U:End Poverty - A Different Way to Gift

A Different Way to Gift

U:End Poverty is a Calgary run non-profit that aims to change the way people feel about how they buy gifts. Their mandate is to get everyone to give five per cent of what they would spend on their gifts for the year, and give it to poverty instead. If everyone one did this, we could eradicate poverty world-wide in 15 years. This idea started as a Christmas charity named Christmas Futures. It went through a re-brand in 2010 to include all gifting.

What makes U:End Poverty unique, is that the money you donate goes directly to a project, and not to an umbrella organization. You can donate money specifically to help build a water well in Uganda if that's a cause that speaks to you, or country you care about. The site is designed in a way that allows you to see the progress being made in donations to that specific project. Once the needed donation has been received, you'll see how many lives were positively effected by its completion. U:End encourages users to buy its gift-cards instead of presents for people so they can choose what project or country they want to support instead of receiving another materialistic present.

To date, U:End has 54 completed projects in the worlds poorest countries - from HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention in Honduras, to a one year women's literacy program in Sierra Leone. These 54 projects have positively effected over 450,000 individual lives. Amazing.

Completed Projects Page
http://www.uend.org/dt/projects?page=3&search%5Bproject_status_id%5D%5B%5D=4

I have a personal connection to this organization as I was lucky enough to work with Carla White, a Calgarian that biked from Cairo to Cape Town to raise money for energy poverty in Africa. Carla biked an average of 120km/day over 4 months. She was able to raise $25,000 through the U:End site to buy 6 solar lanterns and fund the completion of a wind powered water turbine for the village of Bulungala, South Africa. U:End provided her the platform to share her cause and raise money. Carla is recently back from her adventure, but the villages and orphanages that received her lanterns will never forget her generosity.

 

The U:End business model has been such a success in its 6 years, it is moving into the United States and setting up an office in  San Francisco. It's truly a Calgarian philanthropic success story.

Ryan McC

Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada

One Canadian charity that I believe does a particularly good job of fundraising online is the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada; specifically the online fundraising they do for their annual Spring Sprint event.

The Spring Sprint 2012 is a 2.5km or 5km walk or fun run fundraiser to raise money for brain tumour research. The Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada hosts 20 Spring Sprint events across Canada, and will be hosting their Calgary run on June 10, 2012. My sisters and I have registered to participate in the Spring Sprint in memory of our mom and are currently fundraising through online and in-person donations.

This is the link to my personal fundraising page:

http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=1437457&langPref=en-CA

On my personal fundraising page, it lists the names and amounts of donors and illustrates how much of my fundraising goal I have reached. This allows for potential donors to see how far along I am and potentially feel more inclined to donate if they are aware how much I am still hoping to raise. Below is a screen shot of my fundraising goal on the Brain Tumour Foundation website:

On the Canada Revenue Agency website, the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada is listed as a public foundation. When I researched their total amount raised in 2011 from Internet fundraising, this was what I found:

Although the Brain Tumour Foundation has not disclosed the specific amount they raised from online fundraising in 2011, it is easy to see they do provide you with the option to fundraise online.

On their website, there are options to easily share my fundraising page on Facebook, Twitter and via email. Although there are also options for cheque and cash pledges, the largest majority of fundraising I have received for the Spring Sprint 2012 is through online donations. I believe the option for pledging donations online allows the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada to raise significantly more money than they otherwise would. 


- Jessica Littel

Going Viral

This winter, millions of people worldwide saw the Kony 2012 video posted on their Facebook, Twitter and posted on other social media sites. The video even made local and global news around the world. If you have been living in a cave for the last four months and haven't seen the video, click here. 

I am not focused on promoting the video (or the cause) itself; I understand the organization who released this video, The Invisible Children, have been scrutinized for various reasons. For the purpose of this blog post, I want to focus solely on the organization's effective methods of gaining support and receiving donations. 

I know the Invisible Children organization is not Canadian but they did an excellent job capturing attention of Canadians, resulting in numerous donations. The Kony2012 video has 90 million hits on YouTube! That’s more hits than the number of people who live in Canada.

