Originally Posted By Darkbeer Kevin Yee over at MiceAge has come up with an idea for the entire Disney Online Community. <a href="http://www.miceage.com/kevinyee/ky022307a.htm" target="_blank">http://www.miceage.com/kevinye e/ky022307a.htm</a> Basically he would love to see enough money raised that an entire villa built with the donations of Disney fans online. The goal is $25,000 a year for 3 years. >>And therein lies the problem facing GKTW today. There are 102 villas, which already represents enormous growth over recent years. But those 102 villas can barely handle the demand now. And demand, as you might imagine, is growing. Over 6,000 children and their families visited Give Kids The World Village in 2005, representing about half of the Wishes from the wish-granting institutions in the USA and from around the world. But demand is expected to essentially double in the coming years. Give Kids The World needs to have over 200 villas total. While they have the land for it, they need to raise the funds to build the structures. Although each of the 2,400 sq. ft. buildings (two villas) would have a retail cost of $300,000, efficient project management as well as incredible in-kind support of materials and labor allow GKTW to build at 50 percent of retail. That means each building costs about $150,000 to build or about $75,000 per villa. Here's my proposal: wouldn't it be something if the Disney online community got together and raised enough money to sponsor its own villa? If we accomplished this, there would forever be a villa at Give Kids The World Village, fulfilling dreams, that owes its existence to our efforts, the online fans. We'd be listed as the sponsor of a whole villa! Somehow, this all seems very fitting to me. We share a common bond in our love for Disney theme parks. These Wish Children and their families want to visit the Disney theme parks, and we can help them realize that dream. We don't need to reach the goal of $75,000 in just one year. It might be more realistic to mount a drive for $25,000 this first year and try to spread this out over a few years. This first time, we'll set up the donation period to run for two months; it will end on April 14, 2007.<< You can find out more about the Give Kids the World Village and how to donate at the link above.
Originally Posted By SoThisIsLove This is such a lovely idea, everyone. If we all just pitched in a few bucks/pounds/euros/etc we could do some serious damage on their goal. Plus, we can email this info to our non LP friends and families. Don't let this thread die!
Originally Posted By Darkbeer I the first 24 hours, over $2,000 was raised for the cause... By the way, Give Kids the World has a better charity rating than Make a Wish, with over 93% of funds raised goint to the actual program expenses, with less than 7% for overhead and fund raising. <a href="http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm/bay/search.summary/orgid/3753.htm" target="_blank">http://www.charitynavigator.or g/index.cfm/bay/search.summary/orgid/3753.htm</a>
Originally Posted By Tiggirl Thanks for this info, Darkbeer! I think this is a really great idea. I'll certainly be donating and will be putting this info on MouseHub.com as well. ~Beth
