Event Launch Strategies

I couldn’t sleep well last night thinking about how much we all want to contribute to a tangible cause on earth day, and yet how little options there are to hold our collective contributions. We don’t ‘trust’ the “Trusts” (pun intended), and I know that Social Traffic or any individual wouldn’t want to take on that sole responsibility.

Buried in all of those thoughts I realized that the solution you proposed of keeping the money to ourselves until the time is right, is probably going to work best.

We want to chip money in for getting a present for our earth on Earthday, right? We want to do something that will impact the earth in a positive way, right? We just don’t know which ‘Monetary Trust’ to keep our money until Earthday, right? Why don’t WE ALL become trustees of our own individual contributions? We all trust ourselves to honor our word, right?

So if you decided to save $30 by not going to the barber this month, that money can go into your little piggy bank (or under your pillow), and you should be the person to act like a trustee to that fund. We can put money away in a jar and trust ourselves not to spend it anywhere else. Your contributions are your commitment and resolve to doing something for the world by putting that money away and trusting yourself to honor your commitment. And this is our best chance of getting this program/campaign right.

Are you willing and ready to become a trustee of your own contributions until the time to buy the birthday gift comes?

If you aren’t one of those who have already started to put away money by sacrificing your drinks, turning down the heat, reducing eating out, altering your schedules, using recycled containers, switching to cheap hair product alternatives - then perhaps you should think again. What’s driving these people to do these crazy things? Why should they care? What incentives do they have to make those videos of their oaths. What motivates them to hold on to their word? They’re not crazy. They’re normal people - like you and me. The only difference is, they have big dreams and even bigger hearts.

I think this is far more likely to work than getting people to put their money in a third party independent trust. While the rest of our team is busy supporting and marketing the Earthday Birthday events, we’ll be going around raising funds for the earth’s present.

It’s simple to start. Make a decision on how much you want to donate. Then cut out on things in your life that you can sacrifice in order to save for that donation. Make a video out of it (if possible) to tell the world about it. Uphold your promise. Keep the saved money in a safe place. Vote for a cause when we’re shortlisting where to send the donations. Send the money to the cause when Earthday comes. Simple as that.

So start saving up from today onwards – whether it’s a dollar or more, that’s completely up to you. The idea is to give away something at least, so that you can know in your heart that you were part of the grand Earthday birthday 2009 in a substantive way. Together we have to raise close to $10 million and show the world what we’re capable of achieving together.

I know people who are saving on entertainment expenses for a month by cutting down their movie watching trips. There are those who are putting up garage sales to help save a bit of money for themselves and for this campaign. Some kids are cutting out a percentage of their allowances for two months to save for this. I myself will not go to a barber for a month and save up that money for the Earthday gift. It’s a good feeling to have so many thoughtful people doing all sorts of things by thinking beyond their own personal needs and requirements.

From tomorrow onwards we’re going to aggressively start running this campaign for raising money for Earthday. There are so many remarkable things that we can do with actual tangible and measurable benefit to the earth.

On a side note: We should of course be aware of the fact that working towards solving these prevalent issues is important throughout the year and not just on Earthday. But we’re using the Earthday as a touch-point for all future work done for this cause. We need to adjust our way of life to make it more environment friendly one step at a time. We need to recycle things. We need to choose paper over plastic. We need to switch to renewable sources of energy. We need to watch our carbon emissions. We need to discover and invent newer and better ways of saving our resources.

I guess my point is that this isn’t a means to an end – this is the beginning of a journey and lifestyle. A few years ago it was at everyone’s prerogative to decide – today we don’t have the luxury of such choices. We have to act. We have to be conscious members of the society.

For now, though, we should spread this message far and wide and get as many people to contribute as possible.

I am Simon U Ford, and this is the “One World One Gift” project. We are a group of people who are each contributing to help leave a tangible mark on the Earth’s environment and protection. We want everyone to be a part of this by contributing as little as $1 to the project. We hope to spread this message out far and wide and get millions of people to join it.

Nobody will be required to send their money to a trust, since they themselves are the trustees of their own funds. When the Earthday Birthday comes close, we will ask you to contribute your trusted money to a cause – the exact cause hasn’t been decided by the community yet but it might be along the lines of buying back land for reforestation of barren lands. We would like everyone to contribute as much as possible for this cause to help do something worthwhile for the Earth. Join our cause and help tell your friends about it.

Social Traffic

Visit my blog and comment on a heart felt video published by one of the Social Traffic crew

It’s Earth day 2009! If our generation doesn’t act now, our kids, kids may not have a choice - Act Now, Click Here

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