Hey Meth. Can we organize a fundraiser for this?

[rko2004]

[h1]Famine's devastation: 4 dead children, 1 family[/h1]http://news.yahoo.com/fam...-1-family-173235180.html


I figured since we did so good with raising money for Japan, maybe we can get something going for the people of Africa suffering from this.

Quick notes.
The drought and famine in Somalia have killed more than 29,000 children under the age of 5 in the last 90 days in southern Somalia alone, according to U.S. estimates. The U.N. says 640,000 Somali children are acutely malnourished, suggesting the death toll of small children will rise.
Saw this in the article too...

No U.S. law specifically prevents aid to southern and central Somalia, where the U.N. food agency says it cannot reach 2.2 million Somalis in areas under al-Shabab's control. But bribes, tolls and other typical of costs of doing business in the largely lawless and chaotic country could have been punishable after the State Department declared al-Shabab a terrorist organization in 2008.



^ Would that be a issue?

 

[Bert.]

damn, 29,000 kids dead?

 

[0renthaljames]

crazy cause the state of Texas alone could feed all of Somalia. It's a shame 

-The Juice

 

[rko2004]

Originally Posted by 0renthalJames

crazy cause the state of Texas alone could feed all of Somalia. It's a shame 

-The Juice

I'm saying. All the money that goes to funding these wars could have those people eating multiple times a day.

Truth is, no one cares. That's why I'm trying to see if Meth and the other mods can get something brewing to at least help a little.

29K dead is insane.

Imagine if the big corporations actually gave a damn about normal people?

So any who, I think we can get something big done but I don't have the resources or stroke to get the ball rolling. 

Just looked through the gallery in the link...

 

[hankmoody]

theconditioner tried... I told him to pm meth but Idk what happened. So many kids are dying...

 

[ar guy]

Remember in 1993 when we tried to help them, I do.

 

[rashi]

Worldconcern.org is a very reputable charity.

 

[fade on you]

How about helping someone in America? Last time we tried to help them they shot down our helicopter and drug our soldiers through the dirt and killed them.

 

[trunks206]

Originally Posted by RKO2004

Originally Posted by 0renthalJames

crazy cause the state of Texas alone could feed all of Somalia. It's a shame 

-The Juice

I'm saying. All the money that goes to funding these wars could have those people eating multiple times a day.

Truth is, no one cares. That's why I'm trying to see if Meth and the other mods can get something brewing to at least help a little.

29K dead is insane.

Imagine if the big corporations actually gave a damn about normal people?

So any who, I think we can get something big done but I don't have the resources or stroke to get the ball rolling. 

Just looked through the gallery in the link...

Not saying what you feel is wrong, but the article states that the main issue is getting aid to the rebel controlled areas as they are only letting 2 groups in. Truth of the matter it seems that the only group of people that dont care is the rebel factions turning away aid or demanding bribes from groups looking to help their own people. 



If you do pay off the rebel groups it helps fund their aspirations for power, continuing the long civil war and prolonging the country's current status as a failed state. If you arent willing to pay, we see the outcome in the article, all the sufferers of the drought have to suffer even more. Its almost a lose-lose situation for them. 

 

[rashi]

U.S. Government stance:


No oil = No help

 

[heavenlee777]

Dang

 

[scott frost]

Originally Posted by rashi

U.S. Government stance:


No oil = No help

Let us know how it is when you get over there to help. 

 

[rashi]

Originally Posted by Scott Frost

Originally Posted by rashi

U.S. Government stance:


No oil = No help

Let us know how it is when you get over there to help. 

I've donated my own money already...months ago. If there was a local group that was sending medical personnel to help out, I'd sign up...like when I went to Haiti for a week.


What have you done, big dog?

 

[scott frost]

The company I work for matches the total employee contribution so I have donated my own money, not sure who else's money I could use, to many relief efforts since I began working here.

 

[rko2004]

Damn its a rough situation.

We can help America out too. A little from us all is a lot.

 

[Methodical Management]

I'm glad to see people interested in this, since the media have, in general, done such a pitiful job of raising awareness to date.  (Even "progressive" publications like the Huffington Post spend more time discussing Princess Kate's latest outfits.)

One of our fellow members already tried to raise some money for those affected by the famine, but thus far the response has been underwhelming: 
http://niketalk.com/topic/308421/raise-just-100-Let-s-help-feed-families--East-Africa
We can do something larger, but there are a few challenges that need to be overcome.  

Mercy Corps has an outstanding group fundraising feature, but I'm not yet convinced that they're the ideal choice for this particular purpose. 

We chose Mercy Corps for our Japan Fundraiser largely due to their preexisting affiliation with Peace Winds Japan, which was already well poised to help survivors in a uniquely efficient way.  Sometimes well-intended efforts from groups without a solid base of operations in a given region can actually place additional strain on a disaster area, as teams fly in from all around the world (which is costly in and of itself) to converge on areas where resources are the most scarce.  You can just imagine how this sort of burden could make life more difficult for survivors in Japan who wish to use the airports, road system, or local hotels.  Supporting Peace Winds was a really efficient choice in that situation.
For that same reason, I'd tend to favor an organization with deeper roots in the affected areas, like the UNHCR, MSF,  or, if you prefer a US based organization for some reason, something like CARE.  
The problem is, they don't have that sort of automated group fundraising system in place.   If we collect the money here, so we can calculate a group total and acknowledge everyone who participates with a badge etc., we operating inefficiently in that we'd incur paypal fees for payment processing and that amount would be lost to the charity.  It's more efficient to encourage direct donations, but we've learned that the group experience really can be a powerful motivator for some people.  

So, it's a difficult choice to make.  Do we raise money again through Mercy Corps, which has a good reputation overall but isn't perhaps as well poised to deliver effective, efficient aid as another organization, or do we go through another organization that lacks the group fundraising system?  

