Possible Outreach Opportunity For NRTeam - Please Comment

[NRTeamAdmin]

Hey Everyone

I am working on an idea that I'd like to run by everyone and get your thoughts. With the NRTeam recently passing 20,000 members, we are building quite the community here and I want to find something we can all work on that will be Kingdom building and life changing for others.

I'm assuming many of you are familiar with Christian sponsorship organizations like Compassion and World Vision. For about $30/month, you can sponsor a child in a third world country and build an ongoing relationship, dynamically changing the life of that child.

My wife and I have done this for years, and it has been incredibly gratifying. I've also heard of youth groups taking on a few kids at a time and having the group sponsor those kids through tithing.

So what I'm thinking is having the NRTeam try to sponsor a number of children that we can all rally behind, pray for and support.

The NRTeam would pay for the sponsorship of these children, every month. I see this working something like this:

Let's say our goal, as a community of 20,000 strong, is to sponsor 20 children by the end of the year. At $32 a child, that's a commitment for all of us to raise $640/month or $7680/year. What an awesome goal!

I know a lot of us don't have extra month, but if we got 6 members per child, to sponsor them at $5/month (just $60 for an entire year), we would only need 120 members to step up and commit.

I'm thinking it's totally doable and what an incredible cause as a community to rally behind. The NRT Staff would maintain a page with information on the children we're sponsoring, we would post letters, provide opportunities for everyone participating to be involved, post updates, etc. Your money would come to NRT and NRT would sponsor each child on behalf of the "NRTeam."

There's the vision. Before I start rolling the engines, I'd like to hear your thoughts. And let's try to think outside the common answer that I know will be out there, "sounds great, but I'm broke!" Sacrifices, both large and small, change our world and it's time we as a community begin doing just that.

Pray about it and let me know your thoughts.

[timholleyos]

It's an awesome Idea, And I will deffinetly help out as soon as I find a job (Been looking for weeks...) but currently I pay for a girl in Haiti to go to school..which is $250 USD a year, but $50 a year is nothing to commit to another child.

[LauraCC]

Maybe we could have ads for artist-run charities too.

[patpc36]

What a cool idea! I think you should set it up. What if we could use our points that we earn to be converted to donating towards a child?

[NRTeamAdmin]

Hey Laura - We could certainly start putting together a directory of artist supported ministries, but that wouldn't be my focus on doing something like this. I'd want to rally behind an option we can all gather around. If you throw too much out there, there's no focus and it will fade quickly.

patpc36 - I'm certainly considering a "NRT Match" for the "NRTeam" but converting points to money simply means that comes out of NRT's bottom line. We're still so focused in building the site, not sure what level we could do that, but it wouldn't be point based. Now, offering points FOR sponsorship, that's certainly an option. Or even a free download or other prizes.

[ice_man01]

I already said this on the blog, But count me in:) Great idea!

[LauraCC]

Not saying a directory....how about a different banner ad every month?

[jtdeadeye25]

This is a great idea!