Inhabitat » ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY: OWN THE DAY!

August 7, 2007

ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY: OWN THE DAY!

by Emily Pilloton

Architecture for Humanity, Own The day, humanitarian design, disaster design, design like you give a damn, cameron sinclair

The organization behind awesome humanitarian design projects like the Biloxi Model Homes has now launched an easy and empowering way for any regular Joe Donor to make his donation really count. Architecture for Humanity’s Own The Day campaign means YOU can sponsor an entire day of AFH’s design projects. By donating just one day’s salary, you’ll help architects and designers all over the world to offer their services pro bono- with just a Paypal account and a click of the mouse. Plus, your name will appear all day long on AFH’s website as that day’s sponsor. So if you have a salary and a computer, go to their website and OWN THE DAY!

3 Responses to “ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY: OWN THE DAY!”

Bob Ellenberg Says:

August 7th, 2007 at 5:40 pm

I have questions that weren’t answered at their website and since Inhabitat is promoting this, I hope they can. I would like some details on how it works. If the design services are offered probono, what cost $1,200 a day to operate? When I give to any benovolent organization, I only give if they have an audited statement regarding what percentage of my donation goes for fund raising and administration cost.

Does Inhabitat know this information on this organization they are promoting?

Cameron Sinclair Says:

August 9th, 2007 at 10:18 pm

Hi Bob,

We sat down three weeks ago and looked at all our programs around the world. This included rebuilding on the Gulf Coast to building health and educational facilities in South Africa, Tanzania and post Tsunami reconstruction in India and Sri Lanka. This not only includes providing community based design services but funds for the construction of these facilities. By having funds for construction you can leverage this to inform the quality of construction and that sustainable materials and technologies are not ‘value engineered’ for short term gains.

By dividing the total funds needed for our programs by the number of days in the year, this equates to $1200. (our 990 and 501c3 filings have always been on our donate pages). We got so many emails from design professionals who said they would love to help us but were too busy at work, so we said - donate one day of your salary and you can build dozens of structures that help improve communities - without leaving your desk!

We have 6 full time staff members, 20+ design professionals on stipends and 3000+ volunteers based in 100+ countries. You contribution will support not only the staff, but every project we are currently undertaking (as found on our projects page).

> Here is a report from last weeks New York Times on our work on the coast.

Emily has done her homework as she did a recent interview for Good Magazine and spent 4 hours grilling me!

Let me know if you need anything else.

Cheers,
Cameron Sinclair
Co-Founder and Eternal Optimist, Architecture for Humanity

Cameron Sinclair Says:

August 9th, 2007 at 10:19 pm

grr. links to the NYT and Good pieces did not come through…

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