David. Thanks for the 'update'. I notice you still don't answer my questions, but I wanted to reach out before the campaign is removed for breaking Kickstarter terms and conditions to offer advice I hope you will take to heart.
At it's heart, this project is a great idea that can have a positive impact for it's target audience. However, it is somewhat self-destructive by requiring such extravagant, and unnecessary, funding. Primarily caused by your desire to personally create and produce photography yourself, a decision that has negative impacts on the timeline, budget, and quality.
My concerns are concentrated into two points:
1. There is absolutely no acceptable reason for donated funds to be used for photography vacations by any board members. A wealth of pre-existing photography from the national parks is freely available, using these photographs for the project would save so much money. You could also reach out to world-class, award winning photographers who could be willing to donate the use of their work if you feel that images in the public-realm are unworthy.
By insisting to photography the parks yourself, and be compensated in any way for that undertaking, you only do harm to the project by creating confusion and suspicion over your motives. You are putting your desires over the supposed aims of the foundation, and funding a lifestyle for yourself with funds meant for charity. This may not be intended, but it's extremely difficult to interpret your plan in any other way. If you wish to succeed, you must source photographs differently, or self-fund your photography sessions.
2. Printing such large format photographs is, again, unnecessarily expensive and a weak-point of the entire undertaking. Why spend so much on a single, analogue, piece of equipment that restricts the foundation? If talks can only be given with these prints then, aside from the extreme cost, you restrict the foundation to presenting talks when and where the prints can be transported. Why not make use of Virtual Reality headsets instead? You would achieve your supposed aim of complete immersion at a fraction of the cost, with digital aids that can be duplicated at multiple venues simultaneously. Or have small handout prints created instead, something tangible for people to keep after you leave. These prints are an extreme luxury, and your insistence on printing your own 'work' appears narcissistic and self-serving.
In all, despite initially being a great idea at it's core, your foundation is ill thought out, ill-prepared, and appears more like an opportunistic ego-project than of good will altruism. Go and give talks to the disadvantaged, that's a great and noble undertaking, take along your holiday snaps and extoll the benefits of the great outdoors as much as you desire. But don't become so selfish, self-serving, and ego-centric as to believe that hearing about your holiday will change people's live to such a degree that you should be paid to do so. Or that your snaps are so magnificent that you should be paid to take them and that they can only be printed so extravagantly to show their true quality.
Good luck and all the best with your project, I do hope you reconsider your motives and make pledge to fulfill the aims of your foundation; to bring the outdoors to everyone. Not to pay for David to enjoy himself and then give a show and tell.
Hey Andy, just want to make sure that you saw that I’ve turned some of your questions and concerns into FAQs. I will continue to address the more reasonable ones as soon as I’m able, so keep looking out as I add additional FAQs. Thanks for the input.
I won’t be addressing all of your comments for a number of reasons.
First, much of what you are asking is addressed already either as part of our Kickstarter campaign or on our website. So I see little point in rehashing since our stuff is already long enough and pretty in-depth as it is.
Second, and I don’t know what to do about this, is that you seem to have a complete disconnect with, and ability to comprehend what we’re doing. Again, I don’t know how this can be given all the information that’s out there. To suggest that we simply give away some Ansel Adams prints is not in keeping with our objectives nor would it be as beneficial to the attendees of our Programs. If you want to hand out Ansel Adams prints to the disadvantaged I suggest you start a Kickstarter campaign to do so. I’ll be the first to pledge.
Third, many of your comments are simply not applicable and are your own personal opinion or at worse either a complete misconstrue or fabrication. You said . . . “You don't need to take any more photos, or visit any more parks, or raise $185,000 to show photos to children.” Wow Andy, this again shows that you have not read our stuff. The progress of the idea and where we are now in its development is clearly laid out. Another thing that’s funny about this comment is that in the very next paragraph you say “The photography you feature is not of the caliber I'd expect from project like this.” Well . . . doesn’t it logically follow that if this is true, and to carry out our mission, that we would HAVE to go back out and shoot appropriate photos? And I could go on and on with examples of your illogical comments. But, it’s not a good use of my time.
