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Now before I start telling you 
how to build a school in 3 hours.

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I want to tell you a bit of the back story

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and some of the research
that went into it first.

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So the back story started in 2003,

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when I first started giving
10% of my income away to Charity.

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Which at the time didn't amount to much,
because I was living

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in a rented basement suite, 
driving a truck with no reverse

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and recycling the same 3 T-shirts
every 3 days,

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and you don't even want to hear
about my boxer situation. (Laughter)

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But luckily that changed,
and it changed mostly in 2005,

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when I got into real estate. 
I'm not sure if you remember, but --

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the real estate market wasn't always like this;
it used to be really good,

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and that's when I got into business,
when it was doing that,

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and I rode the coattails of that market really hard, 
and then, in 2008,

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I was so busy, I had my biggest year
ever in real estate,

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that I didn't have time to choose 
where to give that 10% of the money,

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so it just kind of accumulated into an account, 
and then in November,

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I looked at it and realized
there's a lot of cash in there.

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I thought, "Wow!
This could really make a difference,

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but all I know is real estate."

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I had no idea where to give it.

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So I sought out the most knowledgeable person
on charity in the city,

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a guy named Zack Whyte, who's sitting right there. 
He's really tall.

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And I said, "Zack look! I've got this money saved up, 
I have no idea where to give it,

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all I know is condos. 
Where will it make the biggest impact?"

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And he told me about 3 different charities going on, 
or projects going on in Africa

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one of which he was raising money for at the time,

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called "Free The Children." 
Within 45 minutes,

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we created a beautiful bromance. 
And I looked at him and said,

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"Zack this all sounds fantastic! 
Let’s go check it out."

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And he said, "What do you mean check it out? 
We’ve just met."

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And I said, "Let’s go there! 
Between the money that you've rised,

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and the money that I'm going to give; 
we've got a lot of cash.

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This could make a big difference. 
Let’s go to Africa and see for ourselves."

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And he looked at me like I was nuts,

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and he looked at me
like he was looking right into my soul

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and he said, "Taylor we're going to change lives,
I mean a 100%

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I just got to check with my wife first." 
(Laughter)

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And luckily she said yes. 


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And 4 months later, 
Zack and I went and landed in Uganda.

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We travelled for 2 days
outside the capital city of Uganda

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to the border of The Congo, 
at the top of the Ruwenzori Mountain Range,

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where we saw this. 
And it's beautiful, I was so separated

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that I remember saying to him,
"Zack, this is so cool,

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we’re so bad-ass, we're in Uganda!"

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I was like, "I know there is stuff going on 
in the Congo right now,

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I don't know what, I've heard bad things about it, 
like -- this is dangerous!

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This is really cool!" (Laughter) 
And I looked to him and said,

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"Zack it's so beautiful!
There're so many kids everywhere.

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Zack, why are there so many kids?"

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And he turned to me and looked -- he's 6'7'' --
he looked down at me

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and said, "Taylor," 
(Laughter)

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"50% of this village has AIDS,
their parents are dead."

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At that moment, the trip turned 
from being an adventure, really fun,

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to being the most
transformational experience of my life,

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because this was the first time I saw the world,
instead of just my world.

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Then we went to Kenya,
where we met kids

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who would have to walk 11 kilometres,
each way every day,

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to collect dirty water
that their families would use

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to cook with, clean with,
bathe in and drink.

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And then we saw the schools they were learning in, 
and they're made of mud,

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dung and sticks, and tiny little rickety desks.

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And there's no overhead lights, no electricity,
small windows, dirt floors.

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And just keeping kids coming to learn
in this environment,

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let alone keeping teachers coming to teach, 
was a massive challenge.

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But then we saw the schools
that "Free The Children" was building.

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And they're beautiful: 
there's skylights and huge windows,

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and the kids were smiling 
and so happy to be there and learn,

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and the teachers were happy to be there 
and to come and teach.

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And 2 weeks after I got back to Canada
from that life changing trip,

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I got an e-mail from "Free The Children",
saying that the money that Zack had raised

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was going to build a beautiful school

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just like that, in Kenya

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and the money that I've donated

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was going to build the first library
in that region of Kenya

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and help educate
thousands and thousands of kids.

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And that feeling, that feeling of contribution,

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that feeling of changing the world for the better,

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was something I can't put into words.

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And it's something
I became addicted to immediately.

