Let the funding begin!!!!

Check out www.tendollarinitiative.org and get your favorite projects funded!!! Share it with friends and help students from across developing countries receive access to quality education!!!

October...November...

Hello everyone!

I hope you all are doing well. I just came back from a quick errand today and was surprised how cold it has gotten from just a week ago, as if to remind me how quickly time had passed by. It's actually November and that time of the year again when we push our clocks back an hour.

And also, time for photos. :-) As you know, some of us New Yorkers spent time together just a week ago. Here's how it all went down... (haha)







Doing a little arm-twisting game here...



















Greg was figuring out something here...














It's singing time!!!


















Rainy days and Mondays...
























Hitting the notes and a 98!






















The final number.

















Thanks to Mon for the sumptuous Veggie Lasagna. Jo-Ann and Mae, thanks for the booze-- everyone should feel free to stop by anytime for a drink or two.

Moving on to some updates, which I would like to share with you...

From our individual team meetings over the past months, many of you know that we had been targeting a launch date of October 30th for our website. Many of you also probably know that there are some delays that we have been experiencing with some of our non-profit partners, our overall website development, and other things on our to-do list.

First of all, I thank everyone for taking these delays in stride and still moving as expeditiously as possible to get our website and overall processes ready.

We all look forward to start funding our local partners' school supply needs. With everyone's help and contribution, we will get there, and I am eagerly anticipating some of our projects to start receiving funding very soon.

Second, start sharing our idea to friends, family, acquaintances, and colleagues. Our foundation was built on this spirit of getting involved, even in the smallest ways. You never know who would want to help fund or projects, or be part of our team for that matter! We could always use help in all the different branches of our organization.

Third, please feel free to post any suggestions, feedback here on this blog. Share with everyone what you think about anything that interests you-- our foundation, our partners, our website... anything at all!

There are so many more things to accomplish, a lot of places to explore, and ways to grow. It's overall just nice to have been able to start something with all of you.

Enjoy the coming Holiday Season!!!!

Thank you

I would like to thank everyone for being a part of the $10 Initiative. In some shape or form you all have made it possible for us to reach this point.

Nicole, Anna C., Ainee, Jared, Grethel, Flem, George, Anna D., Greg, Cricket, Mon, Jo-Ann, Seng, Mae, Vida, Ria, Camille, Paolo, Paul, Lu, Jay, Allan, Ed, Sandra, Tara. Thank you.

Matt, Charles, Oliver, Dennis, Mumbuso, Vicky, thank you.

Attys. Bell and McCarthy, thank you.

It has been a stormy summer, but somehow everyone tried to pull through whenever they could. Thank you.

We are at the home stretch and soon enough the little idea that took off and evolved into what it is today will become a reality. I cannot wait to see that first project get fully funded by our internet users.

All the best to everyone and I look forward to seeing you all soon!

Here's to the crazy ones...

Here's something Ainee sent us to inspire the creative team. I hope it will inspire you as well. It's from the 1997 Apple ad, "Think Different."

The one-minute commercial featured black and white video footage of significant historical people of the past, including (in order) Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Branson, John Lennon, R. Buckminster Fuller, Thomas Edison, Muhammad Ali, Ted Turner, Maria Callas, Mahatma Gandhi, Amelia Earhart, Alfred Hitchcock, Martha Graham, Jim Henson (with Kermit the Frog), Frank Lloyd Wright and Pablo Picasso. The commercial ends with an image of a young girl, Shaan Sahota, opening her closed eyes, as if to see the possibilities before her.

"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward. Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people. While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

Goodluck!!!

I just want to send a special hello to our teachers (Mon, Jo-Ann), and student (Vida)-- I wish you guys all the best in the coming school year!!!

Wow. So it has been a month since my last post and I'm getting excited, as I know a lot of you are too, of our launch (okay, excited, nervous, stressed, anxious...). I realize now as I write that fall is really just around the corner, and as much as I love that season of the year, I feel that I'm not quite done yet with summer! Those in New York City, have you noticed the days getting somewhat cooler? I remember walking to work this Monday morning and as I was turning around to Henry Street, there was this chilly crispiness in the air that really felt like fall.

In fact it makes me a little sad that we're nearly done with summer. Can you believe how quickly time flies? My professor from Boston always said, it takes forever to get to July 4th, but after that, everything just zips by.

