House Party for the Humane Society

Here is a cool example of throwing a party to fundraise and raise awareness for a cause from The Chronicle of Philanthropy: House Parties Offer Ways for Donors to Connect With Animal Charity's Priorities

The Humane Society's "Chimp Retirement Parties" are house parties run by volunteers in order to bring attention to specific issues of humane treatment to animals. The Humane Society does this twice a year and raises about $25,000 from 1,000 people each time. They also make sure to properly equip their volunteer party-throwers (who can sign up online) with brochures, fact sheets, sign up sheets for the party, and envelopes to collect donations, although most party-attenders will donate online.

Props to the Humane Society for changing the world and throwing a party!

Fundraising Events: Summer Vacation Edition

The weather is an unseasonable but beautiful 80 degrees here in New York City, so what better day to turn our thoughts toward summer vacation? I've been thinking about summer vacation plans and my sister and I are throwing around the idea of a road trip and music festival. The big music festivals often have ties to charitible fundraising these days, of which I am a big fan. I've noticed many festivals have an environmental charity as their pet cause, which makes sense since the events are outside and sometimes involve camping. This blog post from Take Part explains the philanthropic activities Lollapalooza and contributions of its headlining artists.

Lollapalooza: Rock Out with Your Cause Out

Baking for Good and World Water Day

This week, I learned about Baking for Good, an online bakery that gives 15% of sales to the nonprofit organization of the customers' choosing. They also make "awareness ribbon cookies" and party favors for galas. I think this is a great way to add impact to your fundraisers. You can purchase desserts for your event that will actually go back into supporting your cause.

Monday was World Water Day. There were several events to commemorate the day. According to one World Water Day website, one very unique event is the "World's Longest Toilet Queue". The World's Longest Toilet Queue is an attempt to break a Guiness World Record while bringing attention to worldwide water and sanitation issues. UNICEF also recruited volunteers for the "Tap Project". One way that volunteers could help was to organize an event to raise funds for UNICEF and bring awareness to the water crisis. World Water Day is an example of a trend in the philanthropy world that I believe is a very effective one: galzanizing momentum and support around a day where volunteers can feel true ownership and impact by giving them the power to raise funds and support around their favorite cause. My incredibly smart, talented, passionate and all-around amazing friend, Mikelle, recruited me to help her with a fundraising/awareness event on the lack of access to clean water in many areas of the world. We are in the very beginning planning stages, but more details will follow soon.

Partying to Change the World

Please excuse my hiatus. My six-week grant proposal writing class took a lot out of me. I never realized that grant proposal writing was so intense! Major props to you grant writers out there! However, I am so glad that I took the class because I learned a lot and also realized that I have a lot more to learn. Thanks to my friend Raysa for letting me hone my grant writing skills by using her work with Invisible Children as the topic of my proposal. Raysa is going to Uganda this summer to teach secondary school kids for the second year in a row and she needs to raise $4,000 to cover airfare and program fees. Let me know if you are interested in supporting her! For more information, check out this link.

Thanks to my amazing friend, Steph, for bringing this article to my attention. Nicholas Kristoff, who I am growing to love, wrote an awesome Op-Ed on making a difference in the world by throwing parties! I got so excited when I saw this. He basically proves my point that when we get together socially, we have the power to make a difference and change the world. For a group of women entrepreneurs in Uganda, partying has made a difference. Last summer, Raysa brought back the beaded necklaces made from scrap paper that Mr. Kristoff refers to, and so I know first hand that they are pretty cool.

Partying to Change the World

How Do the Online Event Management Tools Compare?

I've been busy with a few projects and I started a new class that I'm very excited about - Grant Proposal Writing! Right now, I am stealing a few minutes for a quick blog post while hanging out with friends at Think Coffee on Mercer Street. Great place! It reminds me of being in San Francisco a bit. They also have rental meeting space in their basement


Check out this
great article from www.masternewmedia.org that breaks down a number of different online event management/promotion tools (mostly registration-oriented). They even have a few comparison charts! An event planners' dream. :)
If you are looking for a service for registering people for your events, I suggest you check out these affordable options!

Live Event Promotion, Management And Marketing: Guide To The Best Web-Based Tools And Services

Fundraiser Piggy-Back

I started my 6-week course on Grant Proposal Writing last Thursday and I think it's going to be a good one. I'm excited to learn the art of grant writing and help some great causes get some cash (which will hopefully go to fund community projects, and maybe a great event, too!).

I love when fundraisers piggy-back on an event on a local or national level that is already in play. People are already looking for a chance to socialize during the Super Bowl, the Grammys, or the Oscars (I'm sure most of us have been invited to at least one of these types of parties), so why not use the chance to raise some money for a great cause? These people did:

Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer co-host a Super Bowl party to raise funds for "The Giving Back Fund": http://www.looktothestars.org/news/3788-michael-bay-and-jerry-bruckheimer-to-host-super-bowl-charity-fundraiser

Venues are Offering Deals Because of the Recession

Today I ran across an interesting post on the Association of Fundraising Professional's message board on LinkedIn:
http://www.redappleauctions.com/venues/tempting-offers-from-venues-are-still-to-be-found/
The plus side to the recession: deals can be found on venues. The example used in the article above is a venue waiving the rental fee for nonprofit organizations for mid-week events. That's quite a deal.