Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

Good Karma Calculator: How Much Has Been Raised for Charities on Facebook?

How much has been raised on Facebook? asked Connor of Connor's Fundraising Blog.  Great question, great blog too.  That's where I found the link to the Karma Calculator which asks you to fill out a set of questions and lets you know the real charitable you.   I'm Richard Branson.

Oh, an now to answer the question.  Connor, I don't know.  Maybe some of my readers do.  Here's what I do know. 

• There isn't a comprehensive study that looks at total dollar amounts raised from all fundraising apps on Facebook.  I've seen lots of posts about apps, but few on results.
• Allan Benamer had a bet with Causes founders last September but it required disclosure of total amounts raised on Causes.   Allan thought it might be something like .25 cents per user (over 3 million users), but Causes never disclosed their numbers.
• Wired Fundraiser report from Network for Good reports on the Long Tail of Facebook Causes from FrogLoop from July 2007 which shows less than impressive dollar amounts
• The recent America's Giving Challenge from the Case Foundation reported on the Causes numbers - there were a total of 32,885 donors giving a total of $571,686 with an average of $17.48 per donor.
• The winner of the FB Causes challenge raised $93,000 on causes with an extraordinary effort and investment of time.

Did I miss something?

Buttons of Hope: Ask Me About ...

This is a really cool idea - you can have special buttons made up that promote your cause - sort of like a physical widget that you can wear at face-to-face events or to distribute at conferences or events.    Buttons of Hope founder Michael Gibbons created this button for me to promote the Sharing Foundation's work.    How do you creatively and effectively use promotional items to promote your organization or cause?

The Kids in Cambodia Say Thank You Via Video Clip!

Click to play

Sharing Foundation's founder and president, Dr. Hendrie just forwarded me this 10 second video clip of the children in Roteang Orphanage.  Thought I'd share it here.

America's Giving Challenge Official Results: We Came In First! Thank You Everyone!

The final, official results have arrived for America's Giving Challenge and I'm happy say that we came in first place for global causes!    This was truly a group effort - no one person could have done this alone.   I want to thank each and everyone of you who donated, asked their  friends and network to donate, spread the word through blogging it or other ways, and helped us cross the finish line in first place!  Special thanks to Michele Martin!

Campaign Wiki (includes links to people who blogged about the campaign)

My America's Giving Challenge Dairy

Day 1: We're Entering the America's Giving Challenge

Sina's Story

Cambodian Bloggers Want To Support Our Cause

Sharing Foundation Video by Jay Dedman and Ryanne Hodson

Chheng Srey Mom's Story

Naomi and the Cross Networked Effect

Darlene Found Us Through Fllickr

The Bora Connection

Thanks to the Bloggers

Sharing Foundation Calendar Project

My 86 Year Old Dad's Birthday Present

Blogger's Campaign Update

Roger Carr and Bob Uva Join the Blogger's Campaign

Meet A Cambodian Wired Fundraiser: Nhung Son

Intergenerational Wired Fundraisers: A Conversation

Eugene Chan's New Year's Resolution

Happy Birthday Amy Jussel

Thank you Chel Pixie

It Takes A Whole Village

Adam Nicolson and Mark Grimes Send An Early Birthday Present!

Harry's Fundraising Video

America's Giving Campaign:  Bloggers Roundup - Thank You

My 51st Birthday Challenge

You're Not Going To Ask Us To Give You An Outhouse for Your Birthday?

Round Up of Social Birthday Greetings.  Social Fundraising.  Thank You

In honor of Lux Mean's Promotion

As Wanna Finishes His Thesis, He Supports The Sharing Foundation from Vietnam with Love

Why are these Cambodian Orphans Wearing Creative Commons T-Shirts?

Flow of Donations from Networked Fundraising

Mon Channy's Story

The Generosity of the Twitterverse

@Jonti brings us to $15,000

Ed Schipul's Conference Presentation Features the Campaign

Social Fundraising Is International and Needs Paypal

Twitter Donation Solicitation Techniques

Dr. Mani's Passion

A  Youtube Message of Support from Finland

The Networked Effect on Facebook for this Fundraiser

Dr. Hendrie:  You're Never Too Old To Change the World

An Internet Lesson in Rural Cambodia School

Using Cell Phones To Bring Web2.0 To Cambodia - Coolcat Teacher Blog

Why Pharoth Wearing a Foo Camp T Shirt?