Fourth, the enormity of the number of your questions is a tad overwhelming. We fully expected that the answering of reasonable questions would be a part of the Kickstarter campaign, but come on man . . . 20, 30, 40 questions (or whatever the number is) from one Backer? That’s just burdensome. Next time try asking 2 or 3 at a time. I think you’ll be better received. And on this topic, we don’t consider you a Backer. It seems that you only pledged so that you’d have the ability to vent. Kickstarter intends this comments section to be used for the following “Use this space to cheer the creator along, ask questions, and talk to your fellow backers. Please remember to be respectful and considerate. Thanks!”
Finally, your accusatory and bullying tone does not go over well. We have little motivation to alleviate the concerns of someone who from the very outset claims us as being fraudulent, a scam, and self-serving. You obviously don’t believe in, understand, nor see any benefit in what we’re doing. That’s your prerogative. Your personal attacks don’t bother me in the least, but what ticks me off quite frankly is how you may be adversely affecting the wheelchair user in Philadelphia, the senior citizen in Atlanta, or the inner-city kid in Chicago by delaying their opportunity to experience the therapeutic, inspirational, and educational benefits of the outdoors and our National Parks through an immersive experience with our “Big Awesome Photos” and accompanying slideshow presentation. On that I draw the line.
Again, you always have an open invitation to contact me direct. So far I’m very disappointed that you haven’t done so.
Why can't you answer the questions and criticisms, instead of trying to divert the conversation?
How do you plan to spend $185,000? Where is your budget or a breakdown of expenses?
What concrete goals does the project actually have? How many talks are arranged? Where will you be presenting?
What locations will you be photographing? When? When will the photographic portion of the project be completed?
What happened if you're unable to complete the photographic portion of the project? Do you have secondary photographers or a catalog of photographs to complete the project?
How are the prints being produced? Why are they such a focus of the project? Can you complete the project if printing is not possible? If so, what will the funds set aside for printing be used for?
Why spend such a large portion of project funds to create new photographs when the national parks have already been photographed millions of times and photographs are available for free?
What plans do you have for catering to those with limited vision? Will you be creating any audio or video on your trips?
These are valid questions you have not tried to answer or, it appears, given much thought to.
As a backer I'm entitled to question and criticize, that's the trade that comes with crowdfunding. These aren't donations, these are investments from backers who become part of the project.
Andy, I invite you again to have a civil, personal conversation with me. You have misconstrued just about everything about the Project. I'm not really sure why? You make huge assumptions without even having a discussion and it seems to be your goal in life to derail this Project. That's fine, the Outdoors for Everyone Project will move forward in spite of you and regardless of a successful or not successful Kickstarter campaign. I hope one day we're in your neighborhood visiting a senior home, hospital, or inner city school and you decide to check us out. Again, I invite you to have the courage to talk personally. Contact me anytime, david@o4e.org.
Sincerely,
David Mills, Founder
Outdoors for Everyone Project
You've stolen images of presentations given by other people and tried to pass them off as your own, with terrible photoshopped cut outs added on top.
Don't you realise we can reverse image search? Your photos of 'presentations' are stolen from other people and photoshopped as misrepresenrations of events that have never happened.
Your only experience with professional photography is as a paying student on supervised workshops, you use stolen and stock photographs as photos composites, and have no experience printing anything as large as you hope to produce.
But we should trust you and give you $185,000 to go on an apparently ever-lasting assignment, because you're actually losing money on this?
