§0. What are the 'A World' Awards?
'The 'A World' Awards for now are just these pretty pictures you can see at our site. One might say that it's not much, but another that it's enough. If you are awarded, you can print out this award and have it framed, you can put it on your website, you can create a sticker with this award for your backpack or for your car, etc. In the future it might change, but for now - if it's enough for you, that's great, if not - well, wait some time and see how it improves (or - you could always try doing it better on your own :)).
§1.
Each Award has 5 degrees:
- (*) first (one star),
- (**) second (two stars),
- (***) third (three stars),
- (****) fourth (four stars),
- (*****) fifth (five stars).
§2.
You can get 'Starting A World' Award after documenting some amount of hours spent on improving the world (or equivalent of these hours in job done: posts, meetups, panel discussions, conferences, etc.):
- (*) - 10 hours,
- (**) - 50 hours,
- (***) - 100 hours,
- (****) - 200 hours,
- (*****) - 500 hours.
§3.
You can get 'Improving A World' Award after documenting working with the problem for at least a year. For this Award you have to spent the given amount of hours on the problem:
- (*) - 1 000 hours,
- (**) - 5 000 hours,
- (***) - 10 000 hours,
- (****) - 20 000 hours,
- (*****) - 50 000 hours.
§4.
For now We only grant Awards to self picked people and organizations and those proposed by our Awardees. In the future if you would like us to verify whether you qualify for the 'A World Award', let us know about it and we'll do our best to verify your doings as soon as possible (it might take us some time to answer if there is a lot of applications, but we will eventually).
§5.
You can get 'Funding A World' Award by buing it and thus helping us improving the world (that's the only award you can buy):
- (*) (a little) - 10 USD,
- (**) (more than a little) - 100 USD,
- (***) (a lot) - 1 000 USD,
- (****) (more than a lot) - 10 000 USD,
- (*****) (hugely :)) - 100 000 000 USD.
The "Funding A World" Awards are given every year, so this year you can get 'X-year Funding A World' Award, and next year it'll be 'X+1-year Funding A World' Award.
§6.
Remember, you don't have to get these awards to do good. You can always apply for other awards (like those Nobel Prizes mentioned before). 'A World' awards are for these who want to have 'A World Award', because they believe it'll make them happier or make their projects or businesses thrive better. But you can always create some other awards that might be better for you (e.g. you may buy yourself something pretty for the money you would spent on applying for the award, or something that will make you happy, proud, etc.). Whether you decide to apply for our award or not, if you are improving the world, we 'salute to you' and thank you for what you are doing.
§7.
Also, be aware that we are not NGO. We can declare that we'll be doing our best to improve the world with the money we get, but we're not an NGO and money paid to us is not a donation and cannot be declared as one to any tax office. If you decide to pay us, it's kind of business transaction. You get the Award (if you qualify) and we get the money. So, if you want to invest in improving the world and maybe lower your taxes thanks to your donation, you should rather check some NGO or some scientific institution. You could also divide your investments and invest (1) in our Awards and (2) in projects developed by other organizations / scientists.
§8.
As you can see, these awards are not typical awards. They're created, because (we believe) they might help in improving the world and help people staying resilient to the problems they encounter during improving the world. If you like it, that's great, if you don't, maybe they'll help you create something better.
§9.
If you would like us to check whether you qualify for the award, do not hesitate to contact us.
§10.
More info about the "'A World' Awards" idea and other fundraising ideas
For now, the "'A World' Awards" are in a very early stage. We (in ImprovetheWorld.pl) haven't' started granting first Awards yet, but maybe we'll soon. Also, it's one of the ideas, we believe might help just by existing in the 'common space' as an inspiration.
We believe that this type of awards could do much good not only for people, companies, and organizations recieving them (both as acknowledgment of their job done for the cause, and as attractor for other companies, organizations, and people who might also be interested in improving the world, might want to work with others like them, hire people who help improving the world, etc.), but also for the organizations granting them (thanks to the "Fundraising 'A World' awards' part).
In that second aspect (fundraising), one might say that "'A World' Awards" is kind of another fundraising idea. And it is also very important aspect of this idea, because, well, every NGO and every other organization or individual working on improving the world needs some kind of funding. Without funding you just can't help as many people or animals as you probably would like to help. Therefore, fundraising is so important aspect of NGO's activities (although, not always the most fulfilling).
Anyway, this is only one idea, we think might be useful for improving the world and fundraising for the cause. But there is more...
For now, we can't grant "'A World' Awards" to everyone we believe should get one (because of time and money limitations), but we can give all of you some ideas you might use for fundraising for the very important work you are doing.
In the internet you can find hundreds of other ideas regarding fundraising. here you can find some ideas. It's not hundreds of them in here, but you might get the gist, and if it's not enough, you could search further in other parts of that Internet. So, here they go...
1. Grant money (of course). Try to find out where you can apply: government, international organizations, companies, city council, etc.
2. Create local actions with tickets: games, sports (run, swim, run with obstacles, strange sports (boules, carling, etc.)), teaching, theater, concerts, lottery, holiday events: santa, easter egg, christmas, flower sale, etc.
3. Use crowdfunding sites for specific venture or non-specific general purpose.
4. Create gadgets with your logo (t-shirts, hats, ballpens, etc.) and sell them to your supporters or give them after donations.
5. Contact your beneficiaries from previous years and ask them if they would like to become cofunders of your projects (only if it's apropriate, e.g. they are not in bad financial situation).
6. Ask local and global companies for non-material fundings: server for website, website creation, food, drinks, furniture, technology (computers, TVs, phones, etc.).
7. Ask celebrities for something of theirs to sell on acution for the cause.
8. Organise fundraising party maybe with some 'free' entertainment (music, theater) and auction of goods made by your beneficiaries or gadgets you got otherwise, coupons for services (1 hour with a lawyer, surgeon, etc.).
9. Create 1 000 000 steps walk and ask various companies to participate - give 1 USD donation for each step and improve this way healthy habbits and help the cause.
10. Create online challenge for the cause.
11. Create „non event event” for people who want to stay at home and donate for the cause.
12. Create a 'game' when people can „choose something by giving donations” - e.g. prepare 3 bowles and 3 questions, and wherever the more money is, this answer wins (e.g. - NGO's leaders have to wear a funny hat, special glasses or a clown nose for a day).
13. Work with local shops, restaurants - use password / voucher for customers to get discount. Shop/restaurant could a) give 5% to the cause or b) let customers pay normally, but could give 10% of day earnings for the cause.
Also, whatever you do, use the data you get from your actions. For example, when you are preparing 'street money collecting':
- tell your street workers who they should ask,
- give them the list of the people to ask on sheet to follow (with such descriptions as: man / woman, age, with friend or alone, etc.),
- ask them to tick if they asked somebody from the list,
- ask them to tick if talked longer,
- ask them to tick if somebody gave donation for your organization,
- ask them to better describe the person and the situation (man / woman, age, with friend or alone, with backpack or suitcase, during midday, evening, etc.).
Then you can analyze your data and if you have limited resources (not enough fundraisers), next time choose more of the most promising people to ask for donations.
These are just some basic ideas for collecting money. Now, always remember about the founders, and that what you are doing you are doing for all of the people, including founders. In return you could give your sponsors: award, diploma, thanks on site, etc. And remember to always inform your sponsors how their contribution helped, who gained, how much, etc.
And that's it for now. Good luck with raising funds for good causes and good luck with improving the world in the aspect you feel is most important.
