Folding At Home

Protein folding is linked to disease, such as Alzheimer's, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers.

The Non Profit Organization has proudly joined the effort at Stanford University's Folding At Home project to help understand protein folding, misfolding, and related diseases.

What is protein folding?

Proteins are biology's workhorses -- its "nanomachines." Before proteins can carry out these important functions, they assemble themselves, or "fold." The process of protein folding, while critical and fundamental to virtually all of biology, in many ways remains a mystery.

Moreover, when proteins do not fold correctly (i.e. "misfold"), there can be serious consequences, including many well known diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers and cancer-related syndromes.
The Non Profit Organization is now assisting in the effort by using spare CPU power from our computers to help crunch the massive amounts of data this project requires.

You can easily view our TEAM PROGRESS in the project Here.

The global progress of the Stanford University project is available here.

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?

#1. > Download < this tiny snippet of program to your computer, install it. The software runs in the background on your computer, using idle CPU power. You won't even know it's there. Please tell your friends to do the same!

#2. Click the icon that was installed on your system, and in the configuration option, enter team number 175606.

#3. Please visit Project: THE MATRIX! The image above shows 8 Sony PS3 systems interlinked together, allowing their individual computing power to be clustered into a mini super computer. We aren't going to just provide some extra computing power. In fact, this has been the inspiration for a major new project that has never been attempted before!

"Concise-ity"

After conferring with several people, we see the need to make things a bit more "CONCISE" on the charity site, starting with our mission statement, all the way down to how we can display the charity financials within the limits of the (blogger.com) platform we are using to host the site.

This week we will be making changes to the site, emerging even leaner, meaner (in a good way), and ready to take on the world! ...a little at a time :)

Our First Cause...

Just a few short months ago, This charity didn't even exist. A fleeting inspirational spark in the mind started the wheels moving. Born from 4 users of the twitter social networking service, started with $0.00...

All necessary documents have been filed, incorporated as a Not For Profit, and 501(c)(3) Tax Exemption filed with the IRS. All forming documents, as well as ongoing running financials, are now also posted online and available for the viewing pleasure of anyone who wishes to see.

We have successfully raised funds to purchase a basic, low cost computer to organize charity functions, answer emails, maintain the website, blog, etc.

The basic founding structure is in place, and it is now time for our very first CAUSE / ISSUE to focus on!

Eyeglasses for someone who doesn't have insurance or funds?
Blankets, food, and basic medical supplies for a No-Kill animal shelter?
School books for a child?

We would LOVE to hear your suggestions! Since we are a new charity with no funds, we would have to do a fundraiser for the new cause. We are thinking of the following criteria:

A budget of $500 or less, Focus on a very specific cause, We want to be able to document BEFORE and AFTER with pictures or video, so people can see their dollars actually doing something and making a real difference.

Eventually we will have multiple causes and fundraisers for each one simultaneously, however since this will be our first one, it is wise to start "small" and work our way up and grow from there.

Comment on this post with your suggestions, or email them directly to:

thenonprofitorganization@gmail.com

Open and public CHARITY FINANCIALS

In an effort to provide as much information about the charity as possible, we will now be posting ongoing running financials of the charity here.

The charity bank accounts were opened in July, so we will post the information from July to date, then the financials will be posted monthly in real time.

You will always find the financials link on the main page of the charity site.

LAST MINUTE FUNDRAISER PUSH!

We are making one last fundraiser push to make up the $150 that we fell short of during the fundraiser a couple days ago. If everyone would click the DONATE button on the right and pop in just $1 each...a tiny amount each person adds up to alot of many do it.

We can do it with YOUR help!

Thank you!

Fundraiser

We would like to take a moment to thank all of the sincere and wonderful people who donated so generously on our Twitter fundraiser yesterday.

BestBuy had an HP Mini netbook normally $499, on sale for $399. This charity is still in the formation / development stages, and we need a simple, low cost pc to organize charity operations, reply to emails, maintain the website and blog, etc.

The Best Buy sale only lasted for a week, and ends today (Saturday 1-31-09). We raised $290 of our $399 goal! While we didn't make our goal, it certainly warmed our hearts to know that so many truly do care.

OK, we didn't make the goal, so now what? Well, the charity will still end up getting the computer, but it will just take a bit longer. We will hold the funds on standby in our bank account at Bank Of America where they are safe, and request additional financial donations of support from the local business community till we have enough to buy the computer.

When that happens, and we receive the computer, we will have an "unboxing event", and take video so you can all see the reward of our hard work, and share in the celebration.

Thank you again for your generosity.

Sincerely,

Ari Burton, President.

PROGRESS:

By popular request, we have added a one time donation link!

Normally we ask for a small monthly donation of support. Why? Well, it's guaranteed incoming funds we can count on to budget and plan programs around.

It's like a paycheck. When you have a job, you get a paycheck that you can depend on to be there, so you know how much you have to spend for rent, gas, food, etc.

It's the same for a charity. Having reliable monthly donations of support lets us budget so we know what we can depend on to be there every month.

For example, If 5,000 people each donate just one dollar every month to the charity, that's $5,000 we can depend on to be there every month, and we can then plan programs.

However, many have asked for a ONE TIME donation link, so we have responded! Simply click the DONATE button on the right side of the page, and it will take you to a secure PayPal page where you can enter in whatever amount you wish to donate.

URGENT UPDATE!:

Unfortunately, whenever you try to do something good, inevitably there are individuals that will try to tear you down and destroy, either from jealousy, or some other agenda.

It has come to our attention that several people on Twitter.com are spreading defamatory comments that The Non Profit Organization is a scam, that we don't actually DO anything, etc.

This is 100% FALSE and LIES.

We are registered with the IRS as a charity, we are incorporated in the state of Wyoming as a Not For Profit organization. We are only 3 months old, so we have not been able to do anything yet, as we have just formed, and trying to blossom.

Simply by seeking donations of just $1 a person for a brand new charity, this has raised such blind hatred, it is beyond measure.

For those of you who don't understand, I urge you to please read the links to the right, telling about the charity governance, mission statement, transparency statement, etc.

I sincerely hope those of you reading this, will understand, and share our vision of what we can accomplish.

Sincerely,

Ari Burton, President, The Non Profit Organization.

Everything Coming Together

Although barely 3 months old now, The Non Profit Organization is starting to blossom as everything is coming together.

The website now clearly states our intentions and operating philosophy, we are fully integrated with PayPal to receive incoming donations, and now we are seeking corporate sponsors for additional incoming donations.

Now that the charity is reaching a nice stride, we can start to focus attention away from STARTING a new charity, to ACTING like a charity.

This means targeting causes and issues to raise funds for, and make a difference.

Transparency Statement Added

Due to many frequently asked questions, we have added a new charity TRANSPARENCY STATEMENT to the site to clarify how money is spent on what for internal charity operations.

You will find this link, along with the Mission Statement, and other important links, down the right hand side of the website.

This helps provide you with more information of what we are all about, answers many of your questions, plus cleans up the navigation of the main charity page.

NEW INFORMATION

Please read all the information along the right hand column of the website. I have just added some new information that I hope will make it easier for everyone to understand exactly what The Non Profit Organization actually DOES.

I welcome your comments. Comment on this post, or email thenonprofitorganization@gmail.com

Thank you.