The Irish Charities Expo

The Irish Charities Expo 2012 will be a one day first of its kind exhibition to be held in Ireland.

The Exhibition will get charities and businesses, along with members of the public, together in the same venue so that they can network, develop partnerships and learn from each other.

The Irish Charities Expo is FREE to attend and over 5,000 company representatives will be invited to attend the event to engage and communicate with up to 100 charities that will be showcasing and promoting themselves to the key charity related personnel in Irish businesses.

National Doodle Day

Just came across this on twitter via @DiFlatt and thought it was clever. It has raised 185k in the past few years. What I really like about it is that its a simple way to engage celebrities in the cause and raise money. Check out the site here

Drop the Drink

I have been involved in developing this campaign for the past few months and am pretty excited about it. We were inspired by a similarly successful campaign which I posted about on this blog before, at the time I said I thought it would be a great campaign for someone else to adapt for their local market, and so I practiced what I preached!

Drop the Drink, is simple – give up drinking for the month, then you ask your friends and family to sponsor you! Now, we aren’t anti-drink. But consider this – after the holiday party season, it’s a great way to clear your head, take advantage of some great health benefits, and – most importantly – help raise funds for sick children across the UK and Ireland and later in the year hopefully we will launch this in the US and Canada.  

We have created a supporting blog www.dropthedrink.org where people can sign up. We are also hoping to get some people who are signed up to post about their experience and also tweet for us @DropTheDrink

 

$1 million matched in 30 minutes

I have talked recently about Charity Water. I am a big fan of not just what they do but more how they do it. They really stand for something, use the new tools available to them online and they have become a real force in the sector. It is probably no wonder that Charity Water, a favorite cause of the dot-com set.

On Monday night, at the annual benefit gala for the nonprofit Charity Water, Bebo founder Michael Birch, one of the event’s co-hosts along with the likes of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and entrepreneur Sean Parker, made a surprise announcement. Shortly before the event’s live auction to solicit donations for new wells, Birch declared that he would personally match all donations up to $1 million.

Michael Birch is starting to emerge as an active figure in philanthropy: Charity Water founder Scott Harrison explained to the 1,200 attendees on Monday night that a crucial donation from Birch had kept the organization afloat last year. (It operates on a “100 percent” policy, meaning that all donations, many of which are very small-scale, go directly to building wells, whereas separate benefactors fund the staffing and operations of the nonprofit itself.) Birch also helped with a redesign of the site that lets interested members set up their own fundraising campaigns, encouraging donations in lieu of birthday gifts or as pledges for a goal (i.e. “If you help me raise $10,000 for Charity Water, I will legally change my name to ‘McLovin.'”)

The goal was met: the $1 million was raised via auction in a matter of 30 minutes.

original article in cnet news

Nominations for Best Christmas Campaign

I think Christmas brings out some incredibly innovative ideas in charities. Years ago the Christmas pin or badge was the big thing, recently its the Christmas gift list.

Well this year I’m setting out to find the most innovative and creative Christmas campaign. It can be a new twist on an old idea, an old idea re worked, a brand new idea. It doesn’t matter to me, if you think its the best Christmas campaign out there…let me know.

Your nomination can come from your own organisation or can just be one you have seen and like, I would ask though that its a campaign being run this year.

So send me your ideas, email conorsfundraisingblog@gmail.com.

Nominations close on Nov 25th.

Create Success

Image: Getty Images

People want to be part of something thats a success, I think we all know that. I remember hearing a story about a nightclub that opened (probably have all heard a version of this) and they just turned the lights on, music on, opened the door, created a line and let no one in. Next week the line was bigger because people wanted to know what was so great about this place that they couldnt get in.

I dont really care if its true or not, its a great story and makes a great point, people want to be around things that are successful.

What prompted this. Well I got a message from an organisation over the weekend that made me think about this. Here’s the message:

“Hey
Dont want this fundraiser to be a total disaster, anyone else interested in coming along?? Let me know soon please, thanks”

Do you think thats going to make me want to go along and join them?? I dont think so.

A feeling of success creates success, even if its an illusion of success. Would this message (or a version of it) have made me feel different?

