The partnership between Donor Community, a developer of a cloud computing platform specifically targeted at nonprofit organizations, and Planned Growth, a fundraising and sales consultancy for nonprofits was announced a few days ago in late November. According to the alliance, Donor Community was named Planned Growth’s exclusive provider of fundraising and CRM platform, while Planned Growth, in turn, became Donor Community’s exclusive content development partner. Both companies hope that  their newly forged parnership may bring both services to whole new levels.

Donor Community CSO Eric Block: Together, we provide the software and services client need for a dynamic and interesting Website

„We first learned about Planned Growth when The Boys and Girls Club of Broward retained them to perform an in-depth technical evaluation of the DonorCommunity platform,” Eric Block, the Chief Strategy Officer of DonorCommunity Inc. tells Fundraisr.org when asked about the background and history of the cooperation between the companies. „The Club had already decided that we offered the most comprehensive and cost-effective solution. But, they wanted to be sure our cloud computing technology had the stability and scalability they would need long-term. After a lengthy evaluation. Planned Growth endorsed our cloud computing technology and recommended that the Club become a DonorCommunity subscriber.”

According to Block, the first steps were made by Planned Growth shorty after this evaluation, back in October, 2011. „Planned Growth was so impressed with our software that they approached us soon afterwards about forming an alliance. We were happy to agree, since they provide the kinds of surround services our clients often request. We’re also glad to have Planned Growth offer DonorCommunity as their exclusive fundraising and CRM solution,” he told us referring to the mutual nature of the agreement.

While the agreement can become a milestone for both companies, the forming of the partnership didn’t require major changes on either company’s behalf. „Both companies continue to operate exactly as we did before,” stated Erick Block. The only difference is that the spectrum of the services both company can offer now became a lot broader. “DonorCommunity can now offer clients a new spectrum of surround services that are fulfilled through Planned Growth. Likewise, Planned Growth can now offer their consulting clients convenient access to our software platform,” explains the CSO.

„Consider the typical nonprofit Website. Many organizations lack the on-site expertise needed simply to update the content on an ongoing basis. Our Website Content Manager Management application makes this extremely easy. But, someone still has to decide what the nonprofit should be saying on its Website and then produce the content. That’s where Planned Growth comes in. Together, we provide the software and services client need for a dynamic and interesting Website. The same benefits apply to online fundraising, social networking and event management. Planned Growth helps clients with the content and strategy. DonorCommunity makes the program execution easy and efficient,” says Eric Block, concluding „Clients inevitably need both software and services. As partners, we can address both requirements in a way that is seamless and convenient for our clients.”

On top of the actual professional work, the cooperation of the two will, obviously include joint marketing and sales efforts as well.

Although it’s still early days to talk numbers, but the cooperating partners will definitely focus on nonprofits with a large volume of affiliates as their potential clients. Boys and Girls Clubs, for one, is among both companies’ clients. The nonprofit holds some 3,000 big affiliate base, so even a pessimist forecast on successful sales conversion can mean a substantial number of new accounts opened.

In the meantime, Boys and Girls Clubs also agreed to become the reference program of the new partnership. “They immediately agreed to […] participate in a direct mail campaign we launched to inform their affiliates and national headquarters about the benefits of working with us. We’ve already met with a number of affiliates and the feedback has been extremely positive,” Eric Block concluded.

The Trevor Project grants The Hero Award to Lady Gaga

According to Trevor, Lady Gaga is an inspiration to youth, and she increases visibility and understanding of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning community. The singer just recently announced she founded the Born This Way Foundation to bravely empower young people to be proud of who they are, and accept temselves as well as one another, including one anothers humanity as well as gender preferences.

The Trevor Project is America’s leading nationwide organization to provide help (crisis intervention and suicide prevention services) to the LGBTQ community. Along with Lady Gaga, the Trevor Project’s Hero Award will also be granted to Google Inc. The search giant is known to champion LGBTQ workplace equality by advocating for equal policies and benefits for their LGBTQ employees, expanding the presence of their LGBTQ employee resource group globally and supporting the community and LGBTQ youth organizations.

“Our young people are at the center of a health crisis, and vocal leaders like Lady Gaga and technology leaders like Google Inc. have stepped up to help change our culture,” Interim Executive Director and CEO of The Trevor Project, David McFarland was quoted as saying. McFarland added: “Our honorees are working with The Trevor Project to make a better today and a brighter tomorrow for youth. We are proud to honor Lady Gaga with the Trevor Hero Award and Google Inc. with the Trevor 2020 award for their work to help young people express their true selves with pride.”

To her fans (Little Monsters, as they like to call themselves), Lady Gaga is much more than just a singer: she is both a trendsetter and a role model, and with her messages on self esteem and self confidence she made a huge contribution to many youngsters, in helping to accept themselves as they are rather than trying to comply with the expectations or preferences set by others.

“My mother and I have initiated a passion project,” Gaga said in a statement announcing the launch of her Born This Way Foundation. “Together we hope to establish a standard of Bravery and Kindness, as well as a community worldwide that protects and nurtures others in the face of bullying and abandonment.” The official launch of the Foundation, and further details on the initiatives supported by the newly launched charity will be announced in early 2012 – Lady Gaga is partnering up with the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the California Endowment and Harvard University to make sure that her charity efforts are in the best hands.

“We are honored and humbled to be recognized with the Trevor 2020 Award,” said Yolanda Mangolini, Director of Global Diversity & Inclusion and Talent & Outreach Programs at Google Inc. on the company’s  behalf. “We applaud The Trevor Project for their commitment to providing services and creating safe spaces for LGBTQ youth in need, and look forward to a continued partnership.”

The awards will be given out at this years Trevor Live event at the Hollywood Palladium, with the evening’s special guest director being Adam Shankman. This year’s show will boast with performers like Fergie, Mary J. Blige, Miley Cyrus, LeeAnn Rimes and many others. The event’s sponsors will be Audi and ING.

In the core of the Xperedon platform are an ever-growing database of charities (5,629 charity organizations are listed at the time of writing this article) and the innovative idea called „charity profile” or „charity portfolio”, a handpicked selection of registered users, that consists of up to 20 charities of their choice, that they intend to support. Users manage these portfolios freely, adding and removing charities, sharing their profiles to show off, or opting for private donations, that are not visible to others. They can select regular donations, with monthly plans starting as low as $10, or they can obviously choose occasional donations with any amount. „Think of it as your personal charity DNA,” says Julian Worth, who hopes that it’s just a matter of time, when these charity profiles will become as popular and important to their users, as their Facebook accounts or Twitter feeds. „Xperedon is all about lifestyle giving, making it relevant and fun, while putting control firmly in the hands of the donor,” he adds.

The name Xperedon comes from a tricky acronym: „Expenditure Related Donation,” Julian Worth tells us, which refers to one of the features of the platform. The CardLink service, that also debuted with the launch of Xperedon a few days ago, allows users to link giving to spending, either as percentage on overall expenditure or (in an even more sophisticated scheme), by associating the type of spending with the type of giving. “Cardholders that sign up automatically spend more, typically between 3% and 6%. The card industry is all about volume, so we expect other issuers to follow suit and offer this ground-breaking service to their clients,” Julian Worth highlights. Due to the scale and ease of these “automated donations,” the CardLink service, can also be a most cost-effective way for charities to collect donations. According to the company, after the costs, some 95% of the money raised reaches the charities wherever in the world they are.

Yet another novelty of the platform is the option to create what they call Corporate Donation Schemes. The concept is based on corporate donations, that could be directed to the charities of the corporate’s employees’ choice, using the selection of their charity portfolios created in the Xperedon platform. “We have a number of companies in the US that are considering running this program,” Julian Worth tells Fundraisr.Org, although no company names can be published until agreements are reached in these negotiations.

Considering how crowded today’s social media scene is, a breakthrough for a newborn platform might as well sound difficult, but it can definitely be strengthened by, well… more social media. „Absolutely, that’s all coming,” Julian Worth ensures us when we’re asking whether a Facebook application, mobile or tablet apps are being developed to make it even more attractive for users to interact with Xperedon. (By the way, I was the 8th to like Xperedon’s Facebook Page)

A few days into the launch of Xperedon, it may be too early to tell whether the social features offered by the site will truly revolutionize the act of giving. When asked about registration volumes and first user feedbacks, Julian Worth highlights: „It’s early days and we are monitoring it. There is a lot of intereste, and we expect this to increase further when we are written about in the traditional press.” As for growth plan, no actual numbers were made public. „Our aim is to get out to as many users as possible of course, and to integrate CardLink with as many banks and card issuers as possible. The latter is a relatively slow process, but we are in this for the long haul,” Worth concludes.

While there are some gazillion lists on the Internet, some more up-to-date than others, to provide you with information on Thanksgiving volunteer opportunities, this list (or rather, list-of-lists) is pretty much a work in progress – so if you think that another site should be listed here, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with an URL at fundraisr.org(at)gmail.com!

Thanksgiving volunteer opportunities for 2011

National (US)

• Huffington Post’s ultimate list of Thanksgiving volunteer opportunities listing national programs or the local hubs of international nonprofit organizations.

NYC

• TimeOut NY’s list of Thanksgiving volunteer opportunities in and around NYC
• NYMag’s list of volunteer opportunities
• The Complex Media’s guide to donate your time (ie. to volunteer) on Thanksgiving day in NYC
• An About.com list of Manhattan-based Thanksgiving volunteer opportunities.
• LowerManhattan.info’s list on Volunteering opportunities on Thanksgiving day.

Chicago

• Centerstage Chicago’s list of volunteer opportunites for Thanksgiving, 2011.
• A list of Chicago-based Thanksgiving volunteer opportunities on American Towns.
• CBS Chicago’s Family guide to Thanksgiving volunteering.
• Yelp’s list of Thanksgiving volunteer opportunities around Chicago.

California

• Laist.com’s list of local Thanksgiving volunteer opportunities in the Los Angeles area
• Northside San Francisco’s list of local volunteer opportunities
• Posthoc’s mini list of San Francisco based volunteer opportunities
• SF Weekly’s more exhaustive list of (not only) Thanksgiving volunteer opportunities in and around SF
• VolunteerMatch’s list of Los Angeles-based volunteer opportunities for Thanksgiving day and beyond
• NBC’s list of Los Angeles-based volunteer opportunities.

Washington DC. Area

• List of Washington DC-based Thanksgiving volunteer opportunities.
• VolunteerMatch’s (not necessarily) Thanksgiving volunteer opportunities in and around Washington DC.

Atlanta

• 11 Alive’s list of Thanksgiving volunteer opportunities in and around Atlanta

Houston

• Thanksgiving volunteer opportunities in the Houston area by About.com.

Phoenix

• Another About.com list, this time listing Phoenix-based Thanksgiving volunteer opportunities.

Miami

• Miami New Times’s list of Thanksgiving volunteer opportunities.

Either way, please don’t hesitate to share the details with us, and nominate the organization in the quest for the Best Nonprofit Christmas gift of 2011 run by the Fundraisr.Org charity and nonprofit blog. All nonprofit organizations are eligible to be nominated to the Best Nonprofit Christmas Gift competition!

What’s in it for you? (or rather, for the organization you nominate)

All nominations will get extensive coverage, including, but not necessarily limited to the followings:

• Detailed description of the project background, the core of the idea, how it relates to the daily activities of the nonprofit, what’s the “extra mile” that makes the Christmas present unique.
• An interview with an appointed member of the nonprofit, (if possible). All nominees will be contacted with an interview request by Fundraisr.Org author Zsolt Balla.
• Direct links to the pages of the organization including its website, Facebook page, Twitter feed, direct donation hotline etc.
• Fundraisr.Org will present the background of the nonprofit organization, description of their past efforts and achievements with a key focus on 2011.
• Our site will also provide a link to the organization’s homepage in a special section of Fundraisr.Org’s blogroll created specifically for the Best Nonprofit Christmas Gift competition.

While all coverage will be published on the Fundraisr.Org blog, the winners of the Best Nonprofit Christmas Gift competition will be selected by an open and public voting, that will take place via the Facebook Page and the Twitter Feed of Fundraising.Org – in the shape of “Likes” and “ReTweets”.

On top of the exhaustive coverage that will be granted to all nominees, the winner of the Best Nonprofit Christmas Gift competition will be rewarded with Fundraisr.Org’s most creative Christmas gift: a year long, continuous coverage of the organizations charitable efforts on our blog, including interviews, case studies, with a highlight on future plans and recent achievements.

Please make your nominations now by sending a simple email to fundraisr.org(at)gmail.com or by filling the nomination form at Fundraisr.Org. If you chose to nominate your nonprofit via email, please make sure you include as much deails as possible, including the name and contact details of the nonprofit, and a picture of the Christmas gift you nominated.

The nomination deadline of the nonprofit of your choice in the Best Nonprofit Christmas Gift competition is Dec 15. 23:59 GMT. Voting will be closed on Jan 2. 23:59 GMT.

All nonprofit organizations are eligible to participate in the Best Nonprofit Christmas Gift competition.

About the voting

Votes can be cast by “Liking” or “Retweeting” the blogpost about a specific organization’s Christmas gift on the Facebook page or in the Twitter feed of Fundraisr.Org. Please make sure that you “follow” our Twitter feed or “like” our Facebook page before casting your vote.

All participants or supporters are welcome to spread the word, and encourage others to vote the nonprofit of their choice. Since there is no reliable way of identifying a Twitter user, a Facebook “like” and a Twitter “retweet” coming from the same person will be counted as two votes on the organization. Multiple likes or retweets, however, coming from the same person will be counted as one.

All votes of the winner will be validated after the voting is closed on Jan 2, 2012. In the case of Facebook “Likes” votes will count valid if the voter is among the people, who “Like” the Facebook Page of Fundraisr.Org. For Twitter votes, a vote will be counted valid, if the user casting the vote is among the followers of Fundraisr.Org’s Twitter feed.

Conductor Foundation

The core activity of Conductor Foundation is intended to be the organizing of training workshops aimed at (and customized for) nonprofit organizations, as well as the launch and running of the Conductor Searchlight Grant, a pro bono service including SEO consultation and the free use of the company’s highly popular SEO Platform, Conductor Searchlight. All of these efforts are targeted at the better use of SEO techniques by the charities and nonprofits involved.

“Social responsibility and community support is in our DNA,” Conductor CEO Seth Besmertnik stated, adding „we are thrilled to share our expertise with those in the non-profit world so that they too can achieve the outstanding natural search results commercial organizations have experienced with Searchlight.”

The first nonprofit organization to be granted the Conductor Searchlight Grant was announced to be Housing Works, an organization that helps to provide housing, healthcare and support services to New Yorkers, living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. The estimated value of the license and the training that comes with the award is $50,000, and it will be used by Housing Works to raise awareness for its cause both locally and at a national level.

“Like most non-profits, we struggle with having enough resources and manpower to properly support all of our marketing needs including social enterprises, fundraising, program services and advocacy initiatives,” Diana Boric, the VP for Marketing and Communications at Housing Works was quoted as saying referring to the Grant. “With access to Conductor’s Searchlight platform, we’re able to embrace digital marketing best practices but also automate much of the time-consuming tasks associated with SEO tracking and analysis to capture more traffic, redirect staff resources to other marketing efforts, and ultimately drive awareness and support for our mission — to end the dual crisis of homelessness and AIDS,” she added.

