LitLiberation - Win Airfare Anywhere Or A Child’s Thanks

I was out of town when I received this news, so it is a little late coming but significant enough for all of us to make an effort on. Tim Ferris, a NYT's Best Selling Author, just launched the largest online literacy and educational experiment ever attempted. LitLiberation, in conjunction with DonorsChoose.org and RoomtoRead, have set a goal to raise $1 million dollars in 30 days via mostly tech blogs. My friends at FutureWorks jumped in as have dozens of others in an effort to help children all over the world. I only regret that I caught the news late, but there is still time for many of us to do some good.

The Need

Roughly one third of the children in developing countries are not enrolled in a school of any kind. Many districts even here in the U.S. are underfunded and many children are in need of everything from clothes to books. I don't know about the rest of you, but essentially one third of humanity not receiving at least some type of education is both unacceptable and in my view a recipe for disaster. It is true, the world has so many needs and critical areas for development and answers, but educating young people seems to me to be the best long term cure for many of our ailments.

The Project

LitLiberation is engaging the tech community to raise $1 million dollars to help kids here and abroad by starting what Ferris calls “a scalable education revolution” - making it easy for anyone to fund specific projects in developing countries and in the U.S. As far as I know, this is the first time anyone can sign up and start a fundraiser - compete to raise money - and win world class prizes in the process. As an application of the people empowered Web, fund raising is perhaps the most important action we can all take to affect change and do good.

What Can You Do?

The act of helping has never been made more simple, clear and transparent. First, decide whether to support education in developing countries, the U.S. or both. Next, create a personal donation challenge or support any existing fundraiser, and of course “spread the word”. In about 5 minutes I established a fundraiser via signup on FirstGiving, and you can help my tiny effort for good at firstgiving.com/philbutler, where I have chosen to raise $2500 for RoomtoRead. RoomtoRead is far reaching, and partners with communities to build schools, establish bi-lingual libraries, publish local language children's books, create computer and language labs and provide long term scholarships for girls.

Challenging Techdom

Ferris has challenged citizen media (that's all of us) to take action now to do something tangible that will help the world. I just completed a post about Web 3.0 and its definitive essence of “tangible effort” and “real” results. Just think how incredibly meaningful it will be to be able to eventually wholly fund the building of a school or library and then see the fruits of one's efforts. This is very powerful entitlement for all of us and some of the tech Web's most influential people from Robert Scoble to Netscape founder Marc Anderson have jumped on board. The who's who list of supporters is impressive, but the most important people are the ones reading this and other news articles about LitLiberation - the you and me of action.

Prizes for Good

Outside the really important effort, Ferris and his collaborators have come up with perhaps the best prize incentives ever offered for any Web initiative. From round trip airfare for two any where in the world to recognition on Yahoo!, the list of prizes for helping needy kids is awesome. I particularly like the all day hot air balloon experience, but there are so many cool gestures of appreciation - everyone should check them out. As for me, I will personally donate any prize I might be lucky enough to receive to the person or entity who donates the most to my little effort.

So Give Already

The prizes and the particular projects are not nearly as important as the people at the long tail of this effort. Every participant can select from a wide variety or projects and participation levels. From funding programs in developing countries, to creating pages to fund them, and on to finding and funding projects in the U.S. - doing good has never seen a more portable and viral medium.

Authors Note: Additionally, RoadtoRead is a 507(c)(3) non profit and I checked with the IRS- evidently contributions are tax deductible. You can check you the financial pages on the site here at roomtoread.org - you will also be pleased to know that 90 percent of all donation go directly to the projects and the kids.