has anybody done charity work / peace corps / development work?

[DaveCraige.com]

I really like tim's work building a school (http://fourhourworkweek.com/vBulletin/showthread.php?t=2696). thats super inspiring.

has anybody else done any charity work? or any development stuff, been in the peacecorps?

also, would anybody want to pitch in some money to work on a project or two?

look forward to seeing the replies.

[webgal]

You should read Three Cups of Tea. It's a great book about one man's goal to build schools and his reasons for doing so.

http://www.threecupsoftea.com/

I basically help with school charity auctions to raise money. These schools are already built, though.

[jpo]

I'm always happy to hear whenever anyone does good for the world.

It's actually quite inspiring to me and a major driver in all of my business ventures, so we will have the funds to give back to the world as we want to in the future. That's why Tim's lessons really hit home with me - the ability to have the income to support life and spend time on the social service causes.

At this point, we sure haven't made our millions yet, but still started a family foundation to start building for the future.

A portion of all the proceeds from each of my business ventures go toward our foundation. If interested you can see more here:
www.LightTheFuture.org

[DaveCraige.com]

/\ jpo awesome! great stuff. i liked reading that Thoreau quote on the way you guys set up your foundation.

This page is great
http://www.odonnellhomes.com/giving.htm

I liked seeing that you guys give to operation smile. My buddy was just down in ecuador working with a similar organization, and we got an opportunity to help out with a cleft lip surgery (http://www.effectiveprojects.org/projects/vietnam-face-surgery//). the story was crazy, they were gonna kill the kid because she was deformed.

we have a small charity called EffectiveProjects.org (http://www.effectiveprojects.org) that works alongside our web company. its fun. we would like to continue to grow. we just finished sponsoring 10 wells in Nicaragua for a total of only $500. We might try to do another 10, or maybe do the same in Bolivia. We'll see.
Any suggestions are welcome.

[jpo]

Dave,
Glad you liked ours. Your site is awesome – I love all the projects you’ve given too. Great pictures bringing it to life – and yes, I see the one on the cleft lip. It’s great the doctors can fix that.

I also saw your http://www.simplecharity.org/ - great site and concept. I’ll have to share that one. Keep up the great work!

We need more companies to have this spirit of giving back!

[shubydoobydo]

Did you start these charities by yourself? Are they registered with the IRS?? How hard was it to start?

[TimWieneke]

My parents were missionaries turned entrepreneurs. I did a lot of charity work growing up. It has always been a very enriching experience.

For those who are unsure how to get started there is likely charity work to be done within 15 minutes of you. Start there. From there you will make connections to get a muse to move to the next thing.

[officer_dibble]

As I've indicate elsewhere - my day job is looking after the web team at a charity. I'd very much recommend it.

And if you don't have much time or money to donate - I'd take a look at:

http://www.kiva.org

Basically you lend money to small business based in the developing world. For a couple of years I put most of my muse income into it.

[captaink]

Starting tomorrow, Helping with cooking for homeless and/or poor people.

::captaink::