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It’s something I wanted to get
all my friends involved in,

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all my family; I wanted everyone
to feel this feeling.

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I became that -- 
you know when you read a book, 


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like a really good life-changing book, 
or you watch a documentary

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and something like clicks in your head,
and you go like, "Oh!

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If everybody just read this book 
or just watched this documentary

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the world would be a better place. 
And everyone would be so much happier."

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That's who I became.
And you know, you go around,

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telling all your friends to read it,
and maybe one does.

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That's who I became after I came back from Africa,
and I was like running around,

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I was like, "You guys have to give, 
it's unbelievable, it feels incredible.

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You don't need the new truck, 
you don't need the house

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you don't need anything, give everything away,
it feels so amazing!

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Hop on the giving train, it's a sweet ride!"
(Laughter)

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I remember looking back and being -- 
and no one was getting on. (Laughter)

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And it was at that moment that I realized 
that that model of fundraising,

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where we have a cause like: 


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"Oh! AIDS in Uganda, 
and there's the bad schools in Kenya."

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And we go around kind of shoving it down 
as many people’s throats as possible,

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hoping to cough out cash,

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is not only exhausting,
but it was really pissing my friends off. (Laughter)

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So at that moment I decided I wanted
to get my friends to give on their terms,

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and I wanted other people to give on their terms. 
I wanted them to feel the feeling

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that I had when I found out
that I'd built a library.

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I wanted them to feel it out of pleasure and joy, 
not out of guilt or duty.

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So I started to experiment, 


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to find out what it was that truly makes people
give on their terms.

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And the first experiment I did was called
"A $1,000 into $5,000 contest".

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And in that I put on my blog,
and on my Facebook

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that I'd give a free trip to anywhere 
in North or Central America

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to the best idea to turn
$1,000 into $5,000 for charity.

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And I got dozens of ideas from four different countries,
the most memorable

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and tempting of which came 
from a young woman in the United States,

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who suggested that I get 
50 of my male friends together

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and we all go donate sperm.
(Laughter)

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Collecting the $100 you get per donation. 
She argued it was a brilliant idea

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because it was an activity that most of the guys 
were probably doing

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for free that day anyways.
(Laughter)

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And so it should probably be going 
to benefiting a good cause. (Laughter)

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She didn't win.
(Laughter)

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The person who did 
win was a young and inspiring runner,

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named Megan Nickle, from Vancouver.
What Megan did,

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she took out a $1,000 and she built a website called
"Themarathonofgiving.com".

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And she got a bunch of her friends

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to commit to running the Vancouver marathon with her,
and then featured them on the site,

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and got other people to pledge on those runners,

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in a micro giving sell fashion 
that I'll talk about in about 5 minutes.

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The next experiment I did was called
"A $100 give away".

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And in that I gave 25 of my friends
$100 each, and said,

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"All you have to do with this money 
is add at least $20 of your own money,

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you can add as much as you want, 
at least $20 of your own money,

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and give it away to charity. 
Then send me a video of you that says

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who you gave it to, why you gave it to them,
and how it made you feel.

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Some people gave $20, some people gave $40, 
a friend of mine from Kelowna, Joel, gave $400;

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and Zack, the guy I went to Africa with,

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Zack went on to Facebook
and wrote a post saying,


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"My friend just gave me $100 
to put towards this cool cause.

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I'm putting in 20 dollars; 
I'd love for my friends to get involved too".

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And overnight Zack raised $800
from one Facebook post,

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and that taught me an incredible amount 
about what people really get involved from.

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And the next experiment that I did,

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is my favourite by far, and it's hilarious.

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It's called
"The Early Entrepreneurs Experiment."

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And in this I partnered with a young teacher 
from an elementary school

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here in Victoria, named Cristina.

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And Cristina and I went around in her school, 
we gave $100 each to 18 classes,

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with the challenge of them
turning that $100 into $500

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for charity. And we said if they did it,

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18 times five is $9000 -- which is just enough

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to build a big beautiful school in Kenya,

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for kids just like them,
on the other side of the world.

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And I have just enough time
to tell you a quick story,

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about one of the classes that I went into. 
I was walking around,

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giving these $100 bills away, it was hilarious. 
And the kids --

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I walked into a class,
a grade 2 class, so picture

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7 years old all cross legged on the floor,

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and they gave me this
stupid little chair to sit in (Laughter)

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and I sat in it, and I said to the kids,

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"OK you guys, what are your ideas? 
How are you going to turn this $100

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into $500 for charity? It’s going to be amazing." 
And the teacher said,

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"Well we're already prepared for you." 
And they had this flip chart,

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she flips up this flip chart,
and it's got the regular

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basic ideas: bake sale, lemonade stand, 
candy counting contest, pizza night...

