ItStartsWith.Us » Organizations

Love Bomb + Love Drop for Jill!

Lauren — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 04:53:37 +0000

Just wanted to throw up a quick video update for you guys on this week’s Love Bomb mission as we partner with Love Drop for Jill, our very first Love Drop recipient! Check it out.

Love you guys!

You can read more about Jill here on the Love Bomb website, or go directly to the blog post to leave her a comment. Similar Posts:

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…You Are So Beautiful, Can’t You See It?

Susi — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 04:01:35 +0000

Following is a second article from our blog series highlighting young ISWU members.

“Hey now, you are not ugly, you are so beautiful. Can’t you see it?” This was sent by Opperation Hope [misspelling intended], a website where anyone can enter a recipient and a message, and the email will be sent anonymously for you (which is really handy for people you don’t normally talk to, like your estranged brother-in-law or the lonely shy girl at school). Opperation Hope was created by Aly and Mebediel [not their real names], two teenage girls in California, US that, one day, decided to send an anonymous email to a lonely sophomore at their school. That was their first Opperation Hope email, and their first step to changing the world. One sender told Aly and Mebediel that the boy she wrote to had changed the way he acted, becoming more outgoing, less restrained, and making more friends. Each message they send is just as amazing, and offer advice we all deserve to hear, but often forget: “You are awesome, so I just wanted to tell you this: Be yourself; everyone else is taken,” and “… A lot of people appreciate you and what you do. Never doubt that.” So far, the girls have filled 17 hearts with hope.

You can share some hope at http://opperationhope.weebly.com/

——

The Entire Interview with Mebediel And Aly

Q: How many people have used Opperation Hope?
M: So far there have been 17 messages that were sent through us, and one person has asked us for advice.

Q: Have you had any feedback from people about it?
A: Yes, I believe so, and we’re always very excited whenever we receive one.
M: We have had a couple of suggestions for improvement on our site such as the “Other acts of hope” section, the “Ask for hope” section, and a suggestion that we might forward any replies from the “victim” (I have no better words for the person we send the email to) back to the original sender.

Q: Has anyone told you an inspirational story about their experiences with it?
M: So far, no one has shared any inspirational stories with us, but there was on boy who kept communicating with us; we knew the hope-sender personally, and she told us that she had seen a change in how he acted–that he was more outgoing and less restrained after that, and that helped him make more friends at school.

Q: The boy that inspired you to start it – did you ever see any change in him?
M: If I remember rightly, the biggest change we saw in him was that he found some friends later on…that may or may not have had anything to do with our email.
A: Well, in general, yes, although it probably wasn’t because of our email. He found a few new friends and I think, he recently reunited with his old friends, so we’re glad that he’s not all alone anymore!

Q: Do you read the messages – (i assume you have to since you have to rewrite them, and you might want to make sure they aren’t mean?) and if so, what was your favorite one?
M: Yes, we read the messages, and so far we haven’t had any mean ones. One of my favorites is, “People can be so hurtful but people can be so healing. So don’t give up on people. You’re a wonderful guy. A lot of people appreciate you and what you do. Never doubt that.”
A: I guess my favorite one has to be, “Hey now, you are not ugly, you are so beautiful. Can’t you see it?”. It just sounds so honest and sincere, I love it!

Q: Are there any others that really stand out to you?
M: All of the Opperation Hope messages are amazing, but two more that stood out to me are: “Hey now, you are not ugly, you are so beautiful. Can’t you see it?” and “You are awesome So I just wanted to tell you this: Be yourself; everyone else is taken. =D”
A: Other than my favorite, one that stands out to me is “People can be so hurtful but people can be so healing. So don’t give up on people. You’re a wonderful guy. A lot of people appreciate you and what you do. Never doubt that.”Similar Posts:

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Our First Love Drop

Nate — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 18:10:12 +0000

As most of you know, ItStartsWith.Us likes to spin off side projects every year. And this year I’m really excited to announce the launch of another project designed to utilize the power of micro-giving to change lives: Love Drop.

