A Little Money Goes a Long Way in China
April 18th, 2008
I am impressed and humbled by those who do non-profit work who can stretch a few dollars a long way to make a significant different in the lives of others. A good example of this is Tom Stader at The Library Project. Tom is one of the entrepreneur panelists I have lined up for you to have the opportunity to meet in China, should you elect to attend and participate in the hutong event I set up for Sunday, June 22 (see your info booklet for more information and the cost).
Click HERE to see his amazing pictures of a recent school in China where he and his team delivered and set up a library (you need to scroll down a bit to get to the pics). The joy on the faces of these kids is inspiring and beautiful.
What business questions can you think of to ask him when we meet with him?
Prof. Carr April 29, 2008 update: Click HERE to check out the latest delivery Tom and his crew made to a school in the An Hui Province in China. The kids in their band uniforms are priceless.
Entry Filed under: Pre-Departure, China, Misc.
3 Comments Add your own
1. Simone Michel | April 18th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Wow, what a great project! The children look so excited in the fotos, they could hardly wait and started reading the books on the way through the forrest back to their town.
I am excited to meet Tom and I think some interesting questions to ask him would include:
- What are the most difficult cultural challenges to
overcome?
- Have you faced any opposition or problems while dealing
with the locals?
- How do you motivate your helpers without money?
- To what extent do you cooperate with the government?
- If you do so, does it help to advance in your mission?
- How do you measure performance in order to improve
accountability to donors and other stakeholders?
- What do you think about non-profit organizations becoming
more entrepreneurial?
- What are your future goals and plans for the Library
Project?
2. Catriona Banks-Orosco | April 19th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
What impressed me the most reading about the Library Project is really how simply the process appears to be orchestrated. I know that all the behind the scenes work is not simple. However, the idea of using bright colors and providing reading material that is appropriate for the age of the children is very basic. It makes sense that there would be an outpouring of support. They were able to generate 6000 donated books in one book drive!!
The Library Project looks like a great model that could be applied in many developing countries. I would like to know if the organization has been contacted by other charities or people interested in setting up similiar programs in other countries. I’d also be curious how they determine if the books are being used on a daily basis. That seems to be part of the agreement that the schools enter, but I’m curious how they track it. Also, do they have plans to attempt to replace worn out books after a certain period of time? I would love to know more about how the idea was first put into practice and what has been learned from the process.
3. Naomi Guy | April 29th, 2008 at 10:40 am
What I love about this project, besides the fact that they are donating these books to children, is the effort they are taking to educate the leaders on how to run a proper library. This is what really sets this program apart from other charities that simply give books and leave. They also return and replenish the books to keep them fresh and relevant to the children’s age, it is wonderful.
The questions I would ask are…
1. Have you had difficulties dealing with the government?
2. Have any schools failed? Did you attempt to fix it?
3. Do you have any specials agreements with publishers to help your costs?
4. Have you seen any longterm results from your program? If so, how do you plan to use them to gain support for your program?
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed