We want to thank everyone for sending in their submissions for our newest service, the online fundraiser, Giftsforhumanity.org. We have turned off the application form in your Toolbox and are going to choose amongst the organizations that have sent in submissions. At this time, we have 8 licenses to provide to our members.
After doing so, we will announce those organizations that have been chosen. We are excited to see how GFH.org does for our GR community members, and we hope to continue to bring more fundraising opportunities because we understand the importance to raise money for every organization.
Member Spotlight - Flood Sisters Kidney Foundation of America
We are three sisters from New York that have a story of hope and miracles.
During our early childhood, my sisters and I were always taught by our parents to help others when we could and in return, the world would unfold for all your endeavors. More or less, the more you give, the more you shall receive.
In August of 2008, we received disheartening news that our father was sick. He was told by his nephrologist that he would need a transplant soon or dialysis. My sisters and I immediately got tested and began sending out email blasts to all our friends and family. Unfortunately, no one was turned out to be a match.
We discussed how we didn’t want to see our father wait on the national list (2-6yrs sometimes longer) or have to suffer through dialysis. I had worked in nursing for many years, my other sister works on Wall Street in Finance and our other sister was a social worker. We suddenly thought there must be a way around this. The aha moment came the next day while we were all talking on the phone about our father.
Crazy as it may seem, we had used Craigslist in the past for selling our jewelry, for advertising, networking, finding jobs and for childcare. It had worked for everything and proved to be a success. So, we decided why not use it for Dad? For a living donor?
After a year and 4 months, much publicity and over 100 responses thereafter, our idea had brought about potential living donors. We were overwhelmed and so grateful to everyone that wanted to test for him. It was an amazing feeling to know that these people didn’t even know our father and yet they were willing to help. The responses came from all across the United States, including states as far as Hawaii and Alaska to the mountains of Vermont. The responses were amazing and more than half of the people that responded were genuine. I think it teaches us in life that there are good hearted people in the world and that the universe does respond in times of need.
Daniel Flood attending The Flood Sisters' Spring Soiree at the Gansevoort Hotel in New York City
On December 12, 2008, our father received the gift of life from an amazing woman, Dawn Verdick from Monterey, California Dawn is a natural philanthropist and entrepreneur. She is the founder of Daretodream.org, an educational youth oriented non-profit, geared toward preparing those in low income communities to achieve an education. Since our father’s transplant, life has been great. Our father is enjoying life and playing golf again and our father’s donor is doing great as well. She is now part of our family and we share a bond with her that will last forever. I don’t think words can express our gratitude and appreciation for saving our father’s life.
While we were stricken with the news of our father’s sickness and coordinating all the donors into testing, we figured if we can do this for our dad, why not do it for others? We were realizing that we were already operating like a foundation. I think when you go through something traumatic in life that affects your family, you are more open to wanting to help others.
When we were on CNN in February 2009, the broadcast attracted many donors and patients. The broadcast built our database overnight and that is how we’ve been able to save 6 lives thus far including our father!
Our second transplant was a retired police officer from Emerson, New Jersey. He was diagnosed with Lupus that eventually shut down his kidneys. He came to us when we only had one donor. After the CNN broadcast, he found his donor from New Hampshire! On July 17, 2009, Jim Collis received his transplant. Today, he feels amazing.
Our third transplant was a 72 year old woman with her own chicken business from Tampa, Florida. Her daughter, Jordana Arkin is a comedy producer out in LA and found us on CNN as well. On September 17, Betty Arkin received the gift of life and today she is able to be free of dialysis, running her chicken business!
Our fourth transplant was a 62 year old man from Blanchard, Idaho. I believe he found our foundation in the National Enquirer. Jack Jones, also has diabetes and so his kidneys shut down shortly thereafter. On May 19, 2010, Jack received the gift of life from his life-saving hero through Flood Sisters.
Our 5th transplant was our first pediatric case, a 17 year old young man from Lufkin, Texas. His case was a little risky as he was born with auto recessive polycