We here at GiveForward are flattered to have been mentioned honorably in Greg Ferenstein’s (@Ferenstein) latest article on Mashable.com. In the piece, Greg outlines “some of the most useful ways to raise money for your charity or creative project.” He was kind enough to give us an honorable mention in the “Cause” category.

Crowdrise, the site he gave top billing to in this category, was started by actor Ed Norton and has done work with comedic mega-star Will Ferrell. I’m still a week away from starting my next class at The Second City, so we can’t be mad at an honorable mention. Plus, they’re doing some wonderful things over there; check them out. Thanks for the love, Greg!

The ORIGINAL Lemonade Stand with founder and leading saleswoman, Alex Scott

We are proud to announce our new ‘Cause of the Quarter’ is dedicated to fighting childhood cancer.  As the leading cause of death by disease in those under the age of 15, Pediatric Cancer is an area of medical research that needs to work harder than most to find cures.

The recipient for our Cause of the Quarter is Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. Not only was this amazing organization started by someone diagnosed with cancer, it was started by a 4 year old diagnosed with neuroblastoma who went on to raise $2,000 at one lemonade stand in her own front yard.  Kind of makes you wonder what you were doing at 4 years old, because I know I wasn’t inspiring a life changing and insanely influential organization that is dedicated to curing childhood cancer. I was making mud pies.  Hopefully Alex Scott’s story motivates us all to put this cause on our radar and to give back to a cause that is truly deserving.

We are so proud to support them for all the other resources they provide to cancer patients, their families, and everyone in the community who has been touched by childhood cancer.  From assisting with travel and lodging expenses while receiving treatments, to providing the support and information that families need in order to cope within a community who cares.  And mark your calendars for Lemonade Days, in honor of  the first weekend Alex Scott created her very first lemonade stand.  To read more about ALSF, head on our to our Cause of the Quarter page.  So here’s to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation: Fighting Childhood Cancer, One Cup at a Time.  We raise our plastic cups to you!

1.  Personalize your fundraising page as much as possible with a heartfelt description and lots of photos.  The fundraisers who do the best are the ones who really make an effort to tell their stories.  Explain to your donors what you are raising money for and why it is so important to you.  If your friends and family see that you are passionate about your fundraising efforts, they are more likely to give and give generously.  More tips on how to personalize.

2.  Promote Promote Promote! The more you promote your fundraising page the better it will do. Here are the best ways to promote

• Email everyone you know! Even if you haven’t spoken to them in years, you’ll be surprised at how many people will decide to donate when you ask.
• When you email your friends and family ask them to share your page with their friends and co-workers using the “Tell-a-friend” button on your page.
• Set up a Facebook group that includes a link to your GiveForward fundraising page.  If you have a Facebook account definitely set up a group.  This has been far and away one of the most successful strategies for our users.
• Add the URL from your fundraising page to your email signature
• Add the URL to your AIM, Gchat or Facebook status message

3.  Send email or facebook updates to your friends and family. One of the single most important tips to online fundraising is to be persistent.  While some people will donate the first time you ask them, the reality is that it will take at least 2-3 friendly reminders before the majority of your friends and family open up their wallets for you. Fundraisers who keep their donor base engaged with frequent updates tend to be the most successful. Read more here about how and when to send out email/Facebook updates.
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On Saturday August 22nd, GiveForward sponsored our first ChasePoint challenge in City Chase Chicago!  Stationed at the Blues Jean Bar on N. Halstead, our challenge asked contestants to trade either a GiveForward pen or a sticker for a non-perishable food item to be donated to the Chicago Food Depository.  There were two rules: 1. The item had to be bigger than the size of your fist, and 2. There had to be photo documentation of the transaction.

Runners hit the streets, asking passerby, visiting restaurants, and even knocking on people’s doors to make the trade–and they came back with some pretty strange stuff!  As if pork rinds, beef sticks, and gigantic tins of baby corn weren’t enough, donations also included pigeon peas, canned escargot, and my personal favorite: pickled cactus.

Overall the event was a big success, and we were able to collect about 100 lbs of food to be donated to the food depository.  We’re looking forward to continuing our partnership with City Chase next summer and keeping our event focused on charity.  But don’t worry–the challenge changes every year, so we’ll be sure to have a surprise in store for next year’s participants.

In the September issue of Mindful Metropolis (a monthly magazine connecting Chicago’s conscious community), GiveForward was highlighted as one of five social entrepreneurs making a difference in Chicago. The article, written by freelance writer and editor Christina Galoozis, focused on bringing transformational change to the city–one donation at a time. We are so thrilled to be a part of it! Check out our section of the article:

Where $5 Funds a Kidney Transplant

Desiree Vargas, 27 & Ethan Austin, 28

I told a friend about my idea for GiveForward, a website that connects worthy causes with everyday donors, at a Super Bowl party last year, and she surprisingly knew someone with the same idea. Ethan and I immediately hit it off on the phone, and he moved from California to Chicago a few months later to launch the business with me.