The website has received over 3 million pledges from over 200 countries, including Canada. The website is well presented with an easily found “donate” button on the first page. Once clicking on the button, you can make a simple donation for 10, 20, 40 or 100 dollars as a one time payment or monthly option. Supporters can then pay with various types of credit cards. The Invisible Children have made donating online incredibly simple.


The question is, why and how did the video go viral and how did it drive so much traffic to the charity’s website in the first place, resulting in donations?

Bloomberg BusinessWeek tells us why.

1.  It tells a story: The video is easy to understand and it tells a story that is still ongoing.  

2. The video is about you: Jason Russell, filmmaker and co-founder of the Invisible Children starts the video with footage of his son’s birth, adding a voiceover that reminds us that this child represents us. “Every single person in the world started this way,” Russell tells us. “He didn’t choose where or when he was born, but because he’s here, he matters.”

3. It’s action packed: The video sweeps us up into the action as it’s well-filmed, colorful, and as it uses footage of the problem itself.

4.  Famous people: Famous people told you about the video or tweeted about it to show their support.

5. The story isn’t over: The video makes viewers believe that they can make a change by buying posters and bracelets or simply by donating.

To read more on BusinessWeek, click here. 


Overall, I think the Invisible Children have provided us with an excellent case study on charities using viral marketing. The charity is an example on how to leverage a large amount of Facebook friends and Twitter followers to spread a message. 

- JS

Caller ID: The Death of Charitable Cold Calls

Thanks to technology, never before have humans been more accessible, yet harder to get a hold of...

Growing up in a family of six, the telephone, next to the television, caused the most blow-outs amongst my siblings and I. While we would always fight to use it, we would never bother to answer it when it rang; not knowing who was on the other end, often meant long conversations with tele-marketers and representatives of organizations seeking donations. Since the invention of caller ID, the concept of 'cold calling' has begun to die off. But many non-profit organizations are once again turning to the dail paid to help support their cause, but this time, in an innovative, safe, and convenient way.

Text-To-Donate is a concept many organizations, including the Canadian Red Cross, are adopting to increase revenue. With a simple text, cell phone users are able to donate $5 or $10 in just seconds, with the donation charged right to their phone bill!

Text Donation 

Text-To-Donate was a critical part of the response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake with the Red Cross and Yele Haiti leading the charge. More than $30 million was donated via text message (14% of all efforts) in just the first 10 days following the quake. Text message donations jumped more than 200% right after the quake than the same period in 2009, according to a study by BlackBaud (Mashables, 2012)

Although Text-To-Donate provides a convenient donation method, the Canadian Red Cross rellies heavily on their own websites, and online social media platforms to spread word of the cause and information requaring the texting process. 

Red Cross uses their website and social media to raise awareness of Text-To-Donate

Those looking to donate via text-message simply log onto the Canadian Red Cross website, find a cause they wish to support, text the corresponding code, and their donations is done! The site also offers one-time and monthly online donation.

Pls Txt 2 Donate $ Now. <3 Josh :)

-Joshua Smith

CBCF - CanadaHelps

This charity has a very extensive online presence and is one of the most prominent cancer charities in Canada. For this blog post, I decided to focus on a foundation I was familiar with, and analyze the effectiveness of The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation’s online fundraising tactics and how they are using Canadahelps.org and other online platforms to leverage their cause nationwide.

The Foundation was established in 1986 and has been a leader in raising awareness nationwide to the fight against breast cancer. They are now one of the leading organizations in Canada devoted to establishing a future without breast cancer. The Foundation has four regional offices in BC/Yukon, Prairies/NWT, Ontario and the Atlan​tic Region, allowing to better serve the needs of Canadians.

The Foundation’s website provides visitors with comprehensive financial information, displaying where their donations come from and how they spend their dollars responsibly.

They also publish their audited financial statements from the past four years. Within the 2011 statement, The Foundation’s annual revenues were  $54,601,285 with $12,167,835. Donations (individual, direct response, corporate) accounted for nearly 25 per cent of their total 2011 revenue. It is unclear how much of these donations is directly attributed to online fundraising efforts.

