While domain investors and domain industry companies are coming together to do business at NamesCon in Austin this coming week, I want to highlight two fundraising efforts that will be happening during the conference. NamesCon organizers are helping to raise funds for a school in Guatemala, and proceeds from two domain names in the auction will be donated to the Internet Commerce Association (ICA).
Here are the details about these two fundraising efforts:
NamesCon School:
I received an email from NamesCon announcing its NamesCon School fundraising effort. Here’s what organizers had to say about the need they hope to fill:
“The student population in Los Encuentros is growing, and some kids have been turned away due to lack of space—it’s urgent that we expand the school building to ensure that all pupils can attend classes and receive quality education. The village has a population of 1280 people, and currently there are 261 children attending classes in the El Rosario school. Rural areas in Guatemala face challenges such as limited access to clean water, poor school facilities, and a lack of teachers.
We want to build two brand-new classrooms to extend the existing structure, as well as new sanitary facilities. But first we need to build a floor slab that resists the region’s frequent earthquakes. This will be the secure foundation for the two classrooms that will be built afterwards.”
Just prior to the NamesCon auction on Thursday, there will be a warmup auction. Proceeds from the brief auction will go directly to NamesCon School. The goal is to raise $40,000.
You can learn more about the fundraiser on the NamesCon website.
Auction to Benefit ICA:
In addition to this fundraiser, another auction-related effort will help raise funds for the ICA. Auction organizers will be donating a portion of their commission upon the sale of Directions.com and ToolChest.com. Here’s what NamesCon wrote about this:
“Two names that will definitely be in the live auction are toolchest.com and directions.com: the auction organizers are donating 50% of commissions from these sales to the Internet Commerce Association (ICA), thus benefitting the domaining community as a whole.”
Directions.com, which has a reserve price range of $50,000 – $100,000 was submitted to the auction by Matt Wegrzyn. ToolChest.com, which has no reserve, was submitted to the auction by Shane Cultra.
Too bad Directions.com doesn’t redirect to auction for potential bidders.
Mary, we will make that change asap. Thanks
ICA is not effective without litigation.
All in for philanthropic causes, but it’s a bit odd that funding a Nicaraguan school is on a domain conference agenda? Franky, the $40,000 goal for the school will probably be far more than what the two domains can raise for the ICA. The funds would be better spent all going to the ICA or to a domain industry/domainer-friendly cause, supporting our industry. Again, it’s all good to raise funds for underprivileged kids, but raising domainer funds to build a first floor slab for a school in Los Encuentros seems very random for a domain industry event.
so true. underprivileged kids get all the breaks and i for one am sick of it.