With only a few more months left for COP23, MYD organised it second training series on 21st May, which focus on how to put the FUN in fundraising
2 climate experts from Paris were invited to help us better understand what crowdfunding is all about and the strategies involve in it, but our venue is what made this whole training series even more special.
We held it in Taman Rimba Kiara, where an Earth Day event and a protest to stop the diminishing of this park were held consecutively.
Many other booths relating to the ‘green’ topic too were set up, including us as well. We get to enjoy ourselves with Zumba in the morning (Sorry guys, i am too busy dancing, no time to take picture), then petition signing and also get to witness the protestants chanting “Save Taman Rimba!”.
A successful crowdfunding campaign uses the theory of communication circles to determine if the crowdfunding is successful or not. So, when your close friends and family starts talking about your campaign, their friends would eventually help you raise funds too if they agree with your campaign’s idea itself, and that is when you know your campaign has been a success!
Besides that, we get to be the first trial group for the 2 Parisians to test out their ‘game’ involving us to plan our own crowdfunding campaign (on any topic) on that spot and to present it after 30 minutes, to determine if it will help us gain better insights regarding crowdfunding on that topic.
With that, different ideas, strategies and also rewards idea ( for the sponsors) were given feedback from the 2 Parisians and it had proved how much creativity the MYD’s members had in them in terms of crowdfunding as ideas such as giving ‘seed’ as a reward for the sponsor to reduce carbon emission, or even setting hotel booths to collect leftovers to reduce food wastage, were the discussed ideas on that day itself.
Our team, were thinking of publishing a photo book regarding the MYD- Making You Donate, idea as a reward for sponsoring us to COP23, to help publicize and educate Malaysians about climate change policies during UNFCCC itself.
To end the day, MYD along with its partners, #PowerShiftMsia and Kem Solusi, held a BIG-PIE( Peer Integration Exchange) meeting effectively using the fishbowl method where we, as MYD Members get to witness it too! *hence the term BIG*
As the fishbowl method involves a circle within a circle, where only the interior circle was able to talk and voiced out their opinion and the exterior circle is the observant and could only be voicing out only upon tapping the interior participant’s’ shoulder, this method was beneficial as the meeting was held in the park itself, and minimal disruption would be beneficial.
As part of the MYD member, I believe that the next coming months would involve an increment in knowledge absorbed and also life skills learned, as we will be organizing our own training series the next time round!
So, see you guys next time!
-Kelly Heng, MYD17 member