So as with every ending, there's always a new chapter to turn and here's where we'll all finally get to see our initiative take off. Never be afraid to try-- that's probably the one thing that I learned throughout this whole process so far. Most of you may have heard my $10 vodka-cranberry story, but really, I think $10 is a product of everyone just giving it shot, sometimes without a clue what we're doing, but trying it out anyway.

I wanted to share with you what I learned from Mon's trip back home, the kind of difference $10 can really make. (Mon since you've taken forever to come up with a new entry here, I may have to pre-empt some of the material you may be thinking of putting down :-)).

Equity in Education is, translated to simpler terms, the vision of $10-- to provide underprivileged students access to quality education. Here's an example. ERDA, one of our non-profit partners, would like to receive funding for some science equipment to help test the ph level of water in a Chemistry class. Their plan then is to use that equipment to test the ph levels of the water in the Pasig River, and then as a key project component, students will brief Baranggay Captains (local town leaders) surrounding the Pasig River on the key hazards that could aggravate water pollution. I was thinking, wow, what a great example of how the supplies, which our donors have generously funded, could be used in a really relevant way. This is the point I believe where equity is achieved-- that learning experience in an underprivileged school in Manila will have been no different from that in a New York City school, because of the resources our donors have provided these underprivileged students. What a great way to level the field of education.

As we move forward with our initiative, there's an opportunity out there to make a real difference. And if we give it all a try, I do think that's there's no telling how much we can possibly achieve.

Updates

Dear Team,

I hope you all are enjoying the summer so far! The weather has been more or less quite nice here in NYC. I hope it's been good to you guys over there in Seattle, D.C., Philly and Manila!

Just some updates for you--

We're pretty much on track regarding our 501(c)(3) process. I just submitted the paperwork for the NY State Department of Education, which is a pre requisite for the full incorporation with NY State. After that process, we will then submit all paperwork to the IRS for the 501(c)(3) accreditation. Jay, our lawyer here in AIG, has been very helpful and I cannot thank him enough.

I've been receiving some news from each of you separately, and let me just go through them and share with everyone else. Here goes:

Mon's meetings with our non-profit partners in Manila are going quite well. He's been going with Will and they both have met with 5 organizations, I believe, all in all.

I briefly spoke with Ainee, and I believe they were all meeting up for dinner in Manila July 29th, with Flem, Grethel and possibly our strategists from McCann. It will be hard to gather all of them at the same time with their crazy ad agency schedules but I hope they're able to do so!

Pao's happy to report that the Tech team seems to be doing quite well with their timeline. You guys at the Tech team have been really wonderful and I cannot be prouder to be working on this project with you.

Anna and Ria are closely working together in seeking out grants for our foundation. They've been looking at a couple that could potentially provide a large sum of resource that can help us scale and increase the capabilities of our non-profit. If we do end up with a pretty hefty and solid war chest, these two ladies will have made it possible!

Nicole and I will be meeting with Mumbuso Zamchiya this Friday to formally introduce our organization to him and explore how we can work together in Africa.

Greg is trying to build a committee that can help plan and execute fund raisers, and events. Cricket Limlingan and Anna Coloma both expressed their interest in helping out, and this committee has been trying to figure out potential opportunities for fund raising activities. I'll be speaking with a friend tomorrow who owns a bar on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and explore the possibility of holding a fundraiser there. Stay tuned for that.

Seng mentioned to me that the partnership in Kenya is doing pretty well. Jo-Ann found an audience of potential donors and would be telling them about the $10.

Camille has prepared the financial projection and 3-year budget of the organization. If any of you is interested in checking it out, let me know!

Thank you everyone for being part of this wonderful process. It's been a great ride so far.

See you all soon at the launch! Stay tuned for more updates.

behind the scenes and sneak preview...here are some picture studies for the first batch of web design pages

Where we need to go...

Everyday as we come closer to launching our initiative, I think about it a lot more, and where I hope we can go.

The $10 Initiative. The other day, Jo-Anne wrote an e-mail regarding what she tought the initiative meant-- everyone can be a philanthropist; $10 allows you and me to make a real difference somewhere in the world.

Through our efforts we not only become philanthropists, we make philanthropists of others who would like to be part of this initiative as well. Indeed, the $10 Initiative is for and of everyone-- the internet using public, our non-profit partners, educators, students, corporate partners, peers, grant-giving bodies, etc.