Wow Andy, you sure put a lot of thought into your comments! We appreciate your concerns. I’m not exactly sure where they all came from however. Have you perused our website or just the Kickstarter campaign? I think if you have a look at the website you may get some of you questions answered; the “About” section would be a good place to start. You’ve brought up a lot that needs responding to and I’d like to personally if you’re willing. I’m not exactly sure how the Kickstarter messaging and comments works. I’d be more than happy to provide you with my toll free phone number and have a chat. Bottom-line is that your comments and concerns are unfounded and you certainly don’t have a complete grasp on what we’re doing. I hope you don’t just go around and troll Kickstarter campaigns for the purpose of sabotaging them!
I’ll simply say one thing here and then wait and see if you want to talk personally. This is certainly not a campaign to raise funds to support “my vacation lifestyle” (Geez, how cynical can you be? I see by your Kickstarter profile that based on some of your other pledging that you indeed have cause to be cynical. It appears that some of the stuff you funded didn’t work out, and I’m all for being skeptical when it comes to money. So I understand your concern.) I do not need the funds from this campaign to take a vacation. I’m a respected and successful business owner of over 25 years and if I want to take a vacation, I’ll take a vacation. That being said, yes there is a portion of the funding going toward travel cost and living expenses. This is because I do plan on taking most of 2017 off to complete the Iconic Beauty of the National Parks Program and some funding toward paying these expenses seems more than reasonable. All in all the money I’m losing by not working my “real” job is significant, well over six figures. Fortunately, I’m in a position to do so and take the hit of a loss in wages. Again, defraying some of the losses seems reasonable. Don’t people fund people to DO things?
Regardless of the results of the Kickstarter campaign I will continue to promote, self-fund, and seek to raise funds for the Outdoors for Everyone Project, and we will continue to bring the benefits of the outdoors and our National Parks to those lacking the ability or opportunity to experience it for themselves. The Kickstarter campaign will simply expedite our plans.
One last note, we’ve never done a Kickstarter campaign before so we’re sort of muddling through it at this point. If I’ve done anything against protocol I apologize.
Finally, again, I’d love to talk and address each of your concerns specifically. I noticed that you pledged?! Thanks. I’d like to see some of your photos.
Hey, I just had a thought. If you’re on Facebook it seems you could contact me by liking our Facebook page @outdoorsforeveryoneproject, then we could message each other and then if you like I could provide you with additional contact information.
Thanks again for your comments.
Founder, David Mills
This appears little more than funding for your vacation, disguised as charity.
As a fund, and project, it's budget is absurdly extravagant. $185,000?!
Any tangible outreach seems miniscule compared to the extravagant funding goals, and I can only assume you want to fund your lifestyle rather than realistically help people.
What information can you provide on your talks? Have you formed agreements or partnerships with schools and healthcare organisations or do you just plan to drop-in when it's convenient to you?
Why not include a video of a talk? Or at least include testimonials from people who have been helped by your inspirational chats, instead of hearing from board members (what are their roles, and salaries?).
What future talk dates do you have planned? Can backers attend a talk, without having to pay . . . $2,500?
When asking for such large sums it's vital that you provide some guarantee of future talks.
Why are the majority of funds dedicated to the production of photographs and your travel?
This is an extremely suspect allocation of funds, for a foundation apparently aimed at education.
Is such extravagant printing really needed or is it simply good for your ego? It can't be the best use of funds. Why not just use a slideshow? Or even better, use those funds to produce prints or booklets for people to keep. They'll last longer than the memory of your talk.
Why are you asking for funding to travel and photograph the national parks, despite already having traveled to so many already? In all honesty it just seems like a way to continue your ongoing holiday lifestyle.
The planning and organisation of the foundation seems less than reassuring if you have essentially traveled to all the parks, only to get home and THEN decided to go back to take some more photographs, but are asking us to pay for it all.
Why can you not use your already existing photographs in future talks?
For $185,000 you should buy some Ansel Adams prints to use in talks instead (and probably give away more than a few too) or spend the funds in some way that actually benefits the people this 'foundation' purports to help.