“Housing Works is an amazing, well-respected organization and we are delighted that they are the first to receive this grant to help reach their goals and set a benchmark of success for others to follow,” said Seth Besmertnik referring to their decision to pick Hosing Works as the first awardee.

The Conductor Foundation and the Conductor Searchligh Grant is well in line with the company’s long history of charitable efforts, including community involvement and volunteerism. Also, the company doesn’t want to stop here: their long-term plan is to increase the ratio of the pro-bono use of Searchlight up to one percent. Similarly they intend one percent of all employee efforts to be invested into the work of the newly launched foundation, used ultimately for trainings to nonprofit organization.

As part of a series of workshops planned by Conductor, the first training titled „SEO 101 for Non-Profit Marketers” took place at Conductor’s NYC offices in the early days of November. Subjects covered at this workshop included on-page optimization, visitor tracking, traffic reporting, keyword discovery as well as link building.

Based in Manhattan, Conductor is a market-leading agency providing SEO technology and services. Conductor Searchlight is an SaaS SEO technology that pioneers the automation of SEO solutions, and is broadly popular among key market players, including FedEx, Siemens, Toys”R”Us or GE, to boost their natural search results and, ultimately, to increase site traffic via SEO.

The charity dinner was attended by Branson’s 90 year old mother Eve, will.i.am, Genena Davis, Paris Hilton, Natalie Imbruglia, the Pussycat Dolls and a few members of the Saudi Royal Family, while the performers at the event included Grammy-winning R&B singer Mary J. Blige and indie rock group O.A.R. Mary J Blige’s 4-song set was definitely the highlight and the main performance of the evening, especially as her set included her well-known cover of U2’s „One”, that brought the audience to its feet at the end of the dinner. Australian actress and singer Natalie Imbruglia, who is known to be a long-time supporter of Richard Branson’s charity actions, also took the stage, to dance next to Mary J Blige. While other performers, O.A.R. and Pussycat Dolls also appeared on stage, the main focus of the evening was set at raising money for the children of Morocco, where, not surprisingly, the Branson empire owns property.

On top of the performances, several items were auctioned off, including a stay in Napa, Mexico, where the bidders could participate in an experience described as „unique” by Branson: swimming with whales. Six people each bid $60,000 to partake in the adventure. Other auctioned items included the chance to name a Virgin American aircraft and the opportunity to create your very own ice cream flavor at the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream factory in Vermont. Throughout the evenening an astonishing $600,000 was raised to help Virgin Unite’s charity service.

Virgin Unite, the non-profit, philanthropic branch of the Virgin Group is supporting various initiatives across the Globe, including a fund for Caribbean entrepreneurs, as well as a foundation for South African entrepreneurs. Launced in 2004, the Virgin Unite organization aims to be an overarching coordinating center of the many non-profit initiatives within the several arms of the Virgin Group.

The Eve Branson Foundation, founded and led by Richard Branson’s mother, a former flight attendant, aims to help local people in the long term by setting up sustainable enterprises within their own environments. Located in Kasbah Tamadot, Morocco, the foundation’s accomplishments included a craft house and a carpet workshop, both run and managed by local residents. The Eve Branson Foundation keeps operating within the frameworks of Virgin Unite.

Bahrain's national airline Gulf Air was granted a CSR Award at the ABA

“We strongly believe that the airline, as a corporate entity, can play a positive role by operating in a socially responsible manner and thus help build a better future for our children, the society and the world,” Gulf Air CEO Samer Majali said in a statement reflecting to the Award. „The award has come at the right time when globally corporate social responsibility has become a top issue, particularly in the aviation industry as it has direct impact on customers, employees, shareholders, communities and the environment. At Gulf Air we have taken this as an important corporate mission and have done some tangible work across three key aspects of corporate social responsibility – technological, operational and social,” Majali added.