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and right here, in the bottom, it says: 
"Dylan's plays and stories".

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And I went, "Who's Dylan?" 
And this kid at the back,

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let me show you this,
this kid in the back

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sitting totally nonchalant, 
separated from the rest of the group, goes:

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"Uhhhh!"
(Laughter)

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And I said, "Dylan what are your plays
and stories buddy?"

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And he goes, "Uhhh!"

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[He] gets up, all the kids look up at him like, 
"Yes! Dylan’s gonna talk."

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(Laughter) 
And he starts pacing, he says,

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"Well, I've written a couple of books." 
This guy is seven!

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"I've written a couple of books and plays, 
they're pretty successful. (Laughter)

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"And I've written a play
for all the kids to perform."

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And the kids were going, "Yeah!"
(Laughter)

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"And for all the kids to perform, 
were gonna charge $50 a head,

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we'll probably get it done in a night."

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(Laughter)

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Like this. And that, 
and dozens of other stories like it,

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taught me more about peoples' true motivations 
behind giving,

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because I've learned more from this group
of wide-open-minded creative children

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than I ever could from
a socially-conditioned group of adults.

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After doing these 3 experiments, I came up 
with a formula of five motivators

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behind given that I believe,
when combined correctly,

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will not only motivate anyone to give, 
but it will make them happy,

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excited and thank you, 
for getting them to give in the first place.

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Those five motivators are: 
Number one, group mentality.

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We love to be part of a group, 
whether it's teammates or co-workers,

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or family or friends. 
People are far more apt to give

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when they know they're part of a group, 
because of that kind of peer pressure mentality.

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Number two, tangible outcome.

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Whether it's buying a goat or digging a well, 
or building a school,

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people love to see
a visual representation for their giving:

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this amount of money went to this,

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and I've changed the world with this. 
It feels really good,

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so it's a huge motivator behind giving.

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And number three, micro giving.

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This is what I was talking about 
in that marathon of giving contest,

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because Megan,
when she asked people to pledge,

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she didn't ask for people to pledge
3 or 4 hundred dollars at a time.

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She asked people to do what she called

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"Give a marathon", and what that means is,

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she asked people to give 4 dollars and 20 cents a day
-- the price of an expensive latte --

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for 42 days, because there's 42 kilometres
in a marathon, 42 days!

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And she said that was the secret
behind her success.

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She said that people could relate 
to 4 dollars and 20 cents a day,

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far better than they could ever relate 
to a big chunk of three or four hundred dollars.

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And number four is personal connection. 
This is best reflected

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in Zack's Facebook post. 
And if you read the comments

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below his Facebook post, 
everyone who donated commented and said,

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I'm giving 5 bucks, 20 bucks, whatever; 
nothing mentions the cause.

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All it says is, "Thank you for getting us
involved in this, Zack",

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"You’re the best Zack". 
"We’d get involved in everything you do",

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00:11:27,786 --> 00:11:29,062
Zack, Zack, Zack --

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Nothing about the cause.
(Laughter)

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Which, on a serious note,

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is what I think is, not wrong,
but has evolved

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in the traditional model of fundraising,

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in that we're "caused out" as humans. 
You know what I mean.

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There's an application
called Facebook causes,

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the thing that makes it work 
is saying that your cause is worse

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than the next cause,
and worse than the next cause,

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and showing, like, Photoshoped pictures of kids, 
you know what I mean,

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to really make you feel bad,
which I don't really like. 


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And I realized that us as a society
are numb to this,

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because we've been
inundated by it for decades.

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So I realized that the relationship 
between the potential donor

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and the fundraising itself 
is far more important than the cause.

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And number five is Recognition. 
This is very evident

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in the early entrepreneur experiment
'cause kids are very honest

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with what motivates them.
They love recognition.

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I think us as adults love recognition as well, 
but we've been conditioned

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to say that we don't. 
And I love recognition in giving

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for two big reasons. Number one, 
it correlates a really good emotion

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to the act of giving, 
making people far more apt to give more

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and continuously in the future.

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And number two, recognizing people for giving 
inspires other people to give,

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and recognizing them
inspires other people to give, etc.

