I am at the Oregon Coast, and I was walking on the beach tonight, with my camera and my Crowdrise flag. I came across a little girl and her great mom. The girl is 10 years old and has down sydrome. Clasicllay my dog, Ryder, is really skittish and won’t let most kids approach him because they’re really fast and loud and he scares easily. This girl was really gentle. She asked from afar what his name was. First, she picked up his poop bag that was about 10 feet away, asking what it was and gave it a great smell. Ryder looked at her, curious. Then she asked if he wanted to play and I told her that he will chase any stick and so she found one and threw it, she had a great arm. He played with her for a half hour. She asked a ton of questions, not just about his poop bag – she let that one go, at the urging of mom. She asked what the Crowdrise flag was, waving it around, Ryder romping around with her. I told her it was for fundraising. Her mom was reluctantly interested. The young girl was just playing stick and smiling – so was Ryder. They were having a quiet, great time.
Her mom told me that she thought of fundraising for her daughter a zillion times to get her enrolled in swimming, gymnastics and endless trips to the beach her daughter loves so much, but she had too much pride to ask and not enough money to do it herself. The “ask” for for donations is so tough. I told her that people love to help, love to donate, they love a cause, a face, a help and Crowdrise gives that platform for someone to tell their story and donate or not donate.
Her ears perked, still suspicious. But she knew she had a story to tell, a ten-year old story to tell and that she could easily create an online fundraising page. Not reluctantly, I invited her up to my cottage to show her my fundraising page, and show her how easy it was to create her story on her very own fundraising page on Crowdrise. I talked to her about how shy I am but how the very difficult “ask” turns into a few thousand dollars into a few weeks into a swimming class that’s so great for her daughter who was clearly having so much fun with Ryder, now putting peanut butter into his Kong.
The return on a fundraising page online is as rewarding on Crowdrise as it was for me to watch her play with my dog. Her daughter is gentle, something I could see through my dog in ten minutes, which was the same amount of time it took for her to create her fundraising page, by my side. Fast friends. Fast community. Fast donations. Fast, sponsored, swimming classes. All of these things are a lot easier than we think. Go Farrah and Go Crowdrise.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Online Fundraising Pages for Brangelina and All
Brangelina’s Personal Fundraising Future
A very serious question: If Brangelina broke up, do you think BP would fundraise and if yes, how would he still donate, volunteer and fundraise?
Choice One: BP stays out of the fundraising spotlight. Haven’t seen him in US magazine in months. He’s doing fundraising for smaller, local communities. He’s living in his beloved hometown, New Orleans, and his family and friends are on his online and community fundraising teams. Much more involved in fundraising online, he speaks to local communities about the new wave of donating online and encourages the little guy to do more by raising money online through smaller projects and joining online teams. Trying to stay out of the spotlight, he’s recognized by President Obama and asked to lead a committee for Online Fundraising. Through this total independence from Ang’s international fundraising, volunteering, and donating plight, BP is a new man, still handsome as hell.
Choice Two: While some speculated that BP is growing the goatee for a movie, Perez Hilton reveals that BP’s growing it to get the perfect look to show Ang he’s the real deal. BP wants to stop fighting about New Orleans, his family, her father, and more kids. He will commit his life to his goatee, volunteering, fundraising, and donating to great causes. There is comment across the media about her new bump, his goatee, and the pending adoption of a girl of unknown origin and their ongoing donations and volunteerism. According to TMZ, Jen does not like the goatee but her rep refused to comment. BP, with his even longer goatee, is a new man, still handsome as hell.
Choice Three: BP does no active fundraising for one year. He’s sick of doing everything in these last years that Ang wants and forces him to do. He’s trying to find a new normal. He’s been spotted in Lake Como, with and without the goatee. All of his personal fundraising has been done behind closed doors through online donations in the names of family members and friends. There is speculation that he has sponsored me because one online donation to my personal fundraising page came from an anonymous donor and so I’m fairly certain that it was BP who donated online. I’m also pretty sure that he’s sponsoring me anonymously. And, though he’s not been spotted but for those couple times in Lake Como, he’s still, H.A.H..
Check out my online fundraising page at Crowdrise.
A very serious question: If Brangelina broke up, do you think BP would fundraise and if yes, how would he still donate, volunteer and fundraise?
