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Tigers Update
February/March 2003
Past Updates
 Hello ... this is aymi I just wanted to tell you that you are a
very nice person and that me and others thank you. I was doing this
homework assingment and it was to pick a person that was an ordinary
or every day hero. So i went to google and typed in typical hero from
the everyday life and your web site came up. So i satared reading
and then i finished and i had to write a report. It was about why
your wher an ordinary hero (i used you as my example) and i worte
your where and ordinary hero because you did this everyday just to
help people just because you wnted to not to look good for anyone or
be reconized to help someone that really inspired me and i really
thank you. I thought about it and i will be helping out a daycare
center colse to my home thank you every much. An inspired 7th grader.
--Aymi, inspired by Churni's
profile; about 10 more profiles
are in the works. Ripple effects continue on ...
Hi all,
Loads and loads of things going on with but more than that,
this inspiration factory is cranking like never before. We are
really jammin' to the beat of service ...
Come one, come all -- Tiger-team meeting:
It's been a while, so here we go ... mark your calendars
for Sunday, March 23rd, 10AM-7PM!
On the 39th floor of the Embarcadero center (you know whose office :)),
an inspiring (and surprise) guest speaker, review of CharityFocus teams,
some really fun getting-to-know-you exercises, brainstorming
about new ideas, theorizing about useless policies, :) reports
from operational teams, a guest talk by the director of Digital Impact (online
marketing company), perhaps some musical performances from amatuer
tigers, and who knows what else! This is not an event but a meeting
-- the difference being that if you're local and on this list,
you are expected to make it. Please email me ASAP with your RSVP or a
phenomenal excuse :), ideas and other things.
First bag is coming, first bag is coming!
Community Shops (aka CeC)
is opening in a browser near you. :) Gautam, Sujatha, Vimi and
Guri are in full action as we work with Manav Sadhna at
the Gandhi Ashram in India to open up an online store for selling
handicrafts of rural artisans. This is a very bold experiment and
we don't really know how it's gonna work out ... but it looks very
promising under Gautam's watch. It's great to see G-man
expertly switch gears from a 'product manager' to an
'inspiration manager'. The Reachout team has
selected products, the order was placed and is in production,
the online store is being developed and lots of folks are trying
to nail down the logistics. The weekly conference calls for this
team are quite entertaining; last week, for example: Gautam told
us about his favorite dance club in the city and Sujatha gave us
references of doctors who recommend drinking brandy. :)
 I want you to know that I was so inspired by the details of the
activities with regard to feeding the homeless that I bought an
extra breakfast the other day and gave it it to a homeless man on
my way to work the other day. He was very pleased and told me that
he didn't expect such a thing. I said thank you and suggested he
get some sun. He was sitting under a bridge near Bayshore out in
Hunters Point where I work.
--Jeff S., after reading the
local events email;
particularly, Help
The Homeless piece. Ripple effects continue on ...
Yes, Pajama Party time again!
With an in-house news crawler, Jai's work on implementing
the database searches and Jean's unrelenting graphical gusto,
a lot is going on
with ProPoor, including the new mockup. The final deadline for the
migration is March 31st and yes, we will be having a pajama-party
(like we did with the CF site launch) for this as well, as we get
closer ... get ready for an all-nighter extravaganza -- serious
proof reading, writing inspiring pieces, banging on the site for
dead links, going to work the next day with puffy eyes, you name
it! :) Following the migration, we hope to focus more on the vision
of this service portal for South Asia.
Being inspired by a Quote-A-Day link (medical mission to the
Philippines), my group is organizing a medical mission for 2004,
spearheaded by this person that just came back in January. Thanks
for that link. Yes, one click of the mouse can inspire changes!
[CharityFocus] is one of the younger generation's inspirations. I
keep telling your story to others because it inspires action.
--Angie S., inspired by Quote-A-Day; quote-a-day list
started with a few friends long before CharityFocus. Today, with just
word of mouth, it reaches over 1250 people (and growing) daily! And
Thought/Week is just
15 subscribers behind. :) Ripple effects continue on ...
