Fundraising, Charity, Volunteering @ Fundraisr.org

Federer’s 7th Wimbledon win may gain Oxfam 100,000GBP

admin — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 05:00:48 +0000

As Roger Federer starts to play for his seventh Wimbledon title this monday on June 21, there seems to be something more at stake, than “just the usual”. It is especially so for UK-based charity Oxfam, that may be granted some 100,000 GBP ($148,000), in case Federer collects his seventh title.

The amazing stake is a result of a Hollywood-like will of a late fan of the swiss Tennis player, Mr. Nicholas Newlife. Newlife from Oxfordshire’s Kidlington bet 1,520GBP ($2,255) with William Hill in August 2003, saying that Federer will win seven Wimbledons before the year 2020. The odds for this at Hill were 66/1. Since then, Roger Federer has won six Wimbledon titles (the odds of him winning his seventh title sharply decreased to 6/4, despite being recently overtaken on the world ranking of professional tennis players by Rafael Nadal, after the spaniard won the Roland Garros tournament), and his seventh might be on its way in the upcoming days. Not only would this break the alltime record of Pete Sampras, but would result a payout of 101,840 GBP to the benefit of Oxfam charity.

Mr. Newlife died last February, aged 69, and left his entire estate to Oxfam. The unusual heritage included the betting slips for various cricket and tennis wagers.

“Mr Newlife made arrangements in his will to pass any profit from his bet on to his favored charity, Oxfam – a unique eventuality in our experience,” said Hill’s spokesman Graham Sharpe talking to AFP news agency.

“We will, of course, be handing the profits from his far-sighted wager to them just as soon as Federer holds the trophy aloft for a seventh time.

“In the event that he fails to win this year – and he is 6/4 favourite to do so – the bet does not run out until 2019,” Sharpe added.

Federer will start out this year’s Wimbledon tour by meeting Alejandro Falla from Columbia. Theoretically he should not be a problem, but he will be followed by more advanced counterparts, such as Andy Roddick, Novak Djokovic and former Wimbledon-title holder Lleyton Hewitt. If Federer gets past all of them (as expected), he is supposed to meet World #1 Rafael Nadal in the final of the tournament. The guys at Oxfam, surely, will have their fingers crossed for Federer.

The Oxfam aid charity is an alliance of 14 different international organizations worldwide, fighting poverty, injustice, and seeking an impact on local communities in need. The umbrella organization covers some 3,000 local organizations, focusing their efforts on Development, Emergencies, Campaigning, Advocacy and Policy Research.

BP, Buffet, Gates under siege, and why your nonprofit should watch out for tablet computers

admin — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 12:57:48 +0000

The non-profit, fund-raising and CSR scene of the web this week was largely dominated by two major stories: The proposal of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet to billionaires to give at least half of their wealths to charity, and the continuous smashing of oil giant British Petroleum following the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The company is faced with its previous CSR policies, communication and its possible bankrupcy, while the recovery efforts that take place in the Gulf of Mexico are broadly covered in the media and on the internet as well.

Our weekly coverage of the web’s nonprofit sphere.

Let’s start out with the idea of Warren Buffet and Bill and Melinda Gates, that billionaires such as themselves should give at least half their wealths to charity. Both Buffet and the Gates’ have a reputation of being huge philantropists, and Buffet topped the idea by stating that some 99% of his fortune will be given to charities after his death. The Wall Street Journal cared to poll a few billionaires on the idea, while the Chronicle of Philantrophy lingered on the idea whether small or medium-sized charities would be able to profit from the generous-looking idea. John Tanmy on the other hand writes in his Forbes column, that the idea is a bad one altogether.

British Petrol is being kept in the focus of the media with the consequences of the Deepwater Horizon disaster and the oil spill still threatening the Gulf of Mexico area’s wildlife – a social tragedy looming over the scene as well. While the basic attitude remains lashing out on BP wherever possible, Avril David from the CSR Blog asks How far can we really expect companies to go in the name of CSR? Rebeca Sive from One Earth observes how the BP Massacre led to Bp Massacred and suggests: Let’s move!

