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Unmute yourself.

For you, it’s as simple as clicking a button. For millions of girls around the world it’s impossible. Because they don’t have a voice.

Let’s unmute ourselves, on their behalf.

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THE CHALLENGE

Did you catch someone speaking while they’re still on mute?

Share the link to this website.

Challenge your friend, family member or coworker to donate to our campaign.

“You’re still on mute.” Since working from home has become the norm, many people hear this phrase on a daily basis. Indeed, it’s easy to forget to unmute yourself before you start speaking. It obviously took us all some time to get adjusted to the workings of online meetings, but after almost two years there should be no more excuses. If by now you still forget to unmute yourself before you speak, we believe a compensation is in order. Kind of like a swear jar, but for forgetting to unmute.

We challenge you to donate to our GoFundMe campaign for charity each time you forget to unmute yourself. If you catch someone else speaking before they unmute, share the link to this website and challenge them to donate. The full amount raised will be donated to Plan International by the end of the year.

Let’s turn a small discomfort into a grand gesture.

THE GOAL

Just as it’s easy to forget to unmute yourself, it is easy to forget that millions of children around the world do not have a voice. They do not have the option to unmute. They have no access to education and are often forced to work under very poor conditions at a young age. They’re not free to choose their own future. We want to change this.

Our goal is to raise as much money as we can for Plan International. They’re an organization aiming to advance children’s rights, with an emphasis on gender equality. They achieve this in many places by working directly with the children and their communities. In 2020 they were active in 75 countries, reaching 26.9 million girls and 24 million boys with their work. They have the power and presence to make a difference.

Plan International strives to be transparent about its accountability and financing. They have 21 fundraising entities across the globe, receiving high ratings from local independent nonprofit evaluators (e.g. the U.S., Canada, Australia). We took this into consideration when choosing Plan International as the destination of our fundraiser. We want you to be confident that your money ends up in the right place.

We’ve set our first target at 10.000 euros. You can help us reach this by donating and by spreading the word. Please share this website with as many people as you can. 

Together, we are transforming lives.

More information

ABOUT US

We are Ward Kroft (30), Djai Kalicharan (31) and Tijn Knaap (30). Born and raised in the city of Leiden (The Netherlands), we went to the same high school and became friends. Currently we’re all working a 9 to 5 in different companies based in Amsterdam. Ward works at the Dutch telecom provider KPN, Tijn at payment company Adyen, and Djai at the startup company YourBI. The COVID pandemic has forced us, like so many, to work from home. This means our day-to-day includes lots of video calls with coworkers. 

If yours does too, you’ll probably recognize the situation where you start talking while you’re still on mute. Feeling a bit awkward, you hope no one’ll have noticed. Usually, however, you’ll hear someone say: “You’re still on mute!” You frantically look for the unmute button and start over from the beginning. Typically a ‘first world problem’. How can we turn a minor discomfort, shared by so many people around the globe, into something positive? 

That’s when we came up with the idea for our challenge. Each time someone forgets to unmute, they must donate to charity. Hopefully this way we can help solve a real problem: the unequal rights and opportunities that many girls have to face on a daily basis. We want to get as many people to participate in our challenge as possible. Unmute yourself, and spread the word!

FAQ

It is of course entirely up to you whether you want to donate to our campaign or directly to charity. As long as the money goes to charity, we’re happy. We do think, however, that the more money we raise with our campaign, the more publicity we will be able to generate. More publicity will in turn lead to even more donations, and more money for Plan International.

We’d have loved it if we could send your full donation directly to Plan. At the same time, we understand that GoFundMe needs to absorb a fraction of the raised funds to keep offering their services. Their platform allowed us to quickly and easily set up this campaign for charity, so we can live with that. We hope you can too.

Both GoFundMe and Plan International allow a minimum amount of 5 euros for donations (the amount might differ based on your currency). If you want to donate less, that is not possible. If you’re one of those who forgets to unmute very often, we’ll allow you to skip a donation every now and then ;-)

If your day-to-day doesn’t include video calls, chances are the ‘you’re still on mute’ anecdote doesn’t speak to you. We chose this phrase because it does speak to many, especially in times when working remotely is the norm. We try to be as inclusive as possible, but unfortunately we’ve failed in your case. Please don’t let that stand in your way of donating to Plan International!

We are in no way connected to or funded by Plan International.

CONTACT

Coming soon!