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Help Us Build a School in Ethiopia

throttleforward

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As some of you know, I took an INE from the forum and built it into a small but growing business (www.ValueCrates.com).

We recently hired a delivery driver (Lindsey), who inspired us to think more broadly about the impact we could have.

In addition to working for us, he is also a minister both here in the US and in Ethiopia. It has been his long-term goal to help the church he ministers for in Nazareth, Ethiopia build a school, and eventually an orphanage and retirement home.

We are raising money to make the first portion of his dream - building a school - a reality.

Please donate using the GoFundMe link below. 100% of this money will be used to initiate the planning and vendor selection phase of the construction, as well as allow him to film a documentary that will be used to accomplish the larger fundraising required to fully build out the school (estimated at around $50k). The government of Ethiopia has already pledged free land adjacent to the church for this cause.

Attached are some pictures of the kids he would help, our delivery driver Lindsey ministering to Ethiopians, and the dilapidated condition of some of the facilities over there.
kids small.JPG IMG_2421.JPG IMG_2429.JPG 272.jpg 204.jpg

Anything you can donate – even $10 – will go a long way. Thanks so much.

GoFundMe Link: www.gofundme.com/valuecratesschool

-Adam
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Bump, my apologies for not approving this promptly.
 

AndrewNC

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Love to see other entrepreneurs paying it forward. Keep up the good work.
 
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Vigilante

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I will match donations from forum members who donate from today (Saturday) through a week from today up to $250 total. I will give a max of $250. Donations before today don't count.

PM Adam with your confirmed donation so he can keep a running total for me up to my ceiling of $250.

Every single person reading this can likely afford to give $10 to this worthy cause. Let's do this.
 

throttleforward

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I will match donations from forum members who donate from today (Saturday) through a week from today up to $250 total. I will give a max of $250. Donations before today don't count.
PM Adam with your confirmed donation so he can keep a running total for me up to my ceiling of $250.

Every single person reading this can likely afford to give $10 to this worthy cause. Let's do this.
That's awesome @Vigilante thanks so much!
 

Vigilante

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Step up, if for no other reason than when my ceiling is hit I will no longer bump this post.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Guest34764

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So awesome MJ-I'm really excited to see this project through.

I bet you could get a lot of donations if you pay someone on Instagram to give you a shout-out.

Just an idea, but I thought it could help.By the way, I love the cause and you're a really cool dude for making this ad on the FLF.
 
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LibertyForMe

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Come on people, you shouldn't have to think too hard about donating 10 or 20 bucks to help a worthy cause.

If you were an illiterate Africa orphan kid you'd wish that someone would help you learn so you could better yourself.

Yes that was a guilt trip.
 
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Just went over $1,000 raised. Tremendous response - thank you so much everyone for your contribution. Very excited to see this get off the ground!
 
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throttleforward

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Hi everyone,

First, thanks to everyone who donated. It means a ton to me that so many people came out in support of what I was trying to do.

Some issues came to light that caused me to question the legitimacy of what my former driver was trying to do. After further research, I lost trust that the money was going to actually go to kids in Ethiopia, as opposed to furthering his own agenda (namely to pay off debts as opposed to actually setting up a school).

Thus, I've decided to work with GoFundMe in initiating refunds for everyone who made donations. GoFundMe has already started the refund process. This shouldn't take more than a few days. Thanks for your patience, and I'm sorry that we weren't able to do the work that I had hoped would impact the lives of kids in Ethiopia.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Hi everyone,

First, thanks to everyone who donated. It means a ton to me that so many people came out in support of what I was trying to do.

Some issues came to light that caused me to question the legitimacy of what my former driver was trying to do. After further research, I lost trust that the money was going to actually go to kids in Ethiopia, as opposed to furthering his own agenda (namely to pay off debts as opposed to actually setting up a school).

Thus, I've decided to work with GoFundMe in initiating refunds for everyone who made donations. GoFundMe has already started the refund process. This shouldn't take more than a few days. Thanks for your patience, and I'm sorry that we weren't able to do the work that I had hoped would impact the lives of kids in Ethiopia.

SMH.

Guess nowadays everyone is running a Clinton Foundation. (94% to the private jets, admins and the big salary -- 6% to charity.)

