace, more thought is given to making the best use of what is available.

Nonprofit executives attending a recent national nonprofit conference learned that many organizations are finding a degree of success by employing certain strategies for the layout and presentation of their Web sites. They are shared by many of the organizations whose sites were rated in the Top 10 by either Forbes or The NonProfit Times.

Among the common characteristics:

• Nine out of 10 positioned their logo in the upper left-hand corner. It is the expected location. Further, logo placement should be consistent and link back to the homepage.
• Seven out of 10 use mastheads at the top of their homepage. This separates the core components to a site (Who, What, Where, Why).
• 80 percent positioned their search in the upper right-hand corner.
• 60 percent of the sites used a three-column grid format.
• 70 percent of the sites used a sidebar for simple navigation.
• 33 percent of the sites utilized Macromedia Flash.
• 30 percent of the sites incorporated streaming video.
• 40 percent of the sites used dropdown menus.
• 10 percent of the sites used pop-ups.
• 50 percent of the sites had a graph image that made eye contact with the viewer.
• Almost all built their text from html rather than a graphic.
• The best performers used multiple areas on the page for “Donate” or “Sponsor.”

Complex Executive Searches Take Different Directions

The complexities of an executive search sometimes reveal an unexpected direction that a nonprofit must take to effectively fill its leadership needs.

In its December issue of “Leadership Matters” Bridgestar features a case study of the search process for a chief operating officer (COO) at Fellowship Health Resources (FHR), a Rhode Island-based mental health services agency.

Here are five elements of the process:

• Look at the search process strategically. Evaluate your organization’s growth and senior management needs. Consider the type of structure and the types of leaders you need.
• Consider all candidates. Even if an organization has strong internal candidates, it’s important to open the search to a broader group. Vet internal candidates as carefully as you would external ones.
• Have an open mind and be ready to shift your thinking. Many organizations mistakenly believe that the job requirements they determine at the beginning of the search are set in stone. As hiring managers meet candidates, they gain additional insight into the needs of the organization, the right fit for their culture and the important requirements for the position.
• Have realistic expectations. The initial COO job description included a daunting list of required skills, as well as the expectation that the candidate would split time between the mid-Atlantic region and New England.
• Reflect on the qualities of hires that worked and those that didn’t. The driving requirement for the search became finding a candidate who would thrive in FHR’s hands-on organizational culture and who really understood the nature of FHR’s business.

This article is from NPT Weekly, a publication of The NonProfit Times.
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Ideas for getting started on Web 2.0

If nonprofits are serious about reaching a newer and younger audience (read: donors), they should become familiar with a little thing called Web 2.0. The phrase is commonly used to describe the next generation of Web-based communities and services, such as social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, as well as other programs that help users share content.
But what does this do for nonprofits? Nonprofits can use social networks to gain access to new donors and advocates, said Marc Sirkin, chief marking officer at the New York City-based International Rescue Committee (IRC), during a recent direct marketing conference.

Social networks can drive donations, petition signatures and increase newsletter subscribers. While it may be hard to get any type of data to measure success of some Web 2.0 efforts, he said, a nonprofit can track referral traffic, as well as specific conversions, whether it's through donations, petition signatures or newsletter sign-up.

For nonprofits just getting started in Web 2.0, Sirkin offered some best practices for beginners:

• First, jump right in and get started, what are you waiting for? Feel free to learn on your own and set up your own profile.
• Don't worry too much about tracking at first.
• Start with re-posting some of your existing content on the Web to your social network page, such as images and video.

Are Your Automated Web Processes Working For You?

By Heather Fignar

Recently, I've been inundated with mail from a now defunct email box. In addition to all the email newsletters and feeds that I subscribe to, I have had my inbox cluttered with someone else's subscription choices.

In an ideal world, the former owner of the box would have changed all the subscription to a new email address. However, this exercise gave me an in-depth look into hundreds of subscription processes. It wasn't pretty. Here are some general observations on the good, bad and ugly -- not necessarily in that order.

• In more than 90 percent of cases, the landing pages were so non-descript that the organizational affiliation was unclear.
• In particular, Lyris applications displayed a page that says: "Your email address will be removed" and then asks, "Are you sure?" But the page, question, font and Yes button were so bland that I missed them the first couple times and had to repeat the process.
• Some unsubscribe pages were also non-descript, non-personalized forms that required me to enter the email address. Lance Armstrong Foundation was one of the few organizations that had personalized the page with a header. Others had no identifying copy at all.
• Several groups require an account login before allowing me to unsubscribe.
• Some landed me on a page with the organizations header that simply said, "You have been unsubscribed. Thank you." Some provided a more in-depth customized form that allows the subscriber to differentiate between the topic and all organizational emails.
• One of Howard Dean's emails had a sentence that read, "Click here to unsubscribe from this mailing list." But, it wasn't linked.
• FeedBlitz was the only unsubscribe page that readily gave me an option to change my email address without unsubscribing and re-subscribing

The saddest finding was the lack of effort put in by more organizations to customize these crucial relational pages. Unfortunately, most signup processes are just as generic. We would recommend that organizations spend the time and energy to customize the process. If constituents want to leave the list, make sure it isn't hard, but also provide a compelling reason for them to stay. At the very least, identify yourself.


