Fundraising / Charity Ideas Blog

Ok so I’ve spent post after post recently telling you fundraising tips and new ideas in charties. Well the training wheels come off today boys and girls! It’s your turn to pick what you would like to support and get to it. Fly …. be free!

I’ve read about internet sources that help you raise money for causes that are important to you. I’ve come across one lately that I really like called crowdrise

Created by Edward Norton (yea the incredible hulk guy) and Shauna Robertson crowdrise helps people create fundraising projects and raise money for their causes. Create your profile and update it with stories, videos and pictures of what you are doing in your charity life. You can sign up with specific causes or vounteer opportunities to join other peoples.

It’s free to use and users can wind prizes like hats, t-shirts, along the way for donations. Crowdrise charges a 5% deduction from donations to stay in business so it’s very reasonable. The only small print that I saw is that it’s currently only donating to US charities. I would like to see this changed in the future when this business concept takes off. However I understand the legal complications of such an endeavor would be HUGE!

The Crowdrise brand is all about answering the call to service and having the most fun in the world while you do it.

While your working away at your fundraising don’t forget us at justfundraising.com maybe we can help you out along the way.

Now off you go and tell us what you’ve signed up for in the comments.

There is a fantastic site called The Green Music Group comprised of musicians, music fans and music industry people who are trying to bring more sustainability to the music and touring scene. There has been criticism the past couple of years with the amount of power and co2 pollution concerts and touring groups produce.

Green Music Group is a project of

Reverb, a 501(c)(3) environmental organization founded by Guster guitarist/vocalist Adam Gardner and his wife, environmentalist Lauren Sullivan. Since 2004, Reverb has greened over 80 major music tours while conducting grassroots outreach to over 10 million music fans.

The goals of the environmental group are:

1. Creating an engaging online community of musicians, music industry leaders, and music fans all committed to addressing our greatest environmental concerns.

2. Facilitating large-scale greening of the music community through touring, venue, and label standards, resource development, green grants mentoring, and viral video and public service campaigns.

3. Providing environmental nonprofits with a megaphone for their cause, allowing them to expand their reach and support base.

4. Creating a sustainable green music guild to support and inform the efforts of the music community and position leaders in the music industry as voices for change, working to shine a light on the most pressing environmental issues of our time.

The green group targets music venues, transportation, waste reduction and enery offsets to minimize the damage a tour may due.

Dave Mathews, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Maroon 5, Bonnie Raitt, Bare Naked Ladies, The Roots, Guster and more are involved in the project. The bands are hoping to inspire a shift in your environmental thinking as well. The Green Music Group have contests every couple of weeks to help motivate you. The latest one involves picturing yourself commuting in the most sustainable method you can think of. The industry would like you to get involved and keep in touch by signing up with an email list.

All in all a solid effort by this group to help think environmentally and get the audience involved.

…says he’s sorry, he’s been ahem… a little irritable lately.

Lucasfilm is celebrating the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back with a year long charity drive to help worthy causes. They are working with a few different organizations like St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Education Outreach at Chicago’s Field Museum and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Activities include:

-Los Angeles red carpet screening to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Featuring an exclusive Q&A with Harrison Ford, this one-night-only digital screening of The Empire Strikes Back is presented by Junk Food Clothing
To be held at Hollywood’s Arclight Cinema at 7:00pm on Wednesday, May 19

-Chicago screenings to benefit Education Outreach Programs at The Field Museum
Four digital screenings to be held at The Field Museum’s Ernst & Young Theater
Friday, May 7 at 3:00pm
Saturday, May 8 at 3:00pm, 7:00pm and 10:30pm
Ticket Info: fieldmuseum.org or 312-665-7400

-The 501st Legion’s TK Project to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation
More than 50 contributing artists — including Star Wars actors, underground artists, celebrities and fans — will design and customize classic Star Wars stormtrooper helmets
Entries to be auctioned through Star Wars Celebration V in Orlando, Fla., from Aug. 12-15
For more information, visit www.starwarscelebration.com

