[Grassroots-l] raising through micro-donations

[Sameer Verma]

Information Management Systems Association (IMSA) is a student
organization on our campus (disclaimer: I'm their faculty advisor).
IMSA decided to raise $199 through a collection of small amounts of,
well, any amount. We figured people wouldn't want to part with $199,
but denominations of $5 or $10 makes it a lot easier on the pocket.
So, IMSA is running a micro-donation drive to raise this money.

The e-mail I sent out to my colleagues and friends (some of whom are
on these lists) is:


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I am writing to you as the faculty advisor for Information Management
Systems Association (IMSA), a student organization on campus and their
micro-donation drive for OLPC.

This year, you can donate $399 towards two OLPC laptops, where you get
one back and the other goes to some child in an under-developed
nation. Pretty cool if you want to be seen in public with a strange
green laptop! If you don't like the undue public attention though, you
can simply donate $199 and one laptop will go to a child somewhere. If
you missed the pictures of these laptops in use, see them all at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/olpc

IMSA has come up with a micro-donation drive, where they are
collecting -any- amount, and when it adds up to $199, they will donate
it to OLPC towards an OLPC laptop. So, if you're feeling generous, but
not quite in the $199 range, visit IMSA's page at
http://imsa.sfsu.edu/olpc and donate whatever you can. They'll take
cash, check and even credit cards via Paypal. For check or cash, you
can write to Chas Yen, President IMSA (cyen at sfsu.edu) or simply reply
to me (sverma at sfsu.edu) and someone will pick it up from you.

So maybe skip a cup of coffee or that suspect muffin at 4pm, and pass
along the cheer towards a great cause. http://imsa.sfsu.edu/olpc

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Here's the surprise. We raised enough money for two laptops in less
than 48 hours!

Feel free to visit them and donate. http://imsa.sfsu.edu/olpcdonate or
send it to your friends. Also feel free to replicate the process in
your own circles! It may sound like chump change, but we now have two
additional XOs that will go to some kid some place :-)

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Information Systems
San Francisco State University
San Francisco CA 94132 USA
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://opensource.sfsu.edu/