Let the waters–and microfunding–flow….with just $2 and a tweet…

Water. I take it for granted. I grew up surrounded by it in the tropics and have always had access to clean drinking water and modern plumbing. The only time it’s availability and accessibility have ever been in question is during the aftermath of hurricanes. But the ones I’ve endured, I’ve been amidst an abundance of supplies. In fact, there’s not a single time I can recall I’ve ever had to worry about my access to clean water or the availability of it.

So dare I admit that the abundance of water in my immediate now has been actually a bit irksome. It’s been snowing non stop for 2 days and there’s a leak in my ceiling. So I’m staring at the frozen kind in abundance and watching the liquid kind expand into small puddles on my floor.

Feeling a bit like I needed to embrace the true essence and meaning of water this morning and heal my feeling of being irked, I started pondering the substance and beauty of this natural phenomenon. And once my thoughts calmed down and I was filled with loads more gratitude of its accessibility, I did a mental 180 and recalled an incredible unprecedented microdonating effort to use Twitter to donate just $2 promote a clean water campaign by Laura Fitton’s holiday pull for Charity: Water to provide water by building a well where it’s needed.

How I found out about Laura’s effort:

First, I read a tweet Beth Kanter posted followed shortly thereafter by her post about “A Bold Experiment in MicroDonations” she wrote on her blog.

This was of particular interest because one week prior, Beth posted about Tyson Food’s donation of 2 truckloads of food to the Greater Boston Food Bank as the result of a challenge she and Bob Collins organizeda called to action at the recent  Boston’s Social Media Breakfast.

The pitch: Tyson Foods would donate 100lbs of food to the Greater Boston Food Bank for every comment on their blog.

The promotion: Beth and Bob told folks to Twitter, Facebook, email, text their friends to comment.

The result: in less than 3 hours, 2 truckloads full (over 700,000 lbs of food) and Tyson opted to close its offer.

Still inspired by that story for the realization of how using social media tools in just a few simple steps can rally so many and impact an even greater amount, I felt intrigued again to learn about Laura Fitton’s challenge: to raise $25,000 for Charity:Water per a simple $2 donation right on twitter using @tipjoy.

So for you to fully understand the uniqueness of the challenge, go read Laura Fitton’s campaign pledge.

Then, read Beth’s post –she walks you through how to use the tipjoy payment method and she explains step by step what to be aware of (the minimum contribution is $5 to use tipjoy.com and the extra $3 can be added to @wellwishes or saved to use toward another cause in the future).

And then read Laura’s suggested ways others could donate without any contributions…but simply to help spread the word. To be sure, I’m still finding my way with my own use of social media and determining what balance works for me using Twitter, Facebook and my blog to respond to and promote causes of interest.

But I’m digging the simplicity of microdonating. And I’m digging that this campaign was initiated by a mom that’s been to India and comprehends the vital need for clean water. And I’m digging that she’s made it all so easy by setting up a way for us to donate such a small amount right on Twitter. How simple! How effective. Just like it was to comment on Tyson’s blog last week and earn another 100lbs of food contribution and thanks to Beth for making that so simple as well.

Sure, I adore the thought of me setting up some kinda campaign like this. But remember? My ceiling is flooding and the holiday is in a few and there’s still much to do.  What continues to enthrall me is the spirit of the human heart, the willingness to out-pour floods of generosity and unselved love through microdonations to help people we may never see or meet and at a time when so much that is reported would nudge you to cave it during the holidays, hold back and not give. Thanks to Laura and Beth and countless others who make these things happen.

For the @wellwishes campaign, I donated the $2 by setting up a tipjoy account, I went back to Laura’s original post and followed her step by step instructions for how to input my twitter name and get a correct twitter message (generated right on her blogpost). I then copied the twitter message and pasted it into my twitter updates. My facebook page copies and reposts my twitters so it was listed there as well. And then I emailed a slew of folks about it. And then I thought why am I not blogging about this on Blogher?

So I drafted this. And then returned to Laura’s blog to find out that others blogged about it already. So I went and read those posts by: Seth Godin Mike Gunderloy Beth Kanter, Dan Thornton, Alan Lepovsky. Ivan Kirgin. Barry Graubart, Bob Poole

And I did one more thing.

I wrote a poem. Just cuz. and you know, I was watching the ceiling get repaired and it helped me envision a well being built…structures to contain clean water to ensure safe access and availability.

The poem’s a bit cheesy, but the motive remains pure. Here’s to reaching this microfunding goal!!!

🙂

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Let the Waters Flow….(a poem inspired by a charity drive and a leak)…

Water…readily available and accessible to me….

flowing–as liquid…from my faucet,

falling–as snow…piling high outside my window,

dripping–as droplets…from my ceiling creating puddles on the floor.

Water needed in other places

Water flowing in rushing currents

Cries for water upon many faces…..

How can we bring it all together.

Snow is falling still 40 hours after it began.

$2 each tweet helps create a plan

For a well to store that which we have in great abundance

so that children in lands so far from my home can feel no distance

….of my heart and many the world over.

No one should be with out water. Not when it flows in abundance in unwanted at times places.

So while I watch the plumber fix the leak

which woke me from droplets pouring on my cheek

and the mounds of snow pile high beyond the window’s view,

I’m grateful I stayed up the wee hours tweeting @wellwater’s plea for just a few

just $2 for Charity:Water to help build a well

Such a legitimate and worthy cause from all I can tell….

And so no coincedence that upon the morn the frozen form still pile

as did the liquid form still create puddles on my floors and made me smile.

OF COURSE OF COURSE I now see…the divine’s metaphor of abundance for us all was CLEAR TO ME!

So with this new awareness was I armed

to do more and alert more and thus sound the alarm…..

or bell…whichever is your preferred tone to hear….

$2 to Charity: Water to support lives you hold so dear….

And then I ponder how prayer can do the same. Defend the LIFE that is and runs through us all for not a penny. And those that have can help those that need. And together we can all live with flowing abundance. No one lacking. No one suffering. No one feeling unloved.

Let the waters flow………