Sometimes when you give, it requires a leap of faith (or at least a step of faith…)

Our latest effort to raise money has been just that… a BIG leap of faith.

We are excited to be sponsoring the 2 to 1 Conference this weekend (April 27th – 29th, 2012) and we wanted to find a way to both promote our business (NewBlogHosting.com) and give at the same time.

What we came up with was a marketing/giving campaign we called Wear a Shirt, Build a Well.

We bought t-shirts with our company logo on them and gave them to anyone who wanted one at the conference and told them this was the deal:

For every person who wore the shirt on Saturday April 28th, 2012 AND posted a picture of themselves wearing it somewhere online, we would donate $10 to our Well Fund.

Simple, right?

RIGHT… but here’s where the leap of faith comes in… we have nothing to give, but yet we’re giving for every person who wore a shirt.

In total we are giving $484 – which we are REALLY excited about.

So the question remains, how can we afford it? and the answer is simple – we can’t, but like any marketing campaign you have to outlay the money in the hope that it will return new business and, God willing, a profit.

It seems to us that if we’re going to spend money on marketing, what better place for that money to go than into a fund to buy a well in Africa?

It’s kind of a no-brainer… but, as with any campaign, we have our fingers crossed and prayers going up that it will pay off.

… but even if it doesn’t, some people in Africa will have clean water who have never had clean water before

And that’s what really matters!

It’s not all that often that a book comes along which agrees with everything you believe to the point that you wonder if you secretly wrote it yourself. For me, Giving 2.0: Transform Your Giving and Our World by Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen is definitely one of them.

When I was offered a review copy of Giving 2.0, I was very intrigued. It sounded like it was going to be something I’d like, but I’m always a little skeptical about these things so I decided to give it a go and see what it was really like… and I’m, sure glad I did!

Disclaimer: I received a review copy of Giving 2.0 for free, but the opinions stated here are all mine!

To be honest, I haven’t even finished reading the book yet, I only found it on my door step last night but it has resonated so deeply with me already that I had to share it with all you Nothing-to-give-rs.

This wonderful little book explains in simple, easy terms how (and more importantly WHY) to live a life of giving – or philanthropy, as they call it.

Every page is a call to action, a confirmation and exhortation that you don’t have to have money to be able to give but everybody has something to give, be it time, talent, wealth or wisdom. The book walks you through how to find what you have to give and howyou can give it.

If nothing else, you should buy the book and read the immensely helpful ‘Making it happen’ sections at the end of each chapter as they lay out a road map for changing your thinking and rising to the call to action.

I simply cannot stress enough how much this book lines up with everything we’ve tried to do in our family and through this website and how much direction and assistance it has given me even in this first twenty four hours of owning it.

So I beseech you to transform your giving and our world and there’s no better place to find out how you can do so (that I’ve ever seen) than in the pages of Giving 2.0: Transform Your Giving and Our World.

I’d like to hear your reactions… have I convinced you yet?

Giving 2.0 was written by Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen and is published by Jossey-Bass, an imprint of Wiley.

As you may know, we are always looking for ways to give when we don’t have any spare cash (although we’ve been a little slack lately).

One of our biggest ideas was to find a way that we could put together the $2,600 needed for us to sponsor a new well for a village in Africa through World Vision.

Named Websites for Wells, our fundraiser was that we donated $15 to the fund for every new web hosting plan we sold through NewBlogHosting.com

I am very happy to say that we have now reached our goal and can finally send in our donation to this very worthy cause.

We want to thank everyone who enabled us to reach our goal, from the bottom of our hearts, particularly those who donated extra over and above the cost of their hosting!

To celebrate, for the next thirty days (Until Cyber Monday 2011), we’re going to donate $20 for every hosting plan sold to our ‘Well’ fund to kickstart our campaign to buy a second well in Africa.

So, if you know anyone who needs hosting, we’d love it if you could help us in our fundraising efforts by letting them know that if they host with us now, $20 of their first year’s hosting cost will go to charity.

Thanks!

We realized earlier this year that there is a lot of need in this world, real need, urgent, life threatening need and yet we live in a society where we are blessed beyond measure and yet many of us spend so much, either by choice or simply because of the high cost of living, we have very little we can give.

We have spent this year trying to come up with ways we can give even though our bank balance says we have nothing to give. You can find out about some of the ways we have come up with to give by clicking here.

Over on my personal blog, PeterPollock.com, I recently ran a series of book reviews called Books to Buy For Christmas. These books were all suggested and reviewed by my amazing online friends (and one by my sister).

I jumped at the opportunity presented to my by this series to find yet another way to give money and that was to use Amazon Associates links in all of the posts.

If you don’t know what the Amazon Associates program is, in short it’s a way to earn money for referring people to Amazon.com. <– Like I did just there.

From the referrals I made, I have generated a commission of $2.46.

Yeah. I know. Wow.

Actually, it’s more like WOW!

