07Jul, 2010

An Update on the CHASE Bank Grant

Posted by Don
23

I’m incredibly humbled by the number of you who have helped us move into the top 50 in the CHASE Bank grant contest currently running on Facebook. Non-profits in the top 200 get 20k from CHASE, and things could certainly change, but we are placing well going into the last week. I called Dr. Sowers, our The Mentoring Project’s President and asked what the chances were that we could win the whole thing, giving us 250k (an entire years budget) and he said it wasn’t likely. That said, though, if we moved into the top ten, I think it’s safe to say we’d launch a major campaign to try to move into the top spot. Honestly, it wouldn’t take much. The current leader only has about 12k votes, and nearly 100k people come to this blog alone every month. At The Mentoring Project, we’d use the money to start mentoring programs at the 600 churches on our current waiting list. That means literally thousands of fatherless boys being provided with a friend who would encourage them through their formative years. When I was a kid, I was breaking into a few houses, just getting into trouble a bit, and a [...]

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05Jul, 2010

Could you do me a favor?

Posted by Don
45

So about once a month, a friends non-profit starts lighting up twitter and facebook asking people to go and vote because somebody somewhere might give them some money. The Mentoring Project has never had a huge twitter following, so we’ve never entered one of these contests. And to be honest, I normally ignore these twitter requests. It just feels like a teen thing, some sort of popularity contest amongst non-profits. That said, The Mentoring Project President Dr. John Sowers called me a few days ago to say that Chase was giving away 20k to the top 200 non-profits that get voted on on facebook. John said we really need the money to shoot training videos that will allow the 600 churches on our waiting list to start mentoring programs. What that means is, if we get 20k from chase, thousands of fatherless boys will get role models because we can franchise the mentoring program we are currently running here in Portland. We don’t yet have that money designated in our budget. So now I am THAT GUY. I’m the guy asking people to vote on twitter and facebook. And to be honest, I don’t even have a facebook account. So [...]

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24Jun, 2010

Your Most Important Business Partner May Surprise You

Posted by Don
83

This past week I visited a friends ranch where he’d invited some guys to go fishing. It’s a sprawling, 65-thousand acre ranch in Central Oregon with several lakes stocked with trout and one lake stocked with Bass. There are elk, deer, and we even saw a couple black bear. My friend is very successful, and attributes his success to the consistent reading of the book of Proverbs. He says the wisdom he’s gleaned from the book has helped him decide who to invest with, who to hire, and how to make general decisions. And not unlike Solomon, he is always looking for wisdom. It happened to be only men on the trip because we were looking for some good guy time. All of the men on the trip had succeeded in business to some degree (I was there because of my charm, I’m supposing) and at the end of our stay we rode horses up to a lookout over the ranch, got off our horses (In case this is sounding like my normal routine, I should clarify I hadn’t ridden a horse in thirty years) and grouped up for a glass of wine (one of the businessmen had operated a [...]

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22Jun, 2010

On God as Father

Posted by Don
11

Last week I got to appear on Fox News, just before Fathers Day. I had a great visit with the folks at The Strategy Room and I’m thankful for them being willing to talk openly about both God and the Fatherless Crisis. They put a clip online, but it’s just a short sample of the hour. We ended up having a great conversation. I’ll be out of commission today and most of tomorrow, so I won’t be able to moderate comments. Here’s a clip of the Fox program for now. I’ll be back soon! Watch the latest video at FOXNews.com

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18Jun, 2010

A Message for Fathers Day

Posted by Don
57

This past week I stopped by the White House to hear about the initiatives the President will be rolling out during a White House celebration of Fathers Day on Monday and I left encouraged and excited. I remember when I first started talking about mentoring and fatherhood a few short years ago how little discussion there was about the issue of fatherlessness. It was a dark subject that brought up thoughts of weakness. Now, it seems, a positive spotlight is being shone on the power and importance of fathers. If you’re dad is around, would you do me a favor? Would you make a really big deal out of him this weekend? Would you take him to a baseball game, shower him with corny (or perhaps thoughtful!) gifts, and tell him how important he is to you? It’ll mean the world. I’m hoping in the next decade Fathers Day becomes a huge deal, a day of celebrating positive masculinity, a day of celebrating the amazing gift that strong men bring to families and communities. We can start by making an enormous deal out of Fathers Day. On Monday the President will make a few major announcements, including an explanation of [...]

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