London karaoke bar Lucky Voice has already appeared on our pages once before, but we're compelled to mention it again for an initiative it recently announced on one of our favourite themes.

Specifically, through its new "Worthy Worker Mondays" program, Lucky Voice is offering two hours of free karaoke singing to registered charity workers, nurses, doctors and others "who dedicate their lives to the greater good." Teachers, firefighters, police officers, prison officers and social workers are also included, though the list of qualifying occupations isn't strictly limited, the company says, and not everyone in a party need qualify—just the person making the reservation. The offer is available for all room sizes between 5pm and 1am every Monday at Lucky Voice Soho and Lucky Voice Islington. A special cocktail will also be created each month and priced at just GBP 5. The Worthy Worker Mondays program is an ongoing one, with no planned end date, the company says.

On a side note, Lucky Voice has apparently been busy cooking up ideas lately, and is actually also in the midst of an effort that taps right into another longtime Springwise theme with a pop-up karaoke offering in a shop in London's Newburgh Quarter by Carnaby Street. Free singing will be available there every day from 12pm to 7pm through April 5.

Both programs are nice examples of free love, of course, but the Worthy Worker Mondays initiative adds a dash of sympathy and is a shining illustration of the corporate generosity that's increasingly valued—nay, demanded—by members of today's Generation G. How can *your* company give something back to the unsung heroes of the world?

Website: www.luckyvoice.com — bars.luckyvoice.com/files/specialoffer.pdf
Contact: louise@luckyvoice.com

Spotted by: Naomi

Misery loves company, as the saying goes, but so, too—one could argue—do creative ideas. It should come as no great surprise, then, to see growing numbers of laid-off professionals coming together at newly launched LaidOffCamps to network, brainstorm and find inspiration for the next phase of their careers.

Founded in January, LaidOffCamp organizes free, ad-hoc gatherings of unemployed and nontraditionally employed people—including freelancers and entrepreneurs—who want to share ideas and learn from each other. Sessions at LaidOffCamp meetings address topics such as living on an extreme budget, building a personal brand, how to be a freelance consultant and more. The camps are based on the Bar Camp model in which all attendees participate, and there are no prescheduled presentations. All planning and coordination is done through the LaidOffCamp wiki. The first day-long LaidOffCamp took place earlier this month in donated space in San Francisco, and was reportedly packed to bursting with attendees and potential employers alike. Many more LaidOffCamps are planned, beginning next month in Los Angeles.

Necessity is the mother of invention, to use another oft-repeated saying. It may be rough going these days, but it's also a time of opportunity, both for innovators and for sponsors. Apply free love and/or sympvertising today, and reap the rewards for years to come! (Related: FedEx offers free resume printing.)

Website: www.laidoffcamp.com
Contact: info@laidoffcamp.com

Spotted by: Susanna Haynie

There's nothing like immediacy and a sense of personal connection to motivate people to help those in need, as charitable organizations like Family-to-Family, Rosa Loves and DonorsChoose.org are increasingly recognizing. Adding to that list, SmallCanBeBig.org is a new, donated venture that aims to make it easy for people to help local families on the verge of losing their homes.

Launched last fall, SmallCanBeBig was formed on the premise that small donations can add up to a big difference for many families on the brink of disaster. The Massachusetts-based organization has partnered with a variety of longstanding charities in the state, and those groups recommend cases where a relatively modest one-time donation could save a family's home—typically situations where a single, urgent payment for mortgage or utilities is needed. Visitors to the site can then browse the stories of the families in need and donate as little as USD 1 toward helping one of them through Google Checkout. The entire amount of any donation goes directly to helping the selected family, and once that family's one-time need is met, its story is removed from the site. Donors, meanwhile, can track their donations online and check back on the status of the families they've helped.

Much like Bushfire Housing—the donated effort we wrote about last month that aims to help the victims of Australia's recent devastating fires—SmallCanBeBig was created an agency. Boston-area Boathouse Group launched the site as a volunteer effort to help those endangered by the current economic crisis. And indeed, given the prevalence of hard times these days, there's no shortage of opportunities for companies to display the corporate generosity that's now expected of them by Generation G. Check out our sister site's briefing on the topic, and start giving back! (Related: Helping travellers help local organisations.)

Website: www.smallcanbebig.org
Contact: info@smallcanbebig.org

Spotted by: Alexandra Eurdolian

If e-mail signatures can be put to work to help support a political candidate, just imagine the impact they could make for charity. That's essentially the rationale behind Replyforall, a site that uses custom e-mail signatures to raise not just awareness but cold, hard cash for a select group of charitable causes.

San Francisco-based Replyforall gives users a way to raise money for their favourite causes by simply adding a tailored signature to the e-mails they normally send. The service is currently available for Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail / WindowsLive / MSN—with others coming soon—and it's completely free for users. Cause-minded people need only sign up on the site and choose the cause they want to support. The signature they create will show that cause along with Replyforall's participating financial sponsor, and it can also be personalized to include additional elements such as a rotating fact associated with their cause, a school club or the user's contact information. Either way, the result is that when users send e-mails, their Replyforall signature is automatically inserted into their messages (it is possible to omit it for select messages, however). Sponsors pay to reach users and their recipients, and Replyforall shares sponsors' payments proportionately among the causes users have selected. Users can track the impact of their own support via a personal impact page. Replyforall, meanwhile, donates funds to the causes every quarter and regularly reports back with the impact of those donations.

Sponsors on the site include Virgin Mobile, TOMS Shoes, The Body Shop and confectioner sweetriot, while causes include the ASPCA, Wildlife Trust, the Clean Energy Coalition and Engineers without Borders. Replyforall is actively seeking more sponsors. One to team up with for a better world—and better image? ;-) (Related: Viral music sales through widgets.)

Website: www.replyforall.com
Contact: info@replyforall.com

Spotted by: Cecilia Biemann

The wisdom of the crowds has already been put to work to improve product design, provide personal style advice and resolve marital disputes, so why not use it to tackle the economy, too? In Ireland, a new grassroots initiative is aiming to do just that through a campaign to solicit ideas for economic recovery.

Launched just a week ago, the Ideas Campaign is asking the citizens of Ireland to propose innovative ideas to boost economic activity in the country across 19 key areas including manufacturing, technology, construction, retail and education. Ideas that will enrich the country through the arts, sports, and volunteer and community activity are being solicited too. Launched by businesswoman Aileen O’Toole, the campaign is an independent and nonpolitical effort funded by O’Toole’s business, AMAS. In addition to contributing practical ideas, visitors to the campaign's website can also leave messages of support. The campaign will run until 31 March. In April, its coordinators will use the ideas received to deliver an action plan to government with aggressive timelines for execution; an advisory group including senior figures from business, academia, economics and the public sector will participate at that point to ensure that recommendations are both pragmatic and achievable.

Within the first 24 hours of the campaign's launch, more than 450 people had submitted ideas on the site. Within just five days, more than 1,200 proposals had been made—a selection of which are posted on the site. All of which goes to show, of course, that there's never a shortage of ideas—on virtually any topic—when you ask the crowds. Ask, and you shall receive; don't ask, and you just might miss out on a winning idea. One to watch!

Website: www.ideascampaign.ie
Contact: info@ideascampaign.ie

Spotted by: Jonathan Kyle