I think that's where we need to go-- make this possibility real among everyone that I mentioned above. And if I try to break that down, that would include just 4 key ingredients:

1. Establish a fully functioning relationship with our non-profit/school partners.

2. Create awareness of the $10 Initiative and drive a response among the internet using public.

3. Develop a tool (website) that will not only allow our donors to fund school projects, but engage them in a personal connection with the faces of teachers, and students whose school lives are a tad better with the newfound access to better resources they've received from this initiative.

4. Involve corporate establishments by partnering with them and showing how they can make an impact through the $10 Initiative.

As you all know, behind the scenes, each of these 4 ingredients involves a lot of preparation, planning, nurturing, growing, and execution. But builders create pillars only once-- what happens next are hopefully the rewards that come with creating something out of nothing.

108 days to go.

Where we are now News Feed (ala Facebook)

I was counting the e-mail addresses in my e-mail to our team, and I was quite amazed how many of us are now part of the $10 Initiative.

Allow me to give you all an update of what's happening to each team and to everyone, and feel free to exchange thoughts or suggestions here on our blog!

Here goes the News Feed (ala Facebook :-))...

Jo-Ann and Mon just finished writing the Primer for our local partners.

The Groundwork Team just had a call conference meeting last weekend to discuss plans and strategies before launch.

Seng is planning to open up a contact with a school in Kenya. She also just finished preparing a check list for our spotcheckers and evaluators.

Mae is working on partnering with Caritas, Senegal.

Vida Gabe just joined the Groundwork Team! She just finished compiling a list of potential partners and an internal directory for our foundation.

Mon is traveling to the Philippines this summer and will meet with local non-profit partners, and our design and strategy team!

Camille gave Richie (Jericho) our 3-year financial projection for the $10 Initiative Foundation!

Richie just met with Jay Rittberg, AIG corporate lawyer who's expressed willingness to provide help with the organization's legal founding requirements.

Richie just spoke with Mubuso Zamchiya, founder of School Ventures, who's expressed interest in helping our organization establish contacts in Africa. Richie will go to D.C. on August 1 to meet Mubuso.

Richie and Nicole met with Dennis Whittle, CEO of GlobalGiving, and Matt Flannery, CEO of Kiva. See Nicole's blog below for their parting words for us. It was Dennis who suggested us to contact Mubuso.

Vicky Garchitorena, President of Ayala Foundation checked in to say hello and see how we're doing. She invited Richie to stop by the AF NY Chapter meeting to share with them the details about our foundation. The AF staff are quite interested to know more about us.

Anna, Mon, Nicole and Paolo have all finished their calendar of planned objectives to prepare us to launch at end of October!

Anna is scheduling a brainstorming session with Greg and Richie this weekend.

Anna and Ria are doing research which grants we should target and what we will need to submit our proposals.

Flem is finalizing the logo of our foundation.

Grethel is busy designing our website. Jared is busy implementing Grethel's designs. Ainee is getting ready to write the copy on our website. George, our strat planner from McCann Erickson is busy crafting our strategy which Ainee will use to guide her copy, and Nicole to guide branding and marketing plans.

Paolo is busy building our website.

Paolo is holding a Tech team meeting tomorrow (July 12) with Paul, Jared, and Will.

Oliver Hurst-Hiller, CTO of Donorschoose.org, has responded to Paolo's e-mail to set up a meeting. Richie would like to stop by and say hi to Charles Best.

That's all the news feed I've got. If any of the information above interests, intrigues you or piques your curiosity, feel free to ask the person about it, or get involved in any specific team project.

If I missed anything please feel free to add yours! Have a fantastic weekend everyone!!!

Kiva Launches Facebook Campaign Using New Marketing Tool, Involver

Check this out: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/kiva_launches_facebook_campaign.php

Pao and team, any thoughts on this?

Why $10?

Ok, why are we doing this? Don't tell me because you got a random call from a friend who twisted your arm to do this initiative. True enough it started that way hehe but kidding aside, something about this must have appealed to you... C'mon team why are spending time when we can just sleep or hang out with our friends or grab some drinks and not care less about education and developing countries. We're not THAT good ;) ...so Why $10? Why did you volunteer.