Grrrrrrrr ... new tigers!
- Pawan Mehra:
a venture capitalist by trade, IIM grad by education,
meditator by Wednesday. :) Known to make delicious desserts and married to
woman whose name
reads "Zen." He leads GIVE Foundation in the US and
will work closely in building ProPoor's vision.
- Kare Tai: known as "pitbull Tai" in the underworld,
known to live with a kung-fu master who makes awesome
truffles, :), and with her lucid writing style, soon to be known as the
official CF scribe for
all meetings.
- Vijay Aggarwal: labeled "beyond mom" by Robin after
his unparalled assistance with local events, very detail-oriented,
an accountant
for 30 years, a student of Vedanta and a fan of
Olema! He will manage the CF finances.
- Richard Lang: CEO and founder of burst.com (which is currently
taking on Microsoft in court!), soon to be an author, an avid
supporter of all those who promote "peace and love" on earth. :)
He will work on developing the open-source good news network
that we are hoping to evolve -- 'Signs of Light'.
Fine-tuned machine ... Projects team:
The team is doing great -- self-sustaining, improving its process,
and ramping up at a steady rate. Megha and Sheetal are the newest
project coordinators! Mark is adding more firepower to Trishna and
Ashish's efforts, as they work on increasing synergy in the ever-increasing
size of the team (23!) and expanding the role of the team to include
the NGO Advocate role (initiated by Shahid, taken
to the next level by Yoo-mi).
- Charity Focus has given Kreddha what it badly needed: a
practical and beautiful website. Matthew Yezuita, and later Trishna
Shah, have done a superjob. They have stood with me through the
entire project, which has taken well over a year to complete. They
have listened to Kreddha's needs, fears, wishes and translated those
to the site. They have been patient with the total absense of any
technical knowledge or experience within Kreddha. Matthew has been
patient when the organization changed its name and implemented that
in the site. Neither Matthew nor Trishna have ever expressed anything
negative about anything: they have been supportive all along and
worked till the job was done. The communication by email made it
possible for me to work on the site wherever my work brought me:
San Francisco, Amsterdam, East Timor, San Cristobal de las Casas,
New Delhi and numerous European capitals. CharityFocus has been
able to gather a formidable group of people to evaluate the site
and their feedback has been very helpful, both in allowing us to
make a few changes and in reinforcing that the site is great and
ready to go. In conclusion, I would like to thank both Matthew and
Trishna for the great work they have done: I wish and hope many
organizations like Kreddha may enjoy their great work attitude
and skill.
--Miek Boltjes, Kreddha
(international peace council, meditation, and dialogue)
- If only I could have had more help from my own
company. Ann and Craig and Charity Focus were great!
--Misty Callahan, Boys & Girl Clubs, Denver
(mentoring of disadvantaged youth)
- The volunteer team's willingness to work with us to
ensure that the website was done to our standards.
--America Soler-Everhart, FundVec
(building public libraries in Venezuela)
- Your team has all the makings of a great model for others. All
of you are to praised for your competence and your kindness. Thank
you for your patience and all of your love you put into my special
project. God Bless each and every one of you. --
--Sandi Beamon, Science of Wheels
Supporting everday heroes everyday:
1847 PledgePage everyday heroes have raised an estimated
$3,309,254 to
date! Did you
know that PledgePage gets about 10 million hits every year? Well,
now you do. :) Last week, we had a big fire-drill with our server
(for the techies, the DNS server was under attack) ... Girish,
Pete and Ashish were at it. And then, of course, our resident
Brooklyn Italian whiz saved the day as always -- Bini, founder of
NetMegs! At the last February
meeting, we nailed down a list of new features we
hope to add; it seems that to add features like online donations (highly
in demand), we need to revamp many other things, so Pete is currently
migrating the technology to a new infrastructure!
