A few days ago I launched what was certainly my first foray into crowdfunding and with great elation, surprise and excitement I can now announce that my airfare, by Sandbox Network. I want to extend a very heartfelt thank you to Roni, Kara, Nadia and everyone at Sandbox for the gracious opportunity. As my Portuguese friends would say obrigado e até breve. (Thanks and see you soon)

As for anyone who is still considering contributing I recommend you check out my good friend Mac-Jordan Degadjor’s campaign here. Do it. He is awesome.

According to Wikipedia, the popular phrase Harambee is summed up as follows:

Harambee literally means “all pull together” in Swahili, and is also the official motto of Kenya and appears on its coat of arms.

I’ve spent the entire year developing a network of social capital with friends, colleagues and partners all around me chipping in ideas, connections and doing business with some amazing people and really valuing the power of networks. Part of that saw me join the Sandbox Network, described as one of the world’s leading networks of innovative young leaders under 30.

The Sandbox Global Summit next year brings an opportunity to shape conversations around the future of business and bring a developing economy perspective, and more importantly an African perspective to the table.

Now, I look back to the community and network of people to support my campaign to attend the Summit. Hereby placing myself as a candidate for a crowdfunding campaign.

I’m fundraising for my trip and need your support to attend in January next year. It’s a total of $2,500 and I’ve put in $200 of my own to set things rolling. For smart companies, sponsorship represents an incredible opportunity to get their brands/products onto a global stage with some of the world’s most influential +600 people and their networks. More on that here.

Along with Sandbox, we’ve included a whole lot of perks (including some of my own) for people who contribute to support my campaign including:

• Ndovu (Elephant) Sponsorship $1,000 – The Sandbox Manifesto: a playbook capturing the rules top young talents apply to innovation and changing the game of tomorrow. A personally signed Moleskine Notebook with my original Sketchnotes from the Sandbox Summit and 1 hour of consulting time on a project of your choice as well as all the perks below in the Simba Sponsorship
• Simba (Lion) Sponsorship $500 – A Golden Sponsorship package for the Sandbox Global Summit, a Feature on the Sandbox and all the perks below in the Duma Sponsorship
• Duma (Cheetah) Sponsorship $350 – A Silver Sponsorship package for the Sandbox Global Summit with name and photo/logo on the Sandbox website and a copy of my ebook to be published in Q1 2011, personal video thank you and a personal letter hand-written and mailed to you through the post
• Chui (Leopard) Sponsorship: $200 – Bronze Sponsorship of the Sandbox Global Summit with name listed on Sandbox Website + A personal Video thanking you + All Perks of Kifaru Sponsorship
• Kifaru (Rhino) Sponsorship: $100 – Co-created highlights of the Summit by the rest of the Sandbox participants + All perks of Nyati Sponsorship
• Nyati (Buffalo) Sponsorship: $30 – A personal thank you + My personal impressions of the Summit + A copy of my Sketchnotes from the Global Summit

My IndieGoGo page is here. I hope you can join me in the e-Harambee or in this day and age perhaps it would be better known as an iHarambee.

And to quote a popular Swahili proverb Haba na haba hujaza kibaba – little by little fills the measure.

More on Sandbox in the video below