As an intern at a non-profit during Hurricane Katrina, I recognized the desire of average Americans to donate directly to afflicted families, and not through large organizations like The Red Cross. At the same time, Ethan had reached $6,000 through a personal fundraising Web page for his first marathon sponsored by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. With these personal experiences in mind, we wanted to give everyone with a credible cause–from transplant surgeries to mission trips–a place to collect small donations, even as little as $1, and reach their goal.

To start, Ethan and I were able to pool $50,000 in capital, which we spent entirely on site development, and GiveForward.org first went live on Aug. 14, 2008. We now generate revenue through the 3 percent fee charged to every fundraiser once they reached their goal, as well as Google Ads. People are generally honest, but we police the site for fraudulent behavior.

So far the site has done amazing things. The largest contribution has been $5,000 to help fund a local woman’s kidney transplant, which we’re happy to say was recently granted by the hospital for a reduced rate. Her sister raised a total of $32,000 on our site. We also sponsor “Run for a Reason,” where runners can raise money through GiveForward for any cause and run the Chicago Half Marathon and 5K together on Sept. 13.

Like our donations, we started out small. Our ultimate goal is to become bigger–like the eBay for giving.

Here at GiveForward we’re all about making philanthropy fun. So on September 10, we’re giving the community another reason to party. Get a sneak peak of Old Town Social before its grand opening at GiveForward’s “Party for a Reason.” As an awesome pre-race shindig, we will be celebrating the runners and charities involved in “Run for a Reason.” (our fundraising competition and effort to connect with local charities by bringing together runners to participate in the upcoming Chicago Half Marathon & 5k.)

See what Party for a Reason has to offer with two hours of open bar including specialty cocktails, vodka drinks, beer, and appetizers while mingling with young professionals who know how to have a good time.  Doors open at 7pm, and Party for a Reason tickets keep you enjoying the club sans cover for the rest of the night, with a raffle and prizes you won’t want to miss. (Yes, we are offering more than free shirts! Although our shirts ARE pretty cool.) And the best part: ticket proceeds go to various charity partners of GiveForward, including organizations like Chicago Children’s Charities, Chicago Inner City Outings, and Midwest Young Artists. Now who would want to give up the chance to drink and feel guilt free? Party for a Reason promises to be a hangover you can be proud of.

Details of the event:

Where: Old Town Social 455 W. North Ave (on the El: just West of the Sedgwick Brown Line stop)

When: September 10, 2009, 7PM-10PM

Price: $25 for 2 hours of open bar (remember, it’s for charity!)

Purchase your tickets online at Party4aReason.com!

What happens when “Fear Factor” meets the “Amazing Race?” You get a taste of City Chase Chicago, a scavenger hunt style sporting-event taking place this Saturday, August 22. As City Chase describes, it’s time once again “to turn the windy city into an urban playground.” And they mean that quite literally. For most of the afternoon, teams of two attempt to complete ten challenges. They will run, walk and use public transit to navigate their way throughout the city, while calling family and friends for help, accessing the Internet and even employing assistance of total strangers. Last year, you could find teams milking a cow in the middle of the city, completing a boot camp, racing horses in Grant Park, and even stuffing a snake down their shirts. (SNAKES? That’s where I draw the line.) It may sound ridiculous, but hundreds of teams have registered to participate in what’s now “The World’s Largest Urban Adventure Series,” and the chance to advance to the North American Championships, taking place from September 3 to September 5 in Quebec City, Canada.

And the best part? GiveForward is going to be a part of all the City Chase madness! We’re partnering with City Chase and sponsoring one of the event chase points. (Chase Points are the challenges scattered in unknown locations throughout the city. The challenges are supposed to “test mind, body and spirit.”) We’ve designed our own challenge, but since it’s top secret, we can’t exactly tell you what the GiveForward chase point entails. Let’s just say in the spirit of charity, it involves obtaining non-perishable food for the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

If you’re a brave soul that’s feeling up to the challenge, it’s not too late to register! For more information go to City Chase and check it out.

City Chase may not be a Chicago marathon (we do those too), but it’s a whole new game of endurance that we’re so excited to be a part of!

One fundraising strategy that many of our users have found really successful is offering prizes to their donors to create a little extra incentive to donate.   Often times, this can be great way to reel in potential donors who are sitting on the fence about donating. (i.e. those people who may have overlooked your emails in the past or may not have donated otherwise).

