About Us
The idea for KarmaPoints dates back to Founder and CEO Wesley Negus's tenure as Chairman for the Surfrider Foundation’s West Los Angeles / Malibu Chapter, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the marine environment. Despite a passionate membership, the challenge of finding volunteers week after week to fill slots for tablings, fundraising events, educational outreach programs remained difficult. Most volunteers would only remain active for 1 event, then disappear. There were some loyal "core" volunteers, but never enough. After discussions with other non-profits, it was clear that the problem of volunteer retention was not unique to the Surfrider Foundation. The idea for a rewards program like frequent flyer miles for recruiting, retaining and motivating volunteers (KarmaPoints.org) was born! And, not only does the KarmaPoints.org system provide a "carrot" to keep volunteers coming back to donate theri time, it finally allows non-profits to truly give back to the volunteers who give so much to their organizations.
In early 2010, Wesley joined forces with an unbelievable team of passionate experts who has worked tirelessly to create and launch the KarmaPoints.org platform. Among those amazing people are:
 Ross Furukawa Founded the Santa Monica Daily Press, smdp.com and several local news apps, all focused on the Westside of Los Angeles. He currently sits as Board Vice President for Co-oportunity Natural Foods Cooperative. He also sits on several other local non profit boards, including the Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCA, Ocean Park Association and Second Thursday (CEO’s roundtable). Ross is an expert in advertising, sales and marketing strategy. He is passionate in helping non profits find quality volunteers, and helping companies connect with those in the space of their volunteer hours! |
 Mary Seibert Art Director at Demand Media for eHow.com. Has worked at Yahoo! Music, Launch.com, and POM Wonderful. Is thrilled to have an opportunity to work with such a great team of people who really care about their community and want to contribute towards encouraging others to do so. |
 Todd Rimes Todd Rimes wrangles the Drupal web application underlying karmapoints. He is working on his own social-shopping startup, handpik, while he also consults and strives to write the Great American Screenplay. Previously, he was Engineering Director for EQAL and, before that, he was Senior Engineering Manager at Yahoo! Music. Prior to Yahoo!, Todd was Manager of Web Development for Sony Pictures Digital, where his team delivered sites for PlayStation, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, and Spiderman and he led the integration of co-branded sites and feeds, integration of Sony’s custom content management system, and the localization of Sony’s DVD catalog for Japan. Previously, Todd was Engineering Director at DreamWorks' pop.com, game developer for Warner Bros. Online, and a consultant for IBM and Andersen Consulting. He has an MBA from Georgia Tech. |