Thanks Nana and Donna and Aunt J!

Wow. Matthew here again. I barely had to do anything and already I'm close to my goal to raise $1,000 to build clean water wells in Ethiopia. I'm part of a very cool fundraising effort for people with birthdays in September. Click here to see trailer. This guy named Scott Harrison had the idea two years ago to make a difference in the world using his birthday. (Sound familiar?) If you have a birthday in September, you might want to do this too! (go to: borninseptember.org)

I turn 8 on Sept 28th so I'm using my birthday to raise at least $1,000. My Aunt Julia donated (33x8 for Scott's age and my age), and her good friend Donna from Dallas and ex-roommate from grad school must've read her blog and donated my age x10, and nana heard about it and donated my age x4 and is spreading the word around her work now. Plus, there is a matching donor on the site who is doubling everything!

I know Aunt Julia spends a lot of time with Raising Malawi trying to figure out how to help them raise money for their programs. She works with smart people who can maybe help her build a site experience like this to help with fundraising. It's ridiculously inspiring and smart. They even have advertisers! I think I'll mention it.

charity: water

Hi,

I'm Matthew. My Aunt Julia thought it'd be a good idea to use my birthday this year to support charity: water's September campaign to bring clean and safe drinking water to the people of Ethiopia.

I recently learned that more than 1.1 billion people in the world today don't have the most basic thing: clean water to drink. Over 4,500 kids die each and every day from water-related disease. To do my part, I've been supporting an organization called charity: water that has been making a real difference.

This year, with Aunt Julia's help, I've decided to ask for donations. 100% of the money raised will go directly to building freshwater wells, which will be proved with GPS coordinates and photos on Google Earth.

I'm asking for my age in dollars (again, I'm 8). Please make a donation on my page:

https://www.charitywater.org/birthdays/fundraiser/sept/view/485

Thank you!

Matthew Silka


The September Campaign Trailer from charity: water on Vimeo.

One Voice

For more than a year, ONE members have been trailing the presidential candidates asking them to go on the record with their plans to combat global poverty. Now we're taking our message to the airways with this major new TV ad. The ad features Matt Damon with different Americans' voices - among them Michelle Obama, Cindy McCain and Mayor Bloomberg.

Watch for it on TV and across the Internet starting Sunday, August 24th.

Half Mil from A-Rod and Ogilvy is signed on to help.

I plucked the first part of this story from the SFGate: Daily Dish. VERY GREAT!


Madonna's friendship with baseball player Alex Rodriguez has reportedly helped her land a $500,000 charity donation from the star.

Rodriguez is alleged to have made the contribution to Madonna's charity, Raising Malawi, which helps the African nation's one million orphans gain access to food, education and medical care.

A source tells the New York Daily News: "They've asked him for a million dollars, and I hear he's agreed to give at least $500,000.

The sportsman's generosity comes just a month after rampant speculation he was engaged in an affair with Madonna.

The singer has since denied the allegations, insisting she and husband Guy Ritchie remain happily married.

Raising Malawi director Philippe van den Bossche says, "Obviously when you're talking about donors, these are private things. I would never reveal information about any donor."

Bossche denies claims that Madonna's plans to build a girls' school with the funding will include a Kabbalah-based curriculum.

He adds, "We're building a girls' school, which will bring the best resources from around the world with a specific focus on medicine, education and the law.

"It will be based on the British system -- as is taught in private schools Madonna's children Lourdes and Rocco attend. ... We want programs that can be copied in developing countries throughout the world. Not just a celebrity one-off."

A spokesperson for Rodriguez has not returned calls for comment.

(xxx)

I have no idea if the $500,000 donation is true or not, but sounds feasible and wonderful.

As the new volunteer fundraising coordinator for Raising Malawi, I can tell you that Philippe has been briefing me on a couple of great projects they have going on, one of them being this Leadership Academy for Girls. It's beyond brilliant. But they need funding and they need it now.

I'm a strategic planner at Ogilvy & Mather, one of the best advertising agencies in the world. Perhaps you've read the book?

Until now, I've always tried to keep my personal and professional lives separate. But learning about this concept, I can't not bring my worlds together. We need to get the word out about this amazing Academy so we can fund it right --meaning, the concept can be replicated around the world. As Philippe explained to me, for this model to work, we cannot solely rely on celebrities and big checks. It's going to come down to each one of us who can appreciate what's possible in the world when we empower girls.

I'll say more about it next week, but here's the AMAZING news from me this week. I presented this opportunity to Dan Burrier, the Co-President of Ogilvy West (LA/SF), who immediately said YES and promised we'll do something big in a big way - "this is an amazing opportunity for the girls of Malawi--have you read, 'Three Cups of Tea,' btw"?

I work for Dan and brown-nosing is totally not my style, but I'll just say, he gets it and it's great. He and his wife Lauri are very active with The Hunger Project (also brilliant) and Rwanda, Uganda; Africa in general. He identified a creative DREAM TEAM this week and we'll get briefed by Philippe next Tuesday.

You know how I'm always saying, 'I'm going to raise $101K by Christmas, but I don't know how'? It just became clear to me. It's only a short matter of time, now.

