40 Wells

Final push for 40wells.org

2010-06-05T06:18:00.000-07:00

This is it!

Today marks the 10 day countdown to the big day! June 14, 2010 will be the official close of the 40wells.org. Turning 40 is less painful knowing that over $18k has been raised (so far) to help provide 20 years of clean water to nearly 1,000 people. As you may know I have been working with charity: water for the past year to get clean water to the nearly 1 billion people without it. Thanks to charity: water’s 100% model – every penny raised goes directly to water projects.

UPDATE:

So what has happened in the past year? The 40wells.org project received two well sponsorships thanks to UPS and an anonymous donor (who happens to work for Chick-Fil-A). These first two wells will be located in the Amhara region Ethiopia which has struggled particularly with Trachoma. The wells will serve the Janiken and Abidag communities in the Takusa district. The Janiken well will serve 315 village residents, and the Abidag well will serve 450 village residents. That's 765 people with clean water or an average of 382.5 for each well!! Once the wells are completed, the photos and the GPS coordinates will be posted on 40wells.org.

As of May 31, 2010, a total of 56 individual donors have contributed $5,820 which completes well #3! The well will be selected and funded by charity: water some time in June. All of these were private donors except Bank of America Foundation ($140) and Southern Utility/SUSI Adapters ($500).

Thank you to everyone who made well #3 possible!!!

A good friend, Mike Frintner, who runs the non-profit DOTCOM giving also helped out quite a bit. Mike/DOTCOM provided computers and parts while I supplied the labor to rebuild them for sale. 100% of the proceeds went to charity: water as part of the 40wells.org project. That effort has made over $1,000 so far. Much of DOTCOM money has been applied to well #4, also known as the Rock-For-Water well.

The first ever Rock-For-Water event was held in Atlanta on April 9, 2010. I was able to live out my dream of being a concert promoter while also raising money for charity: water. My good friend Andrew Averso from the band Elevation and fellow charity: water advocate Jonathan Rich of The Goodfight helped coordinate a concert with 2 other local bands including The Less. The show raised $1,220.00 thanks to the fans, all the bands that volunteered to play and the Vinyl which charged only basic overhead fees.

The Rock-For-Water well is over half way to the goal of $5,000 (the cost of a well). Instead of a party or gathering, I am giving up my 40^th birthday for charity: water. I am asking for gifts to charity: water to help celebrate. While 40 wells may not be reached, you can help finish the fourth well. This final well has its own mycharitywater.org page. Donations are instantly calculated and displayed. 100% of all donations go straight to the well – no money will be taken out for administrative fees or overhead.

Will you help me celebrate my 40^th birthday by donating to charity: water and specifically help finish the Rock For Water well?

(If the Rock For Water well is completed before you read this or if you prefer to donate to another well, you can do that here.)

Thank you!

- Gil

The big 4-0 is finally here

If your email does not support HTML, please copy and paste one of the following links into your favorite browser:

http://www.mycharitywater.org/rockforwater/

http://www.mycharitywater.org/gils40th

April 9 Benefit Concert at the Vinyl in Atlanta

2010-03-24T06:27:00.000-07:00

Elevation, The Goodfight and The Less @ The Vinyl

Friday April 9 (8pm) benefit show

Click for the following:

- Concert Details
- FaceBook Event
- Press Release

Save a life by just showing up!

Venue is 18+ (sorry kids)

40wells.org - News for 2010

2010-01-15T07:28:00.000-08:00

UPS, Bank of America and an executive from Chic-Fil-A are among over 50 donors that have now contributed to the 40wells.org project!
As of today, over $14,000 has been received which will provide clean water to over 700 people! Three wells costs $15k so we are close!! The grant money for the 2 wells we reached will go out from charity: water this month - stay tuned for news on exactly where those wells are placed!
There is a benefit concert tentatively scheduled in Atlanta for April 9th, 2010 at the Vinyl which includes The Goodfight and headlining band Elevation.

Thanks and progress update

2009-07-28T21:09:00.000-07:00

Special thanks to http://www.indepthwraps.com for the graphics provided for our vehicles this week! John and Torri, 40wells loves your work and thanks you!
Met with the UPS Foundation this week and while they didn't say "no" to a grant, they can not provide a large grant as their Clean Water focus has shifted to Clean Air (makes sense).
Also met with Adedgetechnologies.com VP - meeting was excellent! They are doing great things in the area of water purification (based here in ATL but a broad customer base). Hopefully they will sponsor at least one well in the near future through charity: water. (Thanks for the advice and contacts Greg!)
Still need small donors who want to share in the excitement and success: http://www.40wells.org

40wells.org progress to date . . .

2009-07-17T21:31:00.000-07:00

Met with charity: water Director of Development for lunch today. A real live staff person - and it proved that they are as cool in person as they are on their website and tweets. Carrie had lots of great advice and answered some questions I had.
Thanks Carrie! (FollowFriday: @charitywater and @40wells )

40wells.org has over $6,300 raised so far. More than 300 people will receive clean water as a result.
Goal for end of August - $10,000.
Check out more http://www.40wells.org

Next phase for 40wells.org

2009-07-10T17:31:00.000-07:00

The main website has been launched and already over 700 visitors have stopped by. About 200 have come from Twitter (wow!) and a handful from search engines (imagine that - they work). Now we move into the off line fund-raising phase and eventually (hopefully) selling some merch.
Looking for some folks out there to setup/run their own fundraisers. Small or large - it can be a garage (tag/yard) sale or a concert - every bit helps! We're setting up an Ultimate Disc (aka Frisbee) Tourney in a couple weeks.
Thanks everyone! This has been a fun and exciting "crowdsourcing" project! All for the most important cause - human life.

Thanks again!

- Gil

Updated the site - waiting for week 1 stats

2009-06-16T22:29:00.001-07:00

Modified the content on the landing page today. Already tired of the theme - ready to revamp the site - but no time. Added video to the charity: water link page. Added direct link to email for feedback (so far no spam). Google Analytics puts unique visitors at about 50 a day so far.
Check out video (embedded YouTube) added on http://www.40wells.org/fyicharitywater.htm

40wells.org is live

2009-06-12T20:04:00.000-07:00

What it's all about
Hi, my name is Gil VanOrder and I launched www.40wells.org on my 39th birthday (June 14, 2009) to kick off a one year campaign to raise enough money to build 40 water wells by my 40th birthday. I hate the fact that I'm turning 40, but what I hate even more is that over a billion people are still without clean water. I'm just an average guy who wants to have some small impact on the world. So I did some research and found this amazing non-profit called charity: water.

One of many cool things about charity: water is that 100% of every penny donated goes straight to building wells! Their administrative costs are covered by other types of donations. They can build a well for about $5,000 bucks (less than other organizations I checked out). But even cooler - they use modern stuff like Google Earth and digital photos to show you exactly where each well is built right down to the GPS coordinates.

So I am hoping to raise $200k to build 40 wells. The money goes straight to charity: water. I am donating some of my own money to this. It will only take 5,000 people donating $40 each to reach the goal. The wells won't be built by my 40th - but it would be awesome to raise the money for the wells by then. I also pledge to keep this site up indefinitely in order to document each and every well.
Thank you for your time and giving.

Preparing to launch

2009-06-05T19:56:00.000-07:00

Launch date June 14!