Choice One: BP stays out of the fundraising spotlight. Haven’t seen him in US magazine in months. He’s doing fundraising for smaller, local communities. He’s living in his beloved hometown, New Orleans, and his family and friends are on his online and community fundraising teams. Much more involved in fundraising online, he speaks to local communities about the new wave of donating online and encourages the little guy to do more by raising money online through smaller projects and joining online teams. Trying to stay out of the spotlight, he’s recognized by President Obama and asked to lead a committee for Online Fundraising. Through this total independence from Ang’s international fundraising, volunteering, and donating plight, BP is a new man, still handsome as hell.
Choice Two: While some speculated that BP is growing the goatee for a movie, Perez Hilton reveals that BP’s growing it to get the perfect look to show Ang he’s the real deal. BP wants to stop fighting about New Orleans, his family, her father, and more kids. He will commit his life to his goatee, volunteering, fundraising, and donating to great causes. There is comment across the media about her new bump, his goatee, and the pending adoption of a girl of unknown origin and their ongoing donations and volunteerism. According to TMZ, Jen does not like the goatee but her rep refused to comment. BP, with his even longer goatee, is a new man, still handsome as hell.
Choice Three: BP does no active fundraising for one year. He’s sick of doing everything in these last years that Ang wants and forces him to do. He’s trying to find a new normal. He’s been spotted in Lake Como, with and without the goatee. All of his personal fundraising has been done behind closed doors through online donations in the names of family members and friends. There is speculation that he has sponsored me because one online donation to my personal fundraising page came from an anonymous donor and so I’m fairly certain that it was BP who donated online. I’m also pretty sure that he’s sponsoring me anonymously. And, though he’s not been spotted but for those couple times in Lake Como, he’s still, H.A.H..
Check out my online fundraising page at Crowdrise.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Is It Wrong To Ask? I’ve Never Asked for an Online Donation Before…
I’m having another Oscars Party, for the fifth year in a row. It’s the only party I have every year. I think if you have too many parties, it’s too much pressure unless you’re super good looking. So, as usual, I sent out the email invite to come at 5:00 pm, bring nothing, except Sibylle has a pound cake with berries because it’s that good, and total silence because the intro is usually very funny, and three bucks for betting. Cordy’s won four years in a row so I’m just having people give their money directly to her this year – I can’t stop saying it and while I thought she’d be mad at me, instead she’s started to act like it’s her party and won’t stop calling me with instructions.
I make dinner for everyone – my favorite part. One year, I was sick and picked up a lasagna from one of my favorite restaurants and told everyone I made it. Sorry about it. I’ve been lying for two years, still getting compliments on it and can’t decide whether to pick up the lasagna again this year or come clean.
Every year, all thirty friends (yes, I have thirty friends, don’t ask how or why) ask over and over what they can bring. I’m torn. Not about the food or drinks – that’s covered – but about asking them to contribute to my online fundraising pages. It’s not easy to ask.
I have a personal fundraising page on Crowdrise.com and my new online project is really meaningful and probably meaningful to most people coming to the Oscars party. Because it’s a new fundraiser for me, not many of my friends know about it yet, so none of them have donated. But they’re all in my community, many do work related to the fundraising project and would likely support the cause. Problem is, I’ve never done any personal fundraising at any of the parties in the last four years – is it wrong to ask?
I’m thinking of setting up my laptop in a non-discrete area and having my online fundraising page up on the screen and leaving some information about it out in a couple places in my condo so they can donate online throughout the night if they want to contribute to the personal fundraiser page. That’s good. Really good. You should do it, too. Sponsor me, donate online, start your own online fundraiser for the best cause ever, have an Oscars party and for sure get that lasagna and pretend you made it.
I make dinner for everyone – my favorite part. One year, I was sick and picked up a lasagna from one of my favorite restaurants and told everyone I made it. Sorry about it. I’ve been lying for two years, still getting compliments on it and can’t decide whether to pick up the lasagna again this year or come clean.
Every year, all thirty friends (yes, I have thirty friends, don’t ask how or why) ask over and over what they can bring. I’m torn. Not about the food or drinks – that’s covered – but about asking them to contribute to my online fundraising pages. It’s not easy to ask.
I have a personal fundraising page on Crowdrise.com and my new online project is really meaningful and probably meaningful to most people coming to the Oscars party. Because it’s a new fundraiser for me, not many of my friends know about it yet, so none of them have donated. But they’re all in my community, many do work related to the fundraising project and would likely support the cause. Problem is, I’ve never done any personal fundraising at any of the parties in the last four years – is it wrong to ask?
I’m thinking of setting up my laptop in a non-discrete area and having my online fundraising page up on the screen and leaving some information about it out in a couple places in my condo so they can donate online throughout the night if they want to contribute to the personal fundraiser page. That’s good. Really good. You should do it, too. Sponsor me, donate online, start your own online fundraiser for the best cause ever, have an Oscars party and for sure get that lasagna and pretend you made it.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
DOES YOUR SMALL CHANGE LEAD TO BIG CHANGE?
