How to Build a School in Three Hours

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC02SmuOxYI

It might seem impossible to raise enough money in three hours that you could build a school in a developing country. But 29-year-old entrepreneur and philanthropist Taylor Conroy has actually done it. Conroy, whose motto is "destroy normal," raised $10,000 in three hours for a school in Kenya simply by changing the way people think about giving. Now he's unveiling a new social media-based micro-giving platform, Ten in Three, that he says raises money by bringing "groups of friends together in a wonderful way based on collaboration, contribution, and fun."

Conroy says traditional fundraising methods don't work as well anymore because "we are caused out as humans." He shares his five best practices—smart approaches like tapping into the group mentality—for fundraising in the above TEDx talk. Although his focus is raising money to build schools in developing countries, his advice is equally appropriate for anyone trying to drum up dollars for a cause, including money-crunched schools here in the States.