Although you many think this tactic too closely teeters on the border of bribing, the reality is that in most successful fundraisers, people donate for a number of different reasons. Sometimes people donate because they feel really connected to your cause. Sometimes they donate just because they want to support you as a friend. And then other times, people donate because they want to win a prize.

If it helps, think about it this way: you are fundraising for a great cause, your friends want to help you reach your goal, and someone along the way gets an iPod, gift card, etc.  I’d say it’s a win-win-win situation all around!

So, here’s how to create your promotion:

• Inform your contact list: Send out an initial email/Facebook message to your contact list informing them that anyone who donates over a certain amount will be entered into a raffle for an ipod or any cool thing you have lying around the house (autographed tissue, extra pair of moon-shoes, just a couple examples).  Make sure to follow up with subsequent reminders as the promotion moves along to keep people interested.

• Create a sense of urgency. People are more likely to donate when there is a sense of urgency, so to help get donations coming in you should structure your promotion within a short time frame or on a first come first serve basis.
• Time period: Anyone who donates within a certain time period (e.g. two weeks) is entered into a raffle to win the prize
• First come, first serve: The first X amount of people that donate (e.g. first 25 or first 50) will be entered to win the prize.

Timing of the campaign

• As far as when to begin such a campaign, it’s probably best to wait until your first or second round of donors have made donations- this being your closest friends and family first, then all your other circles of friends, co-workers, former dog-walkers, etc.  When the donations start to slow down and you think you have received all the donations you will get from these people (like when you know its time to take the bag of popcorn out of the microwave because there are 5 seconds between each POP), it’s a great time to start this little campaign.

Remember to have fun with it.

• The strategy above is just one example. But there are many ways to go about implementing a prize promotion and you will have to find a way for it to fit your fundraiser and personalize it.  If you’re real hard up for an idea or the funds to back up a good prize, simply offer your services.  If you’re a great photographer, offer to do a family photo shoot for free; maybe an oil change if you’re mechanically inclined, or something as simple as an extra hand around the house.  Be creative and make it work for your fundraiser and your friends.  You never know who will turn around and surprise you.

My favorite status quo that Gen-Y is challenging is in the fatter pocket department. While bottom lines, quarterly reports and profits are important to Gen-Y startups and entrepreneurs, there is something brewing that is gaining more popularity in Gen-Y companies: changing the world. From proceeds based on profits to community involvement and helping each other grow, Gen-Y is fundamentally under the impression that the world will be a better place if we grow together. Helping our friends, neighbors and those in less fortunate situations create jobs and stimulate their economies can impact the world and help everyone grow their bottom line.

Companies like Kiva (on the cusp on Gen-Y) are using crowdsourcing technology to connect investors with business entrepreneurs (yes, young and old) in developing countries to get off and running. Kiva now finances loans in 48 countries and in June 2009 supplied over $4.6 million in loans.

Others, like GiveForward, a privately held social venture (i.e., not a non-profit) are focused on helping existing non-profits and organizations find funding and make donating a better experience. Co-founder Desiree Vargas says, “Generation Y has the opportunity to live their entire career spans expecting to work for companies that treat their employees well, give back to their communities, and create a product or service that brings value to the world.”

New Gen-Y business values are helping to make the entire world a better place to live and do business.

Gen-Y has a long way to go to reach the heights of the mega-conglomerates that occupy the current Fortune 500. But changes in technologies and communication have allowed young people to find needs and niches and provide solutions for the problems they face in ways that are very exciting for the growth of global business. Gen-Y is learning first hand that climbing existing corporate ladders does not mean building a better company and that technology will allow them to stay small yet powerful, informed, and in touch.

What status quo can we shatter next?

When doctors told Jessica Cowin she needed to raise $100,000 for a life saving kidney transplant, her younger sister, Amy used GiveForward to raise the money.  Amy started a fundraising page on GiveForward, sent it out to friends and family through email and Facebook and asked them to send it along to their contacts as well.  Within a week Amy had raised an amazing $21,000 with hundreds of donations from people all around the country ranging from $5 to as large as $5000.

During her fundraiser, Amy would give updates on her fundraising page about Jessica’s health and email friends and family encouraging them to continue donating. GiveForward worked for Amy because the platform was both easy to set up and easy for friends and family to donate safely and securely.

Ultimately, Amy’s amazing efforts helped raise over $32,000 on GiveForward in addition to tens of thousands of dollars donated offline.  Her efforts were covered by the Chicago Sun Times, CBS radio, and the Chicago Tribune, which went so far as to call GiveForward the “future of medical fundraising in the Internet Age.”
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