There are people in this world who live on a dollar a day or less. In one month, by simply adding an Amazon Associates link to my blog, I’ve raised enough to double someone’s daily income for two days or more.

If I could do that every month of the year, I could raise enough to double that person’s daily income for about a month.

Twelve of us doing the same thing could double that person’s daily income for a whole year… and then if we keep on doing it year after year, we could elevate their living standard for the rest of their lives.

I estimate that I have about 120 readers of my blog.

That means that between us, if we could just raise $2.46 each per month, we could transform the lives of ten people every day for the rest of their lives.

On twitter, I have 774 ‘followers’. If all of them could raise $2.46 a month, then 64 people could have their lives transformed.

Obviously, two dollars a day is still not a huge amount of money to live on but could you even imagine the effect it could have, doubling someone’s income?

That person might be able to go from one meal a day to two. They might be able to afford to fix the hole in their roof. They might be able to save some and buy their first ever pair of shoes. They might be able to afford soap. Who knows what their needs are?

Two dollars and forty six cents a month may not sound like a lot and in many burger joints around here, it wouldn’t even buy a single burger.When I do my part though and donate that money to where it’s needed and if you do the same and our friends all do the same and their friends all do the same, the world could become a very different place for thousands if not millions of people.

My $2.46 CAN change the world – at least, it can change one small part of it and all of our $2.46′s together can change the whole planet.

Just watch and see!

What could YOU do to raise $2.46 (or even more) this month?

We spend a LOT. It’s scary how much we actually spend.

And what for? What do we actually buy that is necessary?

Very little.

This year, my family and I have been trying to find ways to give even though we don’t feel we have anything to give. Followers of this blog might remember Change for Chile and Hot dogs for Haiti, which were ways we found that we could give without needing to find spare money in the budget.

Our goal as a family though is to physically give enough money to be able to buy a new well for a village in Africa.

A well will cost somewhere around $2600 – which seems completely out of the question for us. How can we possibly find $2600 in the budget to give away?

Our first way of giving came via my business, NewBlogHosting.com. Check out the Websites for Wells idea here.

The problem is, although the business is growing, we’re in October already and Websites for Wells has only generated $251 We’re almost 10% of the way there but 80% of the way through the year.

We’ve been wracking our brains trying to come up with ways we can find ‘spare’ money to give and we realized something we realize every year:

We don’t have money set aside to buy Christmas presents with.

Yet somehow we’ll buy toys for our kids that they don’t need, presents for each other (which will be nice but not necessary) and gifts for all of our nieces, nephews, brothers, sisters, parents, friends, children’s friends, co-workers… and the list goes on.

Sure, some of the stuff we buy for Christmas will be necessary. The kids will get clothes that they really need now but we’ll hold back so they can be ‘Christmas presents’ and I’ll probably get some new kitchen implements to replace the ones that have been broken or lost this year… but what about the other stuff which can only really be described as STUFF?

We’ll spend hundreds of dollars on things we don’t need and will possibly not even use after Christmas day.

Of course, you’re probably much wiser with your money than us and don’t waste any money at Christmas, but I know we do!

So here’s our plan this Christmas:

For every dollar we spend on Christmas presents, we’re going to give one dollar to the Well fund.

That means ALL of the Christmas presents, even the stocking stuffers, secret Santa gifts and cute little ornaments we give to each other for the tree.

While we are opening little singing Santa’s and drooling over the new jewelry we’ve been given which will go into the draw untouched with all the other jewelry, a village in Africa will be another step closer to getting clean drinking water for the first time in their lives.

We won’t raise the full $2,600 this Christmas, but we will get a lot closer to being able to give the gift that keeps on giving live, health, and happiness.

Will you give something truly meaningful this Christmas?

Will you set a family goal for the next year and find ways to give money toward that goal - maybe even starting right now by joining with us in our Christmas Challenge?

We came up with the idea of Websites For Wells:

For every new website hosting plan bought from our business (NewBlogHosting.com) before June 30th 2010, we would donate $15 toward the well project.

June 30th came and went and we noticed three startling facts:

1. The world had not collapsed around us
2. We had not dissolved into bankruptcy
3. We had more money in our ‘well’ fund than before we started the promotion.

The decision, therefore, was easy.

We are going to continue the Websites For Wells fundraiser for the foreseeable future.

For every new hosting plan we’ve sold since March 26th 2010, we’ve added $15 into the well fund, and we’ll continue to do so until it becomes no longer financially viable.

THANK YOU to all of our new customers who have chosen us as their web hosts. We really appreciate your business and we’re sure that, sometime soon, an African village somewhere will also be appreciating it when they get clean water for the first time!

That’s what we’re asking in our latest project here at nothingtogive.com.

Stemming from a desire to do something (or some things) for our community with the resources our church currently has, we’re wondering what does our community need?

I can try to guess at what my community might need or to judge from my own point of view what is needed but life is not all about me. Other people have different perspectives, different experiences of life and what they see as a need in their community could be very different from what I see, even if they live in the same town as me.

