Given the economy and state of my friends' wallets right now, I've been looking into more innovative fundraising ideas. For a few years, I've been following Scott Harrison (charity:water). He's leading a great cause to get clean water wells drilled throughout Africa. I love his cause and have donated to it. I also couldn't help but notice that he's wildly successful at fundraising. Doesn't hurt to be backed by Saks Fifth Ave, for sure. So, in trying to learn from him, I followed him to a new social networking site where all you have to do is choose an advertising sponsor and post their badge onto your blog or Facebook page or other social network. By doing this simple thing (and inspiring others to follow), Scott was able to raise close to $50,000. Scott, honey, I love you but I have a big goal too and wanted to get in on the action.
So I called Raising Malawi and told them about this site. We had a conversation with the very cool, forward-looking people at Social Vibe. They so get it! This is how advertising will work in the future.
And here we are with our first campaign. So far, 1,940 people have chosen "Raising Malawi" as their charity. As a result of their clicks, we raised $2,162, which will help seven children living at the Home of Hope orphanage with food, clothing, education and medical care.
Julia Silka invites you to SocialVibe.com
We're starting a new campaign now. So, lots more we can be doing. Please follow this link and join Social Vibe. This will give me 100 extra points toward Raising Malawi. And you can start earning too. Simply choose Raising Malawi as your featured Charity and pick any of a variety of cool sponsors to help you promote it. I went with TNT, because they give me x5 points to my charity for every click from my blog :)
Click away, and thanks to our sponsors for the charity dollars!
As of 6/16/09, we've raised a total of
$48,972.68
+ 2,162.00 (Social Vibe Home of Hope Campaign)
---------
$51,134.68
1 comment:
The charity 'Raising Malawi' (PR firm) founded by Madonna AND TWO OTHERS over three years ago held fund raisers for over two years before finally getting registered as a non-profit. In other words, Madonna and the others were free to squander the lion's share of that funding any way they saw fit for those first two years. In fact, they still havn't accounted for the 3.7 million raised from a single event in the fall of '07' (The opening of a Gucci flagship store in Manhattan.). She also pleaded with her fans worldwide for donations along the way. In the meantime, she toured the world to promote her latest CD and raked in another $280,000,000 gross in just over 12 months. To date, the basic financial info for 'Rasing Malawi' still hasn't been posted on the website or anywhere else. The 'progress' page only tells of the collective works by over 20 seperate charities. Each of which have their own sources of funding and may have recieved some sort of promotion or support from 'Raising Malawi' in order to be considered 'partners'. But no indication is made how much of their funding came from 'Raising Malawi' or how much of their progress if any could be directly attributed to 'Raising Malawi'. The fans/donors have no clue how many millions of dollars were raised in that first two years, no clue how much Madonna herself chipped in, and no clue how the money was spent before they finally registered as a non-profit. No clue what fraction of funding or works listed on that 'progress' page could be directly attributed to 'Raising Malawi'. Nothing to go on but the vague word of Madonna. The vague and very misleading word of Madonna. For example: She states in her latest promotional video that she will match any contributions made to her charity (PR firm) "dollar for dollar". However, there is a disclaimer posted on the website for 'Raising Malawi' that Madonna's total contribution will not exceed $100,000. Thats not per donation. Thats a maximum of $100,000 TOTAL. Less than a single days pay for Madonna. Also much less then she will surely rake in by promoting her own CDs, DVDs, and 'for profit' merchandise through this massive worldwide publicity stunt. So I called the office of 'Raising Malawi' in an attempt to verify some sort of efficient financial operation (310) 867-2881 or (888) 72-DONOR). These details are ALWAYS made available by legitimate charities to their potential donors. But not in this case. I got nothing but recorded messages and hangups. So I did some research on my own. 'Rasing Malawi' still hasn't been given any kind of rating by ANY independent charity watchdog like Charitywatch.org. The vast overwhelming majority of 'celebrity' foundations never are. In general, they are inneficient and riddled with corruption. Like the promotion of CDs, world tours, commercial websites, entire lines of jewelry (not just the single piece from which proceeds are donated), and high end fashion retail flagship stores. Celebrity foundations are also notorious for squandering much of their funding on private jet rides and super high end accomodations for their managers, PR crews, and celebrity figure heads. Its legal even for a nonprofit but not noble or efficient by any stretch of the imagination. In general, 'celebrity' foundations are a twisted inefficient mutant of charity, self-promotion, exotic travel, and PR crap. Still, they compete for funding with more efficient legitimate charities who do more work with less money. The celebrity figure heads often disregard the primary donors, co-founders, and managers, take personal credit for any collective work done, and seek maximum publicity shortly before or after the release of their own commercial projects. Its a sham. So if its not rated, then don't support it. Instead, support a top rated charity like any of those given high ratings at Charitywatch.org.
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