From the site:

“Love Drop is a micro-giving network of people who unite as a community
to help one person or family a month. By subscribing to the team for as
low as $1, we make it easy for our members to change lives in a fun and
tangible way. Each month Love Drop delivers a unique combination of
unexpected financial gifts, personal encouragement and the support of
local and online communities.”

This one is gonna be a lot of fun, guys. Seriously, how amazing will it be to travel around the country helping out people who are going through tough times, but are still finding ways to give back to others? And the point is not to just give money, but to get our entire community involved in giving anything they want that could improve our recipients’ lives. The creativity on this one will be off the charts – I can’t wait to see what we all come up with.

This month we’re working to help Jill, a single mom in Chicago who just lost everything in a house fire and is now homeless . . . for the second time. But wait ’til you see her attitude and the ways she continues to reach out to help others. Head on over to LoveDrop.us and check it out!Similar Posts:

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Love Drop Officially Launches Today!

Nate — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 17:39:06 +0000

Okay guys, it’s finally here – the launch of Love Drop! J. Money and I have been working on the site pretty much non-stop for two weeks, so we’re pretty tired. But it feels so good to get this thing pushed out to the public. I’m not going to go into it a lot right here; I’m just gonna include the intro video I shot for the site, and encourage you to check it out yourself here: www.LoveDrop.us

Please take a look around the site and share the link and the idea with people who may be interested. And give those Facebook share buttons a click, okay?

We’re now shifting our attention to preparing for our first Drop, to take place down (or up, for most of you) in Chicago in January. I hope you’ll join the team and help us make a huge difference for this family this year.

Thanks!

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Epic Thanks

Nate — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 06:00:22 +0000

There will be more to come later (officially) about what Epic Thanks is about, but for now here’s a link to Epic Change, the organization responsible for it all.

Estrella Rosenberg saves lives every week. This is how she does it: Big Love little hearts.

Much love to all our friends, teammates and supporters, and biggest thanks of all to the Love Bomb team. You guys are awesome!Similar Posts:

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Love Drop is Rolling

Nate — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 06:32:36 +0000

Sorry the audio sync is a little off with this video in the beginning . . . don’t know what happened there.

Check it! Love DropSimilar Posts:

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Love Bomb Video Update!

Lauren — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 02:37:30 +0000

In the video above, I mentioned Ellen’s response post to our Love Bomb Mission! You can find it here. A bit is below:

“Thank you each and all for all of the encouraging words, hugs and the donations. They, along with the sales and jewelry orders have begun to restore my faith in myself as well as the world in which I live. To hear from so many people who don’t want anything from me has been wonderful, a miracle for me.” – Ellen

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Love Drop Business Details

Nate — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 13:43:27 +0000

Hey guys, you’ve heard a lot from me lately about Love Drop, our latest project (you know, the one where we use the micro-giving concept to drop some financial love and change the life of one family a month). We’ve gotten a lot of emails and calls asking for more information about what we’re doing, so today I wanted to give ya’ll (I’m in Texas right now, so twang it out) a detailed summary of what we’re doing, what we’re offering, and what we’re looking for in partners.

This isn’t perfect yet, and it isn’t final. It’ll morph and grow as we continue to build toward our launch in January. But this is our first for-profit venture, and I want to keep everything above board. So here we go:

In the first week we brought in 50-some members (just getting started, folks). We hired someone to help us run the entire back end. J$ and I are literally going to go to these places every month. Here’s how we see it working:

