Taking Fundraising to a New Level in Haiti

Posted by kboon on January 28, 2010 under General | 2 Comments to Read

From 7-year a old Charlie Simpson, (who raised over $160K); Lance Armstrong and other celebrities using Twitter & Facebook to raise millions; the fundraising efforts for Haiti demonstrate our desire as human beings to make a difference.

People have big hearts and they genuinely want to give.  Social media is now a tool that allows money to flow more freely.

The part we (collectively as a global community) are still trying to figure out:

How do we permanently change realities on the ground for the impoverished nations of the world?

Rebuilding Haiti – 2 Stages

Think of Haiti’s challenge.  The first stage is to find survivors, bury the dead (up to 300,000 estimated now) and then re-build whatever infrastructure was destoyed.  This will take up most of the donations given.  The second stage (much more expensive but necessary for sustained growth) is to invest and build a thriving economy.  The action for this effort will take more determination than a viral wave that might last for a few months.

In the 20^th century we struggled with this problem and were never able to find real solutions.  Even today, according to the UN, over 1 billion people live on less than $1 per day and 2.7 billion live on less than $2 per day.

That’s almost half of the population of the world.

Implementing Global Change Takes Vision to See into the Future

As the 21^st century evolves we have an opportunity to harness technology, our skills, communities and collective knowledge to make real change.  If you look at developing economies like China and India, you see that the seeds of their prosperity did not come overnight. They started over 25 years before with leaders that had a vision (and a plan) for where they wanted to take their people. The same forward kind of thinking has to take place today.

My personal belief is that stage 2 growth for countries will get better as we progress in this century.  There are so many brilliant minds involved and good things happening.  My question, how can we speed up the change?

One Idea – Sponsor a Developing Country

What if one country to could sponsor another?

Say for example, Haiti and Canada.  Within the sponsorship agreement you create a free trade zone for certain period of time (25-50 years).   (This is similar to Britain’s 100 year lease arrangement with Hong Kong that was returned to China in 1997)

Within the free-trade zone, Canada would open up opportunities for Haitians to study in Canada, develop their skills in business, finance, medicine, law, and so on.  Cultural exchanges would be encouraged.  Trade would be encouraged.  Canadian companies would have the opportunity to go into Haiti to build infrastructure, running water, schools, homes, roads, etc.  This would be like a partnering or mentoring program.

You could build a global model with countries from the G8 & G20 being sponsor nations.   The USA, for example might have a dozen sponsor countries, Canada 4 or 5.

That’s one idea for today.  Now back to work.