Ready, Set, Go get the money!!!

After weeks and weeks and weeks of work - our corporate media kit is done and our introductory letter is complete as well. We have forwarded to each of our board members and asked them to send to those they know in the corporate world who may be interested in sponsoring some loans. Heck, maybe they would be interested in sponsoring all the loans. You never know :) Now we start picking up the phone and reaching out to those we know in the corporate world... or those we are friends with that know someone in the corporate world - you gotta know somebody who knows somebody, ya know?

We have hired our two Haitian Director/Assistant Directors and we are working on getting our training manual up to speed with Haitian culture. We will begin taking applications for loans in September before we get there and once we are there we will go through those applications and decide who will receive a loan and training will begin in October. Woo Hoo!!!

We have had a lot of change in our thinking from what we thought would be very small loan amounts to the clear fact that 'you get what you pay for' when it comes to employees. Since we will not be on the ground we need men we can trust, loyal, and upstanding men in their community to pull this off. Our Director lives quite far away so we are having to deal with bigger salaries than we had anticipated as well as the fact that he is going to need a vehicle. Which now sounds daunting because we don't want to 'waste' any money on something like that but in the long run will be quite nice to have someone pick us up at the airport and we will have our own vehicle when in Haiti.

Here is a 'snap shot' of our corporate media kit. Not too much information as we know we are dealing with busy men and women but enough to see if they are further interested. Combined with our awesome letter I think it's time we start raising the 100k we need!

A friend gave this to me and it is PERFECT for what Alisha and I are going through. Hope you get a chuckle out of it :)

Give Back Programs - Warning *Soap Box*

Alisha and I have been pounding the pavement working within our community to find their 'give back' type programs. We are working ever angle we can to raise the 100k we need by January. Yes, you read that correctly. We have been very excited to see just how many local businesses and chain restaurants offer some type of give back program but here's where I * jump on the soap box - there.is.always.a.catch. ALWAYS.

What one would assume is a generous company willing to give some of their proceeds to help an awesome cause is actually a ploy in marketing to see if our organization can get more people in the door than normally would eat or shop at said give back location. So besides there being a specific time that you can fundraise you also aren't able to stand outside and let people know to mention your organization when they check out b.c the horror - we might get each and every person in that evening to say our name and therefore the small percentage they are offering would be given to help change Haitian lives forever instead of lining their pockets with just a little more profit. What is a little profit to them for one evening with a time frame is life and death, or the reality of having to decide which child to sell in order to pay for the rest of the family to eat for that week to the Haitians. So these give back programs really are a way for a company to feel like they are being generous but if they were really being generous and cared about making the world a better place (we don't mind a time frame) we just want to be able to stand outside and let people know to mention us. Because hundreds of dollars really will change lives forever.  *steps off soap box

Chills Don't Pay the Bills

I've been looking for a couple of these - if anyone has one or more in their backyard please let me know and we'll come on over. I know how burdensome they can be.

So... have you figured out the meaning of my subject line? If not, I'll so graciously elaborate. This past week I have been visiting local businesses and passing out flyers about Open Hand and every time I would begin to talk about what we are doing and how $100 can literally change the lives of at least 5 people for their lifetime, people would tell me that what I'm saying is "giving them chills" all of them. But guess what? Chills don't pay the bills. Get it? If what I'm saying to you physically impacts you - do something about it. Donate! Write the check! Save a life! It's great that what I'm telling you makes you horrified and sickened and how you say, "Wow, only $100? That's nothing." If it's nothing then please, please, please we'd love to take a few Benjamin Franklin's off your hands in order to help fund these mico loans.