As many of you know, I am a current student of Thunderbird School of Global Management. Thunderbird is the #1 international MBA (little bit of bragging rights), and as such has a $65 million dollar capital campaign. If you donate over $1,000,000 you get a special custom made hat, with Thunderbird written on the front. Interestingly, I can't find what exactly they plan to do with the $65,000,000. I imagine they are planning on using it as en endowment fund. En endowment fund is a big huge fund that generates interest, and sits there, but is available. The largest endowment fund in universities is Harvard's which has close to 30 billion (this is pre-economy crash, so I have no idea what it is right now... but probably around $5) Seeing as how tuition, room and board, is still close to $1,000,000 at Harvard (not exact figures), it is clear that the fund does not serve to lower tuition costs at all.
So this inspired me to imitate my future alma matter (assuming I pass all the economics and financial courses.)
I am officially launching Portantorchas $65 million dollar capital campaign fundraiser.
What are we going to use the $65 million you ask? We'll create an endowment fund.
What are we going to do with the endowment fund? Compete with Harvard... except in our case we'll use it on scholarships and future ministry projection.
What do you get if you give $1,000,000? You will get a koi fish. I will even tatoo this fish with the logo of portantorchas. If you want a memory of you in Portantorchas, I will tatoo a Portantorchas koi with your name... these things live for a century.
OK. Being a bit more serious. In the midst of an economic crash year, would you consider giving to Portantorchas? If you've got the million, and want to give it... great. But perhaps you can give $10, $20, $100 or even $1000. How to do it? Follow the link. You can also find this link on our website. If you are from the US and want a tax deduction, you can send a check to Torchbearers, PO Box 2620, Estes Park CO, 80517 and mention that it is for Portantorchas.
Portantorchas could use your help this year. With your gift, we can supply the scholarships for our latin american students who can't afford the real costs (annual scholarships approx. $100,000). We can look toward the future with our facilities, including the building of a waste-water treatment area (cost $25,000), perhaps a new dorm building (approx. $100,000), and perhaps a new classroom/auditorium where we can give broader conferences (approx. $100,000). We can finance the latin american youth ministers conference that we hold each two years, next being in July of 2009 (our commitment $11,000). We can project to future ministry in Latin America (no idea what the cost of this would be... since we are only limited by our finances.)
Perhaps you would like to support individual staff members who are here out of a calling, and certainly not out of financial rewards (average staff salaries are $600 a month). If so, please add a note to your gift in order to let us know what you are giving toward.
If these seems a bit more forward than we have been in the past, it is because I believe we need to be a bit more direct with our needs. Portantorchas is falling behind, and we can no longer project to the future without the help and gifts of our partners in ministry. Please consider giving.
