Firstgiving Blog

Guest Blogger: Protecting with Pedals

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Please welcome guest blogger, Pepy Ride President, Daniela Papi

   

Successfully Giving

When we first started raising money for PEPY www.pepyride.org and our educational programs in Cambodia, we were looking for an online way to raise funds.  One of our heroes, Alastair Humphreys, told us about Justgiving (Firstgiving's UK based partner) www.justgiving.com/alsmarathons where he had been raising funds to support 'Hope and Homes for Children' during his five year bike ride around the world.  Talk about inspirational!  We trusted Al's advice and that was how we found Firstgiving.

PEPY has successfully raised nearly $100,000 on Firstgiving alone in the last three years.  One of the keys to our success has been getting our partners and supporters to create their own Firstgiving pages in support of PEPY.  Those who join our cycling and volunteer tours of Cambodia www.pepytours.com are encouraged to start their own page to reach their fundraising minimums for the trip.

When it comes to fundraising, the lesson we have learned is to not be intimidated!  Fundraising is not that hard, especially with tools like Firstgiving to help.  The key, though, is researching the organization you are fundraising for so that you really know that they are sustainable and trustworthy.  With this knowledge, you can then easily articulate the organization's merits while you are fundraising.  Once people know more about the great projects you are supporting, they will be enticed to learn more and to give.  We have found at PEPY, that by keeping people informed about our work through our monthly newsletters and updates, many donors continue to support our projects year after year.

Thanks to Firstgiving, we have found an easy way for our supporters and tour participants to fundraise for our projects, and this funding has been able to really make a difference in the success of educational programs in Cambodia. 

Free Webinar Wednesday: Raise More with Teams, Competition and Prizes

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Please join us to discover the best ways to raise more money online by fostering healthy competition among fundraisers. In this free interactive webinar, you will learn about:

• How to use teams, competition and prizes to raise more money for your cause
• Ways to promote your fundraising programs using new social media, such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube
• Methods used by Junior Achievement of Eastern Massachusetts to raise over $90,000 online in 2007 alone

The Details:

• Guest speaker: Andrea Farwell, Special Events & Marketing Manager, Junior Achievement of Eastern Massachusetts                  
• Date: Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
• Time: 2:30-3:30 Eastern Standard Time
• Cost: Free

Sign up Now

Keep plugging: 30% of fundraising happens after the event

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I was downtown this weekend and passed by the finish line of the Boston Marathon.  If I had started the race last week, this was probably about the time I would actually have finished.  But the fact that the line was still bright yellow despite a week of traffic rolling over it reminded me that fundraising for a cause doesn't end at the finish line of the race.

We're still crunching the numbers here, but it looks like people who raise money online for an event raise about a third of it after the event.  This sounds surprising, but what's really interesting is that until online fundraising became so common and so easy, paper pledge-based fundraising meant that you collected nearly all of the money after the event.

So if you ran the Boston Marathon to fundraise for a cause, or did any kind of event, you should think seriously about how to get the most fundraising impact in the time following the event.  Here are some tips that are marathon-centric, but could apply to almost any kind of event, even growing or shaving a mustache.

Your Weekly Dose of Sellecky Goodness

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It's almost May and you know what that means?  Time for the third consecutive Mustache May, also known as Fund-a-Stache.  If you've ever wondered what you'd look like with some facial hair (or just don't feel like shaving for a while) here's your chance to shine.  All you have to do is set up an online fundraising page for your favorite nonprofit organization and commit to grow a mustache during the month of May. 

My personal favorite technique is to allow people to vote for a 'stache style by donating.  In other words, if someone donates to your page, they have a say in what shape your mustache takes, and which ever style receives the most votes or donations, commit to going with it.  Check out a great example here: the infamous "put your money where the hair above my mouth is" fundraising page.  And when someone asks why you haven't shaved lately, go ahead and tell them you're doing it for charity!

disclaimer: Firstgiving should not be held responsible for angry wives, girlfriends, mothers, bosses, significant others, etc.

