Beth's Blog: Nonprofits and Social Media

QIK Celebrates One Year Anniversary With Charity Drive to support Cambodian Orphans!

Earlier this year, I got an N95 smartphone to stream videos while I doing web 2.0 and nonprofit workshops in different places. I became a huge fan of QIK and I was floored with @broy, one of the founders  took the time to answer some of my questions on twitter and my blog.  Today, I learned that QIK will be celebrating their one-year anniversary with a party and charity drive.   They have identified the Sharing Foundation that helps children in Cambodia as the recipient.  (If you read this blog and are going to the QIK party, buy lots of schwag!)

I'm thrilled.  As a board member and long time supporter of the organization, we've been concerned - like all other nonprofits about the slow down in charitable giving and the impact it might have on serving disadvantaged children and orphans.   We've been following all the advice about fundraising in hard times and looking at how we can stretch our dollars even further.  (Believe me, we're no stranger to squeezing pennies)

Leng Sopharath is the second from the left

I've been so grateful to all the wonderful people who have generously contributed to the Sharing Foundation. Leng Sopharath, a young Cambodia woman, has been sent to college for three years due to the generosity of people who read this blog, follow me (or Chris Brogan) on Twitter, or have connected with me through different social networks. And, if wasn't for the outpouring of generosity of the Gnomedex community and Chris and Ponzi - we were able to cover her medical expenses this year.

Being Leng Sopharath's sponsor is more than raising money to support the Sharing Foundation's program.  I write regular letters of support and encouragement.  And this year has been very difficult for her due to her medical problems.   I just received the last letter from her and thought I'd share with you.

"Thank you so much for your last letter.  I love to read it.

I am okay now.  I am still resting because I just getting back my strength back after my 3rd operation.  I feel sad sometimes because my roommates get to ride their bikes to school.  I can only see and smile on them.  I really want to go back to school so much and I think my dream will come true in April when I am well enough to attend school.

Even though I cannot attend school, I am studying my lessons and reviewing books.   I hope one day that I will see you again in Cambodia and thank you for being my sponsor.   I will work hard and not make you feel sad that you were my sponsor."

As I mentioned, we're feeling the impact of the economy and donations are slowing down.  While Leng Sopharath is covered, there are 40 other college students that the Sharing Foundation supports.   That's why a donation, of any amount, even $15 will help us help lift these promising young people out of poverty. 

You can donate online here.

And, again, my heartfelt thanks to QIK!

Help Me Send Leng Sopharath Back To College in Good Health!

Two years ago, my family and I made a commitment to sponsor Leng Sopharath, a young woman from Cambodia, for her college education through the Sharing Foundation's education program.   She is an orphan who grew up in the same orphanage as my daughter.  Without the Sharing Foundation's college education program, she would not be able to make a better life for herself.     My exploration of using social media tools and personal fundraising strategies has been devoted to raising money to help support young people like Leng Sopharath through the Sharing Foundation's program. She is now entering her third year of college, majoring in Business as you will hear from the video I took when I met her over a year ago.

 

The most recent letter I received from her let me know that she will have to miss the fall semester because she recovering from stomach surgery.  (The text of the letter is here).  The Sharing Foundation (and some friends) covered her medical expenses and she is recuperating in the student house that we rent for our college students.   So, this year I'm raising money to cover her junior year tuition, living expenses, and medical expenses.    This comes to approximately $2,500.  I am hoping that you can contribute $10 to continue her education in good health.

For her freshman year, I launched a campaign on ChipIn and with the help of many generous people, was able to raise money for her first of college.   For her sophmore year, with the help of folks like Chris Brogan, we were able to raise enough money to cover Leng Sopharath and another college student! 

I'm headed off to Seattle to speak at Gnomedex and hope to test the power of integrated offline/online strategies.  (Any advice?) and hope to continue with this campaign and raise the money quickly! So, please consider donating $10!

IF you reading this in an RSS reader, here's the direct link.  Thanks.

Be A Better Inspiration: Vote For Beth's Blog Readers on Yahoo

 

I just entered you, dear readers, in the Be A Better Inspiration Contest over at Yahoo.  The contest is about telling a story about someone's good deed on behalf of an nonprofit organizations.   The first thing that came to mind was the extraordinary generosity that you all showed in supporting the campaign to send Leng Sopharath to college.  So now, if you can vote for the story and we win, we get a crack at raising some more money for the Sharing Foundation.   READ THE INSTRUCTIONS ... if you haven't participated before, you have to vote a bunch of times and for other stories until my story shows up and then vote for it.