Peter Deitz's Fundraising Wizard

Peter Gulka:  It's Only 36 More Hours Than I'll Stop Asking

Noel Hildago Knows $10 Can Do in Cambodia

Have Fun, Do Good - Thank You Britt

Teresa Crawford and the Riders Help Me Swim Up Stream

Nancy Schwartz: How To Craft a Blog Solicitation Post and Call to Action

Cultural Influences of Online Giving: Dr. Mani's Thoughts

Don't Let Us Slip Out of the Top Four!

The Last Hours: The Link for Dr. Mani's Friends

Oh, No, We're in 5th Place and Out

Dave McClure - Only A Few Hours To Get Q2 Lunch With Dave!

Chris Brogan Says Donate $10 Now - Before It's Too Late

Ruby Sinreich Sets Up Facebook Fan Club for Me - Thank you

New York Times Article - Too Busy Fundraising To Notice It Until Now

We did it!!!  Unofficial First Place

Can you swear like a pirate and fundraise?  F yes from Dave McClure

Help Gmail Cut Me Off for Spamming:  I can't Email You A Thank  You!

Getting to Lessons Learned

Can You Quantify Love?

 

Facebook Philanthropos

Note: I've had this blog post in a draft for about a week and was reminded about it when I saw this post over at the NTEN blog asking Is Facebook A Bust or Is Obama's Model the Future?

The title of this blog post is taken from an article posted over at Slate mostly talking about the Facebook component of the recent America's Giving Challenge, posing the question, "Can social networks and virtual communities revolutionize charitable giving?"  After an analysis of the amounts and totals raised by the winners in Causes, the writer asserts:

The amounts involved show that Case understands these endeavors are more social experiment than nonprofit sweepstakes. Sure, prizes of $50,000 matter for the winning organizations, as do the overall dollars raised (Idea League brought in $62,000, and Love Without Boundaries $94,000). But the denominations of the donations remain small, and it's not clear that one-off contests will lead to more. Any fund-raising professional knows that most nonprofit organizations secure the bulk of their money from a relatively small number of large contributions, either from wealthy individuals or institutional sources. Those gifts demand personal cultivation, and an online nudge doesn't usually do it.

The article goes on to quote Jean Case

"Philanthropy shouldn't be defined as a bunch of rich people writing checks," she told the New York Times. "Small amounts of money given by large numbers of individuals can be combined to do great things." Barack Obama's success at raising money online from thousands of small donors is the hoped-for model, though nonprofits recognize that political fund raising is different in some ways.

I have agree with Case about small dollar amounts given by large numbers of individuals.  But, it not necessarily anything new.

I took the photo above in a Lowell, MA  in a Cambodian grocery store when my kids and I were raising money for our America's Giving Challenge (unfortunately, not many of our friends there had either credit cards or email addresses - so they couldn't participate). The photo is a fundraiser for a local Budhist Temple which is trying to raise $100,000 for a building project (a large amount for that community) and money is coming from many small donations.  This is a very common fundraising approach in immigrant communities, neighborhoods, and churches - where many people may contribute small amounts to help others.   

The charity that I was raising money for built its preschool building with $35,000 in quarters raised from school children in schools throughout Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina.   

Over at the NTEN blog, the question is raised:

So I wanted to open this discussion up to the NTEN community: will this "social experiment" of many-to-many and social networking campaigning prove a bust, or can the Obama model be replicated by other organizations?

My answer:

The America's Giving Challenge campaign that I just finished was my fifth person to person fundraising campaign using social media.  I  have raised over $100,000 for the Sharing Foundation (not counting any prize money) with and without contests.  I have to say that I've had a good percentage of were repeat donors - people who donated to more than one cause.  This is because I believe that it is important that the wired fundraiser serve as a bridge between the cause and the donors, building relationships, and asking again.

Should You Quantify Love? Redux 2

I am just back from Legal Services Corporation and a keynote on ROI and Nonprofits.  Stephen Downes pointed to a post by Jay Cross called "The Income Statement It Isn't"

Jay Cross is exactly right. "It never ceases to amaze me how many people assess the cost and benefit of projects with accounting approaches developed in Venice in the five hundred years ago." And, of course, such metrics are useless. "Organizations that make decisions based solely on things that are sufficiently tangible to be counted might as well consult a Ouija board to set their goals."

