Chile Forum

I think they are a bit late with that, but better late than never.

My bank of America account seems to be working fine now, and deposits are going through.

We looked in to the whole 501c3 issue, and we also looked in to what that means on the ground. We decided not to go that route, even if that means less in donations.

There is a whole mess of reasons for this. Most importantly, we believe it would pull the teeth out of our tiger of a project we got going. We are getting things done that others can not because we are not top heavy with administration, regulations, and so on. I have worked for 501c3 chartered organizations before, sat on the board of directors, been a project manager, and so on. Lots of time and money gets waisted even with the best intentions and organized none-profit, just doing paperwork and trying to follow all the rules.

When someone deposits money in our accounts, the time to that money being put to work on the ground is sometimes under a minute. I look at the account and see the deposit, I signal to my wife across the room that we have another say $100 to work with, she tell whomever she has on the phone in the field at that moment to go ahead and do x, y, or z.

People that want to give to Chile and need a tax deduction have lots of good organizations to do that through, and we strongly encourage everyone that wants go that route to please do so.

Just we believe we can fill needs, and most importantly adjust faster to the changing situation on the ground, by staying clear of the bureaucracy. In our normally day to day business, navigating bureaucracy to get things done is what we do best. So, all we are doing is applying our skills we normally use to for example to help a single family move to Chile or a single business get going in Chile, and applying those to this problem on a bigger scale. Besides I kind of like thinking of this like warranty service on our product. We sell Chile. Chile broke. We have responsibility to fix our product.

We are seeing also much bigger problems are going to need to be solved in the weeks and months ahead such as housing, boats for the fishing industry, tourism industry, and so on.

That means we are going to need much bigger funding. We are working multiple angles right now to secure that funding. So we might let the 501c3, NGO, and government do what they do best, collect money (there is no shortage of it floating around right now). We can then do what we do best, put it to work to solve problems on the ground. We can then perhaps better leverage and amplify the smaller seed money we have to work with through the forum to have a much bigger impact overall.

The details of this are still being worked out, and we should have a better idea hopefully by next week of just what we have to work with, and what needs to be done (that is kind of obvious). We will be back with a much cooler plan. Perhaps, we might not even need donations from the forum. We still want to make use of this great resource we have here and keep everyone involved. Just there is a mountain of money and resources already in Chile, that are simply not being put to work properly. We need to figure out ways to get those resources to the people that need it.

The guys from the big NGO's (hogar de cristo, techos para Chile) on the ground here are calling us this morning (my wife is on the phone with them right now) to find out how and where they should deliver aid and coordinating support today. They are not calling their offices in Santiago, because they don't know anything in Santiago. So, you see what I am talking about.

I sent a $25 donation and it was returned by Spencer Global.. Why? I made it through Paypal! I live in the US but am visiting my Son in Santiago. How do I make a donation through Allchile.net Thanks, Diane Lynch

Charles,

Rather than wire money to your BofA account, can I just go to my local branch and make a deposit into your account? It seems like a naive question, but I wanted to make sure it's a US account and that you'll be credited with the deposit. I can then send you a scan of the deposit receipt so that you'll have proof in case the deposit doesn't show up.


Michel

Diane wrote:I sent a $25 donation and it was returned by Spencer Global.. Why? I made it through Paypal! I live in the US but am visiting my Son in Santiago. How do I make a donation through Allchile.net Thanks, Diane Lynch

Diane - on the first page of this thread are updated instructions for sending a donation. Paypal proved to not be the best method for getting money sent in a timely manner. Thank you so much for being a part of the effort!

The problems and reasons we stopped accepting Pay Pal was discussed much earlier in this thread. The first post of this thread has new instructions for making a deposit to our U.S. account.

Yes, you should be able to go to any U.S. bank and make a transfer to our Bank of America account. As soon as it clears to our account in the U.S. it becomes available to us in Chile. You should also be able to do this online through your bank's web site.

are donations still accepted?

yep, still accepting. We are still operational, but shifting in to something where we can be more effective and targeted. Vince is in the air right now flying supplies to Isla Mocha and we have trucks on route today up the coast. We tried to get vince to take a day off, but he volunteered to do one more flight for a family that is searching for two girls swept away in the tsunami.

