Two years ago, my family and I made a commitment to sponsor Leng Sopharath, a young woman from Cambodia, for her college education through the Sharing Foundation's education program. She is an orphan who grew up in the same orphanage as my daughter. Without the Sharing Foundation's college education program, she would not be able to make a better life for herself. My exploration of using social media tools and personal fundraising strategies has been devoted to raising money to help support young people like Leng Sopharath through the Sharing Foundation's program. She is now entering her third year of college, majoring in Business as you will hear from the video I took when I met her over a year ago.
The most recent letter I received from her let me know that she will have to miss the fall semester because she recovering from stomach surgery. (The text of the letter is here). The Sharing Foundation (and some friends) covered her medical expenses and she is recuperating in the student house that we rent for our college students. So, this year I'm raising money to cover her junior year tuition, living expenses, and medical expenses. This comes to approximately $2,500. I am hoping that you can contribute $10 to continue her education in good health.
For her freshman year, I launched a campaign on ChipIn and with the help of many generous people, was able to raise money for her first of college. For her sophmore year, with the help of folks like Chris Brogan, we were able to raise enough money to cover Leng Sopharath and another college student!
I'm headed off to Seattle to speak at Gnomedex and hope to test the power of integrated offline/online strategies. (Any advice?) and hope to continue with this campaign and raise the money quickly! So, please consider donating $10!
IF you reading this in an RSS reader, here's the direct link. Thanks.
Beth,
Done! Also, you might want to update the post with a link to Chip In since it isn't coming across via my rss reader.
Have fun at Gnomedex!
Posted by: Sue Cline | August 21, 2008 at 12:22 PM
Sue, thanks so much for your support. I added the link!
Posted by: Beth Kanter | August 21, 2008 at 12:37 PM
Beth,
Have you ever heard of The Cambodia Children's Fund Mission. I learned about it from an amazing yoga leader Seane Corn. It might of interest http://www.offthematintotheworld.org/sevachallenge
Posted by: Marjorie Chimes | August 22, 2008 at 10:34 AM
Happy to be able to help. Learned of your quest through Chris Brogan and Twitter!
Posted by: Dana Lookadoo | August 22, 2008 at 03:14 PM
Just made a donation - heard through Chris Brogan as well.
Posted by: Rick and Rebecca Bucich | August 22, 2008 at 03:25 PM
Happy to donate and tweet about it, Beth. Thanks for speaking at Gnomedex and good luck to Leng at college!
Posted by: Cassie Wallender | August 22, 2008 at 03:29 PM
Happy to help from Virginia and online via Twitter and Facebook. Great, inspiring presentation. Wonder how many students you'll end up sending??
Posted by: Cheryl Smith | August 22, 2008 at 03:31 PM
Why is this working? Probably because Beth suggested a concrete dollar amount instead of just asking us to donate. Relevance and the power of suggestion are nice :) It took three other tweeters before I decided to jump on the donation bandwagon...
Posted by: Clara | August 22, 2008 at 03:36 PM
Heard it through Chris Brogan via Steve Dembo - social networking does good -> you won't hear about this on the evening news
Posted by: Hank Thiele | August 22, 2008 at 03:38 PM
Beth,
Great idea and execution! I heard from Chris Brogan.
ahg3
Posted by: @ahg3 (Arthur Germain) | August 22, 2008 at 03:42 PM
Just made a donation and tweeted, heard through @marshallk
Posted by: Ram | August 22, 2008 at 04:11 PM
Let's keep going.
Posted by: Qui Diaz | August 23, 2008 at 08:33 AM