The Gwendolyn Strong Foundation, founded by Bill and Victoria Strong to raise awareness and fund research for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), completed a grassroots social media campaign this week that landed them 6th place in Chase’s Community Giving challenge - along with a $100,000 grant to the foundation to continue the fight to cure SMA.
Despite a lack of national attention around SMA, the disease is the leading genetic killer of young children. Through a completely grassroots effort, the foundation managed to amass 50,000 votes from users on Facebook to propel them into the winner’s circle and take home the grant and put a national spotlight on SMA.
As the Strongs’ put it: “We’re just two parents in a house in Santa Barbara, California with two MacBook laptops caring for our terminally ill two-year-old daughter and fighting any way we can to save her life. But, in this Chase campaign the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation was much, much more than the three of us. It was also two parents in a house in New York. And three people in a house in Spain. And three people in a house in Ohio. And 25 people at a company in Mississippi. And one family in a house in Australia. And one person in a house in Texas. And five people in a house in Arizona. And two people in a house in the England. The list goes on and on. And together — collectively — UNITED — relentlessly — all of our amazing individual efforts and our enormous unwavering passion amassed into this wonderful grassroots effort.”
Bill and Victoria Strong are the parents of Gwendolyn Debard Strong, who received the terminal diagnosis of SMA in 2008, when she was only 6 months old. Shortly after the diagnosis, Bill and Victoria vowed to make a difference for others inflicted by the disease and started the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation.
You can read more about the Gwendolyn’s story here, and do your part to help the cause.
The New York Times reported today that President Obama is expected to sign a new measure that will make donations made to Haiti relief efforts tax deductible on 2009 tax returns. Under normal circumstances, donations are only deductible in the year in which they were made, but in an effort to increase charitable donations to aid the Haiti relief effort, the U.S. government will be allowing citizens to deduct donations made this year on their 2009 returns.
The measure includes donations made on cell phones (after millions of people donated $10 to the Red Cross by texting “Haiti” to 90999), as long as those who donated save their cell phone bill that shows a record of the donation. Additional stipulations of the measure state that donations must be made to a U.S. charity that is assisting Haiti, and that those donations must be made after January 11th and before March 1st of 2010.
This measure has not been put into effect yet, but President Obama is expected to sign off on it shortly. Want to help the cause? Text your donation or check out new Haiti aid campaigns from local charities like The Moyer Foundation, Bishop Garcia Diego High School and The American Red Cross of Santa Barbara, all of which are raising significant funds to help provide critical resources in Haiti.
There are so many amazing examples of young social entrepreneurs out there, and Maggie Doyne is no exception. At the age of 19, Maggie had recently graduated from high school and decided to take a trip around the world. After traveling 20,000 miles through four countries, Maggie stopped over in Nepal. During her stay, she met hundreds of orphan children lacking the basic necessities Maggie had growing up in the U.S.
Determined to make a difference for these little children, Maggie called her parents and told them she was staying in Nepal to open a home for the children. Using $5,000 of her own money made from babysitting over the years and additional funds she raised, Maggie built a three-story home that now houses 26 formerly-homeless orphans.
Now a few years later, Maggie’s efforts have enabled her to enroll more than 60 children in school and also have provided life-changing operations for children in need of serious medical attention. She also started the BlinkNow Foundation to inspire children in the U.S. to follow in her footsteps and help others around the world.
Maggie’s passion for helping others has not gone unnoticed. She won Cosmo Girl’s “Born to Lead Award” in 2008, took the $100,000 grand prize for the 2009 Do Something Awards and has been profiled by FastCompany. You can learn more about Maggie’s story here.
In the aftermath of the 7.0 earthquake that hit Haiti yesterday, the Twitter community and chapters of the American Red Cross are stepping up to show their support and help raise money for relief. CNN reports that the quake was the most powerful to hit Haiti in the last century, and that ’serious loss of life’ is expected. As the story broke, live reports of what was happening on the ground came in from Twitter users in Haiti. Since then, an outpouring of support has emerged around the world from individuals and organizations utilizing Twitter to spread the word and raise money.