In his acceptance speech Gulf Air COO Naser Al Salmi highlighted: „Gulf Air has been proactively engaged in several CSR initiatives in the past few years that have shown positive results across the entire spectrum- from carbon emission control, fuel savings and efficiency, waste management, to working with and supporting communities in which we operate.”

Gulf Air’s CSR program was first announced some three years ago, in Sep, 2008, as an integrated program of research, development and education, focusing on the three key areas of climat change, waste management and community service. Since its beginnings in 2008, the program incorporated many initiatives, and continues to be a key priority for Gulf Air.

While corporate social responsibility is a broadly accepted buzz among first class companies, its vast importance is often highlighted in the aviation industry. According to a recent estimation of Nobel laureate Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the aviation industry contributes approximately 3.5% of the total contribution of human activities to global warming.

Sienna Miller to help International Medical Corps by auctioning off her personal wardrobe for charity

The items now on sale include a variety of dresses, jackets, jeans, boots, handbags, heels and hats. Most of the auctions are closing today (Nov 17) on the market leading auction website eBay – all the incomes of these auctions is offered for the benefit of the charity organization International Medical Corps, a global organization offering medical help and health care training in more than 65 countries worldwide, responding to virtually every emergency in the last two decades, helping tens of millions of people with their efforts. Although there was no minimal bid set at the auctions, a decision that is intended to reflect on the sore economic situation of the moment, most items were to be found in the few-hundreds range a couple of hours before the end of the bidding.

“I first heard about International Medical Corps about three years ago. I remember being in California and stumbling across this horrific statistic that burnt into my consciousness: one woman in the Congo is raped every eight minutes. It terrified me. It terrified me not only because it exposed this violent abhorrence, but also because it exposed how unaware I was about the world I lived in. I felt embarrassed and angry. I was in that strange and frustrating place that I think we’ve all encountered when we learn about a great injustice and find ourselves suddenly impotent. You don’t know what you can do about it. You don’t know how to do anything about it. You don’t have a weapon to fight it. International Medical Corps is that weapon” Sienna Miller told in an interview with Fox411’s Pop Tarts earlier this year.

Her admiration towards the nonprofit organization grew to an extent that the amount of help she offered in recent years earned her a Global Activist Award at this year’s Medical Corps’ Annual Awards Celebration. The actress has been serving as a spokesperson and a Global Ambassador for the organization, and, according to various sources she is among the few in Hollywood, who keeps offering help, and keeps being generous with her time and money, off the camera, and without the inevitable spotlight.

In the recent months she was reported to have visited various field programs in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, and Ethiopia, among others. „It is actually something she genuinely cares about,” an insider of the project was quoted as saying by Fox News.

Oprah Winfrey Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award acceptance speech

Oprah Winfrey, who is regularly deemed to be one of the most powerful and wealthiest women by the Time and Fortune Magazine, and who is well known for her charity efforts and philanthropy works, described the moment as „unimaginable” for someone, who grew up in Mississippi, and had such modest roots as herself. To make the moment even more emotional, the honorary Oscar award was given to her by a young woman who was helped through high school by a financial grant she earned from Oprah’s foundation.

Among many charity efforts, the two foundations that stand out in Oprah’s philanthropic efforts are The Angel Network, and The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy. While the Angel Network focuses on scholarships and grants to US charter school programs, The OWLA focuses on education programs outside the US, most importantly programs in Africa and other third-world locations.

The current honorary Oscar is not the first affair between Oprah and the Academy. In the beginning of her carreer as an actress, Oprah was already nominated for a best supporting actress Academy Award in her role in the 1985 movie The Color Purple. This moment was later described as decisive by oprah, as an essential event that opened up doors before her leading to her talk show host carreer, and ultimately to philanthropy.