Not too long ago Seth Godin announced on his blog that he was going to reinvent the way books were published and read with The Domino Project. In his words:
The notion of the paper book as merely a package for information is slowly becoming obsolete. There must be other reasons on offer, or smart people will go digital, or read something free. The book is still an ideal tool for the hand-to-hand spreading of important ideas, though. The point of the book is to be spread, to act as a manifesto, to get in sync with others, to give and to get and to hand around.
We’ve heard people say after reading a book, “It changed my life!” But can books save lives? Well, that’s a stretch – but a book that has an embedded donation to a charity with a mission to end Malaria can help that charity save lives.
The Domino Project in conjunction with Box of Crayons is working with Malaria No More to help raise money to end malaria. Today marks the publication of the book, “End Malaria,” a compilation of short pieces by 62 business leaders about how to rethink the way you work.
They are donating $20 from the purchase of each copy of End Malaria to Malaria No More to send a mosquito net to a family in need and fight against malaria. The book launch is being celebrated by declaring September 7th “End Malaria Day. ”
Malaria No More has a track record of doing attention getting online fundraisers involving celebrities. In 2009, Aston Kutcher challenged CNN (@cnnbrk) to a Twitter race to see which could reach 1M followers first. Ashton pledged to donate 10,000 mosquito nets to MNM if he got there first, and his pledge catapulted him to success. The race was part of the World Malaria Day in 2009.
For World Malaria Day in 2010, there were many ways that social media users could participate and support World Malaria Day while supporting Malaria No More. This also included an experiment in “RT” to give matching grant.
If you purchase the book, End Malaria, you’ll not only get a collection of short essays on leadership themes of focus, courage, and resilience. You’ll also be supporting a charity with a noble mission.