We are also thinking of shifting to a more focused project. I think we are going to adopt an island. Isla mocha is going to be very forgotten about in the big picture very quickly against the backdrop of destruction in place like Concepción and Talca.

Charles Beasley, went out and met with the fishermen's association on the island and examined all their boats (have photos, need to post them). The thing he discovered is what they need immediately, more than their boats repaired, is nets. With something as simple as the raw role of netting, they can salvage the fishing gear off the damaged nets.

They still have about 20-30% of the boats that are functional, and about another 30-40% that can be repaired relatively quickly, but without nets none of them can fish. So we think this is one thing we can do fairly cheaply and quickly. We will then look in to such things as trying to get the rest motors, materials to repair the rest of the boats, and working on getting a fairy or ship to supply the island on a regular basis, and so on. Right now nets would put a lot of people back to work to rebuild their lives quickly and cheaply, before the winter weather sets in. Small investments with big impacts are what we are after.

I think Adopting an Island would be fantastic. Better that we do something small and do it well than something big that ends poorly.

The banner ad for Isla Mocha is well done and their website is informative.

Nets it is! Plus easier to solicit donations when there is a narrow focus to fill a desperate need.

And maybe working with them in the rebuilding effort to better 'quake-proof' buildings could be a long term goal.

Hey, even if people do not want to donate, I would highly encourage everyone to visit the island. It is simply a hidden jewel off the coast of Chile. Simply paradise. We are going to also make a big promotional push for tourism on the island.

We have been doing tourism promotion in Southern Chile for over 4 years now, and I never even heard anyone mention this island existed. We simply had no idea. It's incredibly beautiful, and the people are really friendly.

No one on our team has any problems spending time on that island. In fact, I have trouble getting them off the island.

For all those that have helped with either money or simply moral support, it is time for dividend payout. Please have a look at this post below of an email we got last night at 3 AM to see that we all did something good. We did something VERY VERY GOOD: topic4032-15.html#p40541

Mocha Island
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Mocha (Sp: Isla Mocha) is a small Chilean island located west of the coast of Arauco Province in the Pacific Ocean. The island is approximately 48 km2 (19 sq mi) in area, with a small chain of mountains running north-south. In Mapuche mythology the souls of dead people travel west to visit this island. The island today is home to the Mocha Island National Reserve, a nature reserve that covers approximately 45% of the island's surface. The island is noted as the location of numerous historic shipwrecks. The waters off the island are a popular place for recreational sea fishing.

History

Depiction of Isla Mocha during an incursion by a Dutch pirate fleet in 1616. From the book that narrates the adventures of Dutch pirate Joris van Spilbergen.
It was historically inhabited by an indigenous coastal population of Mapuche known as the Lafkenches. It was discovered by Juan Bautista Pastene September 10, 1544 and named Isla de San Nicolas de Tolentino.
According to Juan Ignacio Molina the Dutch captain Joris van Spilbergen observed the use of chiliquenes (a llama type) by native Mapuches of Mocha Island as plough animals in 1614.[1]
Mocha Island was regularly visited by pirates from the Netherlands and England. Francis Drake and Olivier van Noort are known to have used the island as a supply base. When Drake was visiting it during his circumnavigation of the globe he was seriously hurt by hostile Mapuches that inhabited the island. Eventually the Mapuche on the island were transported in 1685, from Mocha Island by Governor José de Garro to a reducción on the plain on the right bank of the Bio Bio River called the Valley of Mocha that later became the location of the modern city of Concepcion, Chile.
The waters off the island are also noted as the home to a famous 19th century sperm whale, Mocha Dick, the inspiration for the fictional whale Moby Dick in the 1851 novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.

The island is incredible. We have about 3.0 gigs of photos of the whole project, much from the island. I have to find time to process all of them.

It's worth highlighting the excellent article on trekking chile dot com then trekking then Isla Mocha which is also very complimentary of the small island.

It's such a shame to hear that people are (predictably) cancelling their holidays at a time when Chile really needs tourist dollars. Not only this but if people are avoiding Chile it's a fantastic time to come and escape the hoards that usually crowd TDP and other tourist hotspots, you also get to feel you are helping the recovery and hopefully get a great holiday into the bargin. The Maule region espcially has some fantastic National Parks and Reserves which will hopefully be reopened soon.