A bit further away from the media buzz Peter Panepento explains why your nonprofit group should care about tablet computers such as the Apple iPad.

Ingrid Zacharias on Expressions Of Me collects the 4 Components of a Good Professional Development Policy, and writes about the Five Topics to Include in Your NGO’s Human Resources Policy.

Finally, Marta L. Tellado from The Chronicle of Philantrophy investigates How Foundations Can Demystify Their Work.

Oh, and The Ford Foundtaion has a shiny sparking brand new website, too!

If you liked being mentioned in our weekly roundup, please appreciate our work by linking back to Fundraisr.org. If you would like your work to be included in the upcoming weekly roundups, don’t hesitate to contact me at fundraisr(dot)org(at)gmail(dot)com.

Allthis.com – The eBay for charities

admin — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 08:25:23 +0000

Donating cash or offering your work directly to the charity of your choice does definitely have its limits. If you are a car mechanic, there’s not much the local hospital can do with your work, and vice verse, if you don’t have any cash to give, there’s not much you can give to a charity, that it will find inevitably useful.

Except that now there is, thanks to a recently launched website Allthis.com, the “eBay for charities” or the “marketplace for things money can’t buy,” as its founders put it. The new type of auction site features diverse types of listings on behalf of “vendors”, who offer the income directly to the charities they chose to support. Bidders on the other and will receive te product or service they need, and wire the money directly to the charity. Any type of expertise, passion or product can easily be turned to cash for the good cause this way.

“We created allthis with a vision to leverage an individual’s expertise and network as an alternative method of donation, while giving non-profits a creative way to excite and unite their supporters,” said Paul Weinstein, CEO and co-founder of Allthis.com, when the website was launched in late May, following a year and a half of preparations. “Ranging from access to the influential, engagement with the creative, to the downright silly, what people have to offer is infinitely diverse.”

Among the moms offering Sunday lunch recipes all children will like, and designers with several decades of expertise offering brochure design for any business or good cause,

there are well-connect professionals who offer business lunches for anyone who cares to pay $10,000 for such an opportunity.

And, somewhat surprisingly, only a few weeks into its operations, there are already stars and A-list celebs, including Ashton Kutcher, Rihanna (who will give you one of her concert corsets to help children in need — starting bid, $150), Aisha Tyler (who will let the maker of the winning bid attend a recording session with her – starting bid $2,000) or Ben Stiller (who will record a greeting on your voicemail to help rebuild Haiti — starting bid, $200) offering various memorabilia and services for good cause.

All participants of the auctions support the good cause. Website visitors who create the listings offering whatever they have to offer pick the charity the bidding is to support, while bidders on the other hand will actually donate the charities. The money is directly sent to the charity – with five percent staying at Allthis to cover operational costs -, and whenever the offer is not fulfilled, the money is returned directly to the bidder.

The founders have high hopes and ambitions. They want to be as recognized as eBay, and as successful as the charities of Microsoft-chief Bill Gates. The Allthis team is located in Los Angeles, and the current headcount is 12. The plan is to go nationwide as soon as possible, covering the whole United States.

“Everybody has something to give,” Weinstein, who lives in the Bay Area was quoted as saying by Brand X Daily. “Now you can take whatever you do, whatever you’re good at, and turn it into cash for your favorite charity.”

The 13 Oil Spill Charities that are worth donating to

admin — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 06:51:46 +0000

Disasters happen, and with the focus of the world, there comes the not-so-much-welcome focus of those, who want to take their tolls on people with true intention to help.

Scammers and fake charities are just as swift to react using the peaks of the public urge for giving, as real charities (if not faster), and while in times of difficulties it is always easy to find camouflage to their malevolent efforts, this cover is only there to distract people from their real goals of making money on the back of the less fortunate. Thus, it is extremely important to watch out for all the tiny details when you decide to give – especially when you do it in the middle of a bigger movement of volunteer and charity efforts.

