Raising money for good works

Written By: - Date published: 12:54 pm, October 23rd, 2014 - 15 comments
Categories: uncategorized - Tags: , ,

One of the features of recent weeks has been the remarkable success of the fund to allow Nicky Hager to legally challenge the police raid on his house and the seizure of equipment and documents. That is currently sitting at a very impressive $56,656.84 from 1168 donations with an average value of average of less than $50. There have been some large donations pushing the average value up, but the bulk has been in $20-$30.

This has inspired my partner Lyn Collie* in how to raise funds for her trip to India to help train local charity workers in Kalimpong, West Bengal.

Schoolgirls in Kalimpong, West Bengal, India. Photo / Julie Zhu

Schoolgirls in Kalimpong, West Bengal, India. Photo / Julie Zhu

Her donations page is Video Against Poverty, and she wrote about it a few days ago on her blog.

In November I’ll be travelling to Kalimpong, West Bengal, India where I’ll teach representatives from around 15 local charities how to create web videos and social media to engage their communities, raise more money and increase their impact on poverty. I’ll also be doing a number of school visits.

You might know that I spent time in Kalimpong in 2012, directing a promo for a couple of charities, the Glenn Family Foundation India and p3 Foundation. The work I saw being done was for-real, ground-up, poverty-busting action that truly empowered local people. It inspired me so much that I volunteered as Communications Manager for p3 in 2013, but I wanted to do more. This year I’m keeping a promise I made in 2012 to go back to Kalimpong and share what I know.

Because I’m a filmmaker with a few awards under my belt and have experience with communications and outreach I’ve been invited to run two workshops in a two-day seminar. One will be on video production – everything from shooting to editing to uploading to the internet. The other will be on social media – how to use electronic communications to reach the people you need to communicate with.

It works. Her target is $2600 to do the side trip. At present she has managed to get $1875 from 34 donations including mine. I also rather (foolishly) promised her that I’d help promote her donation page if she got over $1500…

So if you want me sleeping in a cold bed while Lyn goes off and transfers skills up a mountain (Kalimpong is just under the Himalayas), then don’t hesitate to help out with whatever funds you have spare. That statement is specifically at those who have found me objectionable in the past as I banned them :twisted:. Otherwise those of you who find this a good purpose, have a think about donating a bit.

Any money raised over my basic expenses will be used to purchase resources for rural schools in Kalimpong, the Bal Suraksha Abhiyan Rehabilitation Centre for children rescued from child labour or The Glenn Family Foundation India.

Because the campaign is going so well, I’m also starting to think about sourcing a nice easy-to-use camera, mic and tripod to leave over there for the charities to borrow for their projects.  Sound is a particular issue.  While some people have quite good cameras in the form of older handycams and cell phones, they don’t have any easy way to record decent sound so something which allows them to do this is important.

If anyone is reading this and has a handycam, bluetooth mic, light tripod or similar which they’d like to donate, contact me and I’ll let you know if it could be useful.

Leaving aside my usual grumpiness about living on my own for a while, I find that this is a rather interesting use for online fund raising. It allows for the direct transfer of skills from an individual to a group of people in an area who could use them. It bears thinking on for future endeavors.

* Yeah, I know. We are both called Lyn(n). WE don’t find it confusing… We really have no idea why others seem to find it confusing. She is her, I am me, and the phone is always for her.

15 comments on “Raising money for good works ”

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  1. r0b 1
    23 October 2014 at 1:49 pm

    I get an error when trying to donate – sent you email…

  2. ianmac 2
    23 October 2014 at 2:00 pm

    Ok for me. Pleased that like with Nicky, many little bits help collectively.

    • lprent 2.1
      23 October 2014 at 2:36 pm

      That was what I find so interesting about this whole process. I know the people and I know exactly what I’m helping out with.

    • Draco T Bastard 2.2
      23 October 2014 at 8:19 pm

      And that is why collectivism works and individualism doesn’t. For the community to do something it costs very little each but for an individual to do the same thing is well beyond the resources of most individuals.

  3. Ad 3
    23 October 2014 at 2:20 pm

    Hey Lyn imagine what you could do with a couple of paid staff.

    Then you could follow her and keep (ahem) the bed warm as you put it.

    That would require fundraise from and through this site.
    With this kind of following, it’s time to monetize.

    • lprent 3.1
      23 October 2014 at 2:34 pm

      Hey, I’m a datavore. Even thinking about going to places where the network is sparse tends to make me lean and very very hungry.

      Lyn managed to drag me to Samoa last year for a week in my first overseas trip since 1991. I used to travel a *lot* before 1991, but the cost and frustration of getting a modem to dial back to my server in NZ convinced me that I really wanted to see the world from the wide end of the data pipes.

      Her convincing argument for Samoa was to point me at the telco sites which were advertising visitor data SIMs. They worked too. I could moderate this site sitting on a tropical beach. Read my work emails. And download the odd book every few hours from Baen or Amazon to relax when we weren’t poking our noses into everything around the people island.

      My latest job may cause me to travel. But generally to places where the network is dense. It is also why I live where I do. It has allowed me to get ISDN, ADSL, and now fibre and relieved the feeling of suffocation on a thin pipe.

  4. left for deadshark 4
    23 October 2014 at 5:55 pm

    Good on her,no spare money sadly,but my best wishes,Lynn,you’ll have to while the time away ,here at the standard.We will look after you.

  5. Jay 5
    23 October 2014 at 9:07 pm

    Google Sally Xu nz, also a great charity. She is dying of hodgkins lymphoma, the same cancer that I have. Mine is responding to the treatment that pharmac funds, Sallys hasn’t so she needs a treatment not yet funded here which is mega bucks. Regardless of whether Mr Hagar has been wronged, this experience isn’t going to kill him! Please donate to my mate Sally Xu, she will die without our help.

  6. Once Was Tim 6
    24 October 2014 at 4:35 pm

    Thank you Ms Collie!
    Unfortunately I’m not in a position to donate – until/if/when my house sells (unfortunately those interested are hampered by Resbank/lending rules, and I’m not selling it to developers/speculators/rentier landlords).

    If when it does, I’ll be at the other end of the Himalyas in a place called Pilibhit near a Tiger Reserve – where I plan on staying UNTIL NZers come to their senses and throw out a gubbamint intent on sucking up to the American Empire; privatising anything that moves to the 10%; where a msm pretends journalistic integrity; and where half of all Kiwis are completely disillusioned with all things political and are busy just kicking the can down the road (till it all blows up and they realise when it comes time to ‘cash up’ – they’re actually not all that well off).

    Best of luck.
    Btw ….. did you have anything to do with a TV programme a while back showing Owen Glenn’s philanthropic endeavour in the region?

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