 

According to The Phoenix, all the cool kids are doing it!

Athon-tastic

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Last month, my colleague, David, wrote a great post about all the "athon" events Firstgiving has seen over the years.  Though walkathons, marathons and bikeathons, tend to top the list, other favorites include Childrens Hospital of Wisconsin Tae Kwon Do Board Break-a-Thon, Twin Cities Huntington's Disease Society of America Hoop-a-Thon, New York Writers Coalition Write-a-Thon and Child Health Services Scrap-a-Thon.  We've got a new one to add to the list: Salon Cut-a-thon, which was held to benefit the Cancer Program at Baystate Mary Lane Hospital.

Held on March 1st, the cut-a-thon raised over $1,600 through 45 haircuts and 26 manicures.  Read more about it here.  If you're in the neighborhood of Ware, Massachusetts, read about their annual Walk of Champions and how to get involved here.

What did You do for Earth Day?

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I hope everyone had a spectacular Earth Day yesterday--in Boston, the sun was shining and the sunset was gorgeous.  It makes it easy to really appreciate the beauty that surrounds us.  I'm getting cheesy now...

Anywho, fundraiser Tracy Paxton "[chose] to celebrate Earth Day by building green homes for deserving low-income families with Habitat for Humanity East Bay."  Check out her online fundraising page at http://www.firstgiving.com/tracypaxton.

As for you, it's not too late!  Show your appreciation for Mother Earth by raising money online for your favorite environmental nonprofit organization.

Minnesota Environmental Fund

The Pepy Ride

Environmental Defense Incorporated

Gorakshya-Seva and Environmental Education Trust of America

Mansfied News, Huffington Post cheer on marathoner

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Both the global Huffington Post and the (wicked) local Mansfield News and Enterprise have recently featured Firstgiving online fundraiser, marathoner, and father Marc Turgeon, who is running the Boston Marathon tomorrow to raise money for LADDERS.org, an organization that provides services in the evaluation and treatment of children and adults with autism.

We're all rooting for Marc in the race, and want to congratulate him for already beating his fundraising target. 

This double dip in PR is a good reminder to everybody working to raise money for a cause that local and even national media love these kinds of stories, and with a little hustle, you can get good exposure for your event and your nonprofit organization's cause. 

There are lots of Firstgiving fundraisers in this year's Boston Marathon, and we also want to cheer them on and remind them that the fundraising doesn't stop when you cross the finish line.  Of course, you should take time to recover and celebrate, but you should also send out email updates to all your friends and tell them about your marathon experience and remind them that your fundraising page is still open for business.  Lots of online fundraisers find that they continue to get donations for weeks after they finish their race or event.

So enjoy your pasta (or matzo) tonight, and have a safe and successful run tomorrow!

Going the extra mile, raising the extra dollar (and 20 cents)

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Back when I was in business school, pricing was always a matter of great interest.  Can you really make more money at $3.95 than at $4.00?  Does "buy three, get one at half off" really motivate anybody?  I don't know if I got definitive answers, but I do know that I'm not going to fall for "ten cents each, two for a quarter" ever again.

I was reminded of this when I found Kerry Hall's fundraising page.  She's running the Boston Marathon to raise money for Reach out and Read, an organization that fights illiteracy.  And Kerry is doing two really interesting things to get more donations and to get slightly bigger donations.  All fundraisers can learn from these easy online fundraising tips:

1. Ask for a larger amount.  In fundraising, you're asking for money for a good cause, so its already easier than selling a product that people might not want.  So why not ask for higher donations?  Not everybody will be willing or able to pony up more, but some will.  Kerry suggests that people give $26.20 instead of $25.00 because the marathon is 26.2 miles long.  It's not a very logical reason, but you can see from her page that lots of people have done it, and that translates to 3% more donation for just asking.

2. Attach a benefit to the amount.  By attaching a particular measure of good work to a donation, you can make the connection clearer between your donor's payment and the good done in the world. Kerry states that the $26.20 donation can provide ten new books and that $112 can provide books for a family with four children.  Part of successful fundraising is connecting donors and causes, and showing how the money gets used and how it delivers benefit can make a real difference.

