Through GlobalEyes

Greetings Caren and Tobias:

I was so glad to receive your confirmation of acceptance of the funds. I hope they will be of help in the short term.

We're doing serious planning and making some big changes at GlobalEyes and we have some ideas to run by the two of you:

We are considering implementing a full disclosure policy and an accompanying full disclosure campaign that will post all of the "goings-on" of our business on our website. This would include publishing our communication with you to the web. We may even ask representatives from Tropical Focus to blog on our site. This idea is very much in the development stage, but do the two of you think Tropical Focus would be comfortable with this?

An idea that Scott came up with is "micro fundraising," which is basically a continuous, goal-based fundraising effort. How it works is (and Scott, please interject if I am not describing this adequately) we would post a list of line items needed for specific programs (like trainer salary for x number of months for the school uniform tailoring business or x months supply of seed for the Food for Yields program) and donors can pick and choose where to apply their money.

A crucial element to this program is follow-up; we want to show the donors where their money is going - both with words and images. We would like to know if it is realistic for someone on your end to commit to following up with us on a regular basis. For example, if a fundraising goals is to purchase enough fabric to sustain the school uniform tailoring business for six months, once that goal is reach the funds would be sent and someone from Tropical Focus would take pictures/video of the reams of fabric, maybe even of Tropical Focus picking up the fabric, of the ladies tailoring and also tape/write an interview with one of the widows.

This will not only require a time/effort commitment, but also equipment! I know you sent me digital pictures in the past, but does Tropical Focus actually have a digital camera? If we were to supply a digital camera, which would be more efficient and economical, an electrical or battery charger?

Do you think someone at Tropical Focus would be comfortable taking on this task? Also, once electricity is flowing at the Tropical Focus office, will you be able to get internet access? Do you know how expensive that will be?

As I said before, at this point we would just like to know your opinions about these ideas and we will provide more details about the projects before we expect any definitive answers from you about participating.

On another note, Caren, I was surprised to hear that you were transferred and hope everything is ok. Please let us know the fate of the feeding program and if you would like to pursue a new program at the school you were transferred to. Also, please let us know how you are doing in your new position.

Finally, I am very pleased to inform both of you that Scott and Jessica Chacon were invited to join our board of directors and have accepted!

Moving forward, please copy Scott (schacon@gmail.com) on all of our communication.

Warmest regards, Veronica