***Heather Fignar is a managing partner with NPAdvisors in Warrenton, Va. Her email is heather@npadvisors.com. The organization's Web site is www.npadvisors.com
This article is from NPT TechnoBuzz, a publication of The NonProfit Times. Subscribe to NPT TechnoBuzz or any of our other enewsletters and get the latest nonprofit news and stories delivered to your inbox.

About Face at FaceBook Is A Good Thing

By Holly Ross
There was a lot of hoopla over the recent announcement by Facebook about its Social Ads program, called Beacon. And by hoopla, I mean near hysteria-level complaining.

The blogosphere was aghast at the idea of the opt-out based advertising scheme. Apparently, the fine folks at FaceBook have seen the error of their ways. Mark Zuckerberg posted to the FaceBook blog:

About a month ago, we released a new feature called Beacon to try to help people share information with their friends about things they do on the web. We've made a lot of mistakes building this feature, but we've made even more with how we've handled them. We simply did a bad job with this release, and I apologize for it.

In response, they are implementing a couple of interesting changes:

• First, you will have to opt-in to display any Beacon advertising in your news stream, etc., instead of having to opt-out. Additionally, if you fail to respond to the opt-in request that is generated when you interact with a Beacon site, the system does not display the advertising. This is a significant and good change.
• Second, you can opt-out of the dang thing to begin with. Just go to your FaceBook privacy settings and click on the link for External Web sites.

***This item is from the blog of Holly Ross, executive director of NTEN, a technology support organization. It was edited slightly. Email her at holly@nptimes.com. The Web site is www.nten.org

This article is from NPT TechnoBuzz, a publication of The NonProfit Times. Subscribe to NPT TechnoBuzz or any of our other enewsletters and get the latest nonprofit news and stories delivered to your inbox.

Salvation Army Scammers To Serve Time

By Marla E. Nobles
The federal government sent another ringing message to charity scammers thinking about taking advantage of public goodwill during times of disaster: you scam, you serve.

Two Houston brothers each were sentenced last month to more than eight years for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft as a result of fraudulently operating a Web site that claimed to raise money on behalf of the Salvation Army for Hurricane Katrina victims. The fraudulent Web site, prosecutors said, collected more than $48,000 before anyone caught on.

U.S. District Judge David Hittner sentenced Steven Stephens, 24, to serve a total of 111 months. Bartholomew Stephens, 27, will serve a total of 105 months. A jury convicted the pair after a four-day trial in June.

The Stephens case is just one example of the more than 2,400 Katrina relief Web sites believed by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to be fraudulent.

More recently, as Southern California burned this past October criminals began setting up bogus Web sites and soliciting donations. According to the FBI, in the days following the California wildfires fraudsters flooded the Internet with fake charity sites.

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When in London...

When picturing an upscale dinner party, an underwater breathing apparatus doesn't usually come to mind.

That wasn't the case at a recent London Fundraiser, where celebrities, including British Actor Nigel Havers (Empire of the Sun) and rugby player Matt "Daws" Dawson, joined 500 others at a West London swimming pool to raise money for charity -- and to break the Guinness world record for the world's largest formal underwater dinner party.

In groups of 20, diners sat down to a NASA-style meal of smoked salmon, crap and hazelnut praline, all jellied so as to not disintegrate in the water. To eat the ice cube-sized portions, explained The Park Club in West London, "...remove the aqua lung from your mouth, pop in the space food from NASA, replace the aqua lung in your mouth and press the button on the aqua lung to purge away the water in your mouth and start breathing again: as simple as that!"

The record-breaking attempt -- the previous record was 100, set in 1991 -- raised more that $400,000 for six charities, including Save the Children, Wooden Spoon, and The Shooting Star Children's Hospice.

- Marla E. Nobles

Finding a Cure: Fox works to find the cure for Parkinson's Disease

Actor Michael J. Fox - best known for his long-standing role as Alex P. Keaton on the hit sitcom "Family Ties" - kept his Parkinson's Disease a secret from the public for almost seven years. But after disclosing his condition in 1998, he knew he needed to take an active role in beating the disease.

"After I went public, people began to have conversation about Parkinson's," he said. "I started to go online and people were really talking about this. I realized I had become a student of this disease and truly had a responsibility to engage in this community."

Fox decided to form his own foundation to fund research of Parkinson's and educate others about what they can do to fight the disease. "With Parkinson's, the science is ahead of the money, and the idea of pursuing the science became very compelling to me."

But although Fox's foundation has made a huge impact on Parkinson's research (the foundation has given some $100 million to research), he still wonders why more isn't being done. "Who's in charge of finding a cure? There is $100 billion pt [into medical research]... you'd think there would be a Department of Cures or a Secretary of Cures."

In the meantime, Fox will continue his work in hopes of finding a cure. "We need to climb more mountains," he said. "My hope is that we find ways to link the academic world with the business world. That's what our foundation is doing and will continue to do."