You going on another road trip has no additional effect on your ability to provide talks or to further the 'goals' of your 'foundation'. You don't need to take any more photos, or visit any more parks, or raise $185,000 to show photos to children.
The photography you feature is not of the caliber I'd expect from project like this. Neither are the techniques you attempt to use as an excuse for (falsified) high costs difficult, or rarely known, as you suggest.
These exaggerated and false claims destroyed your integrity for me, even before I realised how much you expect in funding.
I suspect that you simply obtained an automated tripod head (which did all the technical photographic work for you) and created stitched panoramas at the touch of a mouse button. But your photographs lack any creativity or artistic merit of any sort, and are essentially no more than your holiday snapshots.
The heavy-handed use of HDR, unlevel horizons, and uncorrected lens-distortion lead me to suspect you lack experience or knowledge to correct even these (very) basic faults with post-production software, and are relying on the spectacular size of prints to impress, instead of any competence or merit.
I certainly see no proof of your claim to have spent five years learning the skills to produce this work, or any reason why you can not use these existing photographs in future talks. It would be a cheaper and more productive strategy to spend time and funds conducting talks rather than documenting your roads trips.
I fully support your pursuit of education and inspiration (if genuine) but this campaign, and your foundation in general, comes across as vague and ill-thought-out at best, and cynically self-serving (almost certainly fraudulent) at worst.
I'm confident you'll fail to reach your funding goal, not just due to it's ridiculous amount but because this is an obviously transparent effort to raise money for your personal travels, with some pretentious goodwill chats thrown in along your route.
Judging by the fact that you actually uploaded that video (and created this campaign) I can tell you have no shame and so you'll ignore this (or feel insulted by the truth), but you should be embarrassed. Everyone else is.
Use this space to cheer the creator along, ask questions, and talk to your fellow backers. Please remember to be respectful and considerate. Thanks!
andy
Superbacker
about 1 hour ago
David. Thanks for the 'update'. I notice you still don't answer my questions, but I wanted to reach out before the campaign is removed for breaking Kickstarter terms and conditions to offer advice I hope you will take to heart.
At it's heart, this project is a great idea that can have a positive impact for it's target audience. However, it is somewhat self-destructive by requiring such extravagant, and unnecessary, funding. Primarily caused by your desire to personally create and produce photography yourself, a decision that has negative impacts on the timeline, budget, and quality.
My concerns are concentrated into two points:
1. There is absolutely no acceptable reason for donated funds to be used for photography vacations by any board members. A wealth of pre-existing photography from the national parks is freely available, using these photographs for the project would save so much money. You could also reach out to world-class, award winning photographers who could be willing to donate the use of their work if you feel that images in the public-realm are unworthy.
By insisting to photography the parks yourself, and be compensated in any way for that undertaking, you only do harm to the project by creating confusion and suspicion over your motives. You are putting your desires over the supposed aims of the foundation, and funding a lifestyle for yourself with funds meant for charity. This may not be intended, but it's extremely difficult to interpret your plan in any other way. If you wish to succeed, you must source photographs differently, or self-fund your photography sessions.
2. Printing such large format photographs is, again, unnecessarily expensive and a weak-point of the entire undertaking. Why spend so much on a single, analogue, piece of equipment that restricts the foundation? If talks can only be given with these prints then, aside from the extreme cost, you restrict the foundation to presenting talks when and where the prints can be transported. Why not make use of Virtual Reality headsets instead? You would achieve your supposed aim of complete immersion at a fraction of the cost, with digital aids that can be duplicated at multiple venues simultaneously. Or have small handout prints created instead, something tangible for people to keep after you leave. These prints are an extreme luxury, and your insistence on printing your own 'work' appears narcissistic and self-serving.