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So those five again are: number one, group mentality; number two, tangible outcome;

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number three, micro giving; four, personal connection; 
and five, recognition.

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So after I had this group of five, this formula
of 5 motivators, I had to test it.

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So we created the most thought out, yet
casual-sounding, text message ever written

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and I wrote it to 15 of my friends and it said,
"You, me, and a bunch of our friends

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are going to get together 
to build a school in Kenya

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for hundreds of deserving kids. 
We are all giving $3.33 a day for 3 quick months

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-- I know you spend more than that 
on hair product every month.

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There is a site being made
with your picture on it --

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your mom is going to be so proud!"
(Laughter)

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And if you look at that a bit closer, 
it has all five of those motivators in it.

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"You and me", personal connection; 
"a bunch of our friends", group mentality;

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"are going to get together to build a school
in Kenya", tangible outcome;

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“for hundreds of deserving kids. 
We are all giving $3.33 a day", micro giving;

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"for 3 quick months. I know you spend more than that 
on hair products every month" --

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that's just a fact with my friends.
(Laughter)

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"There is a site being made with your picture on it,

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and your mom is going to be so proud!"

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After sending this to 15 of my friends, 
these are

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the replies that I got: 
"Yes!", "I'm in", "Done", "How do we pay?"

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and my personal favourite from my friend Pete:

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"I guess I'll look like a dick if I don't do it
so count me in". (Laughter)

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Worked!
(Laughter)

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00:13:55,989 --> 00:14:00,619
After this -- this was 15 people, 
$3.33 a day for 3 months --

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I realized I'd just raised
$5,000 from a text message.

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A little bit more would be enough 
to build one of those beautiful schools

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in Kenya for hundreds of deserving kids, 
from a 67 word text.

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00:14:12,945 --> 00:14:16,977
My head was exploding
with how easy this was,

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and I knew that I was just
a huge step forward

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00:14:20,630 --> 00:14:23,985
toward my goal of getting my friends
involved on their terms,

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and wanting to get involved. 
So I partnered up with a friend of mine,

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who’s a brilliant graphic designer
named Steven Zozula,

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and we made a video, an animated video. 
I don't have time to show it all to you,

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but the video said how it was $3.33 a day, 
how it was building a school,

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how it was a whole bunch
of a group of us doing it,

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and that we'd given them
certificates for doing it,

276
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for that recognition factor. 


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And not only do we say that they would be
featured on our website,

278
00:14:46,524 --> 00:14:48,379
but we said that we'd give
them e-mail signatures

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and web badges; so it kind of spread the news
and show people they were giving,

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00:14:51,883 --> 00:14:55,956
giving more recognition. And we codded
the e-mail signatures and web badges,

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in a way that, for example, if John Mardlin, 
who is organizing this TEDx event,

282
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was in my campaign and I sent it to him, 
and he got the e-mail signature,

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if someone clicked on John's e-mail signature,

284
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it would move his picture to the top of the site,

285
00:15:09,153 --> 00:15:12,257
giving him all the recognition. 
So [we] basically took the recognition

286
00:15:12,257 --> 00:15:15,604
and put it on steroids. 
The only thing that was missing from this

287
00:15:15,604 --> 00:15:17,967
was the real personal connection.

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00:15:17,967 --> 00:15:21,445
So before sending
any of my friends the video I filmed,

289
00:15:21,445 --> 00:15:24,784
33 10-second clips of me,
individually to each friend

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00:15:24,784 --> 00:15:28,662
that I was gonna send it to, 
saying for example, "John you're amazing,

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00:15:28,662 --> 00:15:30,871
how did you get all these 
good looking people here at TEDx,

292
00:15:30,871 --> 00:15:32,764
we’re gonna change the world tonight,

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00:15:32,764 --> 00:15:36,549
this is how it’s gonna work." 
That would lead into the 4-minute video

294
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and then we put those, 
the combination of those videos

295
00:15:39,661 --> 00:15:43,843
right at the top of a donation page.

296
00:15:44,751 --> 00:15:48,753
So people would watch the video. 
It’s all encrypted, it’s a secure site,

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00:15:48,753 --> 00:15:51,526
and they didn't have to click anything, 
they'd be inspired from the video

298
00:15:51,526 --> 00:15:54,658
they'd just scroll down a little bit, 
enter their information, so within one minute

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00:15:54,658 --> 00:15:58,254
of watching the video they could click
"Let’s build a school", and they'd be done.

