It seems that the people we have been working with as sources of funds may not be who they say they are, or perhaps are not able to manifest actual available funds for use. Whatever the reason we do not yet have a viable source of project funding and so Friends Transmuting is not at this time able to assist with the funding of any type of project, humanitarian or otherwise.

If this situation changes we will share the news here.

with Friends Transmuting,

Mark

Firstly, we only started Friends Transmuting and this associated website in around January of 2015 because we expected at that time that we had a solid funding source for small to large humanitarian projects.  The following weeks saw many delays and explanations that sometimes sounded legitimate and sometimes suspicious.  The long story short is that we recently discovered that one of the main sources of funding that we were expecting to come good turned out to be a basic con man using the story of a large Trust as a way to make money to live on.  It was not an easy matter to work out whether he was legitimate or not, but now it is very unlikely that he is anything other than a basic con man trying to make a living on the hopes of good people around the world looking to fund good projects.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is that we do still have other options that we are pursuing.  I do not see anything, yet, for the short term.  It looks like the earliest we might have humanitarian type funding from the best source we are working with right now is perhaps sometime in 2018.

As neither Wiley Morgan nor I are prone to pump people up with lies we both wanted to share this update so that those who make their way here know that we are not pretending to have project funding soon.  We want the funding for our own projects as much as you want funding for yours, but we call it like we see it.  Right now we don’t have a funding solution available and want to make that clear here.  When we do we will put the word out here and to everyone who has approached us already.

Many ask us what we think about other options presenting themselves as sources for humanitarian project funding.  We would prefer not to comment on them as we don’t have any verifiable information to say whether they are legitimate or not.  We watch with interest and both of us work within our private networks to ascertain whether we can expect to see funding come from those sources or not.  If we see movement with those sources we will likely suggest here that people contact that particular source to get their project funded.  As it stands we have not seen anyone do more than talk about what is meant to come “soon”.

with Friends Transmuting,

Mark

It’s been a long time since our last post.  The reason being that I have not known what to report in this forum.  It’s overdue for us to share something of an update, but the fact remains that at this moment in time we do not yet have funding for projects secured.  There have been several points in this past year that we thought we were there, but for various reasons funding sources just didn’t fully materialize.

We do feel that we have some funding options that will come together in the coming weeks, but we won’t discuss details in this public forum.  When funding becomes available we will know exactly what the parameters are that we have to work within, and we will give whatever information here that we can share.

When funding for Friends Transmuting manifests we intend to fully activate the team to communicate with all who approach us for project funding.  Until then we are all looking after our own lives and doing what we can with what we have available to us.  All of us are doing what we do as volunteers until we have funding secured.  All of us have normal lives with families to support and attend to.  Friends Transmuting will be far more responsive once funded.

What about the UN Project Template?

One of our funding sources has indicated that they will require each project that they fund work with a UN Project Template for their business / project plan submissions.  They have been working with a UN Consultant on this, but to date we have not received a copy.   Until we know what format projects need to be in we have chosen to keep the project submission form closed.  We may re-open it again, but for now we are suggesting to just send us your business plan by email if you wish to get in line for when funding does become available.

You are welcome to send in what you do have by way of Business Plan or Project Plan to:  projects@friendstransmuting.org   If you send us your project overview to this email we will keep it in the line-up to contact you as soon as we have a way to fund your project.

We will likely have a budget to work with for those needing support to get their Business Plan into the format required for the final project submission process.  We intend to have a several support services available once we are up and running as a group.

When might we expect the first project funding to be available?

We first launched this website in early 2015 because we thought that we would have project funding available in February 2015.  It is now over a year later.  Nevertheless, we have been working steadily to bring into reality our vision of funding projects on a large scale.  We are hopeful that our efforts will pay off soon, but there is little point estimating exactly when that will be.  We share the approach that we do as much as we can with what we have available to us now, AND do what we can to bring into reality what we really prefer.

When the funding is available to work with you to support your efforts then the funding is available.

Until it’s available we are working to bring it into reality.  We are hype averse and wish to be realistic as we proceed.

To speculate when it might be tends to work in a negative way to support falsely arrived at expectations.  Nothing is certain except that we are focused on our vision to support as many good projects as possible.

What about those of us who submitted Projects to Friends Transmuting already?