HURRY this ends on December 19th.  So go vote now!   Even if you didn't contribute to the original campaign or any of the other campaigns - if you're read of this blog - please help me honor you and your generosity while helping the Sharing Foundation support children in Cambodia. 

And thank you.  And Leng Sopharath says thank you too!

Here's how to vote 

1.  GO TO THE CONTEST PAGE
http://bix.yahoo.com/contest/31907

2. PAIRS OF STORIES WILL COME UP
Vote for the best of the pair even if my story isn't in it

3. WHEN MY STORY COMES UP
Vote for me! (IF you think it is the best)

So you have to vote for some of the others and vote several times, but go do it now!  Thanks

Thomas T left a comment and says:

Adding, that the "View and Vote" button just takes you to the contest page, which I'll now type as proper HTML: http://bix.yahoo.com/contest/31907. You'll likely have to vote several times for pairs that don't include Beth's video, but it will eventually come up, and once you vote for it, it will appear again as it asks you to compare it against other videos you already voted for in other pairs. Keep voting as long as you have time for, trying to float Beth's to the top; ideally you'd pick it over every other video in the contest.

Thank You Steve Dembo! Donor #18

 

I will be writing a personal thank you note to every single one of the 81 donors who generously contributed to the campaign to send two Cambodian young people to college.   Thank you Steve Dembo!

I don't know Steve Dembo face-to-face.  Somehow we follow each other on Twitter, mostly via our mutual connections to educational technology bloggers.   Not only did Steve contribute to my campaign, but he was inspired to launch his own campaign to support Habitat for Humanity.

About a week ago, I saw Beth Kanter’s tweet about trying to raise money to send a Cambodian student to college.  I had been about to buy a new t-shirt on Threadless, but instead made a donation to her cause. She made it as simple as possible. I just clicked “ChipIn!” and paid directly out of my PayPal account. And then I felt really good for the rest of the day.

It got me thinking though…  The fact that she was able to send two children to collage through raising funds on her blog, facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other social sites really made a huge impression. I’ve built up a pretty decently sized social network online. How am I leveraging it to make a difference in the world?

So I decided that I was going to follow Beth’s example and begin a personal fund raising campaign for the holiday season. After a little soul searching, I decided to adopt Habitat for Humanity as the cause. Why? There’s a few reasons. The foremost reason is that my mother-in-law, 3 sisters-in-law and brother-in-law all were the beneficiaries of a Habitat house in Iowa City, so I’ve seen first hand just how incredible an organization it is. Their work has impacted millions of families both here in the US and overseas. In the wake of Katrina, Habitat has built over 1,100 homes in just a little over two years.

I wish you good luck in your campaign!  I hope you'll blog about what you learn about implementing a personal fundraising campaign!

 

Paolo Ferrara Interviewed In Il Sole 24 Ore and Leng Sopharath Campaign Profiled!

 

Download sole24ore_fundraising.pdf

Hi Beth,
last week I talked on fundraising 2.0 with an italian journalist who's writing on IlSole24ore's technology insert"Nova24 " ("Il Sole 24 Ore" is the most important economic newspaper in Italy and the second, regarding readership, in Europe). As you can imagine, I mentioned your case history as the most relevant example of personal fundraising. As a result see attached the article. Is in Italian (sorry!) but I think you can get the meaning.
I hope you will enjoy it.
paolo

ps. the title sounds like "grassroots fundraising".

--
Paolo Ferrara
Head of Communication and Fundraising
at Terre des hommes Italia

Paolo has an amazing set of resources about personal fundraising and online fundraising - check them out

Work
http://www.terredeshommes.it
http://www.terredeshommes.it/blog
http://www.iosonopresente.it
http://www.youtube.com/user/tdhitaly
http://www.myspace.com/terredeshommes

Blogs
http://fundraisingnow.wordpress.com
http://campagnesociali.wordpress.com

Slide Shows
http://www.slideshare.net/PaoloFerrara

Networks
http://marketingagora.wordpress.com/
http://marketing-crazy.blogspot.com/
http://www.milanin.com

Twitter, Chris Brogan and 81 other people take Campaign over goal by 100% and send TWO Cambodians Young people to college! Thank You!

