My name is Jonathan Young. I am 35 years old, live in Hamburg, Germany with my family and work currently as the German site executive for a large Internet-based travel company. Time and time again I have had ideas for Internet-based projects, ideas which could get noticed by many people and at the same time aim to reach a goal which would make me proud of my achievement. The idea of creating a social community with a donation funded virtual human chain around the whole world came early February 2007 and I haven't stopped developing the site since. "Give Earth a Hand" will allow me to create a network of people around the world to help support projects aiming at fighting global warming and the general ecological downfall happening on our planet.

One can imagine how pleased I was to see and hear the largly increased interest in ecological awareness in the media and politics in the last few months. This will push the amount of searches for ecological subjects on the web, therefore allowing "Give Earth a Hand" to eventually reach a much broader audience. I can see this website working and therefore I invest all of my free time in creating an ever-improving experience for the users and guests here. Let me know what you think about it all by contacting me !

What is the reason for this site?

The news about what is happening to our environment has finally made it to larger headlines, made politicians discuss necessary legislatory measures, in general making us all think more about what we do and still can do to help our world out of this disturbing situation. This concern needs to be carried by everyone who uses the world's resources or contributes to the warming effect. Everyone is affected and everyone of us can do their little bit to help save our resources.

The idea behind "Give Earth a Hand" is quite simple. Raise public awareness about global warming and general ecological problems, create an online social community network in which everyone can get involved in learning about what is happening to our planet, inform themselves about international projects and organisations working against global warming.

At the same time I wanted to be able to really do something against global warming, actually raise money for funding projects while being able to work on organising this site, creating promotional activities and getting the word out to the press continuously about what this website is getting done. The wealth of non-profit organisations supporting projects will allow for this community to choose a great project to support.

What does the "Earth Chain" represent?

The "Earth Chain" is a virtual human chain which will eventually reach completely around the Earth, running along the equator. 1.8 million people will be able to join this chain and receive their own chain figure / marker which can then be placed in Google Maps for everyone to see. All you have to do is:

a) be a registered user of "Give Earth a Hand" (which is for free!) and
b) donate the basic amount of 2 Euros

(1 Euro for the project funding/donation, 1 Euro for funding the payment transfer from any country, the computer technology and the time and effort going into this!) and then you are a member of the chain!

Where do the donations go?

All of the donations go directly into a controlled fund account. The number of members in the chain show exactly how high the donation amount is. Due to strict German laws dealing with the founding of donation accounts or charitable trust funds (one has to have at least 5.000 Euros to even start a charitable trust fund!) I have decided to start the fund myself, eventually creating a trust fund run by an internationally acknowledged notary.

I will announce this on the site when the amount of donations makes this possible, the sooner the better!

The other possibility is to find an organisation which would act as a patron organisation for the account, each Earth Chain member would know that their donation is being controlled through a known organisation. So please, if you know an organisation or belong to a large non-profit organisation and you are interested in helping, just contact me.

To keep costs low and to remain flexible, I have not started an organisation (again due to German laws). That is why currently this site can not give you a receipt for tax breaks. And because I wanted to get this idea started quickly, this is the only way to go due to the lack of supporting funds for an organisation.

The goal is to found in the future a non-profit organisation based on the efforts through this website which can offer tax exemptions to people/companies wishing to contribute larger amounts. That's why "Give Earth a Hand" asks solely for the basic 2 Euro donation.

The trust fund will receive 1 Euro from every member of the "Earth Chain" and it will be able to earn interest, this yet again flows directly back into the trust fund. A finance update area will be provided through this website so that the fund can be controlled through anyone interested in seeing where the money goes to. Simple yet very effective!

Why does 1 Euro go for organisational fees?

Transfering money costs money. Currently around 22% of the donated sum is consumed through the transaction fee. As 1 Euro goes directly into the trust fund, only about 58 cents go towards supporting this project itself!

This project has taken a lot of time and effort to create and running it will hopefully become a full-time job (creating promotional activities, contacting officials, organizing support for major projects etc.). Because I am very confident that this website will be receiving a lot of visitors and users daily, the site needs enough IT support (computers actually running the site, databases for the information, e-mail servers to send the mails and newsletters etc.): this requires funding or sponsors.

And as this is an international effort, the future plans for several language variants of the site which would need support as well. Only the future can tell if this site will be accepted by a large base of users, thus allowing for further expansion.

I would be one of the first people to say "why, anybody could do this and make money..." but just saying that one is going to do something against the environmental problems and actually doing something is a big difference.

This site is just part of a much larger movement which is growing daily and I want to be a part of it. This is my own possibility to reach a large audience around the world. And the idea is definitely worth trying it out!

Eventually the goal is to create a network of companies and organisations which donate a set percentage of the earned funds back into supporting ecological projects

When will the donations distributed?

Once the chain has been completed! During this time the complete amount of donations will be kept in the trust fund which will be constantly contolled, gaining interest at the same time! All of the money AND interest goes towards the projects the members of "Give Earth a Hand" vote for.

To keep the project (and hopefully soon enough acknowledged non-profit organisation!) in the members hands and control, voting will then be held once every month by the "Give Earth a Hand" members to donate the amount of 100.000 Euros to the chosen project of the month. This way, everyone at Give Earth a Hand will be involved in making donations to at least 18 different ecological projects (simple equation: 1.8 million members in the "Earth Chain" = 18 * 100.000 Euros) and raise awareness in the public at the same time!