Project Helping Hands: A F.I.R.S.T. Charity

[Petey]

Good day, y'all.

In the midst of all the hurly burly surrounding these first few regional events, I, on behalf of Team 1073, would like to announce Project: Helping Hands, a new, innovative charitable organization in the spirit of FIRST.

Project: Helping Hands (www.projecthelpinghands.com), is, in short, is a fundraiser in which teams compete to raise the greatest amount of money. At the end of the “fundraising season”, the entire sum of all donated monies goes to one established charity that was chosen by partipating teams.

A general model that we at Team 1073 have developed looks like this:

1. Outside of the six week build period, FIRST teams participating in Project: Helping Hands would conduct two distinct fundraising efforts. The first would be whatever fundraising might be necessary to subsidize their team; the second, to secure donations for Project: Helping Hands.
2. During the "offseason", teams would "compete" among themselves to see who could raise the most money for the Project: Helping Hands fund. At an agreed upon point in time, donation totals from each team would be frozen for that year.
3. The total amount of capital donated from each team would be counted. The team that donated the most funds would win a (largely ceremonial) award.
4. Teams involved would submit ideas for existing charitable organizations to contribute the sum of all donations to (i.e. the Red Cross, the American Diabetes Association, et cetera). Teams would present arguments for their choices and information about how to donate, who to contact, et cetera. A committee would winnow the choices down to five.
5. All teams would vote (preferably using a “voting by degrees” system, such as Instant Runoff Voting) as to which organization should receive the whole pot. The team that raised the most money would be given some sort of incentive—for instance, an extra vote, or a guaranteed spot for their charity of choice in the final five.
6. The organization that had the majority of votes would receive the entire sum of donations

Intrigued? Visit Project: Helping Hands website .

I've attached the two documents I have written on the subject. One is a general "one-pager" brochure briefly describing PHH. The other--the "manifesto"--is a 2.5 page document that goes into greater detail about the background and ultimate vision of PHH. I'm also uploading these to the white papers section of CD.

We'll be plugging this thing hard at the Granite State Regional: handing out brochures, making a banner, trying to get an announcement made, etc.

Does this idea interest anyone? Does anybody think their team might join such a charitable network?

--Petey