 

My fourth personal fundraising campaign started off with a modest goal - $1,000 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.  This campaign took 24 hours, with 50% of the goal coming in during the last two hours and we went over goal!   Chris Brogan blogged it  and tweeted it ... talk about a social media metric for influence.

Since we went over goal, and I have trouble saying now, I kept the campaign going because Champhearom's sponsor was not able to do it this year and I was hoping we could send him to college too. A few of my donors started to ask their  friends via their blogs.  I posted something on Facebook.  But it wasn't until I started to tweet that we reached the goal!

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 anecdotal reflections.

In the meantime, Nick Booth had a brilliant idea.  He suggested that you each say congratulations to each other  on your 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
Priscilla Brice-Weller

New Report The Wired Fundraiser: How technology is making fundraising ‘good to go.’

Most of the findings of the recent Network for Good report follow my experience with personal fundraising, especially the point "You can raise more than you think."  I would add, "in a shorter amount of time."  I thought it would take two weeks to raise the $1,000 to send Leng Sopharath, a young Cambodian woman,  to college.  It took less than 24 hours to do it, plus we went over goal.  So, I extended the campaign so we could send another young student, Chanphearon, to college.  In less than a week, we're 2/3 towards that goal!

So, go donate and keep that smile on Schapheron's face.  Then, think about the implications in this new report from Network For Good called The Wired Fundraiser by Katya Andresen and Stacie Mann.

Chanphearom's College Costs are 63% Covered! Yeah!  27% More To Go

 

It starts with a profile of the two types of Wired Fundraisers.  I definitely fall into the first category ... except for my age.

Type 1:  The Technology Transformed Personal Fundraiser

These individuals know the power of personal fundraising offline.  They are the types that call on friends to support their charity run or bike ride, knock on doors in the neighborhood to raise funds for a local community project, or hold a dinner party to solicit donations for a charity.   This fundraising technique has been very successful because as the old saying goes, people give to people they know. 

These fundraisers, once they adopt Internet tools, are made more powerful.  Tools like widgets and charity badges, combined with social media networks, enable these fundraisers to extend their reach and amplify their message.  These fundraisers are passionate about their cause and this energy fuels the success of their cause.

Type 2:  Fundraising Transformed Techie

A  new group who weren’t fundraisers before. Now that evangelizing has become as simple as posting a widget on a MySpace or Facebook page, they are promoting causes. They tend to be dabblers in fundraising, with their degree of effectiveness contingent on their level of passion. 

Both groups of Wired Fundraisers skew young, ranging from 20 years old up to 40 years old. Many of them are tech savvy, but the ones who are not are able to use the most basic forms of online communication like email to support their cause online.

The key findings:

1. When Wired Fundraisers Talk, People Listen: The messenger matters even more than the message.  (I found this true in my campaigns when I've asked donors why they gave.  "I gave because you asked me.")

2. Not Every Wired Fundraiser Is a Champion: The successful Wired Fundraiser has a relatively rare combination of true passion and a means to lend a sense of urgency to their cause.

This point come from some analysis of Six Degrees campaigns and an analysis by Justin Perkins of Facebook Causes:

Moreover, as with Six Degrees, a handful of fundraisers and Causes accounted for
the vast majority of giving. At the time of his analysis, there were about 8,000
Causes, and Care2 sampled about 10% of them. There were many zero dollar
donations in that sample (555 out of the 774 we sampled). Of the 218 causes that
actually had donations, the average money earned was about $290, and the average
number of supporters was about 6,600 (not including those with zero dollars). The
actual total donations ran from $5 to $22,871. “Pareto’s 80-20 law seems to apply,”
says Perkins. “A very small number of people on Causes give.” He notes the lack of
catalyzing events for many users: “A lot of people join a Cause because it’s cool, but
there’s no accountability to donate.”

But Perkins adds: “What’s exciting, though, is that groups now have an increased
chance for getting money from the small number of superactivists and their personal
networks.” The superactivist can yield strong results.

