Last week, I wrote a post here about exploding the nonprofit business model.  Well, one nonprofit – Reach the World - is doing just that by marrying gaming, social enterprise, volunteerism, travel, and global education. 

Round-the-world sailor and social entrepreneur Heather Halstead helps kids in low-income urban communities see the world and share international cultures by accompanying global travelers through internet communications, in addition to having classroom visits from the travelers, and conducting creative classroom projects.  Halstead explains that "geography is the vehicle to bring many subjects to life, including math, reading, environmental sciences, and languages." Board Chair Bob Altman adds that "Reach the World also involves college and graduate interns to assist teachers to advance technology literacy."

Jeffrey Wiener, Director of Dangerous Media, lent his assistance to RTW by developing GeoGames, an online game for kids to build the world.  National Geographic invested in the first iteration, and Reach the World will seek additional investors for its next iterations at the upcoming Games for Change conference.

So you travel for business, huh? Test yourself to see how many minutes it will take you to build the globe, and compete with your friends. (Stephanie Cuskley, CEO, NPower wins the prize among the adults I’ve seen so far!)