
Cooper Smith, Boy
Disclaimer: My son, Cooper is the biggest basketball fan of all time. Coop donated his 11th birthday to the malaria-fighting Nothing But Nets campaign. I don’t recall redirecting my presents to save kids in Africa at his age. It was pretty amazing when Coop got a shout out on national TV and then a video thank-you from Golden State’s Stephen Curry himself (during the playoffs!). Coop had no doubts before, but now he’s completely certain that doing good feels great. Cooper and Chris Helfrich, the Director of the UN Foundation’s Nothing But Nets campaign collaborated on the below for The Huffington Post. -- Andy

Chris Helfrich, Director of Nothing But Nets
As director of Nothing But Nets, I get to meet a lot of inspiring Americans doing amazing things to save lives by sending $10 nets to prevent malaria, a disease that still kills a child in Africa every 60 seconds. I’ve met a 13-year old Boy Scout who hiked 100 miles to raise money and awareness, an 8-year old who became the youngest girl to ever swim from Alcatraz to San Francisco in order to raise money to send hundreds of nets, and a fashion designer who has created a line of net-inspired accessories to send nets and save lives. In fact, since 2006 hundreds of thousands of people have joined our movement and raised $45 million to send over 7 million nets to keep families safe from this deadly disease. But an 11-year old boy challenging a basketball superstar to a fundraising contest? That’s a new one for me.
I was copied on a letter below that 11-year old Cooper sent to his idol, Stephen Curry, that demonstrates the fun spirit of the Nothing But Nets campaign and the fact that anyone can be a champion in the fight against malaria, whether you’re a 5th grader or the best basketball shooter on the planet. NBA Cares is a founding partner of Nothing But Nets and has been getting its fans and players excited about fighting malaria since the campaign was launched almost seven years ago. This is a perfect example of the power of this partnership in action.
Dear Stephen,
You are amazing. I hope you nail a bunch of three-pointers in the playoffs and help save a lot of lives.
I heard about your contribution to something called Nothing But Nets — for every three pointer you sink, you donate three
nets to a family in Africa to keep them safe from malaria. So I looked Nothing But Nets up on the web, and found out about how a kid still dies from malaria in Africa every 60 seconds. But it takes just 10 dollars to save a life! So, during my birthday last week, all my friends donated to Nothing but Nets. And we raised more money to help over 210 families protect themselves from mosquitoes! When you go to Tanzania this summer to help distribute nets, we’ll give you cards that we wrote for the kids over there to deliver along with our nets.
Can you do me a favor and sink a lot of three pointers in the playoff games? I promise I’ll raise a lot of money for Nothing But Nets if you do. Even more than you!
I may not be able to beat you on the court (yet!), but I bet I can beat you at raising money for Nothing But Nets. Game On, Steph.







nets to a family in Africa to keep them safe from malaria. So I looked Nothing But Nets up on the web, and found out about how a kid still dies from malaria in Africa every 60 seconds. But it takes just 10 dollars to save a life! So, during my 

In many organizations, givers go unrecognized. To combat this problem, organizations are introducing peer recognition programs to reward people for giving in ways that leaders and managers rarely see. A Mercer study found that in 2001, about 25 percent of large companies had peer recognition programs, and by 2006, this number had grown to 35 percent—including celebrated companies like Google, Southwest Airlines, and Zappos. A fascinating approach called the Love Machine was developed at Linden Lab, the company behind the virtual world Second Life. In a high-technology company, many employees aim to protect their time for themselves and guard information closely, instead of sharing their time and knowledge with colleagues. The Love Machine was designed to overcome this tendency by enabling employees to send a Love message when they appreciated help from a colleague. The Love messages were visible to others, rewarding and recognizing giving by linking it to status and reputations. One insider viewed it as a way to get “tech geeks to compete to see who could be the most helpful.” Love helped to “boost awareness of people who did tasks that were sometimes overlooked. Our support staff, for instance, often received the most Love,” says Chris Colosi, a former Linden manager. “Once you introduce a certain percentage of takers into your system, you need to think about what effect an incentive will have, but I enjoyed the idea of Love for tasks that were outside of someone’s job description or requirements.”