3. Technology Makes a Difference: Widgets and social networks make existing personal fundraisers more effective.  (I definitely think this true given my recent campaign experience.  What I would like to see is some more efficiency!)

4. Smart Charities Embrace the Wired Fundraiser:  And they find their own, “inner” Wired Fundraiser.  (What is starting to happen now is the organization where I serve on the board, I've been asked - think you can raise this money on your blog? Hmm .. add another board recruitment category - blogger!)

The report ends with implications for both wired fundraisers and organizations.  One particularly struck me:

You can raise more money than you think: Using web-based widgets or badges can raise more money than you think; set goals and you may be surprised at the results.

Every single one of the campaigns I've run,  I've discovered that they surpassed the goal and that people beyond my original connection have donated.    So, don't underestimate the power of a Wired Personal Fundraiser.

Thank Andre Carothers, Donor 16! A mystery Solved

Thank you so much Andrew!  Complete mystery about how you heard about the campaign or why you decided to contribute, but I appreciate your support.  He solved the mystery in a comment to the campaign post.

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.

Thank you John Powers! Donor 15

John Powers is a long-time blog reader and we've often gotten into conversations topics raised in my blog.  John and I share an interest in health care in the developing world.   I believe we met via the Omidyar Network. I'll never forget the Hats for Health he sent me for my birthday last year. 

Now here is the amazing thing.  John and I have never met face-to-face, but I feel like I know through having conversations online for years.  Thanks John for helping with this campaign.

Read more about how Facebook, Twitter, Chris Brogan, and 45 other people including this donor helped Leng Sopharath get to college!

Thank you Allyson Lazar! No. 13 (not unlucky)

Allyson is now a friend on Facebook, but she wasn't before.  I don't know exactly how she found out about campaign, so I hope she leave a comment in the post.  I appreciate her contribution and that she reposted the pitch and video on her wall.  I also liked how she used her status to tell her friends what she was doing.  I also like the idea of a young woman helping another young woman from half-way around the world.

She answered my query via Facebook:

I have been reading your blog for about the past year. I can't remember how exactly I found it, but I am a museum consultant (former actual museum employee working in the trenches) and have been spending much of my time for the past year or more researching ephilanthropy for the museum sector.  I actually joined Facebook just recently specifically so I could check out the causes app and to see how else Facebook could and is being used to help nonprofits, but once here, discovered that several of my friends were also here! I'm also on Twitter, though I usually forget to sign in but I love your accounts of how Twitter has helped out in the middle of presentations!

Read more about how Facebook, Twitter, Chris Brogan, and 45 other people including this donor helped Leng Sopharath get to college!

Thank you CyndyAE No. 14

I do not know CyndyAE face-to-face, but I can see by her blog that she is someone who I should know.  I'll put in my blog reader now.  Thank you.  I'd love to hear more about how we're connected.  Are you a reader of my blog?

From reading her blog, we have mutual interest in the nonprofit sector.  But I am also amazed in looking at the Facebook profiles of donors that many people are not.   What I am thinking about is that integrating social media is great for prospecting and finding new audiences.

Read more about how Facebook, Twitter, Chris Brogan, and 52 other people including this donor helped Leng Sopharath get to college!

Let's Send Chanphearom To College Too!

If you read this blog, you know that I was raising money to send Leng Sopharath, a Cambodian orphan, to college for her junior year.   The total cost was $1,000 and you responded, with the help of people like Chris Brogan.   We surpassed the goal by $372 (as of this writing).   So, together we've sponsored one third of his college costs for this year!   So, why not go all the way?

It would just take 60 people donating $10!  If you were going to donate to the last campaign, but thought it was too late - here's another opportunity!

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

Thank you Chris Brogan! No 12!

Thank you Chris Brogan. What would I do without a daily dose of your blog.  It's in a folder in my reader called "Circle of the Wise," although I'm finding I'm less in my reader and following his posts via Twitter. I met Chris face-to-face at podcamp last year .  He was the one who turned me onto Twitter a year ago.

This might seem so 1980's, but I saw Chris at a local social networking event last night for J. Owyang and I asked him to support my campaign in person.  Hey folks, personal fundraising solicitations still work!  And you'll rarely get turned if you're asking for a small amount.  Seriously, I am hoping that Chris will share this blog on his Facebook profile (he has slightly over 1,000 friends) and maybe he will tweet about it too.  I'm making a connection to Endowment Campaign donor cultivation practices and having an internal debate about how you measure the influence of one's social network. I'll flesh out later.