The Foundation has an extensive online presence and is constantly on the cutting edge of implementing new fundraising methods. Their facebook page has 43, 288 likes and their twitter has 4,906 followers. They’ve incorporated many ways to help the Foundation, including a ‘donate’ link directly on their page, which sends you to their Run for the Cure donation page. This page allows the donor to give any denomination they want. They’ve also incorporated new strategies into their fundraising campaign including an email signature and a facebook fundraising app for Run for the Cure participants. These are great ways of continually garnering exposure and effectively getting the participants involved in their cause.

The Foundation is also listed on the Canadahelps.org website. CanadaHelps was established to make fundraising simple. They currently have over 12,000 charities accepting donations through their site.  CanadaHelps keeps a minimum fee of a 3.9 per cent on each donation, which is deducted from the donation before being distributed to the charity. CanadaHelps only accepts charities with registration numbers and issues tax receipts directly following the completion of a donation.

The Foundation’s charity profile lists their mission statement and a brief description of the charity; there is also some contact information and website address, if necessary. Visitors are able to make a one-time donation to the cause, or set up a monthly donation through a secured service. The Foundation has also adopted the Imagine Canada Ethical Code, which states, “The Ethical Fundraising and Financial Accountability Code (Ethical Code) lays out a set of standards for charitable organizations to manage and report their financial affairs responsibly.“ (Imagine Canada, 2012). The Foundation is also listed on the Charity Focus website, powered by Imagine Canada. This adds to the Foundation’s credibility by showing donors they’re responsible with their finances and the donations they receive.

I believe The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation has established itself as a credible and honest charity and laid the groundwork to continue their effective fundraising campaigns through various online mediums. They have continually implemented progressive fundraising initiatives through social media and other online forums. It gives the donor piece of mind when they know their donation is funding a worthy program. 


On Sunday, September 30, I will be running for my mom and my grandmas.

-CP

A Donor's Perspective

The websites are both an excellent way to receive funding for organizations, programs or causes. The websites are interactive, easy, and most of all, innovative. -No more knocking door-to-door at local businesses to receive support, donations or funding!

I wrote today’s blog from the perspective of someone who is donating and supporting a cause rather than someone who is seeking support.

FirstGiving:

When first landing on the webpage, you immediately have the option to search over 20,000 non-profits by name and/or keyword. I typed in the word “breast cancer” as a test and immediately 48 different pages of organizations appeared, some of which have already raised up to $100,000.

Seeing over 48 different pages of organizations was a bit overwhelming. Numerous organizations were not in my country or province (there was no sorting device) and numerous organizations didn’t have any pictures or updates posted. If I were a donor looking to support a cause, without knowing a specific organization, this system would be somewhat chaotic. On the left hand side tool bar there were categories listed: Non-profits, projects, events, people, fundraisers and teams. The categories allowed me to hone down on specifics that I may seek as a donor looking for a specific organization or initiative. I would have liked to see sorting device allowing me to see all of the projects and organizations that were local to Alberta and Canada. (Or the US in this case).

While browsing through the many titles under the “breast cancer” category, I also realized that within the hundreds of organizations and initiatives, some pages were not updated or maintained while others had weekly updates and photos. A few pages did have a “donate now” buttons, which make it very easy for the donor.

Overall, my verdict on First Giving is that this is a fantastic fundraising website to help non-profit organizations plan, execute, and measure their campaigns. In terms of non-profits gaining awareness and seeking donors, the website could make a few simple changes in order to facilitate this. My suggestions would be to create more categories in which organizations can be filtered, including country and province/state. I also believe that outdated or neglected profiles should expire as they make it difficult to find a specific organization in the masses.

Donors Choose: 

As a donor’s perspective it immediately caught my attention that this website listed “Most Urgent = Highest Poverty + Closest to the Finish Line.” This sorting device makes it extremely easy and efficient for me to find what I am looking for. I also noticed a sorting device, which allows you to identify the school, city and state.

As a donor, it may also be important for me to see which cause has gained the most money to this point, and how far they are to reaching their goal. Perhaps I am a donor who wants to support a cause with few supporters to give them a kick-start. Or, perhaps I am a donor who is looking to support a popular cause, which is near the end of their fundraising efforts. It was very simple to find either.