As the oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon accident spread the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, many charities and fakes have spread the online world asking for help. So have people willing to grant money to mitigate the environmental and human disaster that is to follow the accident. While there are numerous organizations that are really efficient and transparent in their disaster relief efforts, others are not so much.

Scammers aside, there are quite a few organizations for whom good will is not enough – due to their size, the lack of professional skills or experience, they can not act effectively enough to become worthwhile for your donations.

To help direct money to charities and organizations that are efficiently taking part of the disaster relief, and are really capable of making an impact – and to help donors avoid scams in the charity business -, the U.S. Better Business Bureau (BBB) have recently published a list of 13 nonprofits working in the Gulf of Mexico that meet the Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance’s Standards for Charity Accountability.

While BBB is not an ultimate “authority” to judge the efforts of the organizations in question, it seems fair and well-founded to conclude that the charities listed below are amongst the best choices to pick when you choose to donate to oil spill victims (below the names of the charities, we have also shown the section of the given organization’s website dedicated to their efforts in the Gulf of Mexico – where a section like that was available).

American Bird Conservancy

For the latest news and details of ABC’s Gulf of Mexico activities click here!

Defenders of Wildlife

Visit the Latest from the Gulf section of Defenders of Wildlife’s homepage, or visit the organizations blog!

Ducks Unlimited

To donate or to get more info on the organization’s activities visit the Gulf Coast oil spill Action Center!

EarthShare

Visit EarthShare’s detailed Gulf Oil Spill page!

Environmental Defense Fund

Visit EDF’s detailed chronicle of the BP oil disaster.

Friends of the Earth

Greenpeace Fund

International Fund for Animal Welfare

National Audubon Society

There are a huge amount of Oil Spill-related info on the Audubon homepage.

National Wildlife Federation

For the latest news and updates on the Oil Spill crisis (as seen from NWF’s perspective), click here!

Natural Resources Defense Council

At the moment the whole website of NRDC is all about the Oil Spill crisis.

Nature Conservancy

Not much info and features but the ways you can help NC help in the Gulf Crisis are right here.

Oceana

Previously on Fundraisr.org

BP at bay over its CSR policies, and beyond

Crisis boosts US volunteerism, a recent study shows

admin — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 07:06:53 +0000

Volunteerism in the US has seen a substantial growth since the beginning of the economic downturn, with the number of American volunteers soaring at its six-year peak, according to a recent study commissioned by the Corporation for National and Community Service.

In 2009 there were 2.6 million more Americans who contributed some kind of volunteer work than in 2008, up from 26.4 percent to 26.8 percent in terms of the entire population, representing the most significant year-on-year growth since 2003, the study concludes.

The overall value of the 8.1 billion man-hours contributed by Americans last year is an estimated $169 billion according to the calculations of the Corporation for National and Community Service. The organization established a website Volunteering in America back in September 2009 to assemble information on various forms of volunteering, providing data for all US states and nearly 200 cities.

According to the study, there is a tight connection between the economic crisis hitting the United States and the increase seen in the number of volunteers. “As the economic crisis affected many individuals personally and sent shockwaves across the country, Americans reached out to help through service,” the report states. A key finding of the study also highlights that through volunteering, people tend to support the vulnerable populations hit hardest by the economy and help create a stronger, more stable future.

According to the study, the significant rise was mainly driven by larger volunteer rates among women, primarily women between the ages 45-54; among individuals who are married, especially married women; and among those who were employed, especially individuals working full time. children under 18 years old in the home and individuals with a high school diploma or college degree are also among the populations with higher-than-average volunteer rates. The increase in volunteering among African American women also had a major impact: volunteer rate for individuals who identified themselves as African American/Black rose from 19.1 percent in 2008 to 20.2 percent in 2009, the increase mostly driven by women in this field as well.

