It’s release day again here at Daily Challenge and we’re happy to announce the arrival of Beta 1.4! Everyday we’re getting handfuls of valuable feedback from our community (that’s you guys) with ways to improve the experience around the site. If you’ve ever submitted a complaint or suggestion about an existing or new feature but haven’t gotten a response, rest assured that we’ve seen it and have incorporated it into our regular planning cycles. Stephanie (Daily Challenge’s lovely Community Director) already does an awesome job at keeping on top of what you’re saying and staying in touch with all of you, and she really makes a point to make sure you’re all heard!

Speaking of amazing people, our Chief Architect Luciano Sampaio continues to work his magic and develop new features for the DC community to enjoy and interact with. The entire team, in fact, has put a lot of sweat and strength (or as Stephanie calls it, Swength) into this new release, so we really hope you like it.

Check out what’s new after the jump!

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The holidays are fast approaching (actually, they’re already here!) and ask anyone, even Scrooge, and they’d tell you this is the season for doing good.

So we need your help, Do Gooders! We need primo challenges worthy of this Do Good Season. We’d like to know:

1) what are some of your holiday challenges?
2) how would you like to star on the homepage of Daily Challenge?

Please leave your challenge ideas in the comments below, and if you’re not too shy, tell us you want to be celebrity challenger sometime over the holidays!

We’re starting to get into the habit of making Fridays at Daily Challenge “extreme challenge day”, and this past Friday was no different! Yesterday, I got the opportunity to challenge the world to:

Walk down the street with a sign that says, `Donate a High Five’

And because we like to think that ‘the walk’ is just as important as ‘the talk’, we set out on the streets of King West on a beautiful (though somewhat chilly) Friday afternoon to warm the hearts of Torontonians with high fives.

Naturally, we caught it all on video. Enjoy!

It’s not too late for you to accept the high five challenge! Better yet, why don’t you document it too?

A very big and special high five goes to Jon Lim for putting together this amazing video in record time. Jon is one mighty talented Do Gooder!

If you enjoyed the video, why not help us spread the love by giving it a digg? Click the button below!

Today in the United States, people are taking the day to celebrate being grateful for everything they have. Some people don’t have much to celebrate and so today’s challenge is to, “help a family enjoy a good meal today. Donate food to a local food bank.”

FUN FACTS

Thanksgiving is an ancient tradition that is celebrated by many different cultures and can be traced back thousands of years to Nature Cults. It was, and still is, a celebration of all the hard work necessary to reap the rewards of the fall harvest season.

While many people in North America sit down to a dinner of turkey, ham, potatoes, gravy, bread, veggies, cranberry sauce, apple pie and pumpkin pie, the Natives enjoyed a very different meal. They relied solely on locally grown foods.

If you’re interested, this is what an original Thanksgiving dinner would have looked like: Continue Reading

Hi Twitter nation!

We would like to thank you for your follows (over 780 at time of this post) and want to invite you to view our “What is Daily Challenge” video and to join the Daily Challenge movement.

Remember together we can be the change!

To join the movement click here now!

While we consider ALL of our challengers celebrities, many would suggest that the technical definition of “celebrity” is someone who can be found in the limelight but not so easily in person. Then there are local celebrities and heroes who may not make the news consistently, but they and their accomplishments have been publicized.

We’ve been working hard on getting in touch with celebrities about their interest in DailyChallenge.org since we launched September 19th. While we still have several hot leads to follow up with, it’s a challenge to connect with these people! To recap, here are a few that have already participated:

Robin Sharma - Best-Selling Author of “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari”: click here to see his challenge.

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Recyclable cups, fair trade practices, health programs at work, Google’s Project 10 to the 100th - all of these are examples of CSR.

Corporate social responsibility is basically businesses taking responsibility for their actions. It’s the extra measures (beyond the law) that an organization makes to lessen the negative impact of doing business. From wikipedia:

Corporate social responsibility (CSR, also called corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship, responsible business and corporate social opportunity) is a concept whereby organizations consider the interests of society by taking responsibility for the impact of their activities on customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, communities and other stakeholders, as well as the environment. This obligation is seen to extend beyond the statutory obligation to comply with legislation and sees organizations voluntarily taking further steps to improve the quality of life for employees and their families as well as for the local community and society at large.

When you’re shopping, does it make a difference to you that the company cares about your health, the environment and their employees?

Apparently a lot of people do nowadays! Marketing Mag just published results from a survey that reported:

Fully 90% of consumers feel it’s their duty to contribute to a better society and improve the environment; 84% feel they can personally make a difference, and 87% are willing to change their own consumption habits to help make the world a better place.

But then there are the critics. They say that most companies aren’t really serious about their CSR initiatives, that many choose self-serving ways to ‘give back’ and are merely flashy, half-hearted attempts to woo consumers.

What are your thoughts on corporate social responsibility?

All of us here at Daily Challenge have our own unique talents that we bring to our individual departments. Here’s the team letting loose a little steam while we provide you a descriptive snapshot of each department’s duties:

So let’s have a vote! Who’s the hardest working of the bunch? 

Google wants to give back to the world by providing funding to 5 world-changing ideas. For those who love video, here’s what their project 10 to the 100th is all about:

For those who love text:

Never in history have so many people had so much information, so many tools at their disposal, so many ways of making good ideas come to life. Yet at the same time, so many people, of all walks of life, could use so much help, in both little ways and big.

In the midst of this, new studies are reinforcing the simple wisdom that beyond a certain very basic level of material wealth, the only thing that increases individual happiness over time is helping other people.

In other words, helping helps everybody, helper and helped alike.

The question is: what would help? And help most?

It’s so fascinating how the world is changing. Really, greed was rampant not too long ago but I feel that those with financial health are more than willing to share now. It could be because the world needs it or it might be because the general public’s socially conscious consumerism. Our purchasing choices, en masse, forces companies to change. And it’s company initiatives like Google’s project 10 to the 100th that reaffirm this positive belief in me.

Stay tuned to the Do Gooder Daily to hear all the latest Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives happening around the world!

By far, out of all seven of last week’s challenges, the cold shower challenge caused the most debate, garnered the most comments, if you ask Darius, it was the most challenging; and if you ask his girlfriend/videographer, it was by far the most FUN (to film, anyway).  

I have to be honest: I tried it this morning after my workout and failed miserably. Lasting all but 30 seconds, I switched to hot water until just before getting out. Rather than cold, though, I was a big baby and opted for cool water. I did my best and I’m looking to try this challenge out again when it’s a little warmer out.

Darius! You’re my hero!

So did any of you try the cold shower challenge? Were you the superstar Do Gooder like D or did you do what you could at the time, like me? What did you think of this extreme challenge, and please tell us: would you like to see more?