In my keynote, I spoke about the importance of intangibles for a couple of reasons. 

1) Intangibles often come in the form of stories or anecdotes about the technology value and if used along with numbers can help make the case. 

2.)The discussion around trying to quantify it - can lead to productive conversation about why the technology is important to mission.  If the conversations focuses on the results, not the measurement unit.

I tried to make the point by raising the question, "Can you quantify the intangible?"  Of course you can't.  But intangibles are important to note and often inform decisions.

I'm trying to shift myself off the forward movement and into reflection mode around the America's Challenge.  I caught up with Jen Lemen's post "To Cambodia With Love"  I met Jen at Blogher last summer in a session about Global Women Bloghers.  One of the panelist had asked the room on my behalf for t-shirts for my suitcase campaign and Jen gave me a her blogher schwag!

Jen's shares how she was engaged in the whole drama of the competition:

True confession:  With less than twenty-four hours left to go, I am practically obsessed with America’s Giving Challenge, the charity fundraiser sponsored by Parade Magazine. I’m not sure why exactly. Whatever the reason, it probably also explains why I cry during any movie involving a race, an underdog and/or a girl with a dream. The cheesier the better.

.....

All of this has been happening off my radar for the most part this year, but over the last few days I haven’t been able to shake the urgency in Beth Kanter’s reports on Twitter. A little poking around and I realized that Beth–awesome person, mother to adopted children from Cambodia and board member for her org, The Sharing Foundation–could actually help win this thing. She is in FIFTH place right now, just forty-something donations away from nudging into the top four at 3PM EST! (You can read more about her cause here.)

She called her network to action and they responded.  Read the comments, they all gave to the Sharing Foundation because they trusted Jen and because Jen trusted me.   This is an example of how love spreads.  This is an example of the networked effect.   

Now, I could quantify it ... sort of it with a network diagram .. that is if the back end of the donation tool tracked that sort of thing or at least gave me data to map it out.  I could track it sort of manually, but not sure how to begin to do that.  So, I won't attempt to quantify love, but just point it out as an intangible.

Maybe the Case Foundation will evaluate this project and provide some methods for doing this type of analysis ...

Getting to Lessons Learned

I'm going to write up a case study or maybe make a screencast or something.  Not sure yet.   But Audrie noted in a comment that she would like to see a concise set of bullet points.  Of course, that will be included, but I will also include some stories.

Since I kept a diary and a number of you were following along, I'm curious what take aways you got as outside observers of this process?  This would be helpful to me if you could share your observations.  I'm too close to it right now.

Update:

Beth Dunn has a great post here and some good insights from Scott Beale in the comments. z

Seth Rosen has an analysis by the numbers.

Rebecca Krause talked about motivations to give and participate.

I'm going to take a nap.  Please continue to share your observations in the comments or if you write a post track it back to this one or use a reflect_beth  (reflect_beth)

 

NY Times Article from Last Day of America's Giving Challenge

I was so busy online working my social media and social networks that I failed to notice the article from the New York Times about the America's Giving Challenge titled "Charities Vie for Prizes in Online Giving Experiment."   

Help! Google Cut off my ability to send out email via gmail!

One of things I did as a last ditch strategy was to email out a group message to various contacts and it seemed to have brought in some last minute contributions.   I did the bcc of group emails.  However, Google thinks I'm a spammer now and has disabled my email account.  I'm not sure how long this will last - I read 24-72 hours.   No good deed goes unpunished. I need to figure out a way answer email ...

In the meantime, I have written on a blackboard 100 times: I will not spam for good.

Update: Digital Inspiration has some tips

Thank You Everyone!!! We did it!

I have not slept very much in the last two days and I am about to teach a social media workshop which I haven't prepared as well I as usually do because I spent the last few hours seeing this campaign to the end.

We finished in the top 4 (as far as i can tell), with 1711 donors and over $40,000.  I am in shock, awed, and really happy!!

I owe this all to you, each and every one of you who helped this campaign go forward to success! 

I will be writing up a huge big thank chronicling the best moments of the campaign - and from there also develop some lessons learned...

