[Habitat Exec] Fundraiser at MIT for Habitat for Humanity

[Grace Lee]

Hi Pian,

This sounds like a great fundraiser!  Thank you for thinking of us.  We
would love to partner with you and Couchange.  Would you like to meet to
discuss the details?  Please let me know what you need from the Habitat side
of things.

Best,

Grace Lee
MIT Habitat for Humanity club, President

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Pian Shu <pshu at MIT.EDU>
To: mit-habitat-exec at MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2010 14:53:35 -0400
Subject: Fundraiser at MIT for Habitat for Humanity
Hello,

I got your contact from Jennifer Cook at MIT Public Service Center and
am writing to survey your interest in collaborating on a fundraiser at
MIT for Habitat for Humanity. My name is Pian Shu and I'm a third-year
PhD student at the Department of Economics. I'm also the Executive
Director of Couchange, a start-up social venture that's converting
"couch change" items like partially-used gift cards into cash
donations for charities like Habitat for Humanity.

Our fundraising idea is  simple: put "gift card drop boxes" and flyers
on campus to encourage donations to Habitat for Humanity--in the
undergrad and grad dorms and possibly also at the student center and
77 mass ave. The whole process actually doesn't require much manpower:
 We just need to allocate the drop boxes and put up the flyers.
(Couchange already has the boxes with lockers.  If we put the boxes in
the dorms, the frontdesk staff can watch them.)  Then we collect the
boxes after two weeks. Couchange will convert those gift cards into
cash and we will split the final revenue 90/10 (Habitat will get 90%).

$8 billion dollars of gift cards go unused every year in the States,
representing a huge source of "found money" for philanthropy. There's
likely to be a lot of those lying around at MIT since students may
receive gift cards as Holiday gifts and also from their parents over
the course of the year. Once they have consumed the majority of the
amount on the card, the remaining balance is likely to have little
personal value. However, just like the loose coins that fall forgotten
behind seat cushions, if someone bothers to collect them altogether,
one could raise a significant amount of money.

Please let me know if you are interested in this idea.  Happy to meet
up and discuss the details.  Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best,
Pian

------------
Pian Shu
Ph.D Candidate | MIT Economics
Executive Director | Couchange
pshu at mit.edu | pian at couchange.org | 617-448-9735 | twitter.com/couchange
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