See what people are saying now on Twitter or donate to help the relief fund started by the American Red Cross of Santa Barbara County. See videos below to see the impact the earthquake has had and to learn more about what the American Red Cross is doing to help.
Nearly 10 years ago, a 4 year-old cancer patient named Alexhandra “Alex” Scott started a grassroots movement – and it all started with a simple lemonade stand to help her doctors raise money to cure all kids with cancer. For four years, Alex ran a lemonade stand in her community and raised a significant amount of money for the cause. In 2004, Alex set an improbable goal of raising $1 million, believing that if others like her could hold lemonade stands of their own in communities around the country, collectively they could reach the goal. That year, thousands of volunteers held lemonade stands around the country and miraculously reached Alex’s goal of $1 million raised. Shortly after the goal was reached, Alex lost her life to childhood cancer.
Though Alex did not get the opportunity to live a long life, her courage to make a difference continues to inspire over 100,000 people helping to fight for the cause, “one cup at a time”.
Starting with the movement Alex began in her own neighborhood, The Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation continues to grow virally. Nearly 35,000 people follow Alex’s Lemonade Stand on Twitter, volunteers use Meetup.com to organize groups of supporters to hold lemonade stands in their communities, and even complete strangers from all over the country have united to put on charity auctions to support the cause. This year, the foundation is getting support from Grammy-nominated recording artist, Jordin Sparks, who will perform at ALSF’s 4th Annual Lemon Ball, this weekend in Philadelphia.
To date, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation has raised over $30 million and funded over 100 research projects to find a cure. Watch the video below to learn more about Alex’s story.
Thanksgiving is great time to reach out to your organization’s supporters - without asking them for a donation! Rather than asking for a contribution, thank them for their faithful support all year, mention the great work your organization has accomplished as a direct result of their generosity, and wish them a Happy Turkey day!
In the weeks following Thanksgiving, people are often looking for Holiday service ideas for their family, school, church, or office. Make sure you have a some ready-made Holiday giving programs that are easy for them to join! Here are two ideas: Holiday Wish Lists and Grassroots Fundraisers. Grassroots Fundraisers can also be pitched to board members and other ardent supporters of your cause.
Wish Lists are perfect for this time of year. Fill yours with things that directly impact the people you support - blankets, medicine, groceries, books - the stuff that changes lives. Here are a few good examples: Storyteller’s Daily Needs , Dare to Dream Programs , Girls Inc’s Membership. Put a Holiday spin on your Wish List and email a solicitation with a Holiday message in the subject line - like ‘Make Christmas Special for a Special Child’ or something that ties in directly to your program.
In just a few minutes (really, a few minutes is all it takes…), board members and other passionate supporters of your organization can create their own grassroots fundraiser; they’ll tell the story of why your organization is important to them, upload a few pictures of themselves helping, publish, and then send an email to their friends and family inviting them to contribute - and they will because someone they care about asked them to. Done.
After the holidays is the perfect time to have a GIFT CARD DRIVE campaign. Make it fun - ask folks in your community if they received any gift cards to stores that aren’t on their A-list. If you haven’t already enabled accepting gift cards as donations, just go to your fundraiser ‘donation types’ and select ‘gift cards.’
According to Amazon.com, their account holders possess the following qualities:
45% have a household income over $75,000
26% have a household income over $100,000
52% have graduated college with a degree
47% have children in the household
In other words, your donors probably have an Amazon account. Furthermore, according to a 2008 study commissioned by Convio, these attributes map very well to their definition of a “Major Donor.”
So, your donors probably have an Amazon account. Other “Major Donors” (that you might not know about) have an Amazon account. Why not make it easy for them to donate to your organization using a platform that they already know and trust?
Now, givezooks! nonprofit customers can provide their donors with an option to give using the information stored in their Amazon accounts. In addition, Amazon is offering two incentives for givezooks! nonprofit customers to try out their payment processing services:
An low introductory rate (2.0% + 0.30/transaction) through January 15, 2010.
