On December 6th, GiveForward hosted our first annual Ugly Sweater Pub Crawl to support three organizations that we think are working hard to prevent homelessness here in Chicago: StreetWise, Teen Living Programs, and the Chicago Anti-Hunger Federation. read more…

Last night a few local ABC News affiliates picked up a short story about GiveForward.  Click here to see our debut performance!

We would like to invite all GiveForward users to tune in OR join us tonight at Raven (Clark and Belden) to watch Ariana, our director of marketing, as she gets made over on Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style on Bravo TV.  The show airs tonight at 9pm CST.

For those of you able to make it to our Launch Party in August, you just might catch a glimpse of yourself during the final scene, where they do a brief follow-up on Ariana.

Tell us what you think of the show!

I’m off to give a presentation about young donors at the Youth Communication Chicago Board meeting but before I head out, I wanted to share with you all the great news!

Individual fundraisers on GiveForward.org have raised $21,455 as of this afternoon.  That is $21,000 that is going to amazing causes like stem cell research, animal rescue clinics, canvassing for presidential candidates, and more. read more…

GiveForward.org is officially one month into our soft launch, and I must say we’re off to a pretty fantastic start!

So far, we have raised $5,600 on the site and have had nearly 3,000 visitors.  For a new site, with zero marketing budget, that’s pretty darn good!

While we’d love to give ourselves a pat on the back, the congratulations really goes to all of you who have been working so hard to promote your fundraisers.  Thanks to your work, $5,600 is going to great causes that would have never received that money if it weren’t for your efforts. read more…

Something beautiful happens when one gives. For a brief moment, the recipient and donor share space and time, either real or imagined, where both acknowledge a commonality, a connectedness that is part of our sense of humanity. Something tweaks the heartstrings of the giver, persuading him to part with hard earned dollars for the sake of a stranger. The beneficiary, in the act of asking, humbles herself, admitting an inability to survive without the kindness of strangers.

This act of giving, this connecting of different people across the globe, is what we hope each person who visits GiveForward will experience. Sometimes users will visit the site to raise money for a cause they believe in; sometimes that cause will be their own future. Other times, visitors will come to donate a few dollars here and there to projects they think are making a difference in this world. read more…

It has been a long, windy road to launch, but we are finally here! For those of you who are familiar with our story already, you know that GiveForward was borne out of Desiree’s quarter-life-crisis and was built brick by virtual brick with the hard work and dedication of Ethan, our awesome team of interns, and the young but brilliant web development team, the Ocean Online Group.

Together, we took an idea and made it a reality in a little less than six months—a feat made possible by the simple fact that we bootstrapped our way with the help of our incredibly supportive friends and family. But there is nothing small about GiveForward now.

As you will see over the coming months, we have big plans to make GiveForward the easiest and most effective giving site on the web. We’ll be rolling out new features and services as our community grows, making it that much more fun for you to donate to or fundraise for your favorite cause or project.

read more…