” Hey, we have had a great response to next weekends event and I know you don’t want to miss out so I am just telling you about the last few tickets available……etc…”

Concert promoters do this all the time, they sell out and then release some last minute tickets, they create a demand and a feeling of success.

Golf with Stars

I really like this. Golf Classics have struggled in recent times with companies shying away from such events. Some charities are still doing ok while others have had to discount or cancel.

Bothar have taken an innovative approach to the traditional Golf Classic with this Golf with Stars event. Instead of selling teams they are selling raffle tickets and then you and your friends can play with a well known Irish sports personality. You cant decide who you would like to play with though…thats another raffle the day of the event.

I think this is a really clever idea. It costs 20 euro to enter (it seems that this covers green fees too…I assume it does) and there will be 15 winners picked who can then bring friends to join them on the day. Critical mass will be important in this succeeding and I do wonder will not being able to say who you would like to play with will have an impact, if you are entering because you want to play with Paul O’Connel and dont get to play with him will you be disappointed? Maybe not,  I guess you know entering thats the risk. If I am to be critical I am also not mad about the website or supporting radio ad (I thought it was for a newspaper sports section)

Anyway I like this idea, well done Bothar

Run Johnny Run

Im always amazed at people who can do marathons and ironmans and triathlons, I can barely make it to the gym for 30 minutes!

This is former Sawdoctor (irish band) Johnny Donnelly who has set himself an incredible challenge. He plans to run a marathon a month for 4 years. Thats 48 marathons, over 2000 miles, more than 43 countries. Its all in aid of Seachange a new Irish charity working to eradicate world poverty through micro credit – giving tiny loans to the world’s poorest to help them help themselves.

Johnny doesnt want to do this alone, he wants people to join him, you can do that here

The Store

This is fantastic, great twist on what charities are doing with Gifts for Life, Virtual Gifts etc… Found it on Advisor to Superheroes

Tree-Athlon

I like this idea, nice twist on the Tri-Athlon.  Just goes to show that if you think differently about something you can find a new angle for it.

The idea is to give something back to the environment while at the same time improving your health .

 The three-part event includes a fun 5km run, an opportunity to share your wish for the future of trees and the chance to plant a sapling

The event takes place in London, Leeds and Manchester,

http://www.tree-athlon.org/

Harry Potter Fundraiser

Are you planning on seeing the New Harry Potter Movie?

Well this is a great idea (you may remember there was one for Star Trek too) where they are asking everyone or anyone who goes to see Harry Potter to make a 1 dollar donation to mark the occassion.

Look Beyond the Label

This is a great campaign by Red Cross, take a look. How can you adapt this?

Special Offers?

Everywhere I look I see special offers. Buy 1 coffee get 1 free, buy a scoop of ice cream get 1 free, 20% off, etc….

I just wonder is there something in this for charities (and yes I tweeted about this during the week). Should we be trying this out. Would it work for a ball for example, buy 3 tickets get 1 free? I would rather get the 4th person there for free, chances are they will spend on the raffle. It would be better than an empty room, right?

Is anyone doing this or know of any examples?

Get showcased @ Womens Mini Marathon

 

 

 

The Women’s Mini Marathon is a wonderful fundraising event, 40,000 women raise millions for hundreds of casuses around Ireland. This year, as in previous years, they will be showcasing highlights of some of the work completed by the various charities who take part in the event .

I think this is a really great add-on to the event. You can get your charity showcased by emailing footage to flora@ogilvy.com

Dry July

I’ve said it before…but here it goes again….the Aussies have a great way with words. They are also pretty good at coming up with some catchy with fundraising ideas.

This is one I saw last year and was really impressed with. Its a great idea, great name, easy to replicate (hint hint) and it works, in 2008 it raised over 250,000 Australian Dollars.

Their mission is pretty simple

Dry July’s mission is to have as many participants as possible, from all walks of life, to take on the challenge of an alcohol-free month.

Those that take part are asked to raise money to benefit the lives of adults living with cancer. A list of the charities they support is here

People register and get their own Dry July donation page for online donations, they open for registrations on June 1st. Check out their site here