When Humans of New York creator Brandon Stanton created a crowdfunding campaign to help pay for a photography subject and his wife to adopt an orphan from Ethiopia, he figured he'd end up footing some of the bill. Whatever amount short the campaign fell of its $26,000 goal, he promised, he'd make up himself.
Just one day later, however, the crowdfunding campaign has raised $80,000—and proven once again the unpredictable ways the social web can be leveraged for social good.
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The story starts with Stanton recently riding around with a TV crew doing a report on his popular photo-project-turned-bestselling-book. He and the cameraman, who was driving their van, got to talking about Ethiopia. Turns out the cameraman, Duane Watkins, and his wife had adopted their daughter from the East African country three years prior after being unable to conceive on their own.
Their daughter Chaltu, who was adopted at seven years old and is blind in one eye, has thrived since the adoption. She's grown over a foot, plays sports, speaks English fluently, has many friends and does well in school, Duane told Stanton. But she lacks one thing: a sibling. Duane and his wife Kristen have already found the boy they'd like to bring home. He lives in an Ethiopian orphanage currently, is being called "Richard" for the sake of this project, and is ready to join his new family in the States.
The only problem? Money. Between processing fees and travel costs, adopting a child from Ethiopia is expensive. When Stanton asked Duane if he could share their moving story about adopting Chaltu on HONY, Duane said sure. But Duane also brought up Richard. Here's how Stanton describes their conversation on Facebook:
“That’s fine with me,” he answered. Then he sort of stared at the ground for a second, shuffled his feet, and asked: “Would there be any possibility that you could help us raise the adoption fees to get her a brother? We've already found him, but aren't financially ready yet.”
So Stanton posted Duane's photo to the HONY Facebook Page, with a complete description of their interaction:
Post by Humans of New York.
He also created an Indiegogo campaign titled "Let's Bring Richard Home."
On the campaign page, Kristen describes the angst she and Duane have felt as they try to adopt Richard, whom they found through an international adoption agency.
"We are currently trying to save so that we can afford all of his processing fees," she writes. "At night when I go to bed, all I think about is that he's 7,000 miles away ... I think about him lying in his bed (most likely shared with one or two others). He does not know that he has a mommy and daddy trying to bring him home. I pray each night that he will somehow know that we are coming."
Stanton has used HONY's popularity to drive charity efforts before. A print sale after Hurricane Sandy, for example, raised more than $300,000. But this campaign's narrow focus, plus its lack of tangible perks for donors, made him set lower expectations. If they could raise close to $26,000 and he covered this rest, that would have been a major victory, he tells Mashable.
Fast forward just one day, and thousands of donors have pitched in to create a fund of $80,000. The amount surpassing the campaign's $26,000 goal will go toward Chaltu and Richard's education.
Duane and Kristen have been floored by the generosity of Internet strangers, Stanton says, and are struggling to process how they might thank and reward everyone who has donated.
But Stanton says they need not worry.
"I'm just trying to assure them that the reward was actually in the giving for everyone," he says. "The story was so powerful that people gave just for the opportunity to be a part of that story."
You can learn more about the "Let's Bring Richard Home" campaign here.
Image: Duane Watkins, via Indiegogo