We live in Hanford, CA and we’re asking all Hanford residents for their input.

What does your community need?

The answer to that question could be as simple as, “The lady down the street has a broken toilet which she needs fixing” or as big as, “The children in my neighborhood need a safe place to play” or anything in between.

What we’re interested in is what you think your town, your neighborhood, your street or even your neighbor needs?

We cannot promise to fix every problem and meet every need but there is only one way for us to get any idea of what this community sees as important – and that’s to ask you.

Of course, this is NothingToGive.com so we’re also wondering what you can give. You may feel that you have nothing to give but what if money wasn’t a problem? If someone else could provide the money, what could you do for your community? What do you have to give?

Maybe you’re thinking you could fix that toilet for the lady down the street if only you had the money for the parts, or maybe you have some other talents or time that you could give – and we want to hear about that too.

So if you live in or around Hanford, CA and you know of something that you’d like to see done in your community, please write and tell us about it.

Please send your suggestions to: suggestions@nothingtogive.com

If you’re not from around the Hanford area then all is not lost. What can you do for your community? What does your community need and what are you doing about it?

You can make a difference even though you may feel you have nothing to give.

We are and so can you!

However, responding to emergencies was not what we originally set out to do.

Our original goal was, as a family, to give enough money over the next year to be able to pay for a well in a village in Africa.

We weren’t planning on doing any fundraising or giving to help with other situations, we were trying to find ways as a family to give money for a specific goal.

Disasters happen though and we cannot teach our children to care for others if we’re not willing to react to emergencies with love and action so that became our initial focus.

Our fundraising ideas for those emergencies have dried up now and we felt it was time that we return our focus to our original plan.

A traditional well for an African village, given through World Vision is $2600. How is our small family, which has nothing left over in the weekly budget, supposed to find $2600 in a year?

That’s the point of NothingToGive.com – we have no idea how we’re going to do it, but we’re sure going to try!

Our first idea is this:

We run a small website hosting business and we’re just moving in to the blog hosting market. In reality, blogs are just websites which you can easily update but to most people, the two seem like quite different beasts. So we just launched a site which talks almost exclusively about hosting blogs, just to save confusion – www.newbloghosting.com.

We don’t have room in our budget to give $2600 to World Vision this year. However, if our income from the website/blog hosting grows, that’s money we’ve not already budgeted for, so out of that we can start to give.

We’ve decided that, for the next three months, we’ll put $15 out of every new $35 hosting package we sell into our Well fund – in other words, for every new hosting package that is bought, we’ll give $15 to charity.

Our goal is to be able to build up a fund of $1500 in three months through this – which means we need to sell 100 new hosting packages.

For us, one hundred new hosting packages in three months seems impossible. We’ve never had business come in even half that fast but that’s where the leap of faith comes. That’s where we step outside of what we know to be possible and pray believing that miracles do happen.

I’m going to keep this site updated with how we are doing with our goal but I fully believe that we will be rejoicing on June 30th because our goal has been reached – or even surpassed.

$1500 here we come!

**** UPDATE – As of May 21st 2010, we have raised $105. Still $1395 to go! ****

It has been an incredible day. A day of amazing generosity. A day of fun, food and fund raising.

We sold thirty four polish sausages, sixty two hot dogs and an uncounted of drinks and packets of chips.

Then someone bought eighty uncooked hot dogs and buns plus some chips and soda.

The total raised?

$844.53

Yes, you read that right, our little family raised over eight hundred dollars in two hours.

That incredible total included an amazing donation from one lady of $250 for four dollars worth of food, numerous people stopping by to donate without buying any food and one lady who came over to give us all the change she could find at home (which was over fifteen dollars!)

From the moment we first went out to set up, we had people coming to buy hot dogs (although the first ones got sent away and told to come back when we had some food prepared).

We even had one lady stop next to us as we were packing the last few things away ready to leave. She gave us a fifty dollar donation.

If we’d been a couple of minutes faster at packing up we would have missed that!

This has been a wonderful response from our community and an amazing answer to prayer.

The fund raising total for this family who had nothing to give is now well over $1000.

Do you think you have nothing to give?

I want to send a VERY big thank you to everyone who has been giving us messages of support and praying for us over the past couple of weeks.

Today is the big day. Hot Dogs for Haiti is happening.

Click here to read more about how Hot Dogs for Haiti and how it came about.

11am-1pm at the corner of Reddington and Ivy in Hanford, CA.

We have 200 hot dogs, 48 polish sausages, 96 cans of soda, 30 packets of capri sun, 48 bottles of water, 136 bags of chips and enough buns and condiments for all of the ‘dogs (hopefully).

We’re just hoping and praying that enough people come and it all gets sold!

But we’re ready and prepared to do a run to the store to buy more when people turn up in their hundreds….

We’ll be posting the total raised on this site later today.

It’s all for the people of Haiti and Chile so it’s all totally worth it.

We’ll check back in with you later!