Nonprofits that accept donations through Amazon Payments may be featured on the Amazon Payments Non Profit Directory. This directory is accessed by millions of Amazon customers. In addition, nonprofits may be featured in monthly newsletters, blogs and webinars.
Nonprofits that use the givezooks! platform can now offer their donors a myriad of ways to donate including: credit card (one time and recurring), Amazon, Paypal, gift cards, checks, wire transfers, stock transfers, pledges and pledge payments. Because donors have so many options, the average donation to a givezooks! fundraiser is over $400 (or about 4 times the national average for online donations)! Below is an example of what donors experience when they give to a givezooks! fundraiser:
For more information and live examples, please check out the givezooks! website.
If you are like most Americans, you probably have about $400 of unused gift cards in your sock drawer. In fact, there are about $40B (yes, Billion) in unused gift cards floating around the U.S. right now.
givezooks! has partnered with Plastic Jungle to turn these unused gift cards into cash for charities. Here’s how it works…
1. givezooks! nonprofit customers already have the ability to accept online donations in the many forms (credit cards, checks, wires, stock, pledges). Now, with one click, they can “turn on” the ability to accept gift card donations.
2. Once this donation type is enabled, donors can now virtually donate their unused gift card to these online fundraisers.
3. When a donor makes an online gift card donation, they will be instructed to send their gift card to Plastic Jungle.
4. Plastic Jungle will then convert this gift card to cash, and send a check to the nonprofit.
5. The donor will then receive an electronic thank you note (that will also serve as a tax letter).
It’s that easy! More options for donors, means more money for the cause!
For more information and live examples, please check out the givezooks! website.
Yesterday Seth Godin’s Post The problem with non created quite the buzz. When a mainstream marketing guru hits on a topic that addresses nonprofits and how they could better embrace technology – you know the time has come. Nonprofits are working hard to change the world, but change starts at home. Perhaps some of the change nonprofits want to inspire, requires internal changes as well. Our work with nearly 100 nonprofits over the past year reminds us that change is a process, but we see it happening. Giving is Changing……
You are not alone if you are a community based nonprofit and trying to figure out how Twitter can help your organization, but Twitter’s famous simple question, “What are you doing?” is exactly what your supporters want to know. If you focus on that, it may really help you tell your story better than the most highly crafted, polished, committee-approved letter to your constituents.
The question really gets to the heart of communicating the impact that your organization is creating. And impact is exactly what your supporters and potential supporters want to understand about your organization. Supporters want to know how they can help you also, so answering that question on a daily basis, helps supporters understand how they can get involved, promote, spread the work, volunteer, or give. As a community based organization you have the real opportunity to also answer that question of impact in the context of things that might personally affect that follower, their family or their neighborhood. This context helps you make the impact actionable by answering the next question - “How can someone help you make that specific impact”. This is where connection occurs - people can be excited about the impact that your organization is having, but helping your supporters share in creating that impact creates that connection.
So - “What are your doing” on July 22nd at 10 am PST? Check out our “10 steps to Nonprofit success on Twitter” webinar. Our guest presenter, John Haydon, will make it a fun and informative session that will give you a roadmap to make your organization more effective with Twitter as a way to communicate your impact.
The Gwendolyn Strong Foundation, founded by Bill and Victoria Strong to raise awareness and fund research for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), completed a grassroots social media campaign this week that landed them 6th place in Chase’s Community Giving challenge - along with a $100,000 grant to the foundation to continue the fight to cure SMA. 
There are so many amazing examples of young social entrepreneurs out there, and Maggie Doyne is no exception. At the age of 19, Maggie had recently graduated from high school and decided to take a trip around the world. After traveling 20,000 miles through four countries, Maggie stopped over in Nepal. During her stay, she met hundreds of orphan children lacking the basic necessities Maggie had growing up in the U.S. 