We’re framing this project as the Nate and J$ traveling show, galvanizing people both online and in person to come together and change the life of one family a month. Casual, fun, personal, lots of video . . . just us being us, having fun and making a difference
Anyone subscribes for any amount they wish
They suggest people to help each month
We choose one person/family each month
We tell the story via blog posts, pictures, interviews, videos
Others from the online world join in to help that month
We reach out to the local community around that person for help, fun
At the end of the month we travel there together, spend 3 days on the road
Day 1: the two of us shoot video and do work | Day 2: predetermined day for the drop – get us and the community together to go do whatever it is we’re gonna do for them | Day 3: we have a meetup in the nearest big-ish city – all of the ISWU network folks and all of J$’s financial folks – just people having fun, changing the world

Here’s what we’re thinking in terms of corporate participation:

1) Partner with us for this month’s love drop: This is the biggest role we’ll have for companies. We’re basically saying "This month’s drop was made possible by the folks at XYZ Corp!" (and only XYZ Corp). Here’s what that means:

One-time charge: $5,000. Pays for that month’s operational expenses. (this amount will go up as the year goes on)
Features you prominently on homepage for that entire month
Features you on the "success stories" page for that drop forever
Features you on "partners" page for the year
Features you in newsletter which will go out 2-4 times that month to every member
Features you in applicable media mentions for that month
Your company will be the ONLY company featured the entire month
Your company will become a PART of the team for the month – as integral as the two of us, and the team will recognize that!

3) Contribute to Love Drop as a business rather than an individual (funds get split between recipient and Love Drop)

$100, $250 or $500/month options
One-time membership option (your choice of $$$)

3) Provide goods or services for a monthly drop

Products
Gift cards
Specialized services
Tickets
Anything you can think of to help a family live easier or take a fun break

4) Sponsor Love Drop for a year: Get your logo on our "Sponsors" page.

Bronze: $250
Silver: $500
Gold: $1,000
Platinum: $2,500

Additionally, we’re looking to enter into a one-year partnership with one corporation in each of these three areas:

1) Airline (4-6 business class tickets per month)
2) Hotel (2-4 rooms for 3 nights per month)
3) Ground Transportation (1 rental car for 3-4 days per month)

** Number four below may be a yearlong partner if interested, or we may do it based on the monthly sponsor or interested local party **

4) Meetup Venue (1 establishment per month, we’ll bring in 5-20 people for meeting and fun [this number will go up as we grow])

So that’s what we’re looking for and what we have to offer. If it sounds interesting to you, we’d love to get in touch right away. We’re looking to book out our first three months of the project (January – March), so we’re ready to hit the ground running and kick this thing off right. The more momentum we have behind this from the start, the more we can do for our first family (yet to be determined.

Hit us up at team [at] lovedrop.us with any comments or proposals!

Questions can go in the comments field, so everyone can learn from them.

Much love,
Nate and J$
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Love Drop is Here!

Nate — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 05:00:10 +0000

Spend a dollar, change a life.

Not even kidding, folks – this is gonna be big. We’ve been working for a long time to get this project up and running, and it’s finally here! Join us as we change the life of one person or family financially each month.

Learn more and sign up here: LoveDrop.us

And if you like what you see, please share the site with your friends. Anyone can join, and the more people we have in the group, the bigger impact we can make each month. The goal is 300 people by January, and 10,000 by December. With 10,000 people in the group, we could afford to buy a brand-new car for a family in need.

That and more will be possible Every. Single. Month.

Let’s build this thing.
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Love Drop Launching Soon!

Nate — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 20:50:38 +0000

Check this out, guys – I think you’re really gonna like it. You’ve heard rumblings about Love Drop for a while, but J. Money and I have finally figured out how we can make it work! Check the vid for more details.

I’ve talked to a few people about this idea, and I’ve already heard multiple comparisons to Extreme Home Makeover and how Oprah surprises audience members or an individual with an unexpected gift. And you know what? Yes. Yes to all. Let’s go straight Oprah on someone you know each and every month! How cool would that be?

[UPDATE 10/26/2010]

We now have your pre-launch page live! Check it out at http://LoveDrop.Us and see what we’re all about!Similar Posts:

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