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00:15:58,254 --> 00:16:01,466
I sent it out to 33 friends and acquaintances.

301
00:16:01,466 --> 00:16:05,219
And with what took me 3 hours to do, 
to narrate over the animated video,

302
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to film my short videos -- I'd raised $10,000 
to build a school in Kenya.

303
00:16:12,553 --> 00:16:19,324
(Applause)

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00:16:22,786 --> 00:16:25,038
So we knew at this point 
there were going to be some people saying,

305
00:16:25,038 --> 00:16:27,889
"Well, maybe Taylor’s got a bunch 
of his friends that owe favours",

306
00:16:27,889 --> 00:16:29,952
or something like that,
so I needed a guinea-pig.

307
00:16:29,952 --> 00:16:33,169
And I wanted someone technically challenged, 
so that anybody

308
00:16:33,169 --> 00:16:35,206
would look at them and say,
"Well, if they could do it I can do it".

309
00:16:35,206 --> 00:16:37,141
I wanted someone so technically challenged

310
00:16:37,141 --> 00:16:39,284
that they didn't even know how to text.

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00:16:39,284 --> 00:16:45,294
So I called my mum.
(Laughter)

312
00:16:45,294 --> 00:16:48,182
Sorry mum, she's right here.
(Laughter)

313
00:16:48,182 --> 00:16:52,706
I didn't have any other pictures
on Facebook, sorry. (Laughter)

314
00:16:52,706 --> 00:16:56,007
And my mum, in the time
that it would take to watch

315
00:16:56,007 --> 00:16:59,955
the season finale of "Survivor", 
raised enough money to build a school

316
00:16:59,955 --> 00:17:02,676
in Nepal for hundreds and hundreds of girls.

317
00:17:03,306 --> 00:17:07,849
And then my dad did it, 
probably because my mum told him to.

318
00:17:07,849 --> 00:17:09,967
And now, my girlfriend is doing it. 
She's raising enough money

319
00:17:09,967 --> 00:17:12,387
to build a school in India.

320
00:17:12,648 --> 00:17:15,012
But the cool thing about this, 
is that it doesn't have to be people close to me.

321
00:17:15,012 --> 00:17:18,169
Anyone can do this. 
We've made a website that anyone

322
00:17:18,169 --> 00:17:20,442
can build a school in 3 hours 
in five simple steps:

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00:17:20,442 --> 00:17:23,611
Step 1, you enter the friends 
that you want to have take part.

324
00:17:24,471 --> 00:17:27,545
Step 2, you pick the country in the world 
that you want to build

325
00:17:27,545 --> 00:17:31,294
your school in; it’s already set up, 
dozens and dozens of countries.

326
00:17:31,294 --> 00:17:34,378
Step 3, you narrate over the animated video

327
00:17:34,378 --> 00:17:36,965
we give a script and all that, it’s really easy.

328
00:17:36,965 --> 00:17:40,213
Step 4, you film those little personal videos
to establish

329
00:17:40,213 --> 00:17:42,831
that really good connection 
with each friend that you're sending it to.

330
00:17:42,831 --> 00:17:48,010
And number 5, you sit back
and watch your friends' elation

331
00:17:48,010 --> 00:17:52,837
and $10,000 come in to build a school,
anywhere in the world that you want.

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00:17:55,759 --> 00:18:00,558
Now all of this can be summed up
in a really brilliant quote by Margaret Mead.

333
00:18:02,189 --> 00:18:05,589
It says, "Never doubt that a group 
of thoughtful, committed citizens

334
00:18:05,589 --> 00:18:08,543
can change the world;

335
00:18:08,543 --> 00:18:11,879
indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has". 
Thank you.

336
00:18:11,879 --> 00:18:21,620
(Applause)

337
00:18:21,620 --> 00:18:24,669
Presenter: Before you step off, 
at the end of that presentation,

338
00:18:24,669 --> 00:18:26,497
what's the name of the website
that you talked about,

339
00:18:26,497 --> 00:18:28,974
but you didn't give a web address for?

340
00:18:28,974 --> 00:18:32,496
Taylor: It’s ten in three dot com, 
which stands for $10,000 in 3 hours.

341
00:18:32,496 --> 00:18:37,241
So it's "teninthree.com" 


342
00:18:37,287 --> 00:18:40,004
P: Thank you very much, Taylor. 
T: Thank you.