Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Remembering an Opportunity for Women in Poverty

Today, thanks to a number of generous people around the world I was able to pass on a total donation of AUD$7,077 towards an Opportunity International Australia Trust Group for women in poverty!

Since September last year, you tweeted. You blogged. You very kindly donated. And together we raised *nearly* enough to fund a 2 year microfinance program. Opportunity Australia were really excited about your donations and support, and will find a 'match' from a $3000 public donation to create this $10,000 microfinance Trust Group in the Philippines. Stay tuned for more details about the business that will be created in a few months time!

It's not over yet!
Someone just donated another $50 and I know a couple of people had difficulties making payments in the last 24 hours. So, I'm leaving a newly created Chipin open for the rest of the year so you can continue to give. In fact, I'd love to see if we can still raise the rest of the money quickly.

So how did we raise the money?
The donations came in so many ways. As you will read on Twitip, some things happened that were totally unexpected. For instance "an overseas businesswoman was visiting Melbourne and met me for dinner. She donated $500 towards my fundraiser and wanted to discuss the possibility of funding an entire Trust Group (she probably will, along with a friend)
She was the friend of a Twitter friend, although she doesn’t use Twitter herself."(read more)


Your support was really, really incredible

We tried a number of social media events together, from Chipins to Facebook.

including an ebook

or two

you contributed photos towards a mini-exhibition in a Melbourne bar


and a number of you put the call out on Twitter and your blogs, including:
Laurel Papworth http://laurelpapworth.com
Gavin Heaton http://www.servantofchaos.com
Des Walsh http://deswalsh.com/
Debra Askanase Community Organizer 2.0
Amy Jussel from Shaping Youth
Lee Hopkins http://leehopkins.net
Penni Russon http://eglantinescake.blogspot.com
Andy Piper who also gave a shout out on the Dogear Nation podcast
Women in the Lead
The Greater IBM Connection blog
Guest post on Twitip

We didn't reach the $10,000 goal (yet!) but we did raise $7,077 which has gone towards helping a number of Filipino women out of poverty through business loans and training. I'm not sure why we didn't raise the full amount. Perhaps because not everyone has heard of Opportunity Australia, or Chipin was fiddly (more on that later!) Maybe microfinance is not easily understood, maybe times are just tough or perhaps I still have much to learn. Still, I am very grateful for your donations and extremely happy that we were able to raise so much.

Just look at how many of you helped in one way or another (not including all the donations and retweets!) Amy Jussel, Amy Sample Ward,Anita Pahor,Annie Le Cavalier,Daphne Nederhorst, Debra Arkanase, Eileen Clegg, Lucky Chhetri, Jyl Johnson Pattee, Karen Muanu, Marigo Raftopolous, Nancy White, Phaedra Boinidiris, Sandy Skees, Stacey Monk, NextNow, Eileen Clegg, Shahin Shafaei, Marigo Raftopolous, Luke Grange, Debbe Kennedy Sally K. Green, Melissa Sader, Sagart, Karen Tipping, Amy Jussel, Bad Koala ,Bernie Michalik, August Boehm, David Armano, ePredator, Bettina Cutler, Jared Woods, Vasundharb, Janelle Amet, David Masters, Siddharth, Sean Lew, David Talamelli, Penni Russon, Gypsychk, Andy Piper, Aaron Julius Kim, Ric Hayman, Amy Palko Michelle Zamora, Alison Spencer, Anita Pahor, Beth Kanter Bonnie McEwan Cindy Lenferna de la Motte, Chris Brogan, James Governer, Danielle Johnston, Global Dialogue Center ,Janette Toral, Confident Writing, Kieran Cannistra, Linda Griffin Lindy McKeown, Lynne Wenig,
Nina Simosko, Phaedra Boinidiris, Renee Wolforth, Dr Robyn McMaster, Shai Coggins,Silvia Guccione,Suzanne Male, Smink Works Books, Sacha Chua, Gus Poskus, Matt Moore, Iggy Pintado and I'm sure, many others.

THANK YOU!

And remember it's not too late to donate or start something yourself. I'd love to hear your feedback about your involvement. I hope you enjoyed being part of it as much as I did!