THANK YOU!!  Hugs!

Ruby Sinreich Sets Up Facebook Fan Club: Hurry 1 hr 45 mins left to donate $10

Ruby  saw this photo mashup that Dave McClure did and created a Facebook Group to help me!

Love the update, "If Beth hasn't asked for money, you don't have a pulse."

Meanwhile, Sarah Dopp takes my tweets about sleep deprivation and junk food and turns them into a fundraising pitch

Need to finish sending out emails ...

Chris Brogan Says $10 Before It is Too Late! 2 More Hours $10! Hurry ..

  Yesterday after flying for four hours and having serious anxiety about not seeing the numbers,  I pitched the young lady sitting next to me, a Harvard student.  We got off the plane, I opened up my laptop with wifi and she donated.    I said thank you and then found this awesome post from Chris Brogan.  Thank you!

Dave McClure Is Pimping for Purpose - Hurry Only Three Hours Left!

Three hours left to donate $10.  Not convinced? Go read Dave McClure's challenge for the next 3 hours ... is great pimping for a purpose!

btw, i promise i'll take lunch meetings in Q2 with any startup that can show me they gave at least 5 x $10 donations to Beth's cause --

OMG, We're in 5th Place With Only Hours To Go!

A Message from Dr. Hendrie ...

Now we are really in crunch time, and at a very scary place-- The On-line contest began weeks ago[it ends later today, the 31st, at 3 pm EST .   We are in serious danger of being left out  entirely--In the beginning we ran along smoothly at 1st or 2nd , and we are 5th, -- OUT

It is not the $$ that count, but rather the  number of donors-- here's the leader board, and you can follow this race, if you wish, to its finish tomorrow!   We hope not  a sad conclusion !

 

One only need give $10. If you have already given , I am very thankful [we don't get names till long after] and am sorry for this intrusion, again.  But , if you have not---please, please please -

click on "give" and part with $10!

 

Thanks for reading this =  Beth has struggled mightily for weeks, but I wanted to make one last ditch effort-  to get us out of < just > into the losers!      Thanks loads for any help you can provide , and any friends you can involve.    

Nancy Hendrie

Sharing Foundation President and Founder

 

Sharing Foundation Challenge: A Message to Dr. Mani's Friends

Thank you very much for your support!  The direct link to donate $10 is here.   

Don't Let $50K for Sharing Foundation Slip Away: Donate $10 by 1/31 3:00 PM EST

Here's the deal. We need to be in the top four charities that get the most unique donors in order to win the $50,000 for the Sharing Foundation.    

Essentially, I am asking YOU for $10 (USD) to help children in Cambodia.  Donate here before the contest ends 1/31 at 3:00 PM EST.

This has been a labor of love and I've had lots of support from my generous network (thank you).   I am just one woman along with many other generous people who want to make a difference in the lives of Cambodian children.    I'm amazed at the power of the Social Web to help my charity get this far, but please don't let the $50,000 slip away!  We're so close.   I can't bear the thought of letting those children down.

The competition ends Jan. 31 3:00 PM EST.   Please join the over 1,000 unselfish people who have donated to the Sharing Foundation and help make a difference in the lives of disadvantaged Cambodian children.  Donate here.

Cultural Influences and Giving from Dr. Mani: 24 Hours Left

 

That's a photograph of the donation box at the Watt in Roteang Village where the Sharing Foundation has most of its programs.  I photographed it in 2004.  Phonetically, one may pronounce this "pouttch bautha", and it means "donation to the Buddha."  I think about that photo when I think about a culture of giving.

Roger Carr at Everyday Giving connected me with Dr. Mani, who has an inspired an online community of over 600 people who have supported awareness and fundraising activities for congenital heart defects for many years.   Dr. Mani not only donated to the Sharing Foundation's America's Giving Challenge, but we've having a conversation about social fundraising.  After clicking over to his site and his masterful use of social fundraising and his passion for his cause, I became a donor to his cause. (I hope you will too)

Dr. Mani has a new post called "Influence of Culture on Giving" riffing on an earlier post where I mused out loud about what influence culture has on giving.

The experience has shown me there are many different things that influence ‘giving’. Economics. Geography. Religious beliefs. Personal philosophy.  And culture.

