13th day: 1,138.55€

Happy Sunday to everyone!

As you all can see, we’ve already surpassed a 1,000 €, this sum being quite close  to 1,500 €, and there’s one day left. This is serious, as serious as the situation of  emergency. Thanks a lot to everyone. Please, don’t stop helping us by spreading the word via Twitter and Facebook.

Yesterday night’s post, the previous one, had 3 wonderful consequences: a  community manager for Facebook and Twitter (Cristina Riveiro); a person who  is willing to help us with all the volunteering section (Karlos San Pedro) and an  increase in the number of people comprising our team: 12 people! Besides, we’ve  attached a video explaining in less than a minute what 90 millions in 90 days is.  You can see all this information on the section Who We Are. We are still lacking of an expert in marketing and a graphic designer.

How can you help us to help Africa? After having donated 2 euros, let the people  around you know about both the horrible situation in the Horn of Africa and this  organization. We need to turn into a social phenomenon that doesn’t let anyone  apart. If you’d like to understand a little bit better the situation in the Horn of Africa, please go to the section “information about Africa”.

Thanks.

First Committee session: first success.

Happy Saturday afternoon!

Yesterday we held a meeting, which was divided into 2 different parts:

-          On the one hand, we had an overall view of this initiative.

-          On the other, we  discussed further every single working field.

I’ll do my best to sum it up.

Overall view of this initiative

We differentiated 4 different stages:

-          Weeks 1-3, birth of the initiative: 2000€ (we are quite confident about us beating  the amount of money proposed. We are headed on the right track)

-          Weeks 4-6, Local confidence : 50.000€

-          Weeks 7-9, Global confidence 1.200.000€

-          Weeks 10-13, the last sprint: 90.000.000€

We need to reinvent ourselves really quickly in order to fulfill all the different  stages. We’ve already started to think of different ways to carry out the fund  collection in every stage, and we’re getting ready for it. We must grow up in  all respects: donations, working team, blog visitors, twitter and Facebook  followers… all of this being softly managed, that is, in a flexible and self-  governing manner.

Once I had the pleasure to work for an important boss who would say: “There  are some things we’ve done which people described as an impossible thing to  do right after we had actually achieved them”. I believe that increasing from 2€  to 2,000€ (a sum a thousand times bigger) is much harder than increasing from  2,000€ to 50,000 € (twenty-five times more). I’m totally convinced that you’ll  make the fulfilling of every stage possible.

It’s incredible what’s been done in 2 weeks. Thanks to you!

Some proposals from the meeting that are worth sharing:

-          The aim is not to raise 90 million euros, but to give a helpful hand to the  really needy in the Horn of Africa. We are quite determined to collect such  amount of money, inasmuch as it is an essential way to achieve the second  objective.

-          To be successful, it is indispensable that every relative or acquaintance  of any donor becomes a donor as well, and that is why it’d be wonderful that  every donor spread the word to friends and relatives. And so on.

-          Every  single tiny donation is a huge step towards people, firms, media, celebrities  and NGOs trusting in us and helping us to achieve our goal.

-          Our appearance  is extremely positive in order to mitigate the state of emergency in the  Horn of Africa. It is important to note that our aim is to spread this information,  not to compete against the rest of NGO’s. We’re trying to incite those who have  never donated to collaborate by giving 2€.

-          Further than beating the current  severe situation, we intend to use the money both in short-term goals  (nourishing, health) and long-term goals (education, infrastructures).  Therefore there will be a wide variety of projects among which you’ll have the  opportunity to decide.

 Working fields monitoring

I don’t want this to be too long, so I’ll sum it up field by field:

-          Marketing and strategy: the basic aim is quite clear, though we are elaborating  it step by step. We could try to develop our strategies a little bit further, but we  need more helping hands. We’d really appreciate a marketing manager and a  graphic designer. We would like to launch merchandising products and original  activities, but we really lack of time. We’re being pretty slow.

