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We've been at this for less than six hours now, and we've already cleared this week's challenge of exceeding 25 unique donations!  Now, Room to Read will be eligible to win an additional $5,000 in funding.  With 20 winners and fewer than 50 organizations competing (not all of which are likely to achieve the 25 unique donation requirement), the odds are significant and that alone makes our effort here worthwhile.

Not only that, but we're already closing in on $1,000.

At the moment, we're only $6 away!  I'm eager to see who puts us over the top for that first big milestone.  

One of the reasons we love supporting Room to Read is because education is the bedrock of social progress.  Literacy allows us to tap into the shared knowledge and experiences of all humanity.  

Reading early in life is especially important in developing empathy.  When you read, as a child, you are allowing yourself to experience the world through the eyes of another.  You learn about different perspectives and worldviews.  

No matter what issues or causes you're most passionate about, progress invariably requires the application of education and empathy.

At any given time, there are countless worthy, urgent causes deserving of our support.  If we'd raised money to assist an NGO's response to Ebola, someone could always say, "well, that's fine, but why didn't you guys do anything about domestic violence this year?  Don't you care?"  

It's virtually impossible (at least for me) to feel any sense of satisfaction under such conditions, but we can't allow that to paralyze us and prevent us from giving our best effort.  

Last year, we donated a total of $51,000 to charity, split among three different organizations.  This year, I expect that we'll match or exceed that total and distribute it among two to five different organizations.  

We could have given 50 different charities $100 each, and still not address everything, but I don't think "Thanks for helping NikeTalk contribute $100 to Doctors Without Borders in their work to treat the Ebola outbreak" would be considered at all satisfactory or inspiring to anyone given the scale of our community.  People rightly expect to see some demonstration of the strength in numbers we're showcasing right now.  

We can't do everything, but we can accomplish a great deal together - and, hopefully, we can inspire each other in the process.  Some of the greatest compliments we've ever received about our community have come from users who've told us that their experiences here have encouraged them to be less materialistic and more charitable.  They've become more interested in demonstrating social responsibility through their businesses, or organizing within their communities.  We may not be the "be all end all," but we can lift each other up and use this community we've built for good.  And that's the goal.  

As I explained in the topic post, the unique opportunity presented by the Social Entrepreneurs Challenge made it a good fit for this year's group fundraiser.  Had we opted for something more conventional, we'd lose out on the transaction fees and the matching opportunity.  We wouldn't have these weekly bonus goals to achieve, that give us the potential to be even more effective.  

Now, if you are especially moved by the Ebola outbreak - and that's totally understandable, I hope I never meet the person who is UNmoved by such a terrible tragedy - then I can offer you this:  

Next month, to help celebrate NikeTalk's 15th anniversary, we're going to hold a vote and allow everyone to choose from among all of the different organizations we've supported in the past five years. 

Doctors Without Borders is on that list.  Mercy Corps is on that list.  Both are working in Liberia and beyond.  

There will be $15,000 at stake in honor of the 15th anniversary.  $10,000 for the organization that receives the most votes, $5,000 for the runner-up.  

Your voice can be heard as part of that vote and our community as a whole will decide where this $15,000 in honor of NikeTalk's 15th anniversary will be donated.