Spotlight on Social Responsibility: "An Invitation" for me, and for you

Tonight's post bring an end to the theme "Spotlight on Social Responsibility" post that I have been posting on and off again for a week. I have touched on the 3 E's from Ernst & Young's Corporate Responsibility focus: Education, Entrepreneurship, and Environmental Sustainability. Keep in mind that even though this will be my last direct post, that the purpose and cause of each organization continues and always needs your help. Below is an Invitation, both to you, and to me.

An Invitation:
The theme of this blog is "An Invitation". Unfortunately, it is not an invitation for my birthday party, even though I will be turning 30 in February (please contact me for the address to mail gifts). However, below there are two invitations for me (to leverage my blog to make money, and to use one of my pictures for their own) and one invitation for you (a charitable donation contest).

Invitation for Me:
I was also contacted by someone on Flickr who enjoyed my picture of the Jaguar at the Sao Paulo zoo so much that he asked if I would grant him sharing rights to use the photo in his "Fans of Jaguars" website. I have no idea how he found the image or what was so special about it, but I said have at it. I will also admit, that in my haste to upload my pictures, I originally entitled the picture as a Cheetah. My error was caught by my older and much more wiser brother (when it comes to large cats and wild animals) promptly corrected me in saying "I think that is a Jaguar or some sort of Panther". Nonetheless, the picture of the Jaguar is below for your enjoyment.

Someone noticed my photography skills

Invitation for Me:
This week I was contacted by "G" (remember, I'm not going to include Ernst & Young client names in my blog!) to implement advertisement revenue sharing to my blog. Apparently my blog, which generates about one thousand "hits" per week (very small in comparison to major blog sites), has gotten the attention of someone. At first, I thought of including the advertisements to my blog in an effort to raise money for charity, but there were two issues with this. First, the ads would likely be "g" be paying me and co-advertising with me, which would probably be a violation of Ernst & Young policy since "g" is a client. Second, I personally do not like ads when I visit other sites, so I'm pretty such that you do not either. They also slow the site down and given my recent media splurge of videos and pictures on my blog, I don't want to take any chances.

Invitation for You:
Therefore, I have come up with a solution. For every 2 people that donate at least $25 to Endeavor or loan to Kiva, I will personally donate $25. Now that may not sound like much, but if 8 people donate, I will be putting up $100. Here comes the fine print, because with every promotion there is fine print. The people must be people that I actually know, in any city, country, or favela. I say this because I don't want Kiva or Endeavor pushing this contest out to their global websites to raise additional funding!  The donation must also have come during my time here in Brazil, October 1-November 20. I must also put a limit on my donation, $500, because let's face it, I don't make that much money. All jokes aside, I just gave my annual donation to the United Way and have also sponsored about every charitable walk, run, and bike event that my friends have been a part of. Therefore, the budget for charitable donations is a bit low right now. I also think that is a good percentage because I think that is also the employee match percentage that I get from Ernst & Young's 401k plan! (Actually, due to the ever declining balance of my 401k account balance I have no idea what is actually going in there)

I ask that after donating, you email me your tax receipt as proof, so I can track how much I will be donating at the end of my tenure here.  I will post a blog once I return to the U.S. on an update of donation.

Now go make a difference!