Last Updated on December 15, 2020
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About Imran Nuri
My name is Imran Nuri, and it is my personal legend to affect change and improve people’s lives. I am a 23-year-old entrepreneur running a 501(c)(3) nonprofit called The 52 Million Project out of Columbus, Ohio. I’ve grown up in Columbus, and I recently graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in Marketing and a minor in Design Thinking. During my time in college, I spent much of my free time leading an organization called BuckeyeThon which raised over $6 million over four years including $1.7 million raised in the year I served as President.
About The 52 Million Project
My story for starting The 52 Million Project revolves around how I learned about philanthropy as a kid growing up in a family that lived paycheck to paycheck. Despite being in a world of debt, my parents taught me how to give by having me put $1 (or a few dollars on a good week) into a cleaned-out Jif Peanut Butter jar that we kept above our fridge. At the end of each month, we would give it away to villagers in India, people who needed the money more than we did.
The 52 Million Project now aims to teach 1,000,000 people the same thing, that anyone can be a philanthropist, even if it’s giving just $1/week (one million people x $1/week = $52,000,000/year). It is a simple, effective way to give a small amount of money to make a big difference.
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How Did You Get Your First Several Customers Or Users? How Many Users Or Customers Do You Have Now?
Our first 200 donors were largely close friends and family of our staff and Board of Directors. Before COVID, we had a launch party with about 150 of them to celebrate the beginning of something with tremendous potential. We now have almost 500 donors who have joined after seeing the way that we support a different nonprofit every week.
How Does Your Company Grow And Acquire New Customers?
Our company grows in two primary ways: by us telling our story to new groups of people, and by having our donors share their unique sharing links. Each time a media outlet covers our story and mission, we see a nice influx of donors. For example, when the Columbus Dispatch wrote about us, we had about 60 new donors join. We also highly encourage our donors to share out their automatically-generated referral links with friends and family. When new donors sign up, those donations are attributed as “Secondary Impact” to the original sharer. That’s their way of being able to give more without technically giving more.
What Actionable Tips And Tricks Do You Have For New Founders Who Are Looking To Get Their First Thousand Users Or Dollars?
Learn how to tell your “why” story really well. People don’t remember what you say, they remember how you make them feel. For all startups, that feeling must be a sense of confidence and determination. Investors want to know that they can trust you to get the job done no matter what challenges come your way.
What Is Something You’ve Learned That Would Not Be Obvious To Somebody Who Hasn’t Worked In Your Space Before?
I’ve learned that while working in the day to day of things in a startup, the wins that feel small often look big to anybody on the outside. It can be a really nice morale-booster to share out the wins and get some extra encouragement from people who are watching.
What’s The Craziest Thing That’s Happened To You (Good Or Bad) On Your Founder Journey?
The craziest thing that happened to me on my founder journey happened in my personal life. I found someone who I believed was the one, the person I was meant to be with. Because I was working wildly long hours 7 days a week and she was headed into the Navy, I had to end things knowing that I couldn’t find success for my business and a long-distance relationship simultaneously. Those are the kinds of things you don’t always hear about before getting into the journey. I’m currently working it out with her, so TBD on what’s to come haha!
What Are Your Favorite Books?
My two favorite books are The Alchemist and The Little Prince. Both books remind me not to take myself too seriously.
Anything You’d Like To Plug?
You can donate $1/week to automatically support a different nonprofit fighting poverty EVERY WEEK at 52MillionProject.org
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