Entrepreneur and bestselling author Seth Godin believes we need to look for the good in the world like Katya Andresen does through her work at Network for Good.

Dan Schank | Jan/Feb 2009 issue

Katya Andresen considers her impatience an asset. A restless spirit led the Reuters news service journalist to Cambodia, Madagascar and Ukraine, where she witnessed the key events of the Orange Revolution. Here, Andresen observed what she calls “the incredible scale of human need.” Dissatisfied with the neutrality of journalism, she applied her ­storytelling skills to marketing. With CARE International, she encouraged donors to play an active role in the fight against poverty. Later, as senior vice-president of the marketing and communications firm Sutton Group, she helped build alliances among charitable organizations, foundations and government agencies.
Currently, Andresen is the chief operating officer of Network for Good, a website devoted to making it “as easy to donate and volunteer online as it is to shop online.” Network for Good offers more than a secure way to make donations. It also enables non-profit groups to recruit donors and volunteers via the Internet. The site’s extensive database showcases a million charities and 36,000 volunteer opportunities. To date, Network for Good has raised more than $175 million in online donations and matched more than 230,000 volunteers with thousands of non-profits. Network for Good encourages informed decisions through online profiles, crisis relief bulletins and investment tips. And all this is done with a sense of creativity and fun—gift cards and baskets are available, and there’s a special section for children. For Andresen, doing good through charitable giving is an attempt “to seek personal relevance” in a world that demands action.

“Every once in a while, you meet someone who’s building a better world, investing in people and ideas that matter and doing it for all the right reasons. Katya Andresen has no agenda, no punch list and no secret plan. All she wants to do is find the best in each of us, and to push us to create a better world, right here, right now, before it’s too late. We need more Katyas.”
— Seth Godin, entrepreneur and bestselling author of several books, including Permission Marketing.