And if you're visiting this blog, what do you think of our site? You can say it's lousy 'cause there's nothing there (true enough haha) or you can leave something encouraging to keep us going ...either way we'll love to hear the good and the bad...leave your one-liners and make us smile or smirk =p

TenDollarInitiative.org = Equity in Education

When education no longer serves as the great equalizer, deterioration of the quality of citizens we produce follows soon after. We see people making poor choices not only in day-to-day issues such as properly segregating trash, but also in more serious instances where many recklessly spend tax money by electing officials who squander all the trust and resources given to them by their constituents. Education needs to bring back equity across social classes. More so, it must use equity to dissolve road blocks for students who are marginalized and have limited access to opportunities that can ultimately lead to successful and productive lives.

Zero in on students who have less. This is basic equity. How we apply it results to various methods and strategies. For example, a teacher can look into a curriculum and make sure that it enables students to meet their learning objectives no matter what their weaknesses are. And because I am a teacher myself I can say that teachers can only do so much. Often, our desire to push our students to beat the odds is matched with loads of limitations on budget, logistics, training, parent involvement, familiarity with our students' background just to name a few. Yet, at the end of the day we ask ourselves, "Have we served our students well?" I often shudder thinking of my own answer.

The Ten Dollar Initiative attempts to zero in on students who have less. I maybe an English teacher who wants to expose my students to Shakespearean plays but where do I get the money and resources for this project? Or maybe I want to engage my students in environmental investigations because a friend of mine teaching in a prestigious high school is able to expose his students to multi-level environmental impact assessment tools that gauge water and air pollution. But where do I begin to gather resources and get these materials? As teachers we know that learning activities are critical areas for knowledge building, and yet if we invest in them they become authentic opportunities of unleashing our students' ability to learn beyond their expectations. This to me is what Ten Dollar Initiative is trying to help donors and teachers of marginalized students invest in. If I can provide my students the same quality of Shakespearean exposure, as would any student get from any prestigious and private high school, then I can safely say that I am able to bring equity into my class.

Equity outside the classroom is difficult and complicated. Often this issue is left for the economists, policymakers and other advocates to figure out. However, it seems that equity inside the classroom is something which is more viable because students can see and feel how it is to receive quality instruction regardless of limitations unfairly imposed on them by an unfair societal structure. The Ten Dollar Initiative is an effort rooted in the ordinary life because the switch it demands is basic yet it requires some effort to go on line and donate at least $10.00 every week, or every month. Gather all those efforts plus the teacher's we all get equity inside the classroom!


Just as the Three Giants: Donor Choose, Kiva.Org, and Global Giving have affirmed, there is hardly any reason not to try out the Ten Dollar Initiative. If we globally become successful in establishing equity inside the classroom, we then create a dent in the lives of those students who most need us. And if we are able to form them well inside the classroom, we can absolutely hope that more of our students will make choices that will positively benefit them and others.

The Making of a Non-Profit Organization

The $10 Initiative. What does it mean?

Our strat planner from McCann Erickson forced upon us this question as we tried to develop a plan for our Initiative.

Conventional wisdom states that people ought to enrich themselves, amass wealth and power, then become philanthropists. The Oprahs, Bill Gateses, Warren Buffets of the world have proven this old formula tried tested and true.

Then you have this 21 year old junior in some American university, hanging out in his dorm room, checking out what his friends have been up to in Facebook, planning out his Friday night, or wondering what summer job to take. In his world, issues are hounding everyone else. The Iraq war. Threats to the environment. Poverty. The presidential election. The need for change. He finds these issues unsettling, but he knows that he cannot do much to make a real impact in a way that the powerful world philanthropists have.

But to us, at 21, he can be a true philanthropist.

This is our story too—we have not arrived at the pinnacle of our careers, or come close to building our own empires. At a unique time in our lives with not much achieved or proven to the world, what we have is a good education, and we want to make a concrete difference by using technology, which is becoming the legacy of our generation.

I look forward to discovering with all of you the faces, the projects, the teachers, the students, the real meaning of the $10 Initiative.

As we stand on the shoulders of giants...

We spoke to the 3 CEO's and here are our takeaways:

Charles Best of Donorschoose.org said, " Go for it!"
Matt Flannery of Kiva.org said, "Never listen to naysayers."
Dennis Whittle of GlobalGiving.com said, "Even if you fail, at least you tried. Keep the enthusiasm."

Can we make the tendollarinitiative.org worth something someday? Can we actually build this thing without any budget, with all volunteers for staff, with zero knowledge of running a non-profit? Can we turn this dream into something real? I write this as I am laying out the tasks for the branding team. Perhaps... let's just do it.

Testing

Testing... we can delete this later.