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NetSquared is an initiative ofTechSoup
NetSquared enables social benefit organizations to leverage the tools of the social web.
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- DonorTrust Technology (ChristmasFuture.org)
DonorTrust Technology (ChristmasFuture.org)
Voting Summary (Elevator Pitch):
We are empowering everyday people in North America to participate in eradicating extreme poverty by redirecting one gift at Christmas...and then watch the world change because of the decision they've made to do Christmas differently.
Supporting organization:
ChristmasFuture Foundation
URL:
http://www.christmasfuture.org
City:
Calgary
State/Region:
Alberta
Country:
Canada
Project Vision Statement & Potential Social Impact:
There is a growing global movement to eradicate extreme poverty.
ChristmasFuture is a Canadian based charitable organization that is a leader in this movement; and will inspire and empower North Americans to redirect part of the $1 trillion spent during the Christmas season towards funding strategic, integrated and sustainable initiatives aimed at leading villages in the developing world out of poverty for good. By partnering with existing implementing organizations working towards the same goal, and coordinating efforts instead of duplicating them, ChristmasFuture has a unique and important role to play in reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) and eradicating extreme poverty by 2025.
ChristmasFuture’s unique role is to capitalize on the following opportunities:
- Christmas Season Spending - North Americans spend over $1 trillion US every year during the Christmas season.
- Donor Desire - capitalize on donor desire and create an easy, transparent, accountable, and interactive way of giving.
- Current World Context – the societal context of both the developed world and the developing world demonstrate an awareness of need and support making significant and lasting change.
- Integrated Approach to Development - facilitate lasting change by only offering integrated, scientifically proven, sustainable development initiatives to potential donors.
ChristmasFuture will fulfill its role by utilizing the following strategies:
- Communications and Awareness – a variety of education, marketing and communications strategies will be employed to engage the citizens of North America.
- DonorTrust Technology – the development of the DonorTrust technology will allow ChristmasFuture to deliver this opportunity to the world and empower a model of transparency, donor-directed funding, reduced overhead, and proof-of-impact feedback.
- Strategic Relationships – partnerships will be developed that assist in coordination of resources and implementation of projects to ensure that ChristmasFuture is not duplicating efforts, but rather supporting existing efforts and maximizing the positive synergistic impacts of additional efforts.
The Anticipated Social Impact
We envision a twofold change. We believe that the developing world will be lifted onto the first step of the ladder out of poverty and towards development that they control. They will find hope. We also believe that North Americans will recapture the meaning through connection to something beyond themselves and something that will make history and change the world.
Additionally, because DonorTrust will set a new bar for Non-Profit Organizations (NPO) doing project-based work we will not leave these NPO's without a solution. We will be giving DonorTrust away to any NPO that wants to use it, and they can then be empowered to live up to the promises we make as a NPO - to take care of the funds our donors entrust us with, and then to PROVE IT! DonorTrust is an open-source project:
Sustainability (financial) model:
A few things contribute to the sustainabiity of ChristmasFuture and the DonorTrust Initiative:
- DonorTrust is an open-source project, which means that we will be relying on developers around the world to contribute to the development effort.
- In the short-term we are raising funds to build the software kernel and run the governance of the development effort and the ChristmasFuture organization.
- After 7 years we intend to be financial self-sustaining on the interest revenues from the donations given through ChristmasFuture each season. The basic logic follows:
- donations are made to projects at Christmas
- projects kick-off throughout that year
- money is disseminated as projects kick-off
- donation cash will be gaining interest revenue while it is waiting to be disseminated to projects
Potential obstacles:
Some potential obstacles for ChristmasFuture are:
- not raising enough operational funds to get the kernel developed and governed properly
- managing the growth properly
- managing the partner relationships well- getting heard above the 20,000 other NGO's in Canada alone
Resource Needs:
- Ruby-on-Rails Developers to build the kernel of the software and other nice-to-have features for release I
- Finances to hire key organizational staff (to ensure proper governance and management)
- $450,000 CDN first year funding
- Hardware to host the different environments
- Finances to pay for required hosting and other operational / infrastructure services
Key Milestones:
- Apr 1, 2007: Initial Design Complete
- Jul 30, 2007: DonorTrust Kernel Complete
- Sep 15, 2007: Release I of DonorTrust
- Nov 15, 2007: Lanch of ChristmasFuture
Project Summary:
DonorTrust is an open-source software development project for non-profit organizations involved in project work. It will empower a model of lower overheads, increased transparency, and provide proof-of-impact feedback. It is coupled with the ChristmasFuture movement that will inspire and empower to refocus a portion of the $1 Trillion spent in North America at Christmas towards projects in the villages of the developing world - and in doing so, eradicate extreme poverty.
Comments
Is there a social-networking or community-building aspect?