Good luck to Kerry and everybody else running the Boston Marathon on Monday.  And to everybody else raising money for good causes, we hope Kerry's example gives you some good ideas about how to make the biggest difference you can.

Sharing the Spotlight

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Today, we'd like to shine the spotlight on the Boston Marathon runners for Boston's own The Living Center.  17 runners will be participating on behalf of The Living Center, whose mission is to help people living with HIV/AIDS through community work and a wellness center.  Check out a great article about them in the newspaper, Bay Windows, here. 

Also, check out all their online fundraising pages and donate online now!

Procrastinators, This One's for You!

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Today's Boston Marathon Fundraiser is Sara Stolfi whose online fundraising page has raised over $3,500 for Casa Myrna Vazquez.  Why Sara, you ask?  Because she started fundraising in October!

Sometimes, fundraisers ask us if they have a better shot at raising more money online if they hold off on making their fundraising page.  The thought here is that when people see that their friend's event is so close and he or she has so much more money to raise, they're more compelled to donate online to charity.  However, in our experience, waiting until the end has more to do with the fundraiser than the donor.  If the event is quickly approaching, and he or she just set up a fundraising page, the fundraiser is more likely to send out numerous emails asking for donations with compelling reasons why people should donate.  On the other hand, if the fundraising page is made well in advance, sometimes the fundraiser will sit back after sending one email and wait for the donations to start pouring in.  But, how many times have you wanted to give money to something or someone, and you simply forgot?

The lesson here is simple--it doesn't matter when you make your fundraising page in relation to the event, what matters is how much effort you put into fundraising.  Fundraising is a perfect example of the old adage that y"ou get what you give."  In other words, if you send multiple emails, give various reasons why people should donate to your online fundraising page, add our Facebook application, place a button on your blog or social network, and do anything else you can think of, you're more likely to be an all-star fundraiser!

So what are you waiting for?

What Does it Take to Beat Katie Homes?

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Marathon Monday is quickly approaching and you can feel the buzz throughout Boston.  The weather is starting to warm, the Sox are in first place, and the marathon begins in just 5 days.  Through to the end of this week, in preparation for the infamous Marathon Monday, we'd like to shine the Firstgiving spotlight on especially motivating runners and fundraisers.  This is luckily a very large pool to choose from, so don't be shy about nominating someone, or even yourself!

Today I'd like to spotlight Nicole Poirier's online fundraising page, created in honor of Glenna Kohl.  Firstgiving makes it easy to make an online fundraising page in memory of someone special by raising money for a cause that was important to them, but fundraising in honor of someone you admire is something created solely by our users.  Nicole's page is a perfect example.  In her own words, she is running "in honor of Glenna Kohl, an extraordinary, young woman battling melanoma, I am raising money for The Melanoma Foundation of New England.  I met Glenna at MGH and I am inspired by her courage, spirit and strength.  She has been pro-active in the fight against skin cancer, participating in skin cancer prevention workshops and speaking out for legislation that would ban underage tanning bed use.  And she does all this always with a smile. It's my pleasure to run 26 miles for Glenna!"

And perhaps my favorite line, "this is my first marathon.  I am not the fastest runner, but I will do my best to try and beat Katie Holmes."  Like Glenna, it seems Nicole is doing her part with a smile on her face as well.

   

Happy Tax Day--Where do you Rate in Charitable Giving?

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Congratulations to everyone who completed taxes on time!  Though it's an undeniable chore, tax filing for a lot of us means evaluating our budget for the last year and adding up various contributions, such as tax-deductible charitable donations.  In 2006, approximately 224 million adults lived in the U.S., and charitable donations amounted to 295.02 billion dollars.  That means the average American adult donated just over $1,300 of his or her income to nonprofit causes.  Which brings up a whole other issue--where to keep the receipts?

