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* Donated *Originally Posted by Degenerate423
Quick question before I donate; what percent of each donation, or the total, actually goes to help survivors in Japan? I know some companies keep a certain percentage, so only about 50% of the actual donation goes out to help the cause. I'm not trying to be petty or anything, but I just want to make sure at least a majority of the donation will go directly to help survivors.
how much did NT raise for the Haiti quake?btw.. 5k by Friday. lets do this.
The custom sneaker charity auction raised $1,075 for Doctors Without Borders. We then used our ad revenue to issue a 2 for 1 match, for a total of $3,225. It was a great effort and I'm really proud of everyone who took part - especially the artists who so generously donated their talents, the base shoes, and the customization materials, which made it a very efficient fundraiser.
I truly hope people will resist the temptation to try and compare that outcome to what we're working toward here in attempt to evaluate whether one disaster "means more" to us than another. All lives are invaluable. I'd like to think we did the best we could for the people of Haiti last year - and we learned from the experience. NikeTalk has grown over the past year.
With Hurricane Katrina and the horrible tsunami of 2004, we urged our fellow members to give generously to relief organizations and provided a list of charities and ways to help. However, since we didn't have a tool like this collective fundraising page, we'll never know how great our overall impact really was. What we're discovering is that there is a tremendous motivational power in the act of collective fundraising. We are encouraging one another and inspiring one another to raise more and more and truly push the boundaries to discover what we're truly capable of.
In 2004, maybe we could've collected money via paypal - but PayPal would take a cut of that on both the inbound transfers as well as the eventual outbound transfer to the selected relief fund. It was inefficient. Here, we have the ability to facilitate direct donations to a nonprofit with an excellent track record for efficiency. Mercy Corps has received a perfect 4 star rating for its efficiency. When you give to Mercy Corps in general, over 89% of your money goes to program expenses. With the Japan project, they're actually raising money for an organization called Peace Winds Japan. When you look at the history of humanitarian efforts, it is virtually always best to maximize local support. You're generally better poised to administer aid to your fellow citizens than someone unfamiliar with the area could be. Late last week, after the earthquake struck, as I was reviewing our options to determine where we should send a donation from our ad revenue, Peace Winds Japan quickly emerged as my preference. So, this was really a great match for us and it's an opportunity I hope we can make the most of to assist our friends in Japan.
If, and obviously you never want to see anything like this ever happen again, another major disaster occurs, we're going to take what we're learning now and apply it. We're always working to improve and so I really want to make sure people see this more as a best attempt each time out and not a means of "keeping score" or evaluating how much we cared about the people in one region versus those of another.
I should have considerably more funds to mobilize this time, in part due to circumstance (we're owed a substantial amount from Yuku's previous owners and we're demanding that be repaid soon) and in part because we're generating more money from advertising. I don't want to have to measure out the donation amount for political reasons, to prevent people from saying "oh, they care more about Japan than Haiti because Dirtylicious is asian." I want to give all that we can because the situation demands it. If people are critical of that decision, so be it. But that's my position.
Quick question before I donate; what percent of each donation, or the total, actually goes to help survivors in Japan? I know some companies keep a certain percentage, so only about 50% of the actual donation goes out to help the cause. I'm not trying to be petty or anything, but I just want to make sure at least a majority of the donation will go directly to help survivors.
I understand and appreciate your concern. You want to do the best you can for the people of Japan with the limited resources you have available, and we've all heard horror stories about nonprofits using donor money in very inefficient ways as some of them, sadly, treat it as "found" money and use it as judiciously as someone might use lottery ticket winnings. The key is not to let something like the Red Cross problems after Hurricane Katrina make us cynical and prevent us from helping those in need. We always make a strong effort to assess the charities we contribute to to get the very most we can out of each dollar we raise. As I mentioned, Mercy Corps has a strong track record when it comes to efficiency and the fact that they'll be forwarding these donations to a well-established organization that's already on the ground in Japan makes a world of difference. This wasn't an arbitrary selection on our part and we didn't just go with the "brand name." I hope you feel confident enough to donate, but I'd like to encourage you to contribute to the organization you feel the most comfortable with. Just don't talk yourself out of helping entirely.