Dear Earth Deeds Dudes and Dudettes (say that 10x fast!),

Thank you for your ongoing support of Earth Deeds and our efforts to help groups and individuals measure and transform their environmental impacts and support sustainability projects. There’s lots of details happening that I won’t bore you with, but here are some bigger news items.

First Investment. We’re excited and grateful to receive our first actual investment. Woo hoo! Beyond general merriment, this has been a good catalyst for us to create “Term Sheets” with fun phrases like “Convertible Securities” and “Qualified Financing”. We are hopeful we will get to use these documents many times over the coming months.

Minimal Viable Product. Our Beta Site recently got a graphic design makeover and we are now working on our check-out system so we can finally accept financial contributions and send funds directly to sustainability projects!

Competitions: We didn’t get into the finalist round of the Clean Tech Open, but we did qualify for their Team Development Program and are excited for the feedback and mentorship this will provide. We continue to be hopeful about our applications to the Buckminster Fuller Challenge, Grand Challenges Explorations, and the Valley Venture Mentors. We’ll also be applying to more competitions in the Fall.

Holacracy. We’re continuing to incorporate this “social technology for purposeful organizations” and were grateful to receive some local coaching to have our first official “Governance” and “Tactical” meetings. It feels a bit clumsy taking these first baby steps, but believe we are creating the foundational skills for a nimble and distributive organization that can continue to evolve over time.

Upcoming Events. Spirit willing, I’ll travel to Findhorn (Scotland) and Switzerland from June 24-July 14 to attend the ICSA and GEN-Europe conferences, a Joanna Macy workshop, and Board Meetings of GEN and Gaia Education. For Earth Deeds, I hope pilot our tools with some Findhorn programs and at the GEN-Europe conference, and to register some projects, especially from some GEN-Africa ecovillages.

Thanks again for your support (like us on Facebook, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter if you haven’t already) and let us know us you have any thoughts or questions.

In community,
– Daniel