My boyfriend David is a highflautin agency guy, so he travels a ton. He spends a lot of time in Seoul, Korea. He's there now. Anyway, end of June he flew me out to LA to be with him for a few days -- hang out at the pool while he worked; see if I could make a mini-vacation out of it.

I was trying to figure out what to do to gain some momentum on my new fundraising adventure, so I looked up the Kabbalah Center in LA. Turns out, we were staying within walking distance in Beverly Hills. So, I called and made an appointment to see Philippe Van Den Bossche, Director of Development and go-to-guy for Raising Malawi.

We met the next morning (6/28/06) at 8 a.m. I'm not sure who I was expecting, but it wasn't this guy. He's sort of Wall Street, all suited up with slicked-backed hair. I liked him. He's up to something. He talks fast. He had to take care of something before we could start, which involved texting and faxing and calling who knows who. He apologized for the delay and asked what he could do for me.

I shared my goal to raise $25K for Raising Malawi and that I was there to pick his brain and see if he had any suggestions to help me get started. He has loads of experience in this area and shared really good advice. One suggestion was to have high stakes -- ask able donors for big donations, and if they say no, move on. I remember that nugget most. It was so straight, simple, obvious, blunt. You can see the commitment in his eyes. We don't have time to help everyone be moved by this cause. People are dying in droves. You either see it or you don't. (I'm editorializing here, but this is my takeaway). Ask, move. Ask, move. We have a job to do.

He also told me that Jeffrey Sachs, author of "The End of Poverty" is signed on and backing the Raising Malawi project. Jeffrey Sachs is special advisor to the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millenium Development Goals. He heads up The Millennium Project, which was commissioned in 2002 to develop a concrete action plan for the world to reverse the grinding poverty, hunger and disease affecting billions of people. He is renowned for his work advising economies in crisis. Time magazine called him one of the world's 100 most influential people.

I left the Kabbalah Center and walked straight to Borders and bought Sachs' book. I am amazed at how little I knew about extreme poverty, the economic crises around the world and the US' role and commitment (and sometimes lack thereof) to help.

What is the Millennium Project? www.unmillenniumproject.org