Thank you for your patience with us.  Had we known that funding would not come available back in February 2015 we would not have launched this website when we did.  That we did has given us the opportunity to build relationships with those who chose to approach us.  For all of you who did submit projects know that we continue to work towards funding them.  Also, we wish you the very best if you have found or will find other funding for your project before we manage to.  Our goal is to bring about a world that we prefer, not to make sure that we are involved with your project.

If you have submitted your project or business plan to us know that we still have it on file and will contact you as soon as we have a way to fund you.  If you wish to contact us directly I am very happy to speak with you personally.  The best way to reach me is via Skype or phone.  I can share my details with you if you email me your details and let me know that you would like to speak with me.  I’m in Australia, but I am able to call most countries for free on my Skype plan.

To organize a call, email me at:  mark@friendstransmuting.org or use the contact form to give me your phone number and/or share you Skype username with me.  Google Hangouts also works for me.  For more sensitive conversations I am happy to speak with you using http://zoom.us as it has some level of encryption.  It works similarly to Skype, GoTo Meeting and other conference calling platforms, but it has encryption.

With Friends Transmuting,

Mark

I have been told that we can expect the first projects funds going out from mid August 2015 now.  Anyone who has already submitted a project will need to re-submit using the UN Template when we have it.  Projects that can be based out of the Philippines will be the easiest to get set up.  Other countries will also flow quickly I’m told, but if you can work from the Philippines you will have some priority.

There are a large amount of funds set aside for the Indigenous populations of the world.  Special focus is also given to any project helping with more life threatening type issues, but really we will be pushing to get all projects that we have come through us funded quickly.  It does look like “quickly” may be sometime in August.

Keep on high alert now as funding is now secured and moving into the accounts that will be used to fund projects.  Anything that I can do to clear up procedures and what we can expect I’ll do here.  There’s a fair amount that I am not able to say publicly at this stage.  Suffice it to say that we are now looking very very good.  The first project is yet to be funded, but I believe that we are going to see the start here in August, at long last.

Thank you for your patience,

Mark

Firstly, I need to say that there was a Post sent out yesterday in error.  Anyone who has their email address registered to receive new Posts from our site would have received a very confusing survey from us with a corresponding Post on our site that I didn’t know about until about 10 minutes ago.

The issue is that I needed help with the contact form Plugin on the site, and so asked the company who created it to help fix the issue.  I had to give them temporary Admin access to the site to fix the issue.  They fixed it and then created a new Post with a sample survey form to make sure that the repair worked.  For whatever reason the technician didn’t think to delete the Post, and so it then went out to everyone registered to receive notifications from us!

Funding Status Report

I’ve been hesitant to give reports on our funding source’s ability to fund your projects.  We do not know exactly when we can expect the first projects to be funded.  There is a chance that funds will be available to allocate to projects in July 2015, but we also expected to see that start at the end of May.

I’m not in a position to give details.  I do feel good about where we are at, but I don’t feel confident giving a time frame until we see the funds clear for use by one of our sources.

If you already sent in a Project Submission

We are getting through the full / final project submissions that have come through as quickly as possible.  I expect to be caught up with all that have been sent in by the end of this week.  The pre-submissions are taking more time, and we have focused on getting the full submissions through first.

We will work with those who have sent in pre-submissions individually as time allows.  Once Friends Transmuting has funding itself we will be able to respond much more quickly and be of much more assistance to those who require assistance to move their proposal to a final state.  We are working on a set of videos to answer frequently asked questions and to teach the basics of building your business plan.  All of us are, however, working around family, business and job schedules to do what we are doing with Friends Transmuting.  When we have funds to work with we will be much more efficient and responsive.

Thank you for your patience with us as we navigate uncharted waters.

with Friends Transmuting,

Mark Hoza

Gwen Caldwell of Medicine Horse Village, Gwen Caldwell business plan workshops is offering workshops to assist those working on humanitarian project submissions.

Gwen’s workshops will provide you with the necessary tools and information to decide on a project, forming your business structure, writing your business plan or project proposal and give you an opportunity to network with others who have a shared vision of creating a new paradigm.

These workshops offer follow up support meetings to answer questions, stay connected and provide support through the process of developing  your project.

Gwen charges a modest $50 USD for her 5 hour long intensive workshops.  If you do not have experience with creating business plans, or if you are wanting help clarifying what you want to do with your project Gwen’s workshop may be a great help.

with Friends Transmuting,

Mark Hoza

—-

As at 15June2015 there aren’t any workshops scheduled, but you can contact Gwen via her site.