In all, despite initially being a great idea at it's core, your foundation is ill thought out, ill-prepared, and appears more like an opportunistic ego-project than of good will altruism. Go and give talks to the disadvantaged, that's a great and noble undertaking, take along your holiday snaps and extoll the benefits of the great outdoors as much as you desire. But don't become so selfish, self-serving, and ego-centric as to believe that hearing about your holiday will change people's live to such a degree that you should be paid to do so. Or that your snaps are so magnificent that you should be paid to take them and that they can only be printed so extravagantly to show their true quality.
Good luck and all the best with your project, I do hope you reconsider your motives and make pledge to fulfill the aims of your foundation; to bring the outdoors to everyone. Not to pay for David to enjoy himself and then give a show and tell.
David Mills Creator about 4 hours ago
Hey Andy, just want to make sure that you saw that I’ve turned some of your questions and concerns into FAQs. I will continue to address the more reasonable ones as soon as I’m able, so keep looking out as I add additional FAQs. Thanks for the input.
I won’t be addressing all of your comments for a number of reasons.
First, much of what you are asking is addressed already either as part of our Kickstarter campaign or on our website. So I see little point in rehashing since our stuff is already long enough and pretty in-depth as it is.
Second, and I don’t know what to do about this, is that you seem to have a complete disconnect with, and ability to comprehend what we’re doing. Again, I don’t know how this can be given all the information that’s out there. To suggest that we simply give away some Ansel Adams prints is not in keeping with our objectives nor would it be as beneficial to the attendees of our Programs. If you want to hand out Ansel Adams prints to the disadvantaged I suggest you start a Kickstarter campaign to do so. I’ll be the first to pledge.
Third, many of your comments are simply not applicable and are your own personal opinion or at worse either a complete misconstrue or fabrication. You said . . . “You don't need to take any more photos, or visit any more parks, or raise $185,000 to show photos to children.” Wow Andy, this again shows that you have not read our stuff. The progress of the idea and where we are now in its development is clearly laid out. Another thing that’s funny about this comment is that in the very next paragraph you say “The photography you feature is not of the caliber I'd expect from project like this.” Well . . . doesn’t it logically follow that if this is true, and to carry out our mission, that we would HAVE to go back out and shoot appropriate photos? And I could go on and on with examples of your illogical comments. But, it’s not a good use of my time.
Fourth, the enormity of the number of your questions is a tad overwhelming. We fully expected that the answering of reasonable questions would be a part of the Kickstarter campaign, but come on man . . . 20, 30, 40 questions (or whatever the number is) from one Backer? That’s just burdensome. Next time try asking 2 or 3 at a time. I think you’ll be better received. And on this topic, we don’t consider you a Backer. It seems that you only pledged so that you’d have the ability to vent. Kickstarter intends this comments section to be used for the following “Use this space to cheer the creator along, ask questions, and talk to your fellow backers. Please remember to be respectful and considerate. Thanks!”
Finally, your accusatory and bullying tone does not go over well. We have little motivation to alleviate the concerns of someone who from the very outset claims us as being fraudulent, a scam, and self-serving. You obviously don’t believe in, understand, nor see any benefit in what we’re doing. That’s your prerogative. Your personal attacks don’t bother me in the least, but what ticks me off quite frankly is how you may be adversely affecting the wheelchair user in Philadelphia, the senior citizen in Atlanta, or the inner-city kid in Chicago by delaying their opportunity to experience the therapeutic, inspirational, and educational benefits of the outdoors and our National Parks through an immersive experience with our “Big Awesome Photos” and accompanying slideshow presentation. On that I draw the line.
Again, you always have an open invitation to contact me direct. So far I’m very disappointed that you haven’t done so.
andy
Superbacker
2 days ago
Why can't you answer the questions and criticisms, instead of trying to divert the conversation?
How do you plan to spend $185,000? Where is your budget or a breakdown of expenses?
What concrete goals does the project actually have? How many talks are arranged? Where will you be presenting?
What locations will you be photographing? When? When will the photographic portion of the project be completed?