While the number of volunteers, and the number of work-hours contributed have both seen an increase, the organizations and the activities volunteers chose to contribute to remained relatively unchanged. Most volunteers participated in fundraising/selling items to raise money (26.6% of volunteers do this activity), while other popular activities included collecting, preparing, distributing, or serving food (23.5% of volunteers do this activity), engaging in general labor or providing transportation (20.5%), and tutoring or teaching (19.0%).

When comparing volunteer rates to certain community factors, the study finds that the greater the sense of attachment to the community is in certain areas of the US, the higher volunteer rate that area altogether shows. Indicators such as homeownership and the number of multi-unit dwellings help determine residential stability and whether residents have a long-term commitment and attachment to their communities, the report concludes. The volunteer rates between home-owners (30.4%) and renters (18.0%) makes this distinction extremely clear, the study highlights.

The state-by-state breakdown of volunteer rates is led by Utah (44.2%), and the final place sees New York (19.0%), while the ranking of large cities is led by Minneapolis, MN (37.4%) and closed by Miami, FL (14.8%)

The data for the recently published study was assembled in September, 2009, using a representative sample of some 60,000 households (approximately 100,000 adults) in partnership with partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Volunteers are defined as “as adults ages 16 years and older who performed unpaid volunteer activities for or through an organization”. The study also notes that it is unable to cover all types of contributions made by community members.

Shine Together charity launched by comedian Justin Lee Collins

admin — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 06:41:56 +0000

Shine Together, a charity aimed at raising at least an annual £1m for Bristol-based hospitals Frenchay and Southmead was launched by comedian and presenter Justin Lee Collins, head of fundraising Trevor Reid told BBC Radio. Collins was born at Southmead hospital in 1974.

According to Reid and Collins, the Shine Together charity will appeal for both hospitals and will take over the management over 500 funds. The aim is to provide the hospitals with specialist equipments that the organizations could not afford by themselves. The charity will also help supporting patients and their families, Reid added.

“Obviously the services which are there are second-to-none anyway but this is about [giving] access to a particular piece of equipment, which might cost lots of money, or a particular service,” he was quoted by the BBC Website.

“By raising money in this way, and putting in extra services, it helps take some of the stresses away from the patients.

It really does make a huge difference to their lives and adds something extra to what we can deliver here in Bristol.”

Collins and Reid expect hundreds of local people to support Shine Together, raising money for patient care and research projects in Bristol.

BP at bay over its CSR policies, and beyond

admin — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 06:16:12 +0000

Can British Petroleum, one of the world’s biggest oil companies, awash in cash and resources be knocked down by an event as blatant as a “simple” environmental disaster? The question may well have been unthinkable until very recently, but given the oil giant’s CSR communication that is found outrageously hypocritical by many, BP may now easily become a punching bag so popular that no organization can survive. The foolishness of the few, combined with the rage of the many might now bring an end to the story that is British Petroleum. Beyond petroleum, beyond preposterous – and beyond all expectations.

Beyond Petroleum

The first chapter of BP’s story has its roots in qualities as common and popular as hipocrisy, pretentiousness and greed. The global company triggered overwhelming anger towards its policies with its “Beyond Petroleum” branding campaign way before the Deep Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico sent some 1,000,000 barrels of oil into the sea in April, 2010.

According to the company, the slogan “Beyond Petroleum” refers to BP’s being the “global leader in producing the cleanest burning fossil fuel: Natural Gas,” says CorpWatch. While it’s obvious that natural gas is not petroleum, and, when burnt, it emits slightly less carbon-dioxide for the same amount of energy produced. Calculations on the other hand show that when fugitive emissions or leaks are counted, the difference is next to zero, if anything.

British Petroleum also claims to be “the largest producer of solar energy in the world”, but based on the fact that it became market leader by buying the Solarex solar energy corporation for $45 million in the same year when it invested $26.5 billion in ARCO, a company that will help BP to increase its production capacity for oil, the priority of clean energy within company values is highly questionable. In reference of other figures, the corporation will spend $5 billion over five years for oil exploration in Alaska alone – and according to an unknown, malvolent source, BP spent more on their new eco-friendly logo last year than on renewable energy.