UPDATE:  Wow, he's fast. He blogged it!  Double Thanks!

Let's Send Leng Sopharath to College and Change Her World!

Contribute to my latest personal fundraising campaign to support Leng Sopharath, an orphan from Cambodia, for her junior year at college.  My family has sponsored her college costs for her freshman and sophomore years.

Coming up with the $1,000 donation to the Sharing Foundation which manages the program is a stretch. That's why I'm asking for my friends on Facebook and beyond  to help.  I'm more than half-way there and can make it with your contribution $10 or $25 or $100 or  more (the more you give, the quicker  I can get back to my regularly scheduled blogging on other topics and client work and write up my learnings)  Please share this campaign with your friends, we can change her life forever!

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.

To make it more enticing, if you are among the first 30 to contribute, I'll add you as a top friend on my Facebook profile. (Only if the app works, your privacy settings don't prevent it, and of course, we're become friends.)  All contributors will be graciously thanked on my blog.  I'm, of course, experimenting with person-to-person fundraising on Facebook and I'll share my learnings here. 

Donate now.  Spread the word!  Share this link on your Facebook profile.  Post this link on Twitter.  Blog about it.  Scream it from the roof tops!

 

Thank you Laura Whitehead! No 11

Thank you Laura Whitehead! I met Laura last year in the UK during the Circuit Riders Conference.  Laura has taught me so much about Google Analytics for nonprofit web sites and she was very generous in sharing her knowledge for the Google Analytics Screencast.

Today when I looked at my progress, I realized that I could use the status on Facebook to give campaign updates.  Duh.  I've also been noticing how my friends are also posting updates, my personal blog posts, and sharing the campaign with their friends.   One annoying thing is that the javascript for the widget seems to get break in Facebook.

Let's Send Leng Sopharath to College and Change Her World!

Contribute to my latest personal fundraising campaign to support Leng Sopharath, an orphan from Cambodia, for her junior year at college.  My family has sponsored her college costs for her freshman and sophomore years.

Coming up with the $1,000 donation to the Sharing Foundation which manages the program is a stretch. That's why I'm asking for my friends on Facebook and beyond  to help.  I'm more than half-way there and can make it with your contribution (the more you give, the quicker  I can get back to my regularly scheduled blogging on other topics and client work and write up my learnings)  Please share this campaign with your friends, we can change her life forever!

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.

To make it more enticing, if you are among the first 30 to contribute, I'll add you as a top friend on my Facebook profile. (Only if the app works, your privacy settings don't prevent it, and of course, we're become friends.)  All contributors will be graciously thanked on my blog.   I'm, of course, experimenting with person-to-person fundraising on Facebook and I'll share my learnings here. 

What a deal for $10 or more!  Donate now.  Spread the word!  Share this link on your Facebook profile.

 

Thank you Kelly-Sue LeBlanc! No. 10 Questions?

Kelley-sue LeBlanc is not Facebook friend and I don't know her from other networks or Face-to-Face.  Thank you so much for your generous donation!    That question mark makes we wonder why you contributed?  I'm hoping you'll drop a comment in the post and introduce yourself.  Are you a blog reader?

Context

Contribute to my latest personal fundraising campaign to support Leng Sopharath, an orphan from Cambodia, for her junior year at college.  My family has sponsored her college costs for her freshman and sophomore years.

Coming up with the $1,000 donation to the Sharing Foundation which manages the program is a stretch. That's why I'm asking for my friends on Facebook and beyond  to help.  If 100 Facebook friends (or their friends) donate $10 (or more - so I can get back to regularly scheduled blogging on other topics and client work) and spread the word to their friends, we can change her life forever!

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.

To make it more enticing, if you are among the first 30 to contribute, I'll add you as a top friend on my Facebook profile. (Only if the app works, your privacy settings don't prevent it, and of course, we're become friends.)  All contributors will be graciously thanked on my blog.   I'm, of course, experimenting with person-to-person fundraising on Facebook and I'll share my learnings here. 

What a deal for $10 or more!  Donate now.  Spread the word!  Share this link on your Facebook profile.