What happened if you're unable to complete the photographic portion of the project? Do you have secondary photographers or a catalog of photographs to complete the project?
How are the prints being produced? Why are they such a focus of the project? Can you complete the project if printing is not possible? If so, what will the funds set aside for printing be used for?
Why spend such a large portion of project funds to create new photographs when the national parks have already been photographed millions of times and photographs are available for free?
What plans do you have for catering to those with limited vision? Will you be creating any audio or video on your trips?
These are valid questions you have not tried to answer or, it appears, given much thought to.
As a backer I'm entitled to question and criticize, that's the trade that comes with crowdfunding. These aren't donations, these are investments from backers who become part of the project.
David Mills Creator 2 days ago
Andy, I invite you again to have a civil, personal conversation with me. You have misconstrued just about everything about the Project. I'm not really sure why? You make huge assumptions without even having a discussion and it seems to be your goal in life to derail this Project. That's fine, the Outdoors for Everyone Project will move forward in spite of you and regardless of a successful or not successful Kickstarter campaign. I hope one day we're in your neighborhood visiting a senior home, hospital, or inner city school and you decide to check us out. Again, I invite you to have the courage to talk personally. Contact me anytime, david@o4e.org.
Sincerely,
David Mills, Founder
Outdoors for Everyone Project
P.S. Please rescind your funding pledge.
andy
Superbacker
2 days ago
You've stolen images of presentations given by other people and tried to pass them off as your own, with terrible photoshopped cut outs added on top.
Don't you realise we can reverse image search? Your photos of 'presentations' are stolen from other people and photoshopped as misrepresenrations of events that have never happened.
Your only experience with professional photography is as a paying student on supervised workshops, you use stolen and stock photographs as photos composites, and have no experience printing anything as large as you hope to produce.
But we should trust you and give you $185,000 to go on an apparently ever-lasting assignment, because you're actually losing money on this?
OK
David Mills Creator 3 days ago
Wow Andy, you sure put a lot of thought into your comments! We appreciate your concerns. I’m not exactly sure where they all came from however. Have you perused our website or just the Kickstarter campaign? I think if you have a look at the website you may get some of you questions answered; the “About” section would be a good place to start. You’ve brought up a lot that needs responding to and I’d like to personally if you’re willing. I’m not exactly sure how the Kickstarter messaging and comments works. I’d be more than happy to provide you with my toll free phone number and have a chat. Bottom-line is that your comments and concerns are unfounded and you certainly don’t have a complete grasp on what we’re doing. I hope you don’t just go around and troll Kickstarter campaigns for the purpose of sabotaging them!
I’ll simply say one thing here and then wait and see if you want to talk personally. This is certainly not a campaign to raise funds to support “my vacation lifestyle” (Geez, how cynical can you be? I see by your Kickstarter profile that based on some of your other pledging that you indeed have cause to be cynical. It appears that some of the stuff you funded didn’t work out, and I’m all for being skeptical when it comes to money. So I understand your concern.) I do not need the funds from this campaign to take a vacation. I’m a respected and successful business owner of over 25 years and if I want to take a vacation, I’ll take a vacation. That being said, yes there is a portion of the funding going toward travel cost and living expenses. This is because I do plan on taking most of 2017 off to complete the Iconic Beauty of the National Parks Program and some funding toward paying these expenses seems more than reasonable. All in all the money I’m losing by not working my “real” job is significant, well over six figures. Fortunately, I’m in a position to do so and take the hit of a loss in wages. Again, defraying some of the losses seems reasonable. Don’t people fund people to DO things?
Regardless of the results of the Kickstarter campaign I will continue to promote, self-fund, and seek to raise funds for the Outdoors for Everyone Project, and we will continue to bring the benefits of the outdoors and our National Parks to those lacking the ability or opportunity to experience it for themselves. The Kickstarter campaign will simply expedite our plans.