For anyone who has made a donation through Firstgiving, you know that we try to make keeping track of your tax-deductible receipts as easy as possible.  Firstgiving automatically acknowledges your donation with an email receipt, which is oftentimes all you need to include in your tax return.  Instead of rooting through all those paper receipts, wouldn't it be great if you could just print them all out from your email account? 

Well, there's always 2008...

Fundraising Blogger Update: Wordpress 2.5 heart Firstgiving Widgets

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If you use WordPress, you probably already know that WordPress 2.5 has been released and is really cool.  What you might not know is that Wordpress 2.5 makes it even easier to add a Firstgiving Fundraising Widget to your blog.  Here are the steps:

1. Create a Firstgiving Personal Fundraising Page for any non-profit organization
2. Grab a Firstgiving Fundraising Widget (on the top right of your fundraising page, click "share this page") and copy (ctrl-c or Apple-C) the code
3. Create a new blog post in WordPress 2.5
4. Switch to HTML mode and paste (ctrl-v or Apple-v) the code
5. Switch back to Visual mode and write the rest of your post
6. When you preview or publish, you will see your Firstgiving Widget in action
7. Posting your widget to your blog is just the beginning, make sure that you regularly post about your fundraising progress, and promote your blog to all your friends and contacts

Check out these handy illustrations - click to enlarge.  If you're comfortable with HTML, you can add the align tag like I did to make the widget sit alongside your text.  Happy blogging and good luck with your fundraising.

And the Winner Is....

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Drumroll, please!  OK, April isn't even close to being over, but after our recent post about Awareness Months, the cause of Autism seems to be easily pulling ahead.  One of my favorite pages created to celebrate April as Autism Awareness Month is by young Ethan Suda.  Diagnosed with Autism two years ago, Ethan and his family found support and strength in TACA, Talk About Curing Autism.  With their guidance, combined with diet and ABA therapy, Ethan is getting better everyday.  His mother is even starting a TACA chapter in Grand Forks, ND, to help other families and their children.

A job well done goes out to TACA for reminding their community that one of the best ways to spread the word during April is to raise money online with a Firstgiving fundraising page.

Immigrants, Gardening and Firstgiving

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Eighteen years ago, a group of Vietnamese immigrants from a Somerville public housing development transformed an abandoned parking lot into their own community garden.  Within miles of our Somerville office, these men and women grew food to feed their families, oftentimes ethnic foods that they couldn't find in American stores.  In June 2006, the land was confiscated by the Somerville Housing Authority who needed the space for a maintenance shed.  The gardeners have been granted a new plot of land and other amenitites, but they need to raise $6,000 to finish construction and to make the land suitable to their needs.

Local Nonprofit, The Welcome Project, has stepped up to help this happen with an online fundraising page.  Together with the gardeners, The Welcome Project hopes to raise money online to buy the supplies they need to complete the garden.  Read more about their efforts and how you can help here.

   

   

The Giving Carnival

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The Giving Carnival is a monthly event that gathers the best blog post on various giving-related topics.  March's topic addressed "Tips for Successful Fundraising Events" and February asked "What Motivates Giving?"  This month, Peter Deitz of Social Actions, wonders "Is Person-to-Person Fundraising Dead, or Just Getting Started?"  With Facebook's Causes Application not raising as much money as was originally expected, where does that leave social network fundraising?

In his article, Peter gives specific mention of both Firstgiving and our sister company in the U.K., Justgiving.  With millions of dollars raised through each company, can person-to-person fundraising really be dead?  Or, are we just starting to see the tip of the iceberg?

I'm sure you can guess our position.  What do you think?

April Is...

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Awareness months are an excellent catalyst for making online fundraising pages.  They spread the word about your cause, epitomizing the purpose of awareness months, and raise money for your favorite nonprofit at the same time.  Perhaps best of all, you don't have to participate in any grueling or demanding events, such as a marathon or a polar plunge!

So what does April celebrate?

