Sharing the Story

Christmas 2006, like most Christmases, brought opportunity for me to reconnect with family and friends. But this Christmas was different for me; I now had the ChristmasFuture story to share.

As I would begin to explain about the fact that North American’s spend $1 Trillion every Christmas season, the response was always the same. Disgust. Shock. Followed by a slightly embarrassed acknowledgement that they knew it to be true and that there is something inherently wrong with some of the choices our society has been making.

Then I would explain about ChristmasFuture’s mission and our strategies to help change the world for good. Some were really excited; about the development work, having a meaningful way of giving to their loved ones next Christmas, or the idea of the school program finding it’s way into their children’s school. Others were more skeptical and spoke of the distrust they have for NGOs and their reluctance to give any more of their hard earned money. Whatever their original position, conversations were had, questions were asked, ideas were challenged and we all learned from one another, about one another, and began a dialogue the world needs us all to have.

I know it shouldn’t surprise me, but I was amazed – I am amazed, at how the ChristmasFuture story invites critical dialogue, ignites passion within and provides a home for others to place their hope. I still have one uncle to work on, but almost everyone I have shared the story with (and I like to talk!) has been willing to allow themselves to hope - for something different, something more – to envision a world that can change…for good.

As I move forward in my daily tasks and managing some of the details of making the ChristmasFuture opportunity available to North Americans this upcoming Christmas, I hold this hope in my heart. It drives me, inspires me, fuels my passion and propels me forward.

So thank you! Thank you to everyone who has allowed me to share this story and allowed hope to grow in your heart, and as a result…in mine.

...Kim

New Year Starts with a Bang!

I’m happy I took a few days to catch my breath over the holidays. I’ve been anticipating that this is going to be a great year for me personally and for ChristmasFuture – and i've been more than correct so far! Things have continued along a ‘destined’ path as reality continues to conspire to bring ChristmasFuture to the world. We have a pretty straight line towards our launch this Christmas!

• We started fairly early by getting our core team together with a few experts to hold our inaugural annual strategic planning session. We spent the entire day talking about priorities and goals of the organization, working towards formalizing the next revision of our strategic plan.

• We’ve had some fantastic success with our pilot project. Over 600 students learned about global citizenship, extreme poverty, and NGO’s…and many of them went through an ‘awakening’…saying things like ‘nobody ever told me that the rest of the world doesn’t live like us’ or ‘we’ve gotta do something…now!”. Through that program they donated over $10,000 CDN towards the building of a school library in Sauri, Kenya – as part of a holistic plan for that village.

• We’ve begun our operational fundraising campaign for the last 2 weeks of 2006 and were able to raise over $70,000 towards our 2007 operational budget of $450,000. There’s been an amazing response.

• We initiated something called ‘The Founders’ – anyone that has given time or money towards our 2007 budget will always be known as one of The Founders…the first people that were willing to say there was something wrong in the world and they are going to do something about it!

• There have been several talks initiated at a partnership level with various other organizations that want to change the world…for good! We are truly defining and participating in what it means to be the next generation of NGO’s…and similar people and organizations are gravitating towards each other. It’s truly and exciting time!

• As we continue to be available and prepared all of the right things just keep happening! When we think we’ve got it all figured out it falls apart. When we ‘let go’ the magic just keeps happening!

• We’re fully in the transitional stage of an organization between ‘startup’ and ‘systems’ stages – we are formalizing process, policies, and tools as we grow and reach the necessary organizational capability to achieve our goal of launching in 2007 and moving towards eradicating extreme poverty!

• We are all very conscious of the fact that the choices we make now shape the culture of the organization and each step determines who we collectively are. I’ve heard it said that as you do one thing you do all things…so we are striving to uphold our core values ion every interaction and choice we make.

That’s about it for now. I’ll keep you posted as we move forward…so many amazing things happening! Thank you for staying with us for the ride so far.

…jay