Opportunity International Canada

Well, the photo scavenger hunt donations are all in. Including offline donations, the FlyPenguinFly team has reached its $3000 fundraising goal.

We're stoked that OI will be able to fund 21 micro-loans for entrepreneurs in the developing world who have a great idea, energy to work and just need a bit of financial capital to get started. Thanks, OI, for the great work you're doing!

Thanks again to all of our donors and well-wishers! Fun by itself is great, but fun that also blesses others is even better.

A special thanks to Sweet Georgia Yarns, one of our donating businesses that didn't get thanked in a previous post. If you're a knitter, or know someone who is, check it out.

The team will be moving on to support a new PGS client for the next campaign, visit flypenguinfly.com in a few months to find out where we land next.

Yesterday the crew from Peer Giving and Charity Express set out on a photo scavenger hunt: shooting dozens of silly photos to fulfill pledges from friends, family, and local businesses. All in all, we raised just under $1000 for Opportunity International.

The photos above are our favourites: Veronica imitating Justin Bieber for a "celebrity spotting" photo, and Nate and Harrison recreating me and my wife's favourite photo from our wedding. You can view all the photos in this album on our Facebook page.

Like what you see? There's still time to donate if you want to chip in a few more bucks. 

If you pledged a challenge, here's the full list of what we completed, with links to the photos. If we've satisfactory fulfilled the challenge, please donate!

The whole team drinking a beer in front of the fireplace at Cardero's. ($25 per team) Thanks Cardero's!

Have a shot of wheatgrass. (Challenge from Whole Foods)

Chris Geoghegan swimming in the office fountain. ($100)

Find a hipster with a beard on a fixed speed bicycle. ($35)

Have a wheelbarrow race. ($40 - There's also video of this to come.)

Get behind the counter of a business. ($20) Thanks to Nero, Sushi Mart and Whole Foods for being such goods sports about this!

Replicate Joel & Lauren's favourite wedding photo. ($30) 

Have the Peer Giving mascot Penguino fly. ($20)

Reuben with Mexican flair. ($40)

Help an old lady cross the street. ($25)

Yoga by the sea wearing at least one item from Lululemon. ($30)

Walk like a penguin with a stranger. ($25)

Team with the most people planking. ($100)

Veronica smiling at the all you can eat sushi joint on Robson. ($5)

Human sculpture to replace the upside-down church. ($50)

Team jumping in the air and spelling "Erin." ($25 per team)

Reuben's whole team hugging a stranger. ($50) 

Photo of an Orca. ($50) 

Harrison behind the wheel of a boat. ($25)

Yarn bombing. ($25)

Ethan with sunglasses, sitting with his legs crossed in John's chair. ($40)

Thanks to everyone who pledged!

Our Coal Harbour company Peer Giving is taking an afternoon on Wednesday, June 13th (2:00pm-4:00pm) to have some fun and to raise some money for charity.

All donations will go to Opportunity International Canada (opportunitycan.ca) to fund  micro-loans for small business start-ups in the developing world. Our goal is to raise $980, enough to fund 7 loans!

We’d love to get you involved in our Photo Scavenger Hunt by giving our team challenges.

The challenge could be something that would highlight your business as we’ll be posting these photos to Facebook and Twitter (#flypfly) and on our blog at www.peergiving.com/ideas.  If your business has a twitter account we’ll be sure to mention it when we post it.

Some examples could be:
*Photo of Team in Front of Your Business (Pledge $25 per team)
*Photo of Team All Sharing 1 of Your Delicious Burgers (Pledge $20 per team)
*Photo of Team With Your Menu (Pledge $50 for first team to complete)
*Photo of Person With Wasabi on the Tongue (Pledge $100 for for first team to complete)

Remember
* Keep it legal, keep it safe
* We only have a few hours, we'll have multiple challenges, and we're in the Coal Harbour/West End neighborhood
* The more you pledge, the more likely your challenge will be met

Choose a Challenge for your business and a dollar amount.  Your business could make the challenge available for all 4 teams or on a first come first challenge basis (only allowing 1 team to take the challenge).

By submitting your pledge, you're committing to making a charitable donation (you get a tax receipt) of that amount on this web page upon completion of your challenge.

We look forward to working with you on this special day.

SUBMIT your Challenge Here

This simple infographic (thanks Reuben) says it all.

A very special thanks to the four local businesses and one individual who chose to match team contributions.

A couple of you are too bashful to be thanked publicly, so a private thanks will have to do. For the others, a public thank-you (and not-so-bashful promotion):

Band of Coders > We've been working with these guys for a couple of years now, and they've been an important part of our development team. We're grateful for the effort and passion they've committed to building our software, and for their generous support of this little campaign.

Moosehead Contracting > Need a general contractor to reinvent your Vancouver living space? Kenton Lepp (and his father Ray) have a reputation for high-quality work and are kept busy just by word of mouth passed on by their very satisfied clients and some of Vancouver's leading designers.

Stay tuned for one more mini-campaign over the coming weeks!

We had a lot of fun curling last week. Our randomly selected teams formed quick bonds and developed some heated rivalries in a matter of minutes. Check out the video above to see how we did-- and learn a little bit from Brady about how our chip-in challenge will help small businesses in developing countries.

What could be more perfect? A small business, a thank-you celebration for its team, a stuffed penguin, two sheets of perfectly pebbled ice and a fundraising idea to help OI get small businesses started around the globe.

Instead of just having some fun (which we had plenty of), Team Penguin decided we'd put some of our own skin in the game with a friendly monetary play-off, and invite some of our friends to match our contributions.

Here's how it worked:

• 11 people, four teams and two sheets of ice at the Vancouver Curling Club

• For each rock left in play at the completion of an end by a team, the opposing team agreed to donate a set amount per rock, depending on where it sits in the rings ($10 for the button, $5 for red, $3 for white, $2 for blue and $1 for making it across the hog line)

• We invite friends and businesses in our collective network to match Team Penguin contributions

• Peer Giving matches all contributions

And here's how the total numbers turned out:

• 2 buttons = $20
• 8 in the red = $40
• 12 in the white = $36
• 22 in the blue = $44
• 28 in play (but not in the house) = $28

Total 'scored' contributions ($168) + contributions from team members who couldn't physically make it to curling ($40) = $208 in total Team Penguin donations.

Stay tuned for a video of the afternoon's fun, and for donations to start coming in!