After the conflict between the company’s actions and its new branding message emerged, BP ran into a second failure by treating the scandal more as a communication issue than a reality issue. True, the internet was flooded with spoofs of BP’s green ads, but the furious company only managed to get deeper into the crisis with trying to get hold of the situation. To illustrate BP’s epic fail in communication, it is suffice to say that when it complained to Twitter about one of the numerous parody feeds that mocked the company’s efforts to clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill the tweeter BPGlobalPR changed its bio to “We are not associated with Beyond Petroleum, the company that has been destroying the Gulf of Mexico for 51 days.” How’s that for a result? And let us add that the BPGlobalPR feed has 164,000 followers as opposed to the 14,500 followers of BP’s official Twitter feed, BPAmerica. Much of the criticism has already moved to #BPrebrand, where suggestions for BP so far included Big Profits Botched PR, Beyond Pollution, Busted Pipeline and Bankruptcy Please!

The fate of British Petroleum, on the other hand is still not up to outraged environmentalists or pissed off Tweeters. The company is now dependent of politicians and investors. And as many argue, politicians’ hipocrisy of finding oil companies as scapegoats of environmental disasters, while still benefiting from and being dependent on low cost oil may mean life for BP this time.

Glide Foundation cashes in $2.6m via Warren Buffet charity lunch

admin — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 13:50:09 +0000

Glide Foundation, a San Francisco-based charity, serving the homeless in the city’s infamous Tenderloin quarter will be granted some $2.6m via Warren Buffet’s charity lunch auction this year. The bidding sets a new record after last year’s failed attempt to break 2008′s record of a “mere” $2.1m. The bidder, however remains unknown as of now.

The billionaire investor and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. drove this year’s bidding last Friday, drawing in much of the enermous amount ($1.9m) in the final hour of the auction, conducted by worldwide auction site Ebay. Even the last three minutes remained excessively eventful: the bids rose from $2.5 million to a final tally of $2,626,311.

According to Ebay spokeswoman Kathy Chui, the winning bid was made using the website’s automatic bidding application. The “Power lunch for 8 with Warren Buffet” as advertised by Ebay, may seem the world’s most expensive lunch for some, but also the most valuable for others. The bidding went on for four days, drawing in eight bidders and 62 bids altogether.

This year’s anonymous highest bidder is breaking a tradition of public winners, such as Canadian investment group Salida Capital, that paid $1.68m last year or the record’s previous holder, investor Zhao Danyang.

Glide founder Reverend Cecil Williams showed well-founded enthusiasm after the bidding. “I’m very excited,” he was quoted by Wall Street Journal. “I think there is a groundswell taking place for people to be more concerned with nonprofit groups.”

According to Reverend Williams, there is a substantial, 30% rise in the need for Glide Foundation’s services since the beginning of the economic downturn, while the foundation have seen a 20% dwindle in the amount of donations.

“We are going to put the money where it counts,” Rev. Williams told journalists. His foundation was picked the grantee of Warren Buffet’s charity lunch because the investor mogul’s late wife Susan, had been a volunteer at Glide. especially services for young people who were being drawn into violence.

Unlike in previous years, Buffet didn’t make it to San Francisco this time to celebrate the auction’s countdown. The winner of this year’s auction is allowed to bring a party of up to eight to the lunch, which typically takes place at Mr. Buffett’s favorite New York City steakhouse, Smith & Wollensky. Previous winners agreed that the lunch, during which participants covered various investment subjects, proved “helpful”.

Bono turns street musician for charity

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:37:06 +0000

Okay, it is news of yesteryear by now (quite literally), but still I am positive that it is worth a mention what Dubliners may have witnessed this Christmas Eve if they happened to walk the shopping streets of their city.