Overall Verdict:

From the perspective of a donor or someone who is looking to support an organization or a cause, I found the Donors Choose website to be easier to maneuver. The site seemed better maintained than first giving (all organizations and projects had photos and updated information).

I understand the sites have two slightly different purposes as First Giving may be used more for an organization to track their progress. Nonetheless I think they could make a few simple changes to make a huge difference to eventually attract and engage more donors who ultimate the difference. 




- Jessica S.

Mrs. Ward and Mrs. Graham

Everybody Wins

Mrs. Ward teaches at Wadsworth Elementary School, a high poverty school in Chicago, Illinois. She feels that financial literacy is the first step to getting out of poverty, and feels teaching her students this early is important. As we all know, the public school system in the states is far from wealthy, so when conscientious teachers like Mrs. Ward have ideas like this, there is usually no money in the budget to do anything about it.

With Donors Choose, Mrs. Ward is able to post her idea for the purchase of a product called the Money Savvy Piggy Bank. It teaches kids the fundamentals of money management - spending, saving, donating and investing. Mrs. Ward believes these are the fundamentals of money every child should be taught from an early age.

To do this Mrs. Ward needs $1000 to buy 16 money savvy pigs and the accompanying MSK coloring books. Both are used together to teach these fundamentals in an informative and child appropriate way. She has only $71 dollars left to go to purchase her supplies.

Mrs. Graham teaches at Thomas Hooker Elementary School in Bridgeport Connecticut, another high poverty elementary school. Unlike Mrs. Ward, the kids at this school don't even have access to the basic supplies needed to learn - pencils, erasers and paper. The district is going through some major financial windfalls, and Mrs. Graham was told she was given the last 50 pencils and wasn't sure if there would be anymore to replace those for the entire year. She only needs $350 and has $25 left to go. 

After looking at a few different projects besides Mrs. Ward's and Mrs. Graham's, I noticed a lot of quality checking done on each project by Donors Choose administration. Once the ask was posted, Donors Choose would tell those interested that the teacher, project had in fact been verified and was for a legitimate purpose.

Donors Choose is a fantastic website specifically for teachers. As mentioned before, the public school system in the United States is under funded. Teachers have a very difficult time trying to provide their classrooms the best education due to lack of supplies. If not for this website, teachers would have to do without which essentially means the children do without. 

They never ask for absorbent amounts of money, and they always show exactly where the money is going. I think this focused fundraising technique is highly effective and really makes a difference for teachers across the United States like Mrs. Ward and Mrs. Graham who now have what they need to do their job the absolute best they can.

Ryan McCaffrey

First Giving: The Boomer Esiason Foundation

First Giving is a Boston-based online fundraising website aimed at helping non-profit organizations “plan, execute, and measure successful online fundraising campaigns.” There are currently over 8,000 non-profits using the site and over 13 million online donors.

First Giving profiles three featured causes each week. For the purpose of this post, I will be examining how The Boomer Esiason Foundation uses First Giving to maximize their donations.

After finding out his son Gunnar had been diagnosed with the often-fatal genetic disorder Cystic Fibrosis (CF), former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason created The Boomer Esiason Foundation. The purpose of the foundation is to increase awareness, education and quality of life for those affected by cystic fibrosis, and provide financial support to research aimed at finding a cure.

The Foundation allows fundraisers to sign up for events and become a part of Team Boomer; they then set a fundraising goal and use First Giving to meet it. The fundraisers can then send their profile to family, friends, and coworkers, via First Giving’s social media plug-ins, to help increase their contribution to the cause.


The following video is a recruitment piece for Team Boomer.

There are currently 122 fundraisers for the Team Boomer and each fundraiser has many supporters. Six top fundraisers are profiled on the cause’s main page, identifying how much money they’ve raised and how many supporters they have. This is a great way to celebrate the success of the foundation’s fundraisers and foster friendly competition by highlighting top fundraisers and teams.

Each fundraiser’s profile displays why they’ve chosen to raise money for the cause and their personal connection to it. Their profile also breaks down each donation they’ve received, including how much they’ve raised online and offline. The top fundraiser has raised a total of $9,587 all online, and has 28 supporters since he joined five weeks ago. Of the six top fundraisers, they all have a personal connection to CF.