Mark

If you don’t hear from us in the next day please either resubmit (preferable so that everything is in one email for us to work with), notifying us that it is a re-submission, or email us to help us find which one was yours.

As there were a number of key fields that were blanked it will probably be best to re-submit.

We appreciate that this is extra work for you, but please allow for the fact that we are still fine tuning the process in these early days.  At this stage we are working as volunteers to assist you, so hopefully you will be patient with us.

Warmly,

Mark

There are many other ways that people are looking for help and ways to help others by doing work that they feel resonant with.

A few ideas to consider:

• Are you really just needing a job that provides enough income to provide for a comfortable lifestyle?
• Are you a single parent looking for a way to work either less or to focus on raising your children whilst they are young and needing full time care?
• Are you more interested in a small scale, perhaps local community based project to fill a need for services in your community, but don’t want to try to take on the world by duplicating a local solution everywhere else?
• What really excites you when you think in terms of:  “If you had the money and other resources to do something that would make the world a better place what would I do?”  Write it down and think in terms of the funding has been approved and is available to you to use now.  What would you do today?  What would you do next?  Who do you know you would want to work with?  What types of people would you need to attract to make it work?
• Do you have skills and experience to offer others with humanitarian projects and want to find someone working in a field that excites you?
• Do you have a vision for a humanitarian project but don’t know how to create a business plan nor what to do next?
• Might you prefer to work with others who have an interest in your humanitarian project, but who would prefer to team up with you?

Many roles will need to be filled

Consider that for every humanitarian project there will need to be many people working to make it a reality.  Funding is only one aspect of a successful outcome.  Man and woman do things.  Money does not.  Focus on what role you want to play, not so much on what “should be done” or what “needs to be done” for whatever reason you have in head.  Focus on what is in your heart and is something that you feel driven and passionate about.  Yes, other things need to be done and should be done, but others will feel driven and passionate to do them.  Perhaps consider that it may not be yours to do if it’s only an idea and your heart doesn’t get excited when you focus on it.

Practical tips for visioning and clarifying your dreams

Taking time to use pencil or pen and paper is a very effective way to pull ideas more into reality.  Just thinking about your ideas is useful, but consider writing them down.  For this kind of work using a pencil (very tactile) or pen and paper engages more of one’s creativity to come out from the will and feeling bodies than typing on a computer does.  Try it if you haven’t in a while.  Also, try having a writing session in a resort, under a tree or in a favourite cafe — somewhere that you feel nourished and joyful.  It can be helpful to get out of your familiar environment into an environment that is new and fresh, supporting possibility thinking outside of your normal and expected external environment.

“If I got what I am asking for would I want it?”

Every now and then, while working on your ideas/plans, ask yourself the question:  “If I achieved this result would I want it?”  Or some variation of that question.  The point being if you have a mind to get funding for a global scale humanitarian project requiring hundreds of millions of dollars would you be excited to do the work of creating and developing it if the funds for it were approved?

It may well be that a large percentage of people hoping to fund humanitarian projects are not really clear what it is that they prefer to do themselves.  What would be an exciting way for you to contribute to humanity and your community?

• the creation of jobs,
• the improvement of job conditions and employee benefits,
• the cleaning of the Environment,
• the development and implementation of healthy and clean drinking water solutions,
• the development and manufacture of clean energy solutions,
• the development and production of clean and more efficient transportation solutions,
• the support of healthy and naturally sustainable food production,
• the development and implementation of sustainable and holistic housing solutions,
• the provision for the basic needs of those in society who are in need, such as Elders, children, disabled or sick and others deemed in need of short or long term assistance of whatever kind,
• the support of existing social services that are currently well used but under funded and so not meeting the needs in our communities,
• and whatever humanitarian needs you can identify and one of our funding sources is willing to support.

Both for profit and not for profit businesses will be funded, so if you think that your project is of value to humanity and you need funding to either start it or to expand what you are already doing then submit your project and we will do what we can to help you match up with a funding source.

Those who wish to wait until the project funding funds are confirmed available are welcome to wait to submit your projects until we have confirmed the availability of funds.  We will use this site to give notice of funding availability when we do have it confirmed and in place.