Twitter, Facebook, Chris Brogan and 81 other people send Cambodian girl to college! If we go over goal 100%, we'll send a young man to college too!

The Personal Fundraising Campaign Surpassed Its Goal Faster Than I Could Say Thank You!

My fourth personal fundraising campaign was to support Leng Sopharath, an orphan from Cambodia, for her junior year at college.  The money goes to the Sharing Foundation which manages the program. My family has sponsored her college costs for her freshman and sophomore years.  Last year, I raised the money on my blog.   But it took me three weeks.

This campaign took 24 hours, with 50% of the goal coming in during the last two hours.  So, it took 24 hours, 53 people donating small amounts to change a young woman's life.  But don't take my word for it.   Over the summer, I had an opportunity to meet her in person. In her dorm room, she had photos of our family and my letters to her on the wall. She spoke about how much our support makes a difference in her life.

Let's examine why the campaign worked ...

Chris Brogan. 

Let me explain.  This might seem so 1980's, but I ran into Chris at a local social networking event last night for J. Owyang and I asked him to support my campaign in person.  My goal was to ask online and offline for $10 gifts and hope that 100 people donate the $1,000 needed. I was initially doing it through Facebook and thought it would take three or four weeks. 

But close to the end of the first day, I was almost at 50% to goal.   So, I sent Chris a Twitter campaign status message and he responded with a $10 gift.  And almost literally before I could get a chance to thank him, he blogged it  and tweeted it.

When I launched the campaign, I thought it would take longer. So, I told my network that I would write a personal blog post thank you and put the first responders in my top friends on Facebook. I will personally acknowledge every one of you with a personal thank you blog post  over the next couple of weeks and link it back here.  I'm also doing an analysis of our social connection and present some of those numbers shortly as well as annedoctal reflections.

In the meantime, Nick Booth had a brilliant idea.  He suggested that you each say congratulations to each other  on your blogs!

UPDATE: Anything over the $1,000 will support the Sharing Foundation's general fund to provide scholarships for college students in the program who don't have individual sponsors.  If we reach $2,000, we can send Champhearom to  college too!  A few of my donors are asking their friends via their blogs! 

Shirley Williams
Michael David Pick
Preetam Rai
Wiebke Herding
Peter Cranstone
Polly Thompson
Nicholas Booth
Fernanda Ibarra
Britt Bravo
Kelley-sue LeBlanc
Laura Whitehead
Allyson Lazar
CindyAE
Andre Carothers
John Powers
 Anal Bhattacharya
Steve Bridger
Lloyd Davis
Donna Callejon
Chris Brogan
Anonymous
Joyce Bettencourt
Erin Vest
Philip C Campbell
Jane E Quigley
Steve Spalding
Amanda Mooney
Ann Miller
Donna Papacosta
Christopher Lester
Zena Weist
Connie Reece
Mary Reagan
michael dunn
Anne Boccio
S Michelle Wolverton
Israel Rosencrantz
Clint Smith
Stephen Keaveny
Scott Schablow
Justin Kownacki
Neha Yellurkar
Amie Gillingham
David Beaudouin
Edwin S Coyle III
Randy Stewart
Michelle Martin
Liz Perry
Haystack in A Needle
Ian Wilker
Jay Dedman
Amy Jussel
Roger Carr
Jesse Wiley
Ed Schipul
Nedra Weinreich   
sam Mayfield    
Ayse Erginer   
Erin Denny   
Somongkol Teng    
Peter Gulka   
Liz Henry
John Federico
Alex de Carvalho
Steve Dembo
Steve Garfield
Susanne Nyrop
Citizen Agency
Sam Harrelson
Michaela Hackner

Comments

[Mary Reagan]

It was a great idea to use social networking for such a good cause. Glad I could be a part of it.

[David Beaudouin]

Hey Beth:

Yay! Great job--made my Friday!

All the best, David

[Stephen Keaveny (JoiKoi )]

I love it when a plan comes together, thanks Beth, Chris and all the Twitterers. ;-)

[Amie Gillingham]

It was very cool to be a small part of this! If this isn't proof of the power of social media, I don't know what is!

