Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the Alliance of Students Against Poverty (ASAP)
2. Is ASAP a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization?
3. Why students?
4. Who is behind ASAP?
5. How can I get involved with ASAP?
6. Why $1/day?
7. Where does my $1/day go?

1. What is the Alliance of Students Against Poverty (ASAP)?

The Alliance of Students Against Poverty (ASAP) is a campaign to abolish extreme poverty worldwide by the year 2025.  As a non-profit organization, it seeks to inspire today's Generation Y to assist in this effort.  It calls upon the youth of this world to take the lead in raising awareness of the issue of those living on less than $1 a day and to spread ASAP’s message, which is this:

1. Over 1/6 of humanity lives in extreme poverty or on less than $1/day. 
   
2. The practical solutions and interventions needed to eradicate extreme poverty by the year 2025 are currently available.
   
3. $1/day donation over the course of one year will start one family on the path out of extreme poverty.

2. Is ASAP a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization?

3. Why students?

Students have many of the attitudes their elders once had but lost—idealism, optimism, belief in a better world, impatience with social injustice, a healthy disrespect for the promises of politicians and in general a higher level of outrage. Students also bring special advantages to the profession of social activism.

Unmarried and asset-poor, they are relatively fearless. Having not yet launched their careers, students enthusiastically welcome internship and other volunteer job opportunities that help them build a resume or identify promising career paths.

As researchers, students often show more objectivity and independence than paid staff or consultants. Furthermore, students not only bring to these internships state-of-the-art classroom training but also excellent skill sets in information technology, modern internet communications, statistics and social science research. Finally, students usually have more energy, stamina, focus, enthusiasm and passion than their older counterparts.

4. Who is behind ASAP?

ASAP was co-founded by John Hatch and Patrick Crompton.  Previous to starting ASAP, John and Patrick led the research team of FINCA International, of which John is the Founder.  It was through their teaching and research experiences that John and Patrick came to understand the enormous potential power of youth and students in the fight against global poverty. 

Alliance of Students Against Poverty (ASAP) was created for the purpose of giving motivated and socially conscious students the opportunity to see severe poverty first-hand. This experience would cause an internal transformational process--a "fire in the belly"—that would create a desire within to do everything in their power to mobilize society's resources to eradicate poverty.

5. How can I get involved with ASAP?

There are numerous ways you can get involved.  First of all, you can become a member of ASAP and pledge $1/day for those living on less than $1/day.  If you are a student, ASAP provides numerous opportunities to be involved and make a difference, including: overseas internships, fellowships, youth-led development projects and much more.  Click here to learn more.

6. Why $1/day?

The world is currently plagued by the inequity between rich and poor, between excessive consumption and excessive poverty, between too much and too little. Accordingly, a core concept underlying the campaign is that the ASAP $1/day pledge not be simply a request for money but a commitment to save—to reduce one’s current consumption by $1/day (or $7/week) and to direct that savings into an investment that helps others escape life-threatening poverty.

This ASAP savings strategy offers a mechanism for creating an immense wealth transfer from rich to poor that is financed not by a tax but by asking the affluent to shrink their current consumption by a trivial $1/day. This minimalist reduction is well within the means of virtually every American, even children.

And how will it be accomplished? There are thousands of possibilities—all of which can actually benefit the donor as well as the poor. For some donors it will mean drinking one glass of water per day instead of a soft drink, taking their own lunch to work instead of eating out or eliminating two custom coffee drinks per week.   For others it will mean trimming 50 miles of driving per week, perhaps by designating one day for using a bike, car-pool,  metro or public transportation to get to work or to class.

Furthermore, the challenge of reduced consumption helps all of us learn the difference between needs versus wants, between excess versus sufficiency, between spending unconsciously versus consciously. It helps us learn that each dollar we spend is a vote, and we use these votes to elect the kind of lifestyle we want for ourselves.

7. Where does my $1/day go?

From each $1 donated, $.70 goes to organizations that are reaching and serving the poorest families; $.20 goes to help provide opportunities for our ASAP members to help abolish extreme poverty firsthand and $.10 is used to help keep ASAP up and running and growing into the future.