What makes some people dig into their pockets to contribute money to help a nameless, faceless person who lives halfway across the globe - someone whom they have never met, and very likely never will?

It’s such a fascinating ‘mystery’.  I’ve discussed this many times with my wife, friends and daughter.

It probably distills down to the influence of culture.

Dr. Mani wrote another post called "The Downside of Influence" where he quotes Darren Rowse who was interviewed on “Aussie Bloggers” and said:

“That’s why I don’t do memes; that’s why I rarely refer people to other sites which may be calling for donations for worthy causes. If I open that door, I will (and do) get flooded.“

Dr. Mani has a different view on influence and how it can be used for social good.  Go read it.  There is a connection here to something that Doug Haslam pointed me to on ThinkFree - "How Aggressively Should I Get Connected?" That's something worth a lot of reflection.

There has already been over $23,000 for the Sharing Foundation's America's Giving Challenge raised through the unselfish giving of over 850 people like Roger Carr and Dr. Mani.  There is only a little more than 24 hours left to donate and change a child's life. 

Nancy Schwartz Teaches Me How To Craft A Blog Appeal!

One of the best learning opportunities in this campaign is to see how my awesome and talented colleagues who are ace marketers re-shape or improve my fundraising messaging. 

Take a look at how Nancy improved my original messaging.

I hope she will leave me a comment with a critique that I can use for future reference.  There's a lot to learn here.  And, of course, I hope we $50,000 for the Sharing Foundation and the children in Cambodian.

Thanks Nancy!

Thank you Teresa Crawford and NpTech Circuit Riders for Helping Us Swim Upstream!

I'm a longtime member of the Nonprofit Circuit Riders community.  Don't know what that means?  Here's a definition:

Circuit riders travel throughout regions of the United States and parts of Europe providing technology assistance to nonprofit organizations. As one organization providing such services defines the group: “Circuit Riders are a community of people with technology skills who help nonprofit organizations be more effective through the use of technology. We share a spirit of generosity towards each other and a commitment to social justice, a healthy environment and human dignity. We hold a fundamental belief that technology and all of its benefits must be made available to everyone” (MediaJumpStart, 2002).

If you're curious, there's a whole chapter about it in this book "Geeks for Good."

This is a wonderful community.  The photo above is of me, Cheryl  Hanback, and Joel Remigio from 2002 when we won the "Swimming Upstream Award" for the diligent staff person who worked on the Riders Conference to make it a success.  The trophy was a retro trout fishing trophy."   I know about the fish because I schlepped the darn thing through airport security in Orlando and it sat on my desk for almost a year, from April 2002 until March 2003.   A proud reminder of my 15 minutes of shared fame with Cheryl and Joel.   

Last night, Teresa Crawford, who one the "Dirk Award" that year posted this message to the Riders List.

I am not sure if everyone is following the ups and downs of Beth Kanter's online fundraising for the Sharing Foundation in America's Giving Challenge.  It has been quite a learning experience for me as she puts into practice all the how to's of online fundraising and documents it on her blog.  This is exactly the kind of example we want to give to  our clients.

Beth has given alot to the Riders community over the years - online and offline mentoring, organizing the Day of Service, blogging about all our great work to help nonprofits make the most of technology.

If anyone has been holding off on donating to the Sharing Foundation Campaign don't wait any longer.  There is just 36 hours left to the end of the challenge and the campaign is in the lead by 16 donations.  They have a good chance of securing 50,000 for the Sharing Foundation.  For this small organization which is doing alot of good in Cambodia a prize like this means new children can benefit from their education programs, more young people can attend college and more families can move out of poverty.

Donate $10 or more to the Sharing Foundation through Global Giving Fundraiser  set up by Blogger Michele Martin of the Bamboo project! Teresa

PS: Beth did not ask me to do this.  I figured this was one more network to help put the Sharing Foundation over the top!

I just want everyone to know that I plan to continue to share what I am learning and after this contest ends on January 31st - minus the ask for the money.  Thank you for your support!   

Have Fun, Do Good: Thank You Britt!

Britt Bravo's blog, Have Fun Do Good is full of stories, tips, and articles about social change and the social web.  I've known Britt now for almost three years and have enjoyed working with her at Netsquared and Blogher. Not only has she been a generous donor to every personal fundraising campaign for Cambodia I've undertaken, but she also messaged out to her community to support this cause.