• National Autism Awareness Month
• Sexual Assault Awareness Month Day of Action (April 3)
• Prevention of Animal Cruelty Month
• National Child Abuse Awareness Month
• Alcohol Awareness Month
• National Public Health Week (April 7-13)
• Cancer Control Month Counseling Awareness Month
• Sexual Assault Awareness Month
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome Awareness Month
• National Donate Life Month
• National Sarcoidosis Awareness Month
• Sports Eye Safety Month
• STD Awareness Month
• Women's Eye Health and Safety Month
• National SAFE KIDS week (April 26-May 4)
• National Poetry Month
• Mathematics Awareness Month
• Stress Awareness Month
• Parkinson's Awareness Month
• National Infant Immunization Week (April 19-26)

Get crackin'!

   

What Do You Do If You're Half the Age Requirement?

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If you're eight year-old Jack Rice, the answer is simple: make a Firstgiving online fundraising page.  So happy with the cats he and his mom adopted from the Humane Society for Greater Nashua, Jack wanted to give back and spend some time volunteering with the shelter.  When he found out the minimum age requirement to volunteer was sixteen years old, he didn't give up.  Instead, he visited their website to figure out other ways to help and came across the link to Firstgiving. (See our best practice blog post about the importance of putting a Firstgiving link or badge on your nonprofit's website!)

Running the shelter costs $1,630.14 per day.  With that as his goal, Jack sent emails, wrote letters and recruited at school asking people to donate to his online fundraising page.  Congratulations to Jack for reaching his target!

Read more about Jack and his love for animals here.

Is Anonymous Giving Better?

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I was in a meeting today and the discussion turned to anonymous donations.  Naturally Firstgiving allows you to make a donation without making your name public on the fundraiser's personal page, even though you can still leave an encouraging message.  We were discussing the functionality and got off on a tangent about why some people choose to give anonymously.

There are lots of good reasons to give anonymously, just like there are lots of good reasons to proudly take credit for your donation.  Recently, the LA Times noted that big donors are increasingly going anonymous, "for safety and privacy."  What you might not know is that over 800 years ago, the scholar Moses Maimonides contemplated the topic of charity and formulated an eight-step hierarchy of giving, sometimes called his "ladder" reproduced here from this source:

1. Giving a pauper independence so that he will not have to depend on charity. 
2. Giving charity anonymously to an unknown recipient.
3. Giving charity anonymously to a known recipient.
4. Giving charity publicly to an unknown recipient.
5. Giving charity before being asked.
6. Giving adequately after being asked.
7. Giving willingly, but inadequately.
8. Giving unwillingly.

Number one is familiar as the saying about teaching somebody to fish rather than giving them a fish.  Maimonides thought this was the highest form of charity.  If you agree, you might want to give to a microenterprise organization or a vocational training program.  The next few steps on the ladder address the issue of anonymity, giving greater merit to the situations where there is less knowledge or publicity around the donation.

Here's a statue of Maimonides in his home town of Cordoba, Spain.

I wonder if the calculation would have been different if Maimonides had lived in the internet age with online fundraising growing all the time.  Would the ability to motivate others to give by setting up a very public personal fundraising page on the internet move the donor up a setp or two on the ladder?

What do you think?  Do you give anonymously?  Why?  Why not?

Webinar Video: Seven Deadly Online Fundraising Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

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For those of you who missed last Thursday's webinar, or for those who want to relive the experience, the recording is available here.  Special thanks to Kathy Tricomi and Shannon Stout from the Humane Society of Broward County for speaking and preparing excellent slides.

Don't forget to sign up for this month's webinar on April 30th: Best Practice in Online Fundraising: How to Use Teams, Competition and Prizes to Raise More Money

 

Happy April Fool's Day!

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Happy Arpil Fool's Day from all of us at Firstgiving. 

Need a laugh?  Check out the 100 best April Fool's hoaxes of all time here.

Also, thanks to our own developer, Dennis, for pointing out Gmail's prank of the day.  Anything that references a flux capacitor is OK by me! http://mail.google.com/mail/help/customtime/index.html