I Help Individual Americans Make a Difference in Iraq
Jim Hake, a successful Internet entrepreneur, spearheads Spirit of America, a nonprofit group that lets Americans give directly to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.
From Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, January 2005
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My inspiration to start the project was a Special Forces sergeant in Afghanistan who set up Little League baseball teams with gloves, balls and bats sent by his wife. It's a great example of how people can take the initiative to make things better on a person-to-person level.
I e-mailed a couple of military guys and asked them for ideas. The first request came from a Marine who asked for dental-care kits for Iraqi families -- we raised $4,800 and sent 2,000 kits. Another Marine wanted kids' soccer jerseys, for which we raised $5,000.
The requests we get are generally for items that established aid organizations and government bureaucracies are not designed to handle. We specialize in rapid response, posting requests on our Web site (www.spiritofamerica.net) that give people an opportunity to donate to projects that appeal to them -- whether it's buying sewing machines for Iraqi women, tools for tradesmen or even Polaroid cameras for soldiers to take photographs of Iraqi children in order to establish a connection with them.
All the money goes to fulfill the request that a donor chooses to support. My family had been paying the administrative expenses, but we now have donations from individuals that cover those costs.
Thanks to word of mouth, our donations have taken off. We have received more than $6 million from almost 10,000 donors. People thank us for giving them a chance to do something useful.
Several months ago I went to Iraq to meet with military personnel and Iraqis to find out what we could do to make the most immediate and tangible improvements in people's lives. Spirit of America plans to offer business people micro loans of $200 to $1,000. It may not sound like a lot, but $1,000 can be more than a year's salary in Iraq. Our Friends of Democracy project supports Iraqi citizens who are preparing for elections.
We'll also be funding neighborhood sports centers, and I expect that we'll eventually get involved with construction projects in Fallujah and Ramadi. Projects like that put a lot of people to work and create visible signs of progress.
--As told to Kimberly Lankford