donation

Give a Brick to Kids Are Heroes

Kids Are Heroes is nonprofit organization that nourishes young social entrepreneurs. This Saturday, the Kids Are Heroes Young Leaders Summit gives young activist entrepreneurs the opportunity to highlight their work, learn, and network with each other. It all takes place during the Kids Business Expo in Atlanta, Georgia.

Nonprofits are businesses too and they all need capital to kick-start their missions. There are two ways to donate online to Kids Are Heroes. The first is a straightforward donation via PayPal. Donors can contribute a quick one-and-done monetary donation or better yet, sign up for a monthly subscription. There is no minimum donation, click here to give now.

The second method is fun and comes with some donor recognition. Add a brick to the Kids Are Heroes “fund wall” and you will help a worthy cause by buying a virtual brick. Donors can ad an any image and a link to thier website. I chose the first method, but that was before I ran into the brick wall!

This Saturday, February 7, meet the founders of Kids Are Heroes at Cobb Galleria Center at the Kids Are Heroes Pavilion in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The keynote speaker is Marcus Lemonis a well-known entrepreneur and star of the television show, The Profit.

Meaningful Friendships

by Admin

Meaningful Friendships

What a pleasure it was to attend and speak at Affiliate Summit West last week. I have attended the east coast version, Affiliate Summit East, in Manhattan many times but this was my first time at the Las Vegas venue. The speakers at Affiliate Summit are top notch. I was fortunate to meet many of them at a cocktail hour the night before the show opened. Others I listened to and met after their talks. Everyone I met was willing to teach and share information about his or her various areas of expertise. They were also helpful with insights on how they run their businesses, how they got started and what technologies helped them the most.

The one thing they all had in common was that no one was there alone. Every industry expert I met knew, brought or had learned from someone else at the event. Most speakers attend every year and spoke about the others as family.

One of my favorite parts of the vent is their dedication to charitable work. Affiliate Summit donates to breast cancer research. Affiliate Summit has created a dailymile challenge. The organization donates $1 to benefit the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer for each mile recorded by participants. Fitness for a good cause? Challenge accepted!

Last week affirmed the importance of networking for business. More importantly, it reminded me of the importance of make genuine meaningful friendships.

Fighting Ebola Through Donations

by Admin

Last week Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, donated $25 million to help stop the spread of the Ebola virus. This is the largest donation given by any individual. Monies donated by Zuckerberg went to the foundation that funnels private donations to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC (CDC). Zuckerberg’s Facebook post stated,

“Grants like this directly help the frontline responders in their heroic work. These people are on the ground setting up care centers, training local staff, identifying Ebola cases and much more.”

Last month the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $50 to fight the deadly virus. This is the largest private foundation donation yet. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is working with pharmaceutical company Amgen Inc. to find and alternative production method for the experimental drug, ZMapp, the only approved treatment for Ebola.

Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen, gave $9 million through his Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.

Ebola infected communities continue to spread the disease because they cannot even clean up after the sick or deceased. It is common for disasters, healthcare crisis and other high profile outbreaks motivate individuals, corporations and foundations to give goods, time and money. The effects of Hurricane Sandy motivated donors to give over $310 million dollars to the Red Cross alone[1]. From my area in the Philadelphia region, many took giving into their own hands. Neighbors organized food, clothing and essentials drop-off points, rented vans and simply drove them into devastated New Jersey shore neighborhoods, giving whatever they collected to families in need. That’s not an efficient way to fight Ebola.

According to Business Insider, “A significant percentage of this money has been pledged but not yet distributed to the affected region.” The grpah of contributing sources and nations is below[2].

Sources:
[1]Did You Know? (Sandy Response)
The American Red Cross
http://www.redcross.org/support/donating-fundraising/where-your-money-goes/sandy-response

[2]Here’s Who’s Paying To Fight Ebola – Other Than Mark Zuckerberg (Business Insider)
By: Friedman, Lauren.
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-countries-pledge-to-fight-ebola-2014-10

Use the Blackbaud Index to Compare Giving by Sector

by Admin

Here is a handy online tool to help nonprofit directors and those tasked with soliciting donations. The Blackbaud Index is an interactive online tool that anyone can use to chart and compare trends in overall giving, online giving and giving by sector. The data graphs data represent a three-month rolling average of year-over-year performance.

The sectors represented in the chart are:

Arts and Culture
Environment and Animal Welfare
Faith-based giving
Healthcare
Higher Education
Human Services
International Affairs
K-12 Education
Medical Research
Public and Society Benefit

Use the tool to show one or two giving sectors at a time. Users can also select small medium or large