This website allows for donor convenience as First Giving has set-up many ways to make donating easy and efficient. The following video outlines First Giving’s payment methods and policies.

First Giving empowers enthusiastic and motivated non-profit supporters and organizations to raise more money than they ever thought possible for causes they are invested in. With the aid of First Giving, The Boomer Esiason Foundation has been able to effectively leverage their cause, and bring attention to the fight against CF, and raise a total of $1,522,642. 

-CP

Online Fundraising - Review of DonorsChoose Website

Did you know that a teacher spends, on average, $40 a month on school supplies? and that's from their own pocket! But, with online donation platforms like DonorsChoose, anyone can help ease that burden with giving as little as $1


DonorsChoose


DonorsChoose is an online charity that makes it easy for anyone to help students in need.

The program begins with request from school teachers that range from school supplies, to musical instruments, to equipment like microscopes. Requests are then put on DonorsChoose.org for anyone to view. Those interested are then able to donate as much or as little as $1 towards one or more projects. Once a project reaches its funding goal, DonorsChoose delivers the materials to the schools.

In return for a donation, donors will receive photos of the projects they helped fund, and a letter from the teacher which conveys how each dollar was spent, donors who gave upwards of $50, will also receive hand-written thank-you letters from each of the students involved with the project.

The Impact


Since 2003 DonorsChoose has ben able to raise $116,443,935 and help 6,608,196 students (as of May 18th, 2012).

The Good

• When donating money to a good cause, the last thing anyone wants to deal with is taking the time to create an account. While DonorsChoose will ask for basic contact information, the site does not require you to set up and account. Once you have found a project of interest, you enter your amount, diver your emails, and select your method of payment. and thats it!

• Payment methods offered by the site are not only reputable and safe, but come in a variety of options. DonorsChoose allows donors to use paypal, amazon payment, secured credit card, and gift cards offered by DonorsChoose.

• Projects are searchable by school, state, city, or project type. Allowing a donor to easily find a project will allow them to give to a near by school in their community, or to a school which they once went to themselves

• A minimum donation of $1 is all it takes to make a difference. DonorsChoose allows donors to give as little or as much as they like, with each dollar making a difference.

The Bad

• Nothing! DonorsChoose is a great example of an easy, safe, and effective way to make a difference.

Make A Difference Today

To make a donation, please visit www.DonorsChoose.org If everyone in class donates just $1 we will have enough to fund one project! 

-Joshua Smith

Online Fundraising - Review of FirstGiving Website

Over 8,000 non-profit organizations have used FirstGiving (http://www.firstgiving.com/) to help them to plan, execute, and measure successful online fundraising campaigns. Over 13 million online donors have used their site, generating over $1 billion in donations for various non-profits.

One organization using their services is the Melanoma Foundation of New England. On the FirstGiving website, there is a page for the Melanoma Foundation to describe their non-profit, explain why they need the funds, and list photos and videos related to their cause.

Below is a YouTube video created by the Melanoma Foundation of New England that has been embedded on FirstGiving’s website:

The video helps to raise awareness and demonstrate the Melanoma Foundation’s need for funding in a way that is easy to understand by the viewer.

The capacity FirstGiving has to host videos on their site for the non-profits they support is an excellent feature they offer. Watching videos is an excellent way to have viewers engage with their cause and easily understand the need for donations. Videos often have the ability to pull at the heartstrings in a way that written documents cannot.

The Melanoma Foundation also highlights the names and amounts raised from their top fundraisers on their FirstGiving site. This is a great feature for the website because it encourages donors to support their cause and gives recognition to the individuals who have been working the hardest to generate support.

One the FirstGiving website, there are opportunities to share the Melanoma Foundation’s page on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and to send the page via email. They have also listed their address, website, tax ID and links to related articles about the cause.

To date, the Melanoma Foundation of New England has raised $941,527 through FirstGiving’s website. There is a 5 per cent fee deducted from their fundraising total, used to maintain the costs associated with FirstGiving’s website. In my opinion, that is a reasonable deduction, considering the amount of money the Melanoma Foundation has been able to raise as a result of FirstGiving’s website and assistance.

 -Jessica Littel