Project Giving [From Seed To Potential] - Sndbox Summer Camp Final Quest
Finally, it was here! After weeks and weeks of waiting, we were back into the game. We made it to the @sndbox Final Quest for the chance to be enrolled into their Summer Camp (an incubator program) after completing the quests (1, 2, 3) in the "Travel, Food and Homesteading" category. We were ecstatic to be announced as one of the ten to go through from this category! Since this was the first category, we had to patiently wait seven weeks for the other categories to fill.
The Final Quest: Project Giving
The two people organising and hosting the Sndbox Summer Camp on behalf of @hansikhouse and @voronoi of @sndbox are @anomadsoul and @guyfawkes4-20. They told all the finalists that for our final quest, we would be put into groups/projects to bring these projects to life! We were given the chance to choose our projects and we chose to be in a project proposed by our good friend, @tristanoliff. Project Giving aims to be 'Steem's First NGO'. Yes, there are charities that have setup accounts on Steemit, however, many have been established offline and have existing projects. Project Giving aims to help those initiatives by highlighting and giving them exposure through in-depth and detailed posts. Each week, Project Giving will approach or be approached by an initiative on or off the Steem blockchain and write that weekly post about that initiative. The post has seven days to reach or exceed what the initiative is asking for (if they are asking for a certain amount as some might want exposure). The payouts of these posts will go directly (100% of the SBDs) to the initiatives and in return, the initiatives have to show how the SBDs have helped their goals. Project Giving aims to be transparent and accountable for all the steps and measures it takes as a NGO, so there will be weekly accountability reports. There will also be a formal and more detailed post from @projectgiving once the account posts its introduction post, so keep your eyes peeled!
Our Team
As we mentioned above, we were put in Project Giving with other Sndbox Summer Camp Finalists. We had a mixture of people from different disciplines and backgrounds:
- @tristanoliff (South Africa/Canada) - Founder & Project Manager
- @anna-mi (Russia) - Content Creator
- @DedicatedGuy (Venezuela) - Writer & Researcher
- @golddeejay (Nigeria) - Writer & Researcher
- @imaginedragon (U.S.) - Writer & Marketing
- @kymio (Malaysia) - Graphic & Visual Design
- @mnallica (Turkey) - Graphic & Visual Design
- @raj808 (England) - Marketing & Content Creator
- @travelling-two (Thailand) - Writer & Marketing
We were all given the chance to introduction ourselves, tell what our skill set was and how we would like to help with the project (plus ideas):
Building Project Giving
Rome wasn't built in a day neither was Steemit, so naturally Project Giving from a seed idea needed time to plant its roots. It would only be possible with love and nurture from our team. We started to bounce ideas back and forth of our vision and aim for Project Giving. @anna-mi, @kymio and @mnallica took the reigns on working and producing logos and banners for the project. They came up with countless designs and here are only a select few:
After seeing all the work being done by these three brilliant artists, we started feeling a little left out and wanted to contribute. Tristan gave us the task to help with drafting the proposal with him as well as finding new initiatives. We brainstormed our ideas about what should be included and what could wait further down the line when the account is more established. Since our time difference between Canada and Thailand proved to be opposite ends of the spectrum, we decided to use this to our best advantage. When Tristan was sleeping, we were working on the task and when we were sleeping, he was working on the task. What was the task? We were given the task to find ways we could 'sell' the idea of the project to the Steemit community. We came up with the idea of presenting what Project Giving is all about in an infographic:
After we did this, we proof read the proposal Tristan did whilst the rest of the team continued with their tasks. We were given the second task of finding new initiatives as Tristan had one in mind for the first initiative to present in the proposal.
Steem Forest Initiative
Around a month or two ago, we started to connect with @intrepidsurfer as he was making videos from Lobitos in Northern Peru about how he is trying to re-forest an area near his home. We were inspired by his commitment to actively plant trees and soon after that he started encouraging more Steemians to plant trees and re-forest Earth through his Plant A Tree giveaway. He has since developed @steemforest. An initiative that is hoping to plant more than 1 million trees around the world through the power of Steem! @intrepidsurfer as drafted out a proposal for us, but it still needs proof-reading and pictures. However, he has agreed to work alongside Project Giving and we can hopefully grow together.
Going The Extra Mile: DLive Video
We wanted to ensure @projectgiving will have the best of starts on Steemit. Therefore, we decided to create a video to ensure we could deliver the message through another medium. Our video was a simple vlog talking about 'What Project Giving Is?', 'Basic Steps/Process', 'How People Can Help?' and 'The Future'. The video can be found here.
Proposal For The Future
During our various Discord discussion as a group, we mentioned the idea that we could build Project Giving on the Steem blockchain via a website similar to Fundition.io, but with the focus on charities and NGO initiatives only. It is a simple idea of a website with all the initiatives organised into categories (Education, Community Development, Social Welfare, Human Rights, Gender Inequality, Environment, etc.) and sub-categories (different initiatives in those categories by location). Each initiative would have their own page and within their page they could have their overall goal and sub-goals. The initiative can create a post on this website that will be linked with Steemit/Busy. After a week, the payouts will contribute towards their (first) sub-goal and once the amount needed is filled (either through one post or many), the initiative can cash out the SBDs to another crypto then fiat (local currency) to work on their sub-goal. Proof of work (evidence of sub-goal being completed) needs to be shown in a post. The idea of a website formed from a project that is just about to launch seems far-fetched, but anything is possible if you put your minds to it and truly believe there is potential!
A Massive Thank You From The Bottom Of Our Hearts
This is it! This could be the beginning of something or it could be the end of a chapter. No matter what the outcome, we truly wouldn't be here if we did not try. A lesson learnt for us and for others, take a step outside your comfort zone and see where it will lead you. It lead us here, to an incredible opportunity that could only be possible through Kirk (@voronoi) and Mike's (@hansikhouse) vision of creating @sndbox and trusting two of their Cohort 1 alumni, @anomadsoul and @guyfawkes4-20 for organising and hosting the Summer Camp quests. Yet, we wouldn't be writing this post without the combined effort from everyone behind @projectgiving: @tristanoliff, @anna-mi, @DedicatedGuy, @golddeejay, @imaginedragon, @kymio, @mnallica and @raj808, it has been a pleasure working alongside all of you and no matter the outcome, we hope you will be around to help and see this project grow!
Finally, we want to thank all of our supporters and followers for their continuous and uplifting support! We probably wouldn't still be on Steemit, if it wasn't for the engagement and sense of being. Thank you for your guidance, comments and for your supportive messages!
Well done guys :) just resteemed this post and about to sit down to proof and insert photos. Just finished making 5kg of dough to bake bread later. Now I have a few hours to review and polish.
Cheers for the resteem Tali! Thanks for sending those proposals through and we'll be talking to Tristan about featuring your initiative soon! Exciting times ahead!
I'm so proud of you both. No one deserves this more than you. Great job on all of this effort. I know you will continue to do a wonderful job :)