Changing the Present, Give Meaning, and Personal Fundraising Campaigns

Last week I blogged about an Ipod/Toilet paper holder over at Netsquared.   So, somehow I'm stuck on the theme of toilet paper holders as gifts.  This one records a message or music.  I learned about it from the site Changing the Present, a donation portal that also lets you set up a wish list of causes to support in lieu of gifts for the holidays or other occassions.  I received a press release from a marketing agency on behalf of this effort, so take it with a grain of salt.  Not sure I'm understanding it, but it looks like other donation portals with some glossy marketing.

Nonetheless, I wholeheartedly agree with the concept and philosophy that giving donations to causes is better than giving stuff -- and we've been doing this for years on our own directing people to give gifts to  charities we care about.  When people ask about holiday gifts - we direct them to the Sharing Foundation,  When give gifts, we give to the Sharing Foundation (and a few other causes), and make "in honor of" gifts.  The Sharing Foundation sends a personalized, made in Cambodia,  thank you card designed by one of the talented orphans we're supporting for high school and art lessons no less!   

So, what I wonder is how many people go "cause shopping.?"   

Changing the Present has a clever section on their site called The Stupid Gifts Hall of Shame where you can vote or share a picture of a stupid gift you've received.  They are still building out the content on the site and there is a growing list of nonprofit recipients.

Peter Dietz has written another article on his micro-philthantrophy site, First-of-Its-Kind, about a service called GiveMeaning, as described by Peter, "another online community that provide a platform for group fundraising over the internet.  The website helps networks of small-scale philanthropists develop and fund solutions to pressing social problems."

Peter gives us analysis of the landscape:

Building a community of small-scale philanthropists sounds like a novel idea.  The reality is that GiveMeaning faces a crowded marketplace for its concept. 

The world of group fundraising websites has already witnessed its first round of consolidation.  In November 2006, WhatGoesAround.org announced that it would merge with NetworkforGood, the online giving portal that AOL, Yahoo, and Cisco Systems launched together in 2001. 

With the launch of ChipIn last month and the continued growth of sites like FirstGiving and Fundable, GiveMeaning confronts a sizable challenge from its counterparts in the private sector.

And then goes on describe the features.

I've come across two personal fundraising campaigns that use the metaphor of wishes, pay it forward,  or gift economy and are aggressively incorporating social media techniques into their strategies. 

8 Wishes is a personal fundraising campaign launched by Paul Sanchez who is riding his bike around around the entire United States on behalf of kids with dyslexia (learning disabilities).   Paul has 8wishes - he hopes to earn $1 million so that he can give 100 kids each $10,000 to use to go to college.  According to Liz Strauss, of the Successful Blog, in the week since his launch, he has received 15,000 hits and raised over $3,000 towards his goal from 123 contributors.    His deadline is Jan 10th, so check it out!  His campaign video is here.

If you could make one wish for the world, what would it be?  That's question the "Gifter Site, a series of experiments in social giving to change the world, is asking.  So, here is how it works.

You can post your wish as a comment over The Million Dollar Blog - the Internet Wishing Well, and for each comment they donate $1 to charity.   They are challenging people to make it a million dollar blog post, with 1 million comments. Here's a few of the wishes:

I wish that everyone can plant one tree. Big or small..it doesn’t matter…just plant one tree.

Stop the genocide in Darfur, that’d be foremost.

A better world for my children, and the children of everyone around the world.

What's your wish this holiday season?

Comments

[Liz Strauss]

Beth,
What a great post this is. I'm sorry I didn't make it over to say so sooner. You have done and said some wonderful things here. I'm with you all of the way.

Thanks for helping to change the world.

[Kristen]

I've only recently come across your blog (through your mention of Paul Sanchez, who I work with to promote 8 wishes), and its already given me some great tips.

My Wishes can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4-6Yzl6YBE

Thanks for sharing,
Kristen
All My Causes

[Kristen Forbriger]

Hi Beth, we just wanted to give you an update on the 8wishes, since we've extended the deadline and posted an updated video on Metacafe, where they're donating $5 for every 1,000 views.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/336436/10_000_miles_and_8_wishes/

Thanks so much for your support!

[Tom Newman]

Excerpt of article in The Vancouver Sun newspaper of January 19, 2008:

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=b76ff000-c8e8-4789-9ed8-806df2c2945a

During the year ending Sept. 30, 2006, GiveMeaning received $234,643 in donations for which it gave tax receipts, according to a financial statement filed with Canada Revenue Agency. Tom Williams said these are largely donations from individuals.

It received another $730,350 from other registered charities. Williams said these donations were made specifically to pay GiveMeaning's overhead.

He refused to identify any of these donors. I found this strange: My sense is that, while some donors request anonymity, most registered charities or foundations publicly report where they are placing their money, not so much for recognition as for transparency.

More generally, I do not understand why certain undisclosed charities would give money to pay overhead for what is essentially a charitable conduit.

In the case of GiveMeaning, that overhead is disproportionately large. Of the $982,705 in total donations it received (and issued tax receipts for), GiveMeaning spent $666,070, or 68 per cent, on administrative expenses.

Those expenses included $199,043 for professional and consulting fees; $153,646 for salaries, wages and benefits; $28,433 for advertising and promotion; and $24,019 for travel.

I asked Williams whether he receives a salary. Well, yes, $90,000 per year. And his wife, country singer Jessie Farrell, who works part-time for the foundation "when she can," gets $30,000. So together they collect $120,000 per year, plus expenses.

After subtracting overhead costs, just over $300,000 was available for charitable purposes in 2006, but only $172,000 was actually given to charities (the remainder is still on the foundation's books). That $172,000 represents just 17.5 per cent of total donations.

But that's not the end of it. Many of the charities that receive money have their own overhead. So the net amount available for true charitable purposes is even less.

Williams insists that, whenever a person gives money for a particular charity, 100 per of that money gets to the named beneficiary. That may be true, but it does not mitigate the fact that the vast majority of the overall money collected during 2006 went to administration.

Williams says this was due largely to start-up costs: "Yes, we have spent more than we have given away. Just like any other start-up business, it takes time to get profitable," he said.

He said the financial return for the year ending Sept. 30, 2007, which is just now being filed, will show a greater percentage of overall donations going to charity. We shall see.

The Vancouver Sun January 19, 2008