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December 18, 2012, 9:21 am
Facebook Games Raise $360,000 for Toys for Tots
FarmVille’s “Cheer Ewe Up Horse” doesn’t exist in real life; it lives solely on Facebook. But it is one reason that Toys for Tots has already raised $360,000 on the social network.
People who play FarmVille, the popular Facebook game, have bought 101,409 “Cheer Ewe Up” virtual horses, priced at $1 each, so needy kids will get real toys during the holiday season.
The horse is the most popular virtual item in “Oh, What Fun,” a holiday campaign to benefit Marine Toys for Tots Foundation.
The drive was created by Zynga.org, whose affiliated company Zynga owns many of the most popular games on Facebook. It is the first time Zynga has ever asked its game makers to craft virtual goods to raise money for a single cause, apart from disaster-relief fundraising.
Ken Weber, executive director of Zynga.org, says the amount raised so far will provide 28,800 toys for needy kids.
People…
December 17, 2012, 8:06 am
“Ugly Sweater” Campaign Draws Funds for Cancer Research
Stand Up to Cancer, a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation, is turning the tacky tradition of unsightly holiday-themed sweaters into an online drive to raise money for cancer research.
The charity is urging its supporters to see how many days—or weeks—they can bear to wear an “ugly sweater” and asking them to set up fundraising pages at su2c.org/ugly with pictures of themselves in their unfortunate apparel.
Supporters are supposed to enlist their friends and family to make a donation in honor of every day the ugly sweater is sworn, and are asked to hold “ugly sweater” parties and seek donations from guests.
So far, the campaign has attracted $64,000, says Kathleen Lobb, senior vice president of the Entertainment Industry Foundation and co-founder of Stand Up to Cancer.
“We’re always on the lookout for novel ways to raise funds for research,” she says. “We thought we…
December 14, 2012, 9:47 am
Celebrity Voice Recordings Earn Charity $100,000
The “Voice of God” was sold out in a few hours.
That’s according to Autism Speaks, which held a year-end fundraising campaign enticing its supporters, celebrity fans, and others to buy custom-recorded messages from Tom Hanks, Ed Asner, Will Ferrell, Carrie Fisher, Derek Jeter, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Betty White … and Morgan Freeman.
Mr. Freeman’s deep, distinct tone, which has earned him the nickname “Voice of God,” was a fast seller during the “Sound Off for Autism Speaks” campaign, says Marc Sirkin, the charity’s chief digital marketing officer.
During the first week of December, anyone who wanted an unusual voicemail greeting could get a message from a movie or sports star with a $299 donation to Autism Speaks. Each celebrity message was available to no more than 50 people, which set off a scramble for the most-popular stars like Mr. Freeman and…
December 11, 2012, 7:40 am
Online Giving Streak Continues With 13% Rise Last Week
Online giving to 8,700 charities rose 13.3 percent last week when compared with the same days last year, according to Network for Good, a giving portal that processes online donations. What’s more, the number of donations grew nearly 7 percent. Even so, last week’s increase is small compared with increases of 40 to 60 percent in the past few weeks.
Katya Andresen, chief operating officer of Network for Good, said she thought the increase could be attributed to the rising number of sophisticated appeals nonprofits are sending out for year-end gifts and donations to Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts. She also said many companies are running campaigns that are encouraging their workers to give.
The findings are based on a study of 8,700 charities that used Network for Good to process online gifts. During the week after Thanksgiving, the total amount raised online increased 42 percent, …
December 5, 2012, 10:02 am
Online Donations Grew 42% Last Week, Thanks to #GivingTuesday
Propelled largely by charities’ push to promote #Giving Tuesday, the amount of money charities collected online last week increased 42 percent when compared with the same week last year. That finding is based on a study of 8,700 charities that used Network for Good to process online gifts.
But while charities got bigger gifts, they did not necessarily do so well in attracting new donors last week. The number of donations increased by only 1.2 percent this year, to 14,026.
On November 27, the day groups around the country rallied to persuade donors to give online as a way to celebrate the end-of-year holidays, charities that are clients of Network for Good raised 155 percent more than they did on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving 2011.
And it wasn’t just Tuesday that was a robust day. On Wednesday, giving rose 81.4 percent compared with the same day last year. By Thursday, though, …
December 3, 2012, 9:22 am
#GivingTuesday’s Most Successful Charity Raised $1-Million
Volunteers gathered at The Associated’s headquarters to make phone calls to donors, urging them to give on #GivingTuesday.
Organizers of #GivingTuesday report that The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore raised the most money during the inaugural national day of giving, attracting $1-million in online donations. Last year, the organization raised $81,000 on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.
The charity’s fundraising strategy wasn’t new or innovative; instead it relied on an old-fashioned tactic: the phone-athon.
After sending supporters messages about #GivingTuesday and advertising in local papers, The Associated gathered more than 100 volunteers, and from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time, staff members and volunteers called donors, told them about that day’s national giving…
November 30, 2012, 5:01 pm
More Charities Report Fundraising Boost From #GivingTuesday
How the Pennsylvania SPCA thanked supporters on Facebook for their #GivingTuesday contributions.
#GivingTuesday, the effort to turn the Tuesday after Thanksgiving into a new national day of giving, is getting more momentum as charities tally their hauls for the day.
In addition to Blackbaud and Network for Good, which on Wednesday both reported more than 50-percent increases in dollars, more Web sites that process charitable contributions are offering similarly sunny data.
• Razoo, whose fundraising Web site lets charities raise money for specific projects, said it received a 50- percent increase in donations on Tuesday compared with last year’s Tuesday after Thanksgiving.
• SofterWare, whose DonorPerfect fundraising platform is used by many small to midsize nonprofits, reported a 46-percent increase …
November 30, 2012, 11:03 am
Help Us Track Year-End Fundraising Results
As The Chronicle works to keep you up-to-date on how well charities are doing in this crucial year-end fundraising season, we want to hear how your nonprofit is doing so we can create a benchmark for all charities.
Take our five-minute survey to report fundraising returns to date at your nonprofit, then check back in mid-December and early January as you have updated fundraising figures.
We need to hear from you by December 4 in our first round. We’ll post result from our studies, along with other data and reporting, throughout December and January.
Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world’s leading questionnaire tool.
November 28, 2012, 5:21 pm
#GivingTuesday Sparks Big Spike in Donations
#GivingTuesday may well become a new holiday tradition, as donors generously responded to charities’ pleas to take time off from shopping days like Cyber Monday and Black Friday to give and volunteer.
The amount of online donations processed by Blackbaud, a processor of online gifts, shot up 53 percent to $10-million on Tuesday, compared with the same day last year.
Network for Good, another processor of online gifts, also reported a spike. The total number of donations more than doubled, to 113 percent, on #GivingTuesday versus the Tuesday after Thanksgiving 2011. The amount collected Tuesday was also 55 percent more than the amount of donations collected on Monday.
Of course, with the holiday season just starting, it’s hard to know yet whether people accelerated the giving they typically wait to do until the end of December or whether the money will be an overall lift for …
November 27, 2012, 3:45 pm
Social Media Power #GivingTuesday Holiday Giving Effort
Shoppers flocked to retail stores last week to stock up on Black Friday deals.
Today, a new effort called #GivingTuesday aims to motivate people to donate to or volunteer for causes and charities they care about.
While it is too early to tally how many charities are participating and how much money has been raised, it’s not too soon to monitor the considerable social-media buzz for #GivingTuesday, which has been a popular tag on Twitter and has been dominating Facebook conversations.
Below is a look at how the effort is unfolding on social networks.
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