Pavi: shikha was looking to help the sittilingi people raise funds
for the trip they take their adivasi (very rural) staff on each year.
which is why i asked her to write a piece-from-the-heart for CF about
what they're doing and then blast the link to people she thought
might care. and so that's what she did. and what's below is what
happened the very next day- shikha in an email titled "!!!!!!!!!":
"Dear pavi - i just sent the CF sittilingi story link off to people
- and this ... 'I have $150 US from my Sunday School which I will
give you for them.' --Allan".
--sittilingi
story; sometimes all you need to do is provide a space for journeys.
And the ripple effects continue on ...
Around and about CharityFocus:
- Yoo-mi has taken leadership of the chapters
role in the U.S. now. Pavi is going crazy with the MAD
chapter (Madurai and Madras), as many Madurai
volunteers represented CharityFocus at the National AIDS
conference in India in February. Vivek also sent out list
of actions for the Hyderabad chapter.
- President of India got a personal introduction about
CharityFocus's activities, courtesy of Pavi. (yes, she's got
connections :))
- Pete raised $2100 with his PledgPage. See his
thank-you page.
- Last month, I spoke at the National South Asian Law Students
convention in Berkeley; pumped-up as I get, :) I forgot to mention
CharityFocus but spoke about what CF really means (to me, at least):
SERVICE. The conference director emailed the other day and said,
"I have had many students tell me that you were the highlight of
the Conference. You have a wonderful way of talking and living -
you live the change in a way that inspires as well as creates good in
and of itself." I was glad that the CF "be-the-change" message was
conveyed. Rest is icing on the cake ... sometimes too sweet. :)
- Dalai Lama will be getting a personal intro about CharityFocus
in April, courtesy of our gifted brilliant graphic designer
(who built the infamous four-heroes graphic) --
Jean Yao!
- A fun part of CF diversity is, well, it's diversity. I was invited
to speak as a "Hindu" at the Grace Cathedral to address 2500 folks
for about five minutes. I really wonder what's next. :)
- Our semi-annual (but ought-to-be-quarterly) orientation
meeting is in April. Stay tuned.
- The no-longer-hidden-hero of the month: Shuba!
CharityFocus gets an estimated 8 million hits
every year -- for a non-content-based site, that's a whole lot.
Of course, a lot of the visitors have a LOT of questions. And there is one
person
who is patiently and compassionately responding to all of it, whether it is
a plea for help, suggestion for a partnership or a website listing,
an offer to serve, a question about nonprofits, or a
Nigerian "get-rich-quick" bank scam ... thank you, Shuba, for
holding down the fort and representing us!
When new volunteers sign up, a question on the sign up form reads:
What inspired you to volunteer for CharityFocus? Just reading
all those responses can blow you away. What's more is that it
gives you an insight into the powerful message that we stand for.
For instance, John H. runs his own investigation company in San Diego;
when he signed up recently, he wrote:
I have a blessed life... and was miserable, I saw a badly burned man
a couple weeks ago selling candy in a wheelchair, i realized things
i take for granted he will never have, wife, family, friends. Shame,
disgust, self loathing are not how i want to feel about myself,
soooo... If i am good at what i do for personal gain, maybe i can
help others with time, money or skills and try to make a difference
instead of feeling sorry for myself when i have EVERYTHING!!!
--John H., new CharityFocus volunteer
Personally, I often go to great lengths to be there for what
might seem like the
tiniest step on the path of service. But to have them come to
us -- what an incredible honor to be a part of such an instrument
of love. Even if this guy never did anything for "CharityFocus",
for our site, our activities ... WHO CARES! In that moment, he felt the
depth of love in his own heart, and we were
there to incubate it and drive it further. Man, for me, that is
mission accomplished. And all of this exists because so
many of you continue to go to those great lengths -- thank you for making
CharityFocus possible, if
not for anyone else, for me and John H. :) As our journeying tiger
Yaniv would say, I hope
this is as inspiring to read as it was to write!
Give and let give,
Nipun
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