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.

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.