For example, if you broke it down like this:

June 18: Breakfast: $2 [done. Thank you Will Ferrel]
June 18: Lunch: $2 [ still open]
June 18: Night Stay: $20 [done. Thank u Sarah Mclauglin]
June 19: Equipment: $50 [done. Thank you Rudolph]

Maybe not as detailed as the above but somthing like that.

Do you guys think a micro-sponsorship site would work if the user seeking sponsorship would employ some of the ideas that Joe suggested?
For instance, using my volunteer trip as an example, I as the seeker of sponsorship would enter my volunteering schedule into the service, including a description of the each event and price (dinner with a local family, or one nights stay in the dorm) and what I will do for the donor in return for sponsorship. Then the service would create a visual timeline for my trip with a “sponsor this part” button beneath each portion. Then, anyone can see which parts have been paid for, which weren’t, and I can add pictures and descriptions (accolades and acknowledgments) to each part on the site as it happens. Essentially anyone can track the progress of trip.

any thoughts?

I took a look at the AJWS website and was quite impressed with the work they do. I came across Rabbi Grater’s D’var Torah on Poverty and it’s certainly inspirational. The quote from Robert F. Kennedy gave me goose bumps… “It is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man or woman stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he or she sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” If you haven’t read through it, you should take a look at: http://www.ajws.org/uploaded_documents/July_2005_D'var_Torah_%20Poverty.doc

I’m so proud of you for taking on this new endeaver. Good luck my friend.

Shabbat shalom!

Rachel

Boris,

You had a good list of things that the money goes towards… Why not have 4 or 5 chip in widgets where the money goes toward a specific item on your list…

Your donation to chipin widget ‘A’ helps pay for the portion of the cost of the trip that is the direct donation to the community in El Salvador (smaller goal, more chance for people to relate to that exact goal). Random people would be more likely to support this direct donation than they would to support paying for your air ticket or your accommodation.

If you wanted to break it down even further, have donors sponsor a night’s sleep. Have thank you notes ready to go and every morning when you wake up send a thank you note to the individual that sponsored that night. The amount is tiny, people are able to sponsor 20 bucks and feel like they actually contributed to something. It prevents the, “yea I helped him out for a quarter of a percent of his trip.� That’s not nearly as marketing friendly or exciting as “I donated a night’s sleep for Boris on his trip to el Salvador!�

Also, that same technique could be applied to the meals, this way after the meal you send a thank you note and explain the family’s story that you learned with the donor, strengthening your relationship with the donor.

Giving is a relationship; the donor and the donee have responsibilities for one another. If you want to continue to give your time with the help of others money, let those people know the impact their money had enabling you to give your time and energy.

Good luck Boris.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/noahkagan/448049818/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/noahkagan/448049816/

Boris Korsunsky is a semi-young hapless vagabond-entrepreneur looking to etch a silhouette of meaning into the fabric of space-time. When he’s not occupying himself with web-based client-side logic and design, he finds joy in dangerously biking down potholed hills alongside angry car-estrians.

Boris hails form the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan. He immigrated to the US at the ripe age of 7, and has since been wreaking havoc on conventional thinking and those who perpetuate it.

Recently, Boris has been given a second chance at life. By being laid off from a snug position at a crumbling silicon valley start-up and given time and space to reconsider the nature of sentience, he has set himself upon a mission to dispel the myth that all software engineers are cynical, anti-social misfits. Upon scratching his chin one hollow eve in considerance about the next big web 2.1 idea, he realized that if his intention with a web-service is to create something useful to others, he ought to understand what sort of need for help there is in the world first-hand. He soon decided to embark on a volunteer trip to Central America where he plans to directly contribute his time and efforts to battling poverty in a country where there are hardly any social services available. In the process he hopes to educate himself on the state of need and effects of globalization that are taking place in developing nations.

If you have questions, gripes, concerns or shout-outs, please contact him at bkorsunsky@gmail.com

A micro-sponsoring-like site (ala Kiva) for volunteers may be neat, but in my opinion it would be difficult to pull off. Sponsorship in itself requires people to know the person they’re sponsoring better, so it may be harder for potential sponsors to filter out the people that really wants to help, or those that just want to do it because it’s “cool.”

I mean I’ll admit I had stupid fleeting thoughts like “it’ll be cool to do this” when I was browsing Kiva’s site, and they had this volunteer program where they require people to commit to 6 week to help their micro financing partners across the globe. When I continued to read and realize that of course, many of the travel and living expenses will be the responsibility of the volunteer — my thought of “it’ll be cool” turned into “man this takes commitment.”

So kudos to Boris for trying to raise fund, kudos for Sri on making a good point. Good luck Boris!

Sorry if my earlier posts were kinda harsh. I did not mean to question your deeds. Now that I have had time to digest it, I think what you are doing is wonderful. Sorry for the initial response.

However, people are suffering throughout the world.

I suspect that those who choose to spend their free time volunteering in another country would also be the ones to volunteer in local community projects.

I think that volunteer work, wherever it may be, needs to be more embraced and financially supported within our culture.

Even national service projects, like Americorp, require volunteers to supplement the stipend from additional sources because the monetary compensation and food stamps provided by Americorp is insufficient to live on.

I think the underlying question is:
What responsibility (if any) do we have (as young successful Americans) to improve the conditions or opportunities of those who are less fortunate than ourselves?