Give Forward

Last Friday, The Illinois Hispanic Entrepreneurship Center awarded us their $5,000 grant for being a ‘high-growth potential firm.’

We are so excited and honored to receive this grant, and it’s going to be put to great use! The award comes at an especially perfect time for us, since we are in the process of promoting the new version of our site.

On the new site, which launches this July, we are starting specialized “group” pages, where it will now be easier for nonprofit organizations, college and grade school clubs, and other institutions to fundraise for their cause and have a permanent place here at GiveForward.

This award will also help expand our user outreach. With the grant, we can help more individuals fundraising directly to friends and family for meaningful causes, such as medical expenses.

We hope you’re as excited as we are about the changes to come with GiveForward. We’re growing fast and we couldn’t do it without the support of our awesome community!

This week’s post is from Morrie Warshawski, author of The Fundraising Houseparty: How to Party with a Purpose and Raise Money for Your Cause – 2nd Edition.

PARTY PARTY PARTY!

Forward thinking GiveForward members realize that online fundraising is just one part of a comprehensive fundraising effort. One other very flexible and powerful tool for soliciting support from individuals is the increasingly popular fundraising houseparty. Houseparties are a perfect way to get people excited and energized around your project/cause, and often form the beginning of relationships with individuals who you hope will become major donors online and/or offline.

Politicians like Barak Obama and Howard Dean used houseparties to raise millions of dollars for their campaigns. Filmmaker Robert Greenwald harnessed the power of houseparties to have his supporters host thousands of them across the US to fund his social issue documentaries on Wal-Mart, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

You can organize a houseparty with just six weeks of lead time, and you can have them take place in your neighborhood, or in communities anywhere around the globe where someone believes in you and your cause. Begin by finding a host who is willing to provide her house for the party, and will open up her address book to invite her friends. Encourage the host to put together a host committee. This spreads out the work load and adds a few more address books to your resources.

Have fun with the process. Design invitations that can be sent by regular mail and/or as e-vites. On all the invitations, give people the option of donating to your project on your GiveForward page if they can’t come. You’ll make some money before the event even happens!

After people have arrived and had a chance to mingle and eat some finger food for a while, gather everyone into a room and make a formal presentation:

• The host welcomes everyone and talks about why she is committed to your project.
• You get up and talk about your cause. Ideally you show a DVD clip, or some photos – anything that will get participants emotionally engaged with your cause. Take a little time to answer any questions people have and engage in a dialogue.
• Someone – the host or a peer of people in the room – then stands up and makes a very direct, and heartfelt ask for support.

Be sure to have pledge cards ready for everyone to fill out. By all means have a computer or two available with your GiveForward page displayed so that people can make credit card donations right on the spot. You’ll find that having a face-to-face contact with donors is a satisfying, powerful, and effective way to solicit new support and deepen commitment to your cause.

MORRIE WARSHAWSKI is a consultant specializing in working with nonprofits on strategic planning. He is the author of THE FUNDRAISING HOUSEPARTY: HOW TO PARTY WITH A PURPOSE AND RAISE MONEY FOR YOUR CAUSE – 2^nd edition, available at his website: www.warshawski.com. SPECIAL OFFER: Readers who mention GiveForward can receive a $5 discount off the cover price of the book for as many copies as they like until July 31^st.

On Monday, as a part of the Obama administration’s United We Serve initiative, First Lady Michelle Obama helped volunteers construct an Elementary School playground in San Francisco.

Quoted in the Los Angeles Times, Obama spread motivation to take action in the initiative, and volunteer in service projects throughout the summer. And we at GiveForward couldn’t agree more with taking the opportunity to serve.

“Imagine the changes that happen with the creation of this park,” Obama said. “Kids who were never able to play on a swing set will get the opportunity to play.”

Later, in a keynote address to the National Conference on Volunteering and Service, Obama stated, “We have an administration that understands that service is the key to achieving our national priorities.”

This call to action is seen as a way for more Americans to address their own community’s problems, from education and health to energy and the environment.

The initiative will run through Sept. 11, which the administration has designated as the National Day of Service and Remembrance.

read more…

People have called GiveForward a “social networking site for fundraising,” and whenever they do, we’re pretty quick to correct them.  Our main reason is that most social networking sites are comprised of predominantly passive users…i.e. people that only half-heartedly contribute to the community.

With fundraising, the last thing you want to see is 12,000 supporters but only $150 in donations, which is what you get on other sites (ahem Facebook Causes).  That’s why we really encourage our users to actively ask their friends and family for money…not support.

Sure, you might use the language “please support me in my efforts.”  But at the end of the day what you really need is a donation.

Here are a couple of tips from Joanne Fritz, author at about.com, on how to get a donation vs. support:

• Create a sense of urgency by citing a deadline , or tie your request a particular holiday. Repeat your argument for urgency both in the text of the email but also in a P.S. and follow up emails.
• Be explicit when asking for money. Example: Send a special gift today of $25 or more. Be clear and repeat some variation of the message throughout the email.

Other ways to get your friends to donate include:

• Making a goal of $1 per friend and following up with those that haven’t given…who can’t afford $1?
• Promising to do something crazy/funny/ridiculous if you get to a certain goal by a certain time
• Offering prizes for donors who give within a certain window of time

The goal here is to get everyone you know to open their hearts and wallets for you.  You know what motivates the people you care about…use that knowledge for good!

June 3 is National Running Day Never heard of National Running Day?  Well, that’s because it’s brand new.  But basically, National Running Day is a national initiative put together by many of the organizations in the running industry to promote running as a healthy and easy way to stay in shape.

We at GiveForward couldn’t agree more about getting people to start running.  In fact, we just signed up for the Chicago marathon ourselves and in recognition of National Running Day we came up with our top five reasons why we love running.

1. It’s free
2. You can do it anywhere
3. Once you finish a long run, you can eat awesome quantities of food like pancakes and waffles.
4. It’s one of the best ways to prevent diabetes, heart and lung disease.
5. Runners have good butts (it’s true)

Bonus reason: Running a 10K or marathon is probably the easiest way to personally raise thousands of dollars for a cause you care about.

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