I'm open to feedback on this.  

Obviously, this is something I'd like to support with our ad revenue, but unfortunately our resources are tied up at the moment.  

We're definitely open to raising money for this, but we do need to address those logistical concerns to ensure that it's done in a productive way.  We don't believe in money as a means of score keeping.  Throwing money at just any organization to feel good for the moment shouldn't be the goal here.  Our goal should be to work together to do as much good as possible.  

Let's figure out the best way to do that and go from there. 

 

[trunks206]

Meth: Couldnt members just send the payment as a "gift" via paypal to an account that you select and the total be donated to a organization on behalf of the community? 



Also I like that you brought up the whole issue of logistics in aid relief and it think it is something we need to try and limit to get the people the most help now,so I say we go with one of the first two you suggested (unless another member would like to suggest another group) as they seem to have a stronge base for response in the region(s) effected. 







Oh and sticky?

 

[Methodical Management]

 Couldnt members just send the payment as a "gift" via paypal to an account that you select and the total be donated to a organization on behalf of the community? 

You can't accept an unlimited amount of "gift" payments.  That's fine for small stuff, but if you do anything serious, you're gonna get stuck paying them upwards of 2.2% on the way in, then, when you transfer the funds to the charity, they're gonna get hit with processing fees, too.  
So, in all likelihood, for every $100 you raise you're gifting $5 to the financial services industry.  I'm not a big fan of that. 

It's sort of a necessary evil when you're selling merchandise, but when you're dealing with direct donations that's a frustrating sacrifice to make just so people can enjoy more accurate reporting of collective impact.  

I did some digging (they decided to hide it pretty well on the website) and it seems that MSF does have a group fundraising program available:  http://www.firstgiving.com/1185

The catch there is that, no matter how much you raise, they don't target the donations, so it all goes to their general fund.  Now, it's usually the case that when you make an individual donation below a certain threshold, you don't have much of an opportunity to target your donation anyway - so in most instances this is a wash - but it's still important to understand the distinction.  You'd be raising money to support the general operations of an organization whose immediate priorities include disaster relief to Somalia. 

So long as people are okay with that, I should be able to get a fundraising page going for MSF/Doctors Without Borders up within the week. 

We supported MSF with our Haiti fundraiser and it turned out to be a wise choice.  Their response was really well rated by independent charity evaluators.  (e.g. http://www.givewell.org/international/disaster-relief/haiti-earthquake)  I would strongly consider going with them for this purpose.

If we do a drive similar to the Mercy Corps Japan drive, we could use some graphic design help as, based on what we learned last time, we'd want to create perhaps 3 different badges to recognize people at different donor levels.  It's great to encourage a minimum donation of $10, but the consequence is that in many cases that also winds up being the average donation and unnecessarily limits what we're able to produce.  This time, I'd probably establish levels at $10, $25, and $100 with a separate badge for each group. 

We'd be looking for badge concepts in similar sizes to the two I have beneath my avatar.  Submissions can be made to the staff email account or to my inbox via PM.  

 

[hankmoody]

Whatever you choose, Meth, I'll be behind it. Also, I speak for everyone.

 

[josebronx]

 

[remix]

nike talk shirts or hats with the niketalk in african colors? id cop

 

[Methodical Management]

nike talk shirts or hats with the niketalk in african colors? id cop

For the sake of efficiency, we'd greatly prefer to encourage direct donations.  
Physical products take too long to produce and the money spent creating and shipping those products would be put to better use by the charity itself. 

We'll do caps because people want caps and then donate the proceeds to charity, but if people WANT to help others in the event of a disaster they should do exactly that.  It shouldn't require treating oneself to a physical product as incentive. 

As I said during the Japan donation drive:  don't buy a shirt to look like you care.  Act like you care instead.  

 

[xepikrain]

Originally Posted by Method Man

As I said during the Japan donation drive:  don't buy a shirt to look like you care.  Act like you care instead.  

Well said.

 

[remix]

whoa dont get me wrong here meth i do care and have donated in the past, just not to NT yet, mostly to cancer fundraisers locally,id be glad to donate directly no doubt


im talkin bout the fundraising part

i feel that u would get more money that way, cause people that dont care, and wouldnt donate directly, would actually donate, yea sounds sad but thats how a lot of ppl r nowadays cant just pretend everyone cares uk?

i mean just my 2 cents, not sayin im right, but just throwin ideas, obviously u have more knowledge of how this all works and how much charity u actually receive with the sell of items or just direct donations since u have ran this stuff in the past.

 

[Methodical Management]

i feel that u would get more money that way, cause people that dont care, and wouldnt donate directly, would actually donate, yea sounds sad but thats how a lot of ppl r nowadays cant just pretend everyone cares uk?

i mean just my 2 cents, not sayin im right, but just throwin ideas, obviously u have more knowledge of how this all works and how much charity u actually receive with the sell of items or just direct donations since u have ran this stuff in the past.

I'm not suggesting that you aren't socially responsible or that you don't really care about the people of East Africa just because you expressed interest in the t-shirts.  
In fact, I think we're essentially saying the same thing:  it's a good idea for people who don't really care all that much.  But here's the thing: that's what the rest of NikeTalk is for.  That's what our ads are for.  That's what our regular t-shirts and caps are for.  

The great thing about direct donation drives, like the Japan drive, is that you guys can inspire your fellow members.  We're able to demonstrate the BEST way to spend money in support of those in need: through DIRECT donations, and we do it together as a community.

If people want to show their support for NTxSomalia or NTxJapan, that's what the badges are for.  It's a way to show your support and enjoy a thematic NT design without wasting money on a physical product.