 

Thank you Britt Bravo is 9! Some thoughts about "transactional donors"

Thank you Britt Bravo!!  Britt is an amazing person - the most efficient woman on earth, an fantastic blogger, and all-around fun to be with!  She her day job is to blog and she does a terrific job at NetSquared and BlogHer.  Her personal blog , Have Fun Do Good, is a must read.  (Check out the photo of my kids wearing one of her blog t-shirts)

I was concerned at one point that the donations I'd received from these sorts of campaigns might be "transactional" - in that new donors to my charity would only contribute once and that was that.  But, Britt is repeat donors.  Again, as all fundraisers know, donor stewardship important.  You can't say thank you enough.

Context

Contribute to my latest personal fundraising campaign to support Leng Sopharath, an orphan from Cambodia, for her junior year at college.  My family has sponsored her college costs for her freshman and sophomore years.

Coming up with the $1,000 donation to the Sharing Foundation which manages the program is a stretch. That's why I'm asking for my friends on Facebook and beyond  to help.  If 100 Facebook friends (or their friends) donate $10 (or more - so I can get back to regularly scheduled blogging on other topics and client work) and spread the word to their friends, we can change her life forever!

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.

To make it more enticing, if you are among the first 30 to contribute, I'll add you as a top friend on my Facebook profile. (Only if the app works, your privacy settings don't prevent it, and of course, we're become friends.)  All contributors will be graciously thanked on my blog.   I'm, of course, experimenting with person-to-person fundraising on Facebook and I'll share my learnings here. 

What a deal for $10 or more!  Donate now.  Spread the word!  Share this link on your Facebook profile.

Nick Booth is 8th Donor To Help Leng Sopharath to College! Thank you!

Thank you Nick Booth!  I first "met" Nick Booth via our blogs through a mutual colleague, David Wilcox.  Last year, when I did a training workshop in the UK, I got to meet Nick Booth.  He is an awesome podcaster and video blogger.   Check out Podnosh.  We're already friends on Facebook so he is now a top friend.

Another way to say thank you to friends is share something of theirs on your profile.  And boy, oh boy, is Top Friends buggy.   

Context

Contribute to my latest personal fundraising campaign to support Leng Sopharath, an orphan from Cambodia, for her junior year at college.  My family has sponsored her college costs for her freshman and sophomore years.

Coming up with the $1,000 donation to the Sharing Foundation which manages the program is a stretch. That's why I'm asking for my friends on Facebook and beyond  to help.  If 100 Facebook friends (or their friends) donate $10 (or more - so I can get back to regularly scheduled blogging on other topics and client work) and spread the word to their friends, we can change her life forever!

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.

To make it more enticing, if you are among the first 30 to contribute, I'll add you as a top friend on my Facebook profile. (Only if the app works, your privacy settings don't prevent it, and of course, we're become friends.)  All contributors will be graciously thanked on my blog.   I'm, of course, experimenting with person-to-person fundraising on Facebook and I'll share my learnings here. 

What a deal for $10 or more!  Donate now.  Spread the word!  Share this link on your Facebook profile.

 

Thank You Fernanda Ibarra: She's Number 7!

Full Size Photo here

 

Thank you Fernanda Ibarra.  We met almost two years ago when we took the online facilitation workshop with Nancy White.  We connected on Facebook.  Fernanda lives in Mexico, we've never met face-to-face.  Quote from her profile.

My expertise is diverse. I am a multiplayer giving a lot of focus into the Web (online communities, socialnetworks, collaborative learning). I really like process arts and tools that serve collectives to manage their complexity.

What is interesting to me is this cross-social network communication.   I suspect there are not a lot of people who are using many different social networking sites and web2.0 tools.  I also know that my friends are slightly different on each Social Networking site - there is a cross-over for sure. I don't know how much and I don't know what the valued added is in terms of reach or perhaps influence.  Is this another strategy point?  Identify those key network weavers?

Context

Contribute to my latest personal fundraising campaign to support Leng Sopharath, an orphan from Cambodia, for her junior year at college.  My family has sponsored her college costs for her freshman and sophomore years.