I'm just trying to find the "social web" piece, since that's what NetSquared is all about. It sounds like a great initiative and a worthy cause, but how are users (be those donors or recipients) helping to drive the development and direction of the project? Is there networking or community-building among the participants?
That's key, to me, in what separates the many, many important and vital charities from the projects that NetSquared is trying to pursue.
--ivan (quixotic1.com/Genocide Intervention Network)
Community Building of DonorTrust
Ivan - i couldn't agree more...community building is one of the keys that make the difference. DonorTrust (and ChrsitmasFuture) work towards building community in several ways:
1) DonorTrust is a technology that empowers community-to-community (C-2-C) philanthropy. Classrooms, families, departments in corporations, friends in North America can create a giving-community to participate in changing the world together. Of course, they give to communities in the developing world. We are creating a tighter link between both of these communities through the technology and the process surrounding the effort.
2) The technology facilitates more personal communication between the individuals within those two communities - empowering people to reach out, ask questions, share thoghts, and ideally become one community.
3) Community in North America will be enhanced by sharing in a common goal - participating in lifting a village out of poverty. This will take place in all the groups mentioned above.
4) We are working towards the vision of connecting classrooms in North America with classrooms in the developing world through the technology...and empowering students around the globe to work together on projects, learning from one another and together.
5) DonorTrust is about empowering everyday people to do something about a cause they are passionte about. The technology will decouple the typical components in a international development non-profit organization: a) advocacy b) project implementation c) back-office / admin. By decoupling these components we can empower a person passionate about a particular cause or region (for example, water, or Kenya) to advocate for those specific projects and take care of the rest. This essentially crowd-sources advocacy, allowing people to build their own communities in North America.
6) Lastly, on the macro-scale we want to build the community of the generation that ends extreme poverty. We are providing the opportunity for people to band together to do what we believe they want to do already...to change the world. Much like generations that came before us that were part of the peace movement, ending aparthied, ending slavery, or ending communism - ChristmasFuture will provide the ability for THIS generation to stand up and make a significant difference.
You've touched on the very pulse of our organization...empowering everyday people, and thereby giving them the place to join hands and change the world. That necessarily requires and creates community.
...jay
Jay Baydala
ChristmasFuture
c: 403.835.5444
e: jay.baydala@christmasfuture.org
::::::::::::::::: check us out on www.christmasfuture.org :::::::::::::::::
can you talk more about your
can you talk more about your communications and awareness strategy please? i'm curious how you're planning on getting the attention of the masses as they're happily spending money at the mall .... before they even head out?
how many projects do you plan on launching with?
-------------------------------------------------
Erin Denny aka "Handy"
erin@techsoup.org
Communications and Projects
Hi Erin - you've hit on one of the biggest issues - how to get the attention of consumers when 80,000 other non-profits are asking for mindshare. We have a few things going on:
1) We've created curriculum materials for grades 3-12 on extreme poverty, global citizenship, etc for teachers to download and use for free. One of the lessons is on the ChristmasFuture opportunity to go home and ask their parents to redirect a portion of the spending on gifts for them towards a project in the developing world...giving them the opportunity to participate in changing the world. FYI - in Canada they have made it mandatory to teach about global citizenship in the humanities classes, so we've met a need here.
2) We are launching a grassroots-empowerment marketing plan whereby we create and provide resources to everyday people to spread the idea to their friends and families - crowd-sourced advocacy.
3) Viral marketing approaches - low cost approaches to getting the word out, and ideally creating a 'pull' from mainstream media...creating a story they want and need to report.
4) Affiliating with other related poverty-eradication organizations to get the word out (e.g. one.org, makepovertyhistory.org, etc)
5) Co-marketing with technology service providers in the malls at Christmas time to allow people to log-on to ChristmasFuture.org to donate / purchase while they are at the mall.
6) Our differentiation: we only offer projects that are part of wholistic plans for villages to get out of poverty sustainably...we do the homework and then PROVE that the world is changing because of what the donor has done.
There are many more details but that covers a substantial amount
You also asked how many projects we intend to offer this year:
We are projecting $1.5 Million dollars worth of projects, which - if you use the Millennium Villages Projects template estimate results in projects for 5 villages of approximately 5,000 people each. There are multiple projects going on at once, depending on time of year, stage of development, and capacity to absorb development aid. Ultimately we will be ready to offer 10 times and 100 times that amount of projects if the idea spreads like the fire we believe it to be.
Thanks for your q's - let me know if i've addressed them and / or if you have any more.
Most Sincerely,
...jay
Jay Baydala
ChristmasFuture
c: 403.835.5444
e: jay.baydala@christmasfuture.org
::::::::::::::::: check us out on www.christmasfuture.org :::::::::::::::::