A school made of plastic bottles in Guatemala. Blind woodworkers in Boston who are defying odds. A firsthand look at the recent protests in Egypt’s Tahrir Square. Intrigued? Check out our Making Good Ideas Travel channel on Vimeo to learn about all this and more.

Right now on Idealist.org there are 500+ video- and film-related volunteer opportunities. Photo by Marcin Wichary (Flickr/Creative Commons).

Since it’s National Volunteer Week, I’d thought I’d highlight some volunteering-related gems:

The Lowestoft Christmas swim
‘Tis not the season, but I found this video so charming I had to share. It highlights 250 bold Brits running into the ocean on Christmas day to raise money for a handful of charities. It’s full of great music, superhero costumes, and interesting twists on the Santa getup. Maybe it will spark some ideas for other holidays.

Flying Colours
Akhona is a young student and mother who wants to go to college. Siyabuelela is studying business at the university and volunteers his Saturdays to tutor youth like Akhona. Their two stories are linked by IkamvaYouth, a South African nonprofit that helps learners lift themselves out of poverty. The film gives an intimate glimpse into their lives and highlights the good work the org is doing – and will make you want to go to South Africa right now.

Picking up America
This short documentary follows a group of twentysomethings walking across the United States and picking up roadside trash. A movie featuring garbage across the country’s most ignored areas may not sound all that appealing, but the youthful, idealistic energy of the volunteers is inspiring.

National Volunteering Week ends tomorrow! Have you picked up a camera to film any festivities?

Inching its way toward 1,000 subscribers, the Making Good Ideas Travel channel has 153 videos and counting. We welcome submissions not only about volunteering, but all things social change: nonprofits, community involvement, and good ideas. So if you have a short video that’s reeling to be shared with the world, message us or post a link to our Shoutbox and we’ll be sure to take a look.

Panelists from the "Free Agents" session. Photo via Beth Kanter (Flickr/Creative Commons).

Elise and I went to NTEN‘s annual conference in Washington, DC last week. It was great to meet many of you there! Here are some of the takeaways we’ve spotted thanks to the still-buzzing #11NTC Twitter stream…

Change doesn’t have to be scary

• NTC Plenary: Dan Heath, Flip the Switch (Beth Kanter, NTEN blog) offers Cliff’s Notes to the opening plenary by Switch co-author Dan Heath.
• “Switch” the Way You Ask for Action – 11NTC (Kivi Leroux Miller, NonprofitMarketingGuide.com): How can we apply lessons from Switch to our daily work to make change less scary?

Online fundraising

• Five Lessons for Digital Fundraisers from 11NTC (Claire Kerr, Nonprofity.com). Are you using data and segmenting your email messages? Are you grudgingly or eagerly working mobile phones into your communications strategy? Here are some bite-size tips about these topics and more.
• Raising Money When Your Cause Just Isn’t Sexy (Raymund Flandez, Chronicle of Philanthropy) recaps a session led by Susan Gordon from Causes.

Kudos for transparency

• Measuring Impact in Human Rights Work: A Look at WITNESS’s Dashboard (Jenni Wolfson, WITNESS.org blog). Measuring the impact of human rights work is hard. WITNESS is doing it anyway. Here’s how.

Be nice to your tech people

• Maybe I just have it easy? (Bailey Kasten, Wish You Worked Here). At the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, muses Kasten, “operations and technology have a voice.” She offers some advice to the folks in workplaces where that’s not true.

Storytelling through specific channels

• DoGooder Video Awards Announced at NTC! (Maddie Grant, SocialFish.org). Thinking of incorporating video into your organization’s communications strategy? Check out the winners of “best thrifty organization video,” “best small organization video,” and more categories.
• Using Location Based Services for Your Nonprofit (John Haydon, SocialBrite) recaps a session about how services like FourSquare can be included in your strategy to raise awareness and money.

And these are just the beginning!

• NTEN Announces Launch of New Publication for Nonprofit Leaders (and it’s free!) (Annaliese Hohling, NTEN). Holly Ross, Executive Director of NTEN, “joked” that you might want to secretly sign your boss up for this quarterly online journal.

Are you blogging about your 11NTC experience? Leave a comment below with a link!

Photographers and videographers: two contests are challenging you to zoom in on change.

Photo by Flickr user kevindooley (Creative Commons)

Through Your Lens: School Facilities in America

Students, teachers, and anyone else with an inside view of our nation’s schools: don’t miss out on this opportunity to photograph what you’re proud of, stuff you’d like to see changed, and anything in-between. The 21st Century School Fund, Critical Exposure, and Healthy Schools Campaign hope that your perspective will click with enough elected leaders to start improving the quality of school buildings. Prizes include being featured in an exhibition in Washington, D.C., as well as a book and online gallery, and a digital camcorder. Deadline to submit is March 7.

YouTube’s DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards

For the fifth year in a row, the superstar video site is calling on nonprofits of every size to show off all the hard work they did last year. The prizes will have you reeling: $10,000 in grants from the Case Foundation, free registration to NTEN’s 2012 technology conference, a Flip Video pack, and your video featured on YouTube’s homepage. Deadline to submit is March 2.

Know about another funding angle? Leave a comment below!

Awhile back, we blogged about One Day on Earth, a project centered around October 10, 2010 (10.10.10):

One Day on Earth is asking you, me, and the rest of the world to film something you’re inspired by on that day, with the hope of creating a time capsule that documents our collective struggles and triumphs. You don’t have to be a seasoned filmmaker to participate—cell phones and digital cameras work just as well—and everything is fair game. The collected footage will then be archived in a database for anyone to access at anytime, with select footage to be used in a feature documentary.

We got an update this week from the folks at One Day on Earth, who created this short video with snippets from the first week of submissions. It’s a great montage featuring faces and places from many continents – buskers outside a train station in Brussels, a crowd gathering at Mecca, an Aruba sunset. If you’re one of those people who got goosebumps watching those videos of Matt dancing around the world, watch this. You’ll feel grateful to be an Earthling.

Want to add your view, your voice, your video to the mix? Today, November 10, is the deadline! Visit the One Day on Earth site to learn more and jump in. And if you like making films yourself, you’ll be glad to know that if you share footage, you then have access to download footage from the archive for your own non-commercial endeavors.