June 2010 Snapshot Update
Written by: Adam Braun June 9th, 2010
About a week ago I sent out an email to our internal team of 100+ members across the country to share all of the recent progress that PoP has gone through. Based on that response, I figured it would be best to share it with all of you as well. We’re new, but we’re growing quickly because you believe in us.
IMPACT
- We have 7 completed schools in less than 20 months of existence! (6 in Laos, 1 in Nicaragua)
- Our 8th school is underway, and we expect to complete 3 new schools in Nicaragua this summer
OFFICE & STAFF
- We have opened our first office thanks to an amazing donated space on 32nd and Madison in Manhattan (149 Madison Ave, 10th Floor). We have a 5-person staff along with 10 HS/college interns working out of the space all summer, feel free to stop by and say hi to meet the team.
- Our 2nd PoP Fellow starts will be placed on the ground in August to support our work in Nicaragua
- Country Director Leslie Engle and Coordinator Noy Keousuvan are now full-time staff in Laos, we’re hiring our own architect to lead independent projects there, and we’ve brought on four part-time local coordinators who work with each of our villages. We admit, we’re secretly obsessed with our Lao staff.
EVENTS
- 6 of 10 sections at Harvard Business School independently selected PoP as a recipient of their Charity Auction Night benefit! This support will collectively raise nearly $30K from the HBS community.
- Fundraisers have recently been held to support PoP in Las Vegas, NYC, Hong Kong and Taiwan
- The Pretty Lights, RJD2 and Chiddy Bang show at Terminal 5 raised more than $5K to benefit PoP
- The Boathouse in the Hamptons recently hosted an amazing night to benefit PoP
- Philanthro Productions has selected PoP for their first tri-city event (LA, SD, SF) later this year. This means we’ll coordinate a one-night event across 8+ major cities in Nov/Dec, stay tuned and let us know if you want to be a part of the planning in your city!
MEDIA & WEB
- We brought film-makers Philip Buiser and Michael Trainer with us to Laos and Haiti on recent trips to document and explore PoP’s work on the ground. Stay tuned for beautiful commercial shorts to be released this summer, as well as a documentary film about Laos to be released later this year.
- Our photographer Nick Onken’s book release party exclusively featured his work with PoP at the Calumet Gallery in Chelsea, NYC. To see some of his images click here
- THE BIGGEST NEWS YET! AgencyNet, one of the top digital firms globally, has agreed to take us on as a pro bono client and is allocating some of their top people across three different offices to head up our digital strategy and website development. Yes, we’re going to change how people give and empower others with the website we’ll release later this year.
This is an organization that was started 20 months ago with $25 and a dream. Thank you thank you thank you for making all of this possible.
-Adam
Tags: impact, Pencils of Promise, PoP, Update