Coming up with the $1,000 donation to the Sharing Foundation which manages the program is a stretch. That's why I'm asking for my friends on Facebook and beyond  to help.  If 100 Facebook friends (or their friends) donate $10 (or more - so I can get back to regularly scheduled blogging on other topics and client work) and spread the word to their friends, we can change her life forever!

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.

To make it more enticing, if you are among the first 30 to contribute, I'll add you as a top friend on my Facebook profile. (Only if the app works, your privacy settings don't prevent it, and of course, we're become friends.)  All contributors will be graciously thanked on my blog.   I'm, of course, experimenting with person-to-person fundraising on Facebook and I'll share my learnings here. 

What a deal for $10 or more!  Donate now.  Spread the word!  Share this link on your Facebook profile.

Thank you Polly Thompson! She's Number 6!

Thank you Polly Thompson from the UK! Polly isn't one of my friends on Facebook, although I hope she friends me.  So I can't put her on my top friends.

I thought top friends was a great way to acknowledge your donors, but if they privacy settings do not allow displaying their name/photo on your profile, you won't be able to add them to your list.  For example, I couldn't add Peter Cranstone to my top friends (apologies Peter).  Yesterday, the search function worked beautifully so you could drop names/photos in, but today it isn't working.  I'm not sure why.  This happens a lot with Facebook apps.  Seems like they are very buggy.

Contribute to my latest personal fundraising campaign to support Leng Sopharath, an orphan from Cambodia, for her junior year at college.  My family has sponsored her college costs for her freshman and sophomore years.

Coming up with the $1,000 donation to the Sharing Foundation which manages the program is a stretch. That's why I'm asking for my friends on Facebook and beyond  to help.  If 100 Facebook friends (or their friends) donate $10 (or more - so I can get back to regularly scheduled blogging on other topics and client work) and spread the word to their friends, we can change her life forever!

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.

To make it more enticing, if you are among the first 30 to contribute, I'll add you as a top friend on my Facebook profile.  (Only if the app works, your privacy settings don't prevent it, and of course, we're become friends.)  All contributors will be graciously thanked on my blog.   I'm, of course, experimenting with person-to-person fundraising on Facebook and I'll share my learnings here. 

What a deal for $10 or more!  Donate now.  Spread the word!  Share this link on your Facebook profile.

Thank you Peter Cranstone! He's number 5!

Thank you Peter Cranstone! We are not friends on Facebook, although I friended him.  I learned that he is a reader on my blog, read about the campaign (either on my blog or my blog feed in Facebook), feels strongly about education, and contributed.    This speaks volumes to having multiple channels and thinking through of cross-channel communication between social networking sites.  It shows how one supports the other, but I am hoping to learn more about the nuances of that.   Have any insights to share?

Have a ways to go ...

 

Contribute to my latest personal fundraising campaign to support Leng Sopharath, an orphan from Cambodia, for her junior year at college.  My family has sponsored her college costs for her freshman and sophomore years.

Coming up with the $1,000 donation to the Sharing Foundation which manages the program is a stretch. That's why I'm asking for my friends on Facebook to help.  If 100 Facebook friends (or their friends) donate $10 (or more - so I can get back to regularly scheduled blogging on other topics and client work) and spread the word to their friends, we can change her life forever!

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.

To make it more enticing, if you are among the first 30 to contribute, I'll add you as a top friend on my Facebook profile.    All contributors will be graciously thanked on my blog.   I'm, of course, experimenting with person-to-person fundraising on Facebook and I'll share my learnings here. 

What a deal for $10 or more!  Donate now.  Spread the word!  Share this link on your Facebook profile.

Thank you Wiebke Herding for supporting Leng Sopharath and She's Not Even A Facebook Friend!

Wiebke Herding just contributed to my campaign.  Thank you so much.  We've never met face-to-face and we are not even friends on Facebook (I just requested).  So, I can't see her profile so I'm not sure how she heard about about the campaign and I can't say anything more about her except I found her blogger profile and it says she is an interactive campaigner.   

I'm hoping she will leave a comment and tell me why she contributed and how she found out it.   I also hope she accepts my friend request .. so I can add her to my top friends.  I also hope I remember to do it.

Contribute to my latest personal fundraising campaign to support Leng Sopharath, an orphan from Cambodia, for her junior year at college.  My family has sponsored her college costs for her freshman and sophomore years.

