September 18th, 2008

Training for a Bigger Cause

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What do you do if you are a fanatic blogger and athlete who wants to use those talents to leave the world a bit better than it was when you got it?

When faced with the question, Mark Hayward decided to go ahead and start a non-profit project to combines these interests: “Getting fit + social media + blogging = social good.”

Together with bloggers Leo Babauta and Dan Clements and with help from a bunch of other compassionate people, Mark launched his new project, Train for Humanity, on September 9th.

This must be an insanely interesting time for Mark, so let’s hear what he can tell us about it.

How did you come up with the idea for Train for Humanity?

The inspiration to try and do something to assist with humanitarian crises came many years ago while I was a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Papua New Guinea. However, the idea to create Train for Humanity, which combines getting fit (training for endurance events), the internet (blogging & social media) to raise awareness and funds for people who are suffering, came to me a couple of years ago while I was out for a run after having watched a CNN story on Darfur.

How did you know this was an idea you wanted to implement?

I have known for a long time that I would implement, or undertake some type of humanitarian initiative…it was the WHAT that I didn’t know.

When thinking about new ventures I try very hard not to jump into projects too lightly or on a whim. Back around March of this year I started a self-imposed challenge to try and make money online. Really, I wanted to try and stimulate some ideas for generating passive income online.

After a couple of posts on the topic of ‘making money online’ I realized I just wasn’t into it.

All along I have had this idea to create a humanitarian project, so why not focus my energy on that and try to do some real good in the world.

How did you collect your team, and what was challenging about it?

Collecting the team of Train for Humanity collaborators was the easy part.

In fact, I found that people wanted to help. Leo Babauta, of Zen Habits, was the first person I contacted to see if he was interested in participating. About a year ago I did a guest post for Leo titled, ‘Removing Negative Thought: Tips To Overcome and Step Outside of Your Comfort Zone’ and that article was the first time I came out in public with the Train for Humanity idea and concept. So it was natural that I would ask Leo.

The next team member that I contacted was Dan Clements, author of Escape-101. I have known Dan via the internet and blogging for quite a while now and since he is a runner and has traveled quite a bit to various countries, I was really pleased that he too agreed to participate.

Once the blogger/athletes (Leo, Dan, and I) were in place it was then time for logo creation, legal input, and a website. And we wound up hooking up with Sean Hodge, Andrew Flusche, and Joshua Clanton.

Why did you pick Darfur, or genocide and civil war victims in general as the target for your project?

I can remember back to the Rwanda genocide and thinking that I did nothing to help or to try and change the situation. Also, every once and a while I would wonder, “What has happened to all of those children whose parents were killed in Rwanda?”

Darfur is the first genocide of the 21st century. Over 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million have been displaced. I might not be able to do much, but I am certainly going to try and do something.

The internet, blogging, and social media puts all of us with access on a level playing field now….you don’t have to be associated with a huge humanitarian organization. If an issue is bothering you (human rights, Darfur, animal cruelty, etc), there are so many tools available for free and when combined with a little creativity and persistence anyone, I believe, can make a difference.

How did you manage to stay focused and get the project launched?

I continued to read and get educated about Darfur, Rwanda, and to some extent the Holocaust. Two books about Darfur that I would recommend are:

Also, after I had asked the other collaborators to assist and participate, and notified Darfur Peace & Development Organization that we would be raising funds for them during the pilot phase, there really was no turning back.

Were there any surprises in the world of non-profit organizations and in launching one?

The biggest surprise came when it was time to open a bank account.

I never thought it would be so challenging. But, because I live on Culebra, a small island in the Caribbean, it was near impossible to open an online account. With e*trade financial I actually went through FOUR layers of customer service frustration over the course of three months and I finally just told them to send back all of my paperwork.

In the end, Andrew was able to get the account open.

Train for Humanity is about social media as well as training: how are you planning to use social media in the project?

Because we want to be able to provide Darfur Peace & Development with all of the funds we raise, at present we are operating on $0.00 budget. The natural fit for us to get our message out initially, and to continue to do so, was to focus on social media. On the day of the launch we started sending out Twitter messages at 7:00am.

Our goals is to be active participants in Twitter, Plurk, triiibes, and StumbleUpon. We are also in the process of setting up a Facebook page and hope to integrate more of a FLICKR and YouTube presence in the near future.

How has the Internet reacted to your launch so far? Has it matched your expectations?

The people on the internet have been very kind in helping us to get the message out and sponsoring the athletes. Leo, of course, has a huge following but the nice thing has been that it’s not just Leo’s audience…bloggers and social media users have been coming from all different places.

I didn’t really have any expectations…we have goals that we would like to accomplish, but the Train for Humanity pilot project runs until December 15th.

We have had fewer page views than I expect after the launch but we lost a bit of momentum because my internet connection recently went down for three days…not the best online promotional strategy. :)

THANK YOU for this opportunity to dicuss Train for Humanity, Jarkko! Our message is quite simple: getting fit + social media + blogging = social good.

The program director at Darfur Peace & Development just emailed me a horrific story about how the first school that they helped to build was recently bombed and six schoolchildren were killed. Stories like the school bombing are what we are training for and why we are doing this.

Now, follow this link to sponsor Mark. Or if you like, feel free to give your donation to Leo or Dan – or why not donate something to each of them? Every penny goes to help improve the situation in Darfur.

If you can’t afford a donation, you can also help out by telling your friends about Train for Humanity, either online using your social network, or through face to face communication. t

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