-          Media (web, press, radio, TV): our website is working quite well at the  moment, but we’re lacking of a community manager. There are two candidates  right now. We also count on the support of Carmen Thous, an expert in media  communication. We’ve been once on the radio and one in the papers. We’ve  talked to more radio stations and newspapers, and we’re likely to appear on tv.  We’ve broadcasted a video to put it on Youtube (I don’t know if ‘ll dare upload it,  though :D)

-          Contact with NGOs: we’ve established contact with some NGOs. The selection  criteria are well determined and we’re making a list of them. We decided to push  along the NGOs section in the website a bit (this has already been carried out this  morning). This field is quite well attended for the moment.

-          Contact with firms: reactivos? (…) but we’re already working with a firm, and a  donation from another one has been received. Some companies are waiting for  us being able to issue certificates of donation to collaborate. Hopefully this issue  will have been solved by week 3.

-          Contact with celebrities: we haven’t stepped fairly forward in this field, and  therefore there’s a lot to do. The support of a singer, sportsman/woman, actor/  actress is required. There are many ways for them to do so, and even without  compromising their public image. We only need them to get to know us; to  collaborate with us by donating these 2 euros; and to mention us to friends and  relatives. We know that we’re still small, but what we intend to achieve is quite  big, and those joining us will grow up too.

-          International spreading: We’ve launched actions in order to create global  spreading networks. The greatest thing would be to have teams all over the  world (aka. “cells”) made up by, at least, an expert in NGOs and a person really  good at public relations. However, a willingness to help is much more important  than the qualification. We don’t have any cell yet, and volunteers are urged.

-          Management and administration: We’re making slow but firm progress.  Almost every procedure has been completed.

-          Payment: We’re improving the forms of payment. Soon It will be possible to  donate via SMS Premium. Our bank will provide us with payment getaways  so that everyone will be able to use a credit card with fewer fees than Paypal  payments. It seems that some of the money transfers to La Caixa account are  being rejected. We hope to get everything solved on Monday.

-          Volunteering: In yesterday’s committee we agreed on the necessity to set  up a volunteering section on the website. No one is managing it yet, and the  volunteers aren’t well managed either. There’s a lot to improve as to this matter,  and there’s not much time left.

If you have any comment to make or you’d like to help anyway, please address to  contact @ 90mn90d.com

If you managed to reach the bottom of this text, you’re then able to raise 90  millions in 90 days! =D

Thanks :)

12th Day: 973.55€

Morning everyone!!!

We are about to reach 1,000€. Will you help us to do it? The pace we are growing, thanks to your trust, and talking about it to everybody else, give us a lot of strength and energy to keep on going.

Collecting almost 1,000€ in twelve days is something incredible, as Paola (our expert on NGO) told us in our yesterday meeting. She also told us that in the realm of NGO we are getting a lot of relevance because  we was born due to the concern of a "ordinary" person, not related with any NGO organization or project, and many people is helping spontaneously. This has never happen in Spain before.

I think that the most beautiful part is that a lot of people we don't know share our concern and realize that they can donate those two euros without any problem and pass the message. I am also impressed by those people who take one step forward and ask us how could they help.

Yesterday we talked about many things during four hours. But we didn't talk about everything. There's so much to do!!!

I can advance that we are going to give more importance to the NGO in our blog, explaining the process we are designing for the selection of NGO's projects, and how you will be able of choosing where the money will be applied. 

And we will also create a page for "volunteers" where you could read about what we would like to do and where we would like you to help.

Do not forget about us this weekend and thanks for all!!! :)

Yes!!! We do have a bank account!!!

Here I am again with a great new. Finally, we do have a bank account for you to make the donations!!!

We want to thank La Caixa they have been incredibly agile to solve this handicap in a blink of an eye. They have more than 5,000 offices all over Spain what give us a huge proximity to people within the country.

There are a lot of donors already, and many more who know about this initiative (more than 500€ in donations, 6,000 visits to the blog, ... ). This the right time for everybody to go for it.

This is quite simple. Who does not have two euros or three dollars? Every single Facebook or Twitter user can make such a donation. If you are reading this blog by the first time, don't feel this doesn't have anything to do with you because I have written this for you: we want you to take part of this. What are we going to achieve will be a record and only happens once in a life. But above all, you are going to relief the tragedy of the people in the horn of Africa. With three dollar only. And the best part of it, they will be grateful for the rest of their lives. That will make you feel really good.

Day 11, 773.51€

Morning everyone!!!