Unfortunately, this is why I typically don't donate to unknown, unaccountable causes, despite how "feel good" it looks. Unless I can see my $$ go directly to the cause, I'm out.

I broke my rule on this and now I see why I had it as a rule in the first place.

Won't happen again.

Sucks that the short-end of the stick are the children.
 
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Vigilante

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SMH.

Guess nowadays everyone is running a Clinton Foundation. (94% to the private jets, admins and the big salary -- 6% to charity.)

Unfortunately, this is why I typically don't donate to unknown, unaccountable causes, despite how "feel good" it looks. Unless I can see my $$ go directly to the cause, I'm out.

I broke my rule on this and now I see why I had it as a rule in the first place.

Won't happen again.

Sucks that the short-end of the stick are the children.

As you know MJ, I am (was?) a big fan of the American Red Cross. However, I am gravely concerned about the reports of the amount of money they raised specifically for Haiti relief, and contrasting that to the amount of money that actually went to Haiti. The Red Cross response to that has been terrible.

I will try to maintain a giving mindset, but appreciate @throttleforward following through on this and causing the right thing to be done, especially since I was a catalyst to get other people from the forum to at least consider a donation.

I want money to go where it is needed to go. MJ your approach is better than mine. I am not careful enough, and even with organizations like the Red Cross that should be trustworthy, they're simply not. People suck.
 

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As you know MJ, I am (was?) a big fan of the American Red Cross. However, I am gravely concerned about the reports of the amount of money they raised specifically for Haiti relief, and contrasting that to the amount of money that actually went to Haiti. The Red Cross response to that has been terrible.

I will try to maintain a giving mindset, but appreciate @throttleforward following through on this and causing the right thing to be done, especially since I was a catalyst to get other people from the forum to at least consider a donation.

I want money to go where it is needed to go. MJ your approach is better than mine. I am not careful enough, and even with organizations like the Red Cross that should be trustworthy, they're simply not. People suck.
I'm 99.9% sure that unless you, yourself, with your own hands buy everything that is needed (not just give money) - things will go into someone else's pockets.
I know a lot of people who are responsible for such things and I won't trust them a penny.
 

Mikkel

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I have recently been in contact with an organization that goes to Nepal to do similar projects. She says that this is a huge problem. As said before, the money doesn't usually go directly to helping these people.

She has told me that donating to a specific person who volunteers with an association is really the best way to ensure your money goes directly to a good cause.

Of course, you have you trust that person you are donating to.

It is typically the volunteers that are selfless, not the people who run the organization.
 
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throttleforward

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SMH.

Guess nowadays everyone is running a Clinton Foundation. (94% to the private jets, admins and the big salary -- 6% to charity.)

Unfortunately, this is why I typically don't donate to unknown, unaccountable causes, despite how "feel good" it looks. Unless I can see my $$ go directly to the cause, I'm out.

I broke my rule on this and now I see why I had it as a rule in the first place.

Won't happen again.

Sucks that the short-end of the stick are the children.

I think what got me was the personal photos he shared of him in country. And he may have legitimately used the money the way he said he would...but there were some less than ethical things done in the last couple weeks that caused me to lose confidence in general in him, and I didn't feel right releasing funds to him. I considered transferring the money to a registered charity, but I felt that would not be in the spirit of the original request.
 

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Almantas

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I remember one Friday evening at like 9pm one of the girls from Amnesty knocked my door. It was heavily raining, very cold and windy evening and she was still walking door-to-door collecting money for a cause she believed in. It angers me to guts that fat c*s sitting in an office spend most of such collected money on hookers and coke while on a private jet to Las Vegas and only what's left goes to starving kids in developing countries.
 
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Aimegit de moncu

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Life comes down to two choices, really.

Live for yourself at the expense of others, or live for others at a cost to yourself.


you won't stop people in power, you won't stop envy and you won't stop intelligence

they will crush you and society and you can't do anything . just wait for 2017.

and stop your BS of moderators approval

let anybody read what i just said : they are grown enough to think by themselves
 

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Andy Black

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Thanks for arranging the refund @throttleforward. I've just received a message saying it's refunded.
 

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