There has already been over $22,000 for the Sharing Foundation's America's Giving Challenge raised through the unselfish giving of over 800 people like Britt Bravo.  If you have not yet donated $10 (or more) to this important cause and asked your friends to do the same, there is only 36 hours left to donate and change a Cambodian child's life!

And, in 36 more hours, I will resume my normal blogging activity.  Promise.

Noel Hidalgo Knows What Ten Dollars Can Do In Cambodia

Photo by Noneck

The luck of seven is an open-source, around the world project by noel hidalgo, a new york city based activist, organizer, blogger, barcamper and coworker. (Here's the official press release)

For seven months, he traveled to world to see all the seven continents, dive into the seven oceans, and attempt to visit the seven ancient wonders of the world.  He used social media (blog, vlog, wiki, flickr, couchsurfing, twitter, myspace, dopplr, and facebook) to harness the collective knowledge of the globe, and reported weekly on seven topics of freedom.   I was a donor to his campaign and he has contributed to the America's Giving Challenge (and let encouraged his network to support the Sharing Foundation).

He wrote a post called "Unshakeable Activism" where he lets you know that the $10 donation can truly change a child's life in Cambodia.

as my path wondered through southeast asia, i found myself on the other-side of the world where the US dollar is the all mighty. for less that $6.00 USD you'd can be served a mountain of food fit for a king. little did i know that for less that $2.00 USD, my friend huixian and i would eat lavishly for two days...

if huixian and i ate at her house every day, we'd spend less than $15 USD a week. that's less than $15.00 USD a week ON FOOD!!!!

i know it's hard to understand how we can make a difference in someone's lives at the other end of the world, but those "help a christian child" TV spots aren't that far fetched. "for dollars a day you, can change someone's life..." except in this "advertisement" we're not talking about a newly "saved" cambodian.  We're talking about a "no political or religious agenda; we work directly with village chiefs and school principals to target their communities’ most pressing needs. Gradually, we’ve hired and mentored fifty-seven Cambodians who’ve assumed all leadership positions.” -  Dr. Nancy Hendrie

I didn't realize that Noneck was a barcamper, so I just had to share this video I made at the Cambodian Bloggers Summit when we distributed the t-shirts from Citizen Agency that included the barcamp t-shirts.  I gave some of the smaller ones to the kids at the orphanage - you'll see those at the end.

Click To Play

And Noneck and I also have something in common, while we are on the topic of food ...  We both ate weird things in Cambodia.   I was offered (unknown to me) a plate of fried ants and it looks like Noneck ate some frog.

There has already been over $22,000 for the Sharing Foundation's America's Giving Challenge raised through the unselfish giving of over 800 people like Noneck.  If you have not yet donated $10 (or more) to this important cause and asked your friends to do the same, there is only 36 hours left to donate and change a Cambodian child's life!

And, in 36 more hours, I will resume my normal blogging activity.  Promise.

Thank You Peter Gulka! Only 36 more hours ....

Peter Gulka Thank you for the donation and helping stay in the lead! 

There has already been over $21,000 for the Sharing Foundation's America's Giving Challenge raised through the unselfish giving of over 800 people . If you have not yet donated $10 (or more) to this important cause, there is only 36 hours left to donate and change a Cambodian child's life!

And, in 36 more hours, I will resume my normal blogging activity

Peter Deitz's Personal Fundraising Wizard

Photo by Dunechaser

Peter Deitz, of Social Actions, is an expert on micro philanthropy and social fundraising.  In fact, my first post on this topic was a pointer to some of his early research.   If you want to learn about this topic, you must read his blog and his slide presentations are not to be missed:

Peter Deitz, Personal Fundraising Presentation
Peter Deitz, Working With Wired Fundraisers

I asked Peter to blog about my campaign and he wrote a terrific post.  He also shares that he wants to create a social fundraising wizard

Currently, I am building an automated wizard that will assist in planning and implementing a peer-to-peer social change campaign. The wizard will recommend platforms to use and best practices for spreading the campaign through social networks. The wizard will also feature an after-action survey covering the tools used and the strategies implemented. This information will feed back into the system that recommends platforms and best practices.

If the Social Actions automated wizard helps produce peer-to-peer social change campaigns that compare to the ones that Beth has created in the past year, then I will have accomplished something significant.