[Annie Boccio]

Hi Beth, I loved being part of such a cool, quick little "good thing"! I've read your blog a few times in the past, but we've never "met" so, happy to meet you!

PS -got here via Brogan of course :)

[Zena Weist]

Beth,
Congrats, looking forward to seeing your next non-profit via socnet endeavor unfold. It's wonderful to be part of something great! Found you through Chris's tweets.

[Cindy]

Congrats! - Wonderful thing for you to organize, and shows ability to use blogs for service, as well as info and conversations!

[Phil Campbell]

Glad i could help. :)

[Ann]

Hey Beth!

How could we possibly say no to such a worthwhile cause? I'm happy to be a part of this. Friend of a friend to be sure..I see some familiar names on that list of donors from my Twitter friends list.

I followed the Brogan breadcrumb trail initially but saw several Twitter buddies retweeting Chris's post.

Congratulations on reaching your goal!

[Connie Reece]

Beth, I'm glad I saw Chris Brogan's tweet about the project. What a great use of social networking. Kudos to you for putting this together.

[Steve Spalding]

I am glad Chris told me about this. This is a great thing you are doing here!

[andre carothers]

Why respond to this as opposed to something else? Because some mutual friends told me about Beth, I read the blog regularly, and I love swarming for something good with people I don't know. My work is in professional progressive social change--and I am drawn to be part of this community as well.

[Amanda Mooney]

Thanks for including us in this Beth and thanks Chris for tweeting about it:)

[Anol]

Hi Beth - congrats on making this time too! Glad to provide a little help! :) ~ Anol Bhattacharya.

[Neha]

So glad I could be a part of this - congrats! Found this because I'm an avid reader of the blog, keep up the good work :-)

[Michele Martin]

I'm offline for ONE DAY and you've already completed the campaign?! I just went ahead and contributed anyways--this is fabulous, Beth! Congratulations!

[Jake McKee]

Yeah, this was way cool. I've been swamped and completely missed it until yesterday. Next time, I'll be donating!

[Eric Skiff]

Thanks for the thank you :) I was happy to be part of this once I heard about it!

[Chris Brogan...]

Wow! Look at all those wonderful people. Isn't it swell? It's nice to see the social network do something more than talk about last night's TV show, right? It's not that we have to be meaningful all the time, but it sure is nice to know that we can occasionally rise up and do something useful. : ) And only with the help of so many great people.

What worked, by the way, is that the goal seemed so reachable, and that everyone's contribution was so small that everyone could feel it was manageable and non-threatening. Worked like a charm.

[denith]

"So, it took 24 hours, 53 people donating small amounts to change a young woman's life."

Wow, that's really touching.

[Mr.Pheng Saochheng]

Hi Beth,you do a very great job for your society.I hope you will keep your good job.

[Shaping Youth]

Beth, your work is inspiring, as are your methods...Couldn't resist writing a story about you on Shaping Youth about how you're "shaping youth!" Here's the link: http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=729

p.s. Ironically, AHA is flying me to Dallas next week to discuss new media fundraising and teen/youth engagement, set up by Brian Reich, one of our Age of Conversation co-authors. Your success story couldn't be more timely, as I can now use your tweets & Truemors as examples of how media minutiae has shifted to productive purpose. Rock on! Hope to run into you at the She's Geeky Unconference. I'll try to find you and introduce myself!

Keep up the webolution! Excellent...

[Clint Smith / Dave Delaney]

We're thrilled that we could help. Thanks to you guys for organizing it.

Cheers,
Dave

[Scott Schablow]

I just contributed to get Chris Brogan to shut up about it on Twitter. JUST KIDDING. I was drawn in by Leng's story. Then, I was intrigued by the whole idea of your blog and by the power of Twitter. I have a friend in California who just started a non-profit to help schools in South America. It's amazing how far $1 can go toward making a real difference.

[MatthewS]

Yeah! $2000+ Shall we try for a third?