Press Release: National Peace Corps Association’s Africa Rural Connect Featured in a Top Selling Business Book

Washington, DC — November 18th, 2010 — Website serving as online platform to help African farmers highlighted

Africa Rural Connect (ARC), a program of the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA), the nation’s leading nonprofit organization supporting Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and the Peace Corps community, was highlighted in a recent topselling business book, Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, and Transform Your Business, written by Josh Bernoff and Ted Schadler (Harvard Business Review Press; September 2010).

“Using social media has allowed Africa Rural Connect to bring together people from around the world to participate in a truly 21st century conversation,” said Molly Mattessich, manager of online initiatives for the National Peace Corps Association, who heads the Africa Rural Connect website. “Our goal was to help rural African farmers, but the lessons we learned while doing it could benefit any business or nonprofit interested in using social media.”

Written by Bernoff, senior vice president, idea development, and Schadler, vice president and principal analyst at independent research firm Forrester Research Inc., the book explains how different businesses and nonprofits empowered their employees to reach out to customers on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Empowered was on the list for September/October 2010 top-selling business books put out by Inc. magazine and 800-CEOREAD.

In the second chapter of book, which focuses on how companies allowed resourceful employees to develop their own projects, the authors note that NPCA created ARC to bring together former Peace Corps volunteers and Africans living around the world to “find new ways to help African farmers succeed.”

Mattessich said it was flattering to be included in a book which highlights work done by such companies as IBM, Intuit and E*TRADE. “Within months, twelve thousand people from one hundred eighty countries had created profiles and contributed almost eight hundred ideas for a contest to reward the best rural farming ideas,” Bernoff and Schadler write.

“We’ve worked hard to make Africa Rural Connect what it is today, so it was really great to see our efforts highlighted as a model online initiative,” she said. “We hope it will inspire others to engage in new ways with like-minded people to support a greater cause.”

To learn more about ARC, visit: www.africaruralconnect.org

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About the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA)

Founded in 1979 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) is the nation’s leading 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization connecting and championing Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and the Peace Corps community. It provides service and education opportunities that build on the Peace Corps experience, and is also the longest-standing advocate for an independent and robust Peace Corps. To learn more, visit: www.peacecorpsconnect.org

Media contact:
Erica Burman
Director of Communications
Phone: 202-293-7728

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