I was asked by OEN to write a blog about why I became an OEN member. I’ve been agonizing over the assignment for about two weeks now. I suspect most of us become members for the same reason: We love entrepreneurship. We appreciate the opportunity to give back to the community that has given to us. We thrive on the creativity and intelligence of our fellow members. How could I possibly write something that would be unique and interesting?
The answer came to me from thousands of miles away, in many ways a world apart, in the form of an earthquake that caused such massive destruction and indiscriminate devastation it left me speechless, and I wept uncontrollably in response. The earthquake that rocked Haiti touched me in a way no other disaster has.
The first person I thought of when news of the earthquake began flooding Twitter was Portland lawyer and OEN member Bill Pierznik. (You were wondering if I was going to tie this back, weren’t you?) Start-ups come in many varieties. Some are based on SaaS models, some social-commerce, others product-based or traditional services. Most are born of passion. Believe it or not, some, such as the Mangrove Fund, form without the goal of profitability.
When Bill and his wife Mary traveled to Haiti in 2007 to visit for the first time their soon-to-be-adopted son Richelor (the “ch” sounds like “ck”), they were compelled to do something for the people of a country that for centuries has been troubled by colonialism, war, poverty, corruption and disease. The Mangrove Fund, formed by Bill, Mary and two other friends, is a Portland-based nonprofit organization focused solely on Haiti, providing assistance to existing organizations and people with proven track records in sustainable assistance and support. When the earthquake shattered Haiti in mid January, the Mangrove Fund shifted into high gear. And Oregon’s entrepreneurial community rallied with it.
Jive Software, OEN’s 2007 Growth Company of the Year, matched employee donations to any organization with a donation to the Mangrove Fund resulting in well over $5,000 to the organization. Early-stage OEN member GadgetTrak and SockItToMe, each donated a portion of the proceeds from sales of their products during a special sales event. OEN member and sponsor eROI donated their email campaign technology to Mangrove. Other area companies and individuals, such as Sightworks, Radiance Communications, Straub Collaborative, StepChange Group, Erik Weeman, Stoel Rives, Perkins & Co., Ater Wynne, Umpqua Bank and Weiden + Kennedy helped drive awareness of Mangrove and its role in Haiti earthquake relief. (W+K also matched employee donations.) Local restaurants such as the White Eagle, Delta Café, and Artemis Cafe helped organize events to raise funds. Additionally, Mangrove is sponsoring a Build a Business in a Day event on February 27, 2010 where members of NedSpace, Starve-Ups, OEN, Software Association of Oregon and other organizations will participate in a competition to raise funds.
This demonstration of collaboration, cooperation and creativity is exactly why I became an OEN member and the reason, regardless of where my career path takes me, I will remain an OEN member. The organization’s people are some of this state’s finest. I was duly impressed by the community’s response to Haiti’s needs, and I interrupted Bill’s schedule, made far crazier with recent events, to dig a bit deeper:
Q: Bill, how did the way the entrepreneurial community’s response surprise you?
BP: In many ways it didn’t surprise me. The unique thing about the community here is that your work colleagues become friends and vice-versa. When something like this happens, the friendship part of that relationship becomes the catalyst for offering help. What has surprised me is the amount of effort everyone is putting into this. These are all people and organizations with plenty of other things on their plates and the fact that they are committing so much time to not only help, but provide very high quality help, has been the most rewarding thing for us to see.
Q: How do you think the response to Mangrove Fund’s requests would have been different if you were still practicing law in Silicon Valley?
BP: Good question. Having retained relationships with people there, I think there would have been a similar response, but I think the more likely scenario would have been that these requests would have resulted in more checks being written and less time being devoted. Both are important when you run a 100% volunteer organization, but in many respects, time is more valuable. I also think that the personal friendships we have with our clients has resulted in an understanding that we can be a day late with a legal work product. I don’t know if that understanding would have been as pervasive in Silicon Valley.
Q: How much did you raise as a result of the community’s efforts?
BP: We haven’t parsed out local entrepreneurial donations as a portion of our overall donation receipts. We have raised well over $65,000 thus far. If you factor in the value of the time that the entrepreneurial community here has dedicated to us, you need to add another $20,000 or so to that total.
Q: How does what you raised for earthquake relief compare to funds the organization had raised previously?
BP: The amount we have raised this year already exceeds what we raised last year for our projects in Haiti.
Q: It seems as though the Haiti earthquake has affected people in ways quite different from other tragedies, e.g. Hurricane Katrina or the Thailand tsunami? Why do you think it has affected so many people so deeply?
BP: Unlike Katrina there are hundreds of thousands of people who have died. There are more than one million children orphaned or displaced. The scale of this disaster is staggering.
As compared to the tsunami, I think the fact that this happened to the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, which lies only a few hundred miles from the United States, has had an effect as well. It was easy for news cameras to get there quickly and report the immediate aftermath. Those are usually the most powerful images.
Also, the US has had a very involved history with Haiti, and while it is arguable whether it has been a historical benefit or detriment, the reality is that the American people are more familiar with the country. For instance, more US missionaries do work in Haiti than in any other country.
Finally, the spirit of the Haitian people is unique in the Western Hemisphere. I think even people who haven’t been there understand what Haitians have endured and have an admiration of the strength that they have had to exhibit to survive.
Q: What needs does Haiti continue to have, and how can people continue to help?
BP: I never thought I would say this, but I agree with both Presidents Clinton and Bush on this: We need large amounts of people to give small amounts of money. Aid will continue to be important. The biggest challenges will be in a few months when the acute situation has stabilized and the initial wave of people leave Haiti. That is when the true reconstruction will begin. My hope is that Haiti stays on people’s minds for a long time into the future. It will take many years if not decades to rebuild this country.
For more information on The Mangrove Fund or to donate, please visit www.mangrovefund.org.
