Dear Mr. von Uexkull,

Thank you for helping to inspire a more peaceful, just and sustainable world by supporting those who have dedicated their lives to making the world a better place, and even more importantly, by bringing their actions and dedication to the public's attention. Their stories fill us with hope and the courage to keep trying in our own ways to build a better world.

This has been my own motivation for the past 12 years, as well, first with the People For Peace Project (www.CultureofPeace.com and www.PeaceKids.net) and now with our tiny nonprofit, The BetterWorld Project (www.BetterWorld.net) which provides over 1500 FREE printable resources addressing over 75 social issues for teachers, parents and students. For this project I have incorporated 926 (and counting) BetterWorld Hero portraits I have drawn, with the inspiring words they have shared to create an interconnected web of resources and a calendar of opportunities to raise awareness and inspire action for those causes. My goal is to reach 1000 BetterWorld Heroes by the end of the year and so far I have included over 65 Right Livelihood Award winners (please see: www.betterworldheroes.com/rightlivelihood

The BetterWorld Project resources I am creating are being utilized all around the world - the site receives 1.5 million hits each month, but so far I've been working so hard to create this resource that I haven't been able to reach out for funding for this 1-person nonprofit project. This hasn't been a problem in the past because I had a great job as the Managing Director of a small philanthropic granting organization for 8 years and had plenty of time to pursue my passion for a better world without having to worry about making it financially sustainable for my family of 2 kids. However the Foundation relocated and I decided to take the opportunity to focus all my attention on this new BetterWorld Project that was a culmination of my work these past 12 years, in the hopes of making it sustainable. Unfortunately I've exhausted my resources and now find myself in a precarious position.

As the former director of a grantmaking organization, I know that emergency funding requests (particularly for something that isn't even within the foundation's guidelines) are rarely even able to be considered, but I am hoping that you will consider this humble request.

As the published author of 40 books, the next stage after I complete the 1000 BetterWorld Heroes is to begin compiling them into a series of books, both freely printable from the internet, and as inexpensive printed publications, which would provide a means of making this nonprofit project sustainable. I would like to feature the Right Livelihood Award winners as the first group of BetterWorld Heroes in the series. As I've done with all the other resources on the site, my vision is to create stand-alone printable pages so that teachers and activists can print and copy them as resources for discussion and action. (Each hero page would feature his/her portrait, brief biography, inspiring quote and simple ways that one can get involved in the issue that hero advocates.) Just a small amount of seed funding to get me through the next few months would allow me to finish building this resource to the point where it would be a viable, fundable, sustainable project.

Thank you for your consideration of this rather unorthodox request.

With deep appreciation for what you are doing for us all, and
For a BetterWorld,

Bob

Robert Alan Silverstein Silverstein
Director
The BetterWorld Project
(A Project of We, The World, Inc)
211 East 43rd St. Suite 710
New York, NY 10017
609-443-5786
www.BetterWorld.net

This is one type of resource - there are about 500 full-page versions of these
HeroPix (www.BetterWorldCalendar.com/heropix.htm) currently posted. My portrait skills have greatly improved since this
early portrait was done in 2005 and this is one of the ones I will be redoing.