As you can see, good news about donations. We are in our way to the goal taking into account our calculations, and we are closed to the middle of our this week objective of 1,500€. Moreover, we have received the first donation from a company, Freelance SCM, already added to the donors list, of course.

When I thought on this initiative I get to the conclusion I would like that people managing the initiative would make a very efficient use of my two euros donation. That's why we decided to reflect that conditions in our legal constitution document. All people involved in this project don't have any kind of economical compensation and we only use communication and marketing resources that are either free or donated.

Anyway, the most important piece for the expansion of our message is you. Our network growth is based on the assumption that every single person who donates becomes part of the initiative. They can help us talking about it to their relatives, friends, acquaintances for them to take part of this as well. Transmit the willing of helping. We're going to change the world. This is the time!!!

Day 10, 477.61€

Good morning everybody!

Wednesday has been bank holiday in Spain! Visits and donations have decrease by that circumstance as it happened last weekend. Nevertheless, we have collected 66.91€, increased the number of followers in Facebook and Twitter and, the most important news, the team has also incorporated a new member. That give us more capacity to do more things! Everything counts and put us closer to the goal! There are only 248€ left to reach the initial week objective, 726€, but we doubled it... Will we achieve it?

There a key issue we have solved yet, the availability of a bank account. In fact, we are still fighting with the public administration to get a temporal identification number. With that number, to get the bank account will be much easier. We are trying other alternatives in parallel but we have found a good one yet. Any suggestion? If you have, please, send them to contact (at) 90mn90d.com. This is the only thing that is not working as good as we desire but hopefully will be solved soon. 

Not having a bank account avoids many people from making donation and they are waiting for the availability of the transfer method for not having fees nor using PayPal. These last days we have lowered our communication activities for that too. So we are still very optimistic an dwhen we do have a bank account we will accelerate all processes and hope to have a higher rate of donations per day.

Besides telling you about we are doing, I think it is good to remember why we do this, and that we can not delay anything. I ask you to empathize with the political, social, cultural, economical, health and weather context of people who are suffering the famine. In Spain and many other developed countries we are also having troubles, but fortunately for us, both situations are not comparable. Search in the Internet I you will conclude the same. I do not want to show pictures or videos about the tragedy, it is not necessary.

Regarding NGO's we will derive the money, we will make a selection of organizations that are already working in the area, with guarantees enough and interesting projects, and we will offer you all the possibility of voting where do you want your money to be applied.

Before closing, I would like to thank the incredible team is being created. It is amazing the energy, commitment and quality of everyone. They keep on exceeding my expectations. This Friday or Saturday, intense coordination meeting.

Tomorrow, more and better!

Day 9, 410.70€

Good morning everybody!

Yesterday we received 10 new donations for a total of 62.45€. Up to date, we have had donations from 2€ (a lot) up to 60€ (only one). The average donation amount is 6€. Thanks a lot to you all!

The web has also received almost 1,200 visit and the number of followers of the blog and Facebook has increased significantly. And that's important because everyday the number of people joined to the initiative is higher, and we all are the ones that help to fight the famine the most, talking about it with our close friends. Thank you very much for this too! 

Yesterday at 11:00am the newspaper 20minutos (20minutes) posted our story: "Objective: collect 90 million euros in 90 days for Africa". That gave us great diffusion and that's why we received a higher number of hits and followers. Thank you very much 20minutes for considering as some noticeable.

Two more people have shown interest in take active part in our team, a producer of the radio station Punto Radio contacted us to arrange an interview today at 19:30, a NGO has offered help to solve some of our present handicaps in this initial stage, and we held a videoconference with Irene García Martínez y José María Batalla ("El Mundo al Revés" de Havás Media) who defined six points of action to support us. Again, thanks a lots for your support and collaboration!

Everyday we are increase the team and collaborators, everyday with higher illusion and motivation, the unstoppable snowball effect of the social media is starting to be real, thanks to you that are incorporating more and more people to this aid project. Keep on going on, we are in the right track!

For remembering and spreading the initiative, and for everyone you tell about it as well, we have created los "solidollars". Take a look and print clicking here. You can print as many as you want and give whomever you want. Money is solidary, you can print as much as you want and there's always more! We hope you like it :)

For three dollars...

Have a nice day!