More Fundraising with Widgets

Nonprofits are catching on quick that blog widgets can raise money for causes. One campaign is within reach of its goal. Beth Canter blogs that he Sharing Foundation, an NGO that works directly with local officials, orphanages, and others in Cambodia, is within reach thanks to widget marketing.

Heifer International rolled out a similar initiative to tackle hunger and poverty in developing nations.  Thanks to wordsthatwork for submitting via del.icio.us.

Comments

[Karl]

The folks at PCEH.org (The Philadelphia Committee to End Homelessness) are running a similar (albeit smaller) fund raising drive and are encouraging the use of their widget: http://www.pceh.org/

They are getting close to their goal as well :)

With Flash, it's relatively easy for someone to design a widget and for someone to host a campaign like this, with no back end programming.

[Beth Kanter]

Thank you so much for blogging about the campaign! A few hours after I posted the campaign update, we made our goal! I just posted a thank you with a campaign thank you video! You have helped change the life of a young woman in Cambodia.

Beth Kanter

[Beth Kanter]

I also wanted to add that Leng Sopharath is only one of 16 college students the Sharing Foundation is supporting. In addition, the Sharing Foundation is sponsoring 40 high school students and provides an English program in the Roteang Village School for over 500 kids. And that's not all, the Sharing Foundation provides school uniforms (a requirement to enter school) to street kids in Cambodia so they can attend school. 's These uniforms are made by girls in our vocational program where we teach these young women sewing skills and pay them to work for our sewing shop or train them for higher paying jobs in the garment industry.

There are many children who will benefit from the additional support if people still want to make a contribution ...

Again, thank you for blogging about this and be sure to stop by and view the thank you video!

[Russell Page]

I have a hard time believing that widgets have some, if any, real affect on fundraising.

Blogging, podcasting, RSS (and widgets) are more fluff than stuff when it comes to actual use and effectiveness for a company unless they use it correctly.

Does a widget really reach a target market for fundraising?

[drew olanoff]

I think the whole lure of the widget is ease of use and interactivity. People toss money into the bell ringing cans of folks at malls because its easy.

Some fundraising efforts make donating money a chore. A widget like this that tells me what it's for, what they're trying to raise, and how much they have left to go gives me more than enough info to get involved.

Check out ChipIn.com, they're doing it right.

[Duke Smith]

There is now a new definition of ROI. I call it, Return On Influence.
As well, I have begun a ChipIn widget campaign for World Vision called, "10 Pigs for 10 Kids." Using ChipIn was extremely easy as written. Full details on just how simple it is can be found here:

http://dukesmith.com/donorinsite/2006/11/22/fundraising-experiment-now-in-progress-return-on-influence/