•The Empire Skates Back to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation
Similar to the TK Project, more than 30 contributing artists will customize and design skateboard decks to reflect themes of The Empire Strikes Back
Entries to be auctioned through Star Wars Celebration V in Orlando, Fla., from Aug. 12-15
For more information, visit www.starwarscelebration.com

•Additional programs will be announced throughout the year on StarWars.com

“Star Wars has received such an amazing show of love and support throughout the years, from fans all over the world,” said Mich Chau, President and Chief Operating Officer, Lucasfilm Ltd. “This anniversary gives us a wonderful opportunity to give back to our fans, and to work with some truly worthy organizations in a combined effort to support those in need.”

Ask my buddy HF when Indy 5 is coming out.
Did you know I was once in the same room as HF? We were both at a Chantal Kreviazuk concert. He didn’t even come over to say “Hey.” I probably put one of his kids through college with what I spent on Indiana Jones stuff.

We at justfundraising.com think the force is strong with Lucasfilm for giving back all year long.

I’ve got another great charity idea for you.
How about drinking coffee? Yup, it’s that simple, Maxwell House is brewingsomegood with it’s marketing campaign geared toward charity.

The Maxwell House Brew Gooder ( gotta love that! ) team gives out coffee samples and donate to good causes. They  accept submissions from charities ( not sure if these are international organizations or just Canadian ) to be sponsored.

Here are some of the latest commercials from their Brew Some Good Campaign:

Hats off to Maxwell House. It’s nice to see such a big organization stepping up to the plate and helping out in such a big way. I’d also like to include us in that category www.justfundraising.com helps supports charitable organizations.

Next time your looking for a cup of coffee pick up Maxwell House. It’s a simple way to feel like a superhero for saving the world by drinking coffee.

Brew some good..and watch the goodness grow.

The video says it all

Chris Hughes one of the co-founders of facebook is coming out with a new site that focuses on linking people to the non profit world. 

“What I want to do is reach a point where people can’t say, ‘I want to help. I don’t know any good, meaningful opportunities to do so. What can I do?’” he says. “I want to create a world where that statement is no longer possible.”

The site is currently under construction so I’m unsure how this is going to be accomplished or if this is just another site where Charities and Non Profits are going to have to come to  explain what they are doing. Will this just add to their work load or finally connect them to their audience? 

“People have a genuine desire to engage with the world around them in a meaningful way, but the Internet just hasn’t yet caught up with that desire yet,” Chris said in an interview. 

I just wanted to let you know about my new startup called Jumo. We’re announcing today that we’re building an online platform to connect individuals and organizations working to change the world. We believe we can leverage the participatory web to foster long-term engagement with the issues and organizations that are relevant to each individual. Jumo has the potential to unlock a great deal of time, skills, and financial resources previously unavailable to organizations around the world.

When you get a second, take a look.

We’ll be launching the site with full capabilities this fall, but I wanted to let you know that we’re officially getting underway. If you know anyone who may be interested in working with us, please send them our jobs page to get in contact with us.

Talk to you soon,

Chris

P.S. I’d love for you to forward this email to friends, become our fan on Facebook , and let your friends on Twitter know. The more people that know about what we’re doing, the stronger the team we’ll be able to build.

http://www.jumo.com is in the development stage but plan to open their doors in the fall. Watch for it, I’m sure it’ll make a huge impact. We at http://www.justfundraising.com wish Chris the best of  luck, but with his track record I’m sure he’ll be ok.

I was looking around at the next Charity idea to write about. There are plenty out there but nothing was really standing out for me.

I then came across an idea that I’m LOVING! It covers so much territory with it’s idea. It has renewable energy ( I’m fascinated with that and I’d love to learn more about it this year, If you have ideas let me know.) Health, Education and Job Creation. It accomplishes this mainly in Africa but also in certain locations in South America as well.

solar-aid.org teaches Africans how to employ solar power to generate electricity and fully take advantage of something that has opressed them up until now.