One last note, we’ve never done a Kickstarter campaign before so we’re sort of muddling through it at this point. If I’ve done anything against protocol I apologize.
Finally, again, I’d love to talk and address each of your concerns specifically. I noticed that you pledged?! Thanks. I’d like to see some of your photos.
Hey, I just had a thought. If you’re on Facebook it seems you could contact me by liking our Facebook page @outdoorsforeveryoneproject, then we could message each other and then if you like I could provide you with additional contact information.
Thanks again for your comments.
Founder, David Mills
andy
Superbacker
3 days ago
This appears little more than funding for your vacation, disguised as charity.
As a fund, and project, it's budget is absurdly extravagant. $185,000?!
Any tangible outreach seems miniscule compared to the extravagant funding goals, and I can only assume you want to fund your lifestyle rather than realistically help people.
What information can you provide on your talks? Have you formed agreements or partnerships with schools and healthcare organisations or do you just plan to drop-in when it's convenient to you?
Why not include a video of a talk? Or at least include testimonials from people who have been helped by your inspirational chats, instead of hearing from board members (what are their roles, and salaries?).
What future talk dates do you have planned? Can backers attend a talk, without having to pay . . . $2,500?
When asking for such large sums it's vital that you provide some guarantee of future talks.
Why are the majority of funds dedicated to the production of photographs and your travel?
This is an extremely suspect allocation of funds, for a foundation apparently aimed at education.
Is such extravagant printing really needed or is it simply good for your ego? It can't be the best use of funds. Why not just use a slideshow? Or even better, use those funds to produce prints or booklets for people to keep. They'll last longer than the memory of your talk.
Why are you asking for funding to travel and photograph the national parks, despite already having traveled to so many already? In all honesty it just seems like a way to continue your ongoing holiday lifestyle.
The planning and organisation of the foundation seems less than reassuring if you have essentially traveled to all the parks, only to get home and THEN decided to go back to take some more photographs, but are asking us to pay for it all.
Why can you not use your already existing photographs in future talks?
For $185,000 you should buy some Ansel Adams prints to use in talks instead (and probably give away more than a few too) or spend the funds in some way that actually benefits the people this 'foundation' purports to help.
You going on another road trip has no additional effect on your ability to provide talks or to further the 'goals' of your 'foundation'. You don't need to take any more photos, or visit any more parks, or raise $185,000 to show photos to children.
The photography you feature is not of the caliber I'd expect from project like this. Neither are the techniques you attempt to use as an excuse for (falsified) high costs difficult, or rarely known, as you suggest.
These exaggerated and false claims destroyed your integrity for me, even before I realised how much you expect in funding.
I suspect that you simply obtained an automated tripod head (which did all the technical photographic work for you) and created stitched panoramas at the touch of a mouse button. But your photographs lack any creativity or artistic merit of any sort, and are essentially no more than your holiday snapshots.
The heavy-handed use of HDR, unlevel horizons, and uncorrected lens-distortion lead me to suspect you lack experience or knowledge to correct even these (very) basic faults with post-production software, and are relying on the spectacular size of prints to impress, instead of any competence or merit.
I certainly see no proof of your claim to have spent five years learning the skills to produce this work, or any reason why you can not use these existing photographs in future talks. It would be a cheaper and more productive strategy to spend time and funds conducting talks rather than documenting your roads trips.
I fully support your pursuit of education and inspiration (if genuine) but this campaign, and your foundation in general, comes across as vague and ill-thought-out at best, and cynically self-serving (almost certainly fraudulent) at worst.
I'm confident you'll fail to reach your funding goal, not just due to it's ridiculous amount but because this is an obviously transparent effort to raise money for your personal travels, with some pretentious goodwill chats thrown in along your route.
Judging by the fact that you actually uploaded that video (and created this campaign) I can tell you have no shame and so you'll ignore this (or feel insulted by the truth), but you should be embarrassed. Everyone else is.