The Darfur Olympics. Day 8 of 8: The Closing Ceremony

Now that China's complicity in the Darfur slaughter is known to all the world, we invite you to help us keep the pressure on China to bring security to Darfur. Please visit the organizations featured throughout the Darfur Olympics to find ways to take action. To stay involved with Dream for Darfur, sign up for our newsletter

Day 8: The Closing Ceremony

The Darfur Olympics. Day 7 of 8: The Women of Darfur

Women and girls living in Darfur and eastern Chad - in camps, towns and rural areas - live in constant fear of sexual violence. The perpetrators are usually men from the Sudanese security forces, militias, rebel groups and former rebel groups. Gender-based assaults occur as part of attacks, but also in times of relative calm.

In this webcast, Mia talks with women about their lives in the refugee camp.

Day 7: The Women of Darfur


Coming tomorrow: The Darfur Olympics Closing Ceremony

Every Quid Helps (+$228.39)

My David is in London this week. I was talking to him this morning on Skype and he told me he found 20 quid on the street all wet from the rain. He donated it "to the orphans" at raisingmalawi.org. when he got back to the hotel.

Here's the 20 (20.00 GBP = 38.3881 USD)


Also, Leah Reynolds, my fundraising buddy sent me a text yesterday to tell me she donated $190 toward our goal.

Quick math, that brings us to: 190+38.39=$228.39 +34,411.29=$34,639.68

Money is abundant and all around everywhere. Just keep an eye open. And thank you on behalf of the children of Malawi.

42$s More

Rivka, my Gen Y fundraising partner and texting wonder texts: "Just did 42$ for rm towards our goal :)"

That brings total to
34,369.29
+ 42.00
---------
$34,411.29

Thank you Bob, Leah and Rivka!

I saw that Mr. Bob Tse donated $50 bones to Raising Malawi and DIDN'T TELL ME! I just noticed his face among my Facebook donors. Here's Bob. I took this picture of him in Hawaii on his 40th birthday. He was my client at Novartis when I was a planner at Lowe before I got canned.

One thing I can say about Bob is that you can count on him through thick and thin. If he says he'll do it, he'll do it.

We used to hang out at DTUT, a coffee shop on the Upper East Side in NYC, and catch up on work on Saturday mornings. We'd do a lot of super geeky personal goal-setting, too. We still set goals and then mail them to each other for a POV (or ideally, applause). It's this kind of planning that had us run a marathon together in New Orleans. Me full, him half. He did however kick my butt in San Francisco (our first marathon - MY IDEA) - him full, me half. We are super-competitive with ourselves and each other. Even so, my 2008 goals are way better than his. Did I thank you yet, Bob? Small oversight. Many thanks for the donation on behalf of all the little 'Malawians'.

No segue into this next bit of thanks, which goes out to two of the girls from my Fundraising Malawi weekly brainstorming pow-wows.

Leah Reynolds donated $221 (here's her picture from our 'end of poverty campaign')


and Rivka (Meital) Levi donated $202



And so...a quick roll on the drum, we can add $473 from last week, which brings our total raised to date to:

33,896.29
+ 473.00
__________
$34,369.29

Thanks Tamara!

A note from my friend Tamara Starke O'Shaughnessy:

"Hey, you can chalk up another $50 toward your fundraising goal. I just did an online donation to Raising Malawi. I attended an AMA conference this week on non-profit marketing and there was someone there from CARE, who mentioned her recent trip to Malawi and the work they're doing there. It reminded me of your cause and thought I'd give you a little help :-) Good luck!"

It's so nice to have friends who a) hear Malawi, b) think Julia plus one million little orphans and c) donate to Raising Malawi. It gives me such a huge sense of purpose in the world. Otherwise, there's a chance I'd just lay around watching a lot of trash TV and cuss at commercials. A small chance, but it could happen.

Tamara and I used to work together at a research company in Chicago. Some of our cooler projects had us going to Disney Epcot Center a lot.

Oh, and then there was the Norman Rockwell museum project in Stockbridge, MA that afforded us a stay at the ever-so-charming Red Lion Inn, built in the 18th century. I believe a squirrel in the attic kept Tamara up all night. I slept OK. (I'm more of a W girl myself, though). Anyway, all sorts of good memories of and with Tamara. For whatever reason, the one that really sticks with me is the one she used to tell about her conversations with her grandma. They'd go like this:

Grandma: What did you have for dinner, Tamara?

Tamara: I had [insert meal here]. What did you have Grandma?

Grandma: A really nice piece of fish.

That's it. It cracks me up. Evidently, every dinner her Grandma ate consisted of a really nice piece of fish. I still have Tamara's Grandma in my head whenever I eat dinner. As a fish-aterian for the past 17 years, I almost always have a nice piece of fish.

Oh, and then there's the time I crashed her and her sister's trip to Italy. Here's a :59 clip of that very extraordinary trip! (Note: I am passed out on the stairs in the opening scene, but I swear that is totally posed).

Trailer for Tuscany 2K

Add to My Profile | More Videos

All that's to say, THANK YOU, TAMARA!

This brings our the total dollars raised to date (7/18/08) to $33,896.29.

Keep it coming, and thank you everyone for making a difference to not only end the horrors of extreme poverty, but for helping to build the systems to create prosperity in Malawi and the world over.