Do people believe that their small donations and small time online fundraising pages will make a difference? Will my $5.00 donation or $50.00 online fundraiser really matter? Will anyone care? Will I? Will poverty, homelessness, hunger, violence, street gangs, child abuse and neglect or my fundraising cause that’s so meaningful to me really get solved, stopped, or will one child ever benefit if I give small change?
People like to see something happen. People like to see a fundraiser or a donation mean something. They like a thank you card. A party. A connection to the cause or other people who care about the cause. So what’s $5.00 going to do?
I know that a lot of people with the small bank but the big heart are having these conversations. They might go onto crowdrise.com and think, wow, I’d like to do an online fundraiser, make a donation, but how can I really do it?
This is a huge barrier. I want you to know right now from a real volunteer, a real fundraiser and online fundraiser who’s on online fundraising teams, who cares about this stuff that this fear is unrealistic and will hold us back from making our fundraising power better and bigger and badder. It will make our communities safer and stronger and our next generation even cooler.
Do not be scared about the $5.00 donation or small fundraiser. Do not be scared to join a fundraising team. Look at the small picture and one fundraiser or donation or volunteer event at a time will be good and do good. I promise! If too many people are stunted by this fear, nothing happens, not now, not ever. And, let’s face it, it’s boring to do nothing. Get out there and be a part of the small give, the small donation, and the small online fundraiser, from the big-hearted.
If you don’t believe me, listen to this somewhat interesting, very short story. I loved college because I made the best friends in the universe and who doesn’t like biking home from the bar at 2 am all fun and crazy, and I read so many great books. One was “Fixing Broken Windows…” by Kelling and Coles. Their theory has stuck with me and I think about it nearly every day – okay maybe not every day but a lot. So sorry so intellectual, but their theories, well versed and studies are riveting and hot. Not hot as in the movie I saw last night, “A Single Man,” definitely not hot in that way, but you get the picture.
The book focuses talks about prevention. It says that if we go into our most chaotic, crime infested and impoverished communities and fix one broken window at a time, and then another, people will look at those windows and the clean up and be less inclined to break a window, or commit crime. The theories in the book are and in the areas where windows were fixed, one at a time, the levels of chaos, crime and disorder in those communities lessened.
Like the windows, one $5.00 donation, or $50.00 online fundraiser, or 5 hour Saturday spent volunteering for your community or cause will be so good.
People like to see something happen. People like to see a fundraiser or a donation mean something. They like a thank you card. A party. A connection to the cause or other people who care about the cause. So what’s $5.00 going to do?
I know that a lot of people with the small bank but the big heart are having these conversations. They might go onto crowdrise.com and think, wow, I’d like to do an online fundraiser, make a donation, but how can I really do it?
This is a huge barrier. I want you to know right now from a real volunteer, a real fundraiser and online fundraiser who’s on online fundraising teams, who cares about this stuff that this fear is unrealistic and will hold us back from making our fundraising power better and bigger and badder. It will make our communities safer and stronger and our next generation even cooler.
Do not be scared about the $5.00 donation or small fundraiser. Do not be scared to join a fundraising team. Look at the small picture and one fundraiser or donation or volunteer event at a time will be good and do good. I promise! If too many people are stunted by this fear, nothing happens, not now, not ever. And, let’s face it, it’s boring to do nothing. Get out there and be a part of the small give, the small donation, and the small online fundraiser, from the big-hearted.
If you don’t believe me, listen to this somewhat interesting, very short story. I loved college because I made the best friends in the universe and who doesn’t like biking home from the bar at 2 am all fun and crazy, and I read so many great books. One was “Fixing Broken Windows…” by Kelling and Coles. Their theory has stuck with me and I think about it nearly every day – okay maybe not every day but a lot. So sorry so intellectual, but their theories, well versed and studies are riveting and hot. Not hot as in the movie I saw last night, “A Single Man,” definitely not hot in that way, but you get the picture.
The book focuses talks about prevention. It says that if we go into our most chaotic, crime infested and impoverished communities and fix one broken window at a time, and then another, people will look at those windows and the clean up and be less inclined to break a window, or commit crime. The theories in the book are and in the areas where windows were fixed, one at a time, the levels of chaos, crime and disorder in those communities lessened.
Like the windows, one $5.00 donation, or $50.00 online fundraiser, or 5 hour Saturday spent volunteering for your community or cause will be so good.
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