I generally don’t think of them cosuming electricity like I do but come to think of it solar power can help them on so many levels. They light fires in their homes to cook and have no light to read or study by. There’s a video on the front page that says indoor air pollution kills 1.6 million people. That’s 1 death every 20 seconds! Solar power helps give them healthier homes to live in. Add to this their school systems, medical and community centres, you can see where a need comes in.

SolarAid teaches Africans to build solar lanterns, solar cookers, solar radios etc so they can earn a living selling the products plus it’s a step forward for their neighboors too. SolarAid gives education for the community by not only powering schools but by teaching finance, marketing and installation to the community.

SolarAid breaks down it’s projects and lets you make monthly or one off donations in your own currency. I did some poking around and found out that Cate Blanchett is on the board for this Charity. Yup the same chick that played the Russian bad guy in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ( besides a music nut Indy is my other obsession.)

You really should check SolarAid out and donate if you can. Good things will come of this project.

If you would like some ideas on how to fundraise for this project or your personal favourite check us out for more ideas.

I’ve been taking a look at how people are coming together for Haiti. It’s like everybody wants to do their part. It’s like we get blase about our daily life but when the call to action goes out…BAM we’re there!
That’s definately cool…

Anyway, I’ve been looking at celebrity fundraising for Haiti and how movie stars, musicians and athletes are all giving up time and talent to raise money.

Last Friday night the TV was filled with Telethons as celebrities in both the US and Canada

Here George Clooney outlines the need to give:

Hope for Haiti New featured Madonna, U2, Bruce Springsteen and
Sting, Beyonce and more:

I have some tennis heads in my life and they’ll be puffed to see Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick, Serena Williams and more come out for a game:

Don’t believe the press baby. Still plenty of good people around willing to help out. Most of them don’t make the news but you are still there!

A couple of weeks ago a friend sent a link to me about new thoughts on creativity in education. The talk was fantastic (because the speaker agreed with everything I’ve said about our eductional system. He was THAT smart!!) and this was my first exposure to TED ideas worth spreading.

You can find great talks that motivate, inspire and give hope for your future. This is also where I came across William.

I had first come across William’s story in a betterworld.com newsletter. William and his family were going through a severe drought in Malawi. He came across a book about generating power through windmills and at the tender age of 14 years old built his first. Transforming his life and those of his family.

Apparently he’s got more plans up his sleeve, but I’ll let William tell the story.

Here’s to ya William. Chaulk one up for the good guys.

BetterWorldBooks.com is an online bookstore. They sell new and used books then donate a portion of proceeds to several literacy programs around the world. Betterworld works with:Worldfund.org booksforafrica.org roomtoread.org famlit.org and
invisiblechildren.org to help promote literacy and education. At the time of this blog they have raised $7,197,482,26 for global literacy and saved over 29,462,320 books from the landfill.

Books are donated from schools, universities and individuals. Millions of textbooks and novels are put into their system and saved from the garbage. If they can’t sell or use a book they see that it’s recycled. There’s so much going on at this site that is good its ridiculous! There’s even a small surcharge of .05 cents on books to offset the carbon in shipping your package.

Betterworldbooks are also incredibly entertaining for a large corporation. Forget that…they’re entertaining for ANY corporation. Check out the latest email I got from them:

Before you buy books, be aware that the Bargain Bin bears an abundance of buys both boisterous and benign that are bound to be a boon to those with a longing for literature at a price most becoming! Better yet, each book bought is beneficial to beneficent ventures ambitiously bidding to boost literary ability abroad in our big blue globe. Oblige your book-hunger and Begin Browsing.

Not bad huh!

Ok I admit it I am a customer. More than that I am a HAPPY customer! I get to read great novels and contribute to a good cause at the same time. I also really like that fact that international shipping rates are actually under $4.00!

Get involved, help out a great cause and entertain yourself at the same time!