Coming up with the $1,000 donation to the Sharing Foundation which manages the program is a stretch. That's why I'm asking for my friends on Facebook to help.  If 100 Facebook friends (or their friends) donate $10 (or more - so I can get back to regularly scheduled blogging on other topics and client work) and spread the word to their friends, we can change her life forever!

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.

To make it more enticing, if you are among the first 30 to contribute, I'll add you as a top friend on my Facebook profile.    All contributors will be graciously thanked on my blog.   I'm, of course, experimenting with person-to-person fundraising on Facebook and I'll share my learnings here. 

What a deal for $10 or more!  Donate now.  Spread the word!  Share this link on your Facebook profile.

Preetam Rai, Global Voices Southeast Asia Editor, is helping to send Leng Sopharath to College! Why Not You Too!

That's Preetam on the right.  He is the third person to contribute and the first donor that I've met face-to-face.  That's powerful.  I've raised some money from my cause from people who are my friends online, but I've never met offline.  Why is that?

Preetam Rai knows more about Southeast Asian blogs and bloggers than anyone else in the world!  He's an editor at Global Voices and his personal blog, Better Days, where I first learned about RSS readers and how to use bloglines.

Contribute to my latest personal fundraising campaign to support Leng Sopharath, an orphan from Cambodia, for her junior year at college.  My family has sponsored her college costs for her freshman and sophomore years.

Coming up with the $1,000 donation to the Sharing Foundation which manages the program is a stretch. That's why I'm asking for my friends on Facebook to help.  If 100 Facebook friends (or their friends) donate $10 (or more - so I can get back to regularly scheduled blogging on other topics) and spread the word to their friends, we can change her life forever!

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.

To make it more enticing, if you are among the first 30 to contribute, I'll add you as a top friend on my Facebook profile.    All contributors will be graciously thanked on my blog.   I'm, of course, experimenting with person-to-person fundraising on Facebook and I'll share my learnings here. 

What a deal for $10 or more!  Donate now.  Spread the word!  Share this link on your Facebook profile.

Thank You Michael Pick for Supporting Leng Sopharath's Junior Year: He's My Number 2 Top Friend on Facebook

Meet Michael Pick. He's one of my Facebook friends.  He lives in Japan.  He's a brilliant screencaster. He was the second person to donate to my latest personal fundraising campaign to support Leng Sopharath, an orphan from Cambodia, for her junior year at college.  My family has sponsored her college costs for her freshman and sophomore years and last year I raised the money on my blog.

Coming up with the $1,000 annual donation to the Sharing Foundation which manages the program is a stretch for me.  That's why I'm asking my friends on Facebook to help.  If 100 Facebook friends (or their friends) donate a minimum of $10 and spread the word to their friends, we can change her life forever!

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.

To make it more enticing, if you are among the first 30 to contribute, I'll add you as a top friend on my Facebook profile.    All contributors will be graciously thanked on my blog and in flickr.  I'm, of course, experimenting with person-to-person fundraising on Facebook and I'll share and add my learnings here. 

What a deal for $10!  Donate now.  Spread the word!

Why is Shirley Williams My Number 1 Top Friend on Facebook?

Meet Shirley Williams.  Her blog is called RedGloo.  She is the head of information systems at the University of Reading in the UK.  We met, I think, through CP Squared and Nancy White.  We've participated in online collaboration experiments in Second Life and we are friends on Facebook.   It's her birthday on Friday!

So, why is my top friend?  She is the first to contribute to my latest personal fundraising campaign to support Leng Sopharath, an orphan from Cambodia, for her junior year at college.  My family has sponsored her college costs for her freshman and sophomore years.

Our family is not wealthy, so coming up with the $1,000 donation to the Sharing Foundation which manages the program is a stretch. That's why I'm asking for my friends on Facebook to help.  If 100 Facebook friends (or their friends) donate $10 (or more so I can get back to my regularly scheduled blogging) and spread the word to their friends, we can change her life forever!

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.

To make it more enticing, if you are among the first 30 to contribute, I'll add you as a top friend on my Facebook profile.    All contributors will be graciously thanked on my blog.   I'm, of course, experimenting with person-to-person fundraising on Facebook and I'll share my learnings here. 

What a deal for $10!  Donate now.  Spread the word!