U2's Bono turns street musicion for charity on Christmas Eve in Dublin

U2 frontman Bono teamed up with Swell Season’s Glen Hansard to become street musicians and play for charity. Bono and Glen were also joined by highly popular Irish songwriters Damien Rice and Mundy in the fundraising action, that aimed to help Irish charity Simon Community, that supports homeless people in various communities throughout Ireland.

The busking-turned -superstar-jam-session took place on Dublin’s well known Grafton street, that, interestingly, was also a most important location of hit cult movie Once, in which Glen Hansard’s character was a busker playing on the very same spot.

“That was incredible,” Hot Press quoted an astonished onlooker. “I was out innocently doing my shopping when I saw a crowd gathered. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I had a closer look – you might expect to see someone like Mundy doing something like this for charity, but there were three huge stars there, giving it loads. It really added to the Christmas eve atmosphere. The only problem is I had one more present to get but the shop is closed now!”

Although there is no word on how much the bunch of superstar buskers managed to raise for the good cause, but they were reported to play for over an hour. The “show” included U2’s One, Bob Dylan’s Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door and You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere, Ben King’s Stand By Me and a version of Mic Christopher’s Heyday, performed by Mic’s best friend, Glen Hansard. Obviously all of these songs were joined by the numerous audience singing along with the artists.

While Bono has been well known for his charity work (well, for other things, too), Glen Hansard is no different. A few days before Christmas, on Dec 21, 2009. Hansard was the special guest for the Dublin Simon Community’s ‘The Longest Night’ fundraising concert. The concert arranged on the longest night of the year (which is the worst night for the homelesses) aimed to raise EUR 100,000 ($144,000) to support homeless Dubliners. On the video above you can see a part of his show given at Dublin’s Button Factory.

The Dublin branch of Simon Community aids some 2,000 homeless people on a daily bases.

Polar Bear Dip raises $230,000

admin — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 23:51:39 +0000

A blood-curdling dip in Lake Ontario raises a heartwarming $230,000 for charity, breaking all previous records in Oakville’s Coronation Park.

Some 600 people gathered in Coronation Park, Oakville, Canada at 2pm sharp, 01. 01. 10. to kick off the new year with a refreshing and memorable dip in Lake Ontario’s freezing water. The Polar Bear Dip boasts itself as Canada’s Largest Charitable Polar Bear Festival, and the 600 participants aside it drew in several thousand visitors, who watched the brave volunteers holding their breaths.

Some used their inner strengths, others screamed or prayed, and yet others jumped straight into the water leaving themselves no option to avoid getting all cold and wet to serve a noble purpose. The water for water Polar Bear Charity Dip has been organized since 1995 raising fund to third-world water projects. Over the years, the charity dip has raised over $410,000 for various projects. This year’s grantee was a Kahi Water Project in Rwanda and a second project in Tanzania. This year’s amount was not only a new record: the increase in both the amount of participants and the amount raised was more than significant. Compared to last year’s 60 dippers and $55,000, this year the event saw over 600 participants, who managed to raise almost five times as much: $230,000.

“It was very refreshing,” Hamilton resident Michelle Pollington, 39, was quoted as saying. “I’ve been doing it since 1990 because my dad and I have been doing it since then. It’s all about mind over matter.”

“I’m so happy, I could almost cry right now,” Polar Bear Dip co-founder Trent Courage said.

“After visiting Rwanda this past summer and observing the tremendous need for clean water, and then seeing the difference in communities where donations to World Vision are at work, I am beyond ecstatic at what $230,000 will do for our brothers, sisters and friends in Africa.”

Polar Bear Dip in Oakville, Canada

The Kahi Water Project aims to help provide a dependable source of clean water for the people of Kahi in the Umutara region of Rwanda. By drilling new wells and building reservoirs, the Kahi Water Project will bring safe water close to the people who live in the community. The new water system will reduce the suffering caused by drinking dirty water and save children hours of wasted time, which can now be spent at school. According to Courage Brothers (the founders and organizers of the Polar Bear Dip), the benefiting project will help 22,00 people get fresh water — that will help prevent disease, keep children in school longer and provide families a better life.