Peter would like some help with the design. I will.  Here's more.

Here's one thing.  Build in something that helps you map the flow of donations to help analyze your network and campaign.  Nancy White has shared some manual examples.  It would be nice to have this built into the system in some way.

There has already been over $20,000 for the Sharing Foundation's America's Giving Challenge raised through the unselfish giving of over 700 people like Peter Deitz.  There is exactly 48 hours left to donate and change a child's life.  Contest ends on January 31st at 3:00 PM EST.

 

Why Is Pharoth Wearing a Foo Camp T-Shirt? (Hint Citizen Agency)

Almost 7 years ago, at age 13, Pharoth came to the gate of Roteang Orphanage crying, with her baby brother Darith in her arms. Their Mother had died and their step father had disappeared, and Pharoth was living with the baby on the earthen floor under an aunt’s house in Roteang village.

She was crying because they had no food-she was making Darith’s feeding with one scoop of formula  powder to 11 ounces of water or sometimes just feeding him sugar cane sweetened water. They had no  clothes. The aunt would not let her go to school, which she desperately wanted to do, as she had to  care for the baby and also work picking about 30 cents worth of morning glory daily for income for her aunt.

After negotiations with the aunt, the Sharing Foundation was allowed to admit Darith to the Orphanage and to provide clothes and supplies for Pharoth to go to the local school and a small amount of money weekly to the aunt to replace Pharoth’s earnings.  With a Sharing Foundation generous sponsor who not only covers her school costs, but also provides moral support through quarterly letters,  Pharoth was able to attend an English school in Phnom Penh.

When I was invited to keynote and lead workshops at the Cambodian Bloggers Summit this summer, I collected technology and nonprofit t-shirts to bring over.  People responded generously. (so genersously that I had to pay for an extra suitcase to carry over all the t-shirts that were donated) and had enough extras to bring to the children in the orphanage.

One of the most generous t-shirt donations came from Citizen Agency from Tara Hunt  and Chris Messina  packed up a big box with coveted Web2.0 t-shirts , including Tara's foo camp t-shirt that you now see Pharoh wearing.

There has already been over $20,000 for the Sharing Foundation's America's Giving Challenge raised through the unselfish giving of over 750 people like Tara Hunt and Chris Messina. If you have not yet donated $10 (or more) to this important cause, there is only 48 hours left to donate and change a Cambodian child's life!

How Would You Use Cell Phones to Bring Web2.0 to Cambodia (or other places without fast Internet)?

My colleague Vicky Davis, Coolcat Teacher Blog, has put this question out to her network, in a brilliant post called "How would you use cell phones to bring Web2.0 to Cambodia?"   I just have to quote her in a few places:

When you complain about your student teacher ratios, look at everyone gathered around the computer in this lesson!

Cambodian bloggers (such as Mam Sari profiled in Beth's blog post) are dedicated, but would you do as Mam Sari does to update his blog?

"He has set up a blog and has a Facebook profile, but  to update them he has to ride his motorbike an hour into Phnom Penh.  "

She's asking her network to one or two of the following:

• Contribute the $10 -- If her school raises the most, the Sharing Foundation will give her $50,000 additional for the school.  (She has already raised $19,000 with bloggers and facebook contributors.)
• Answer Beth's Questions: (If you write a blog post, use the tag  bethkanter_cambodiacampaign)
  
  • What advice would you offer to Mam Sari about incorporating computer instruction on a REALLY slow connection and with one computer connected to the Internet?
  • Are there any web resources or books that you think I should send over to him to read?
  • Dream a little dream with me, if we had a fast Internet connection, what are the possibilities?
• Answer the twitterpoll by replying in twitter @coolcatteacher the answer to this question, "      How would you do web2.0 in rural cambodia with cell phone connection?"

I'll summarized the responses because I think this might be valuable information for ngos too.  In fact, I'm going to ping a few colleagues ... Katrin Verclas sent me this useful link!

There has already been over $20,000 for the Sharing Foundation's America's Giving Challenge raised through the unselfish giving of over 700 people like Vicky Davis. If you have not yet donated $10 (or more) to this important cause, there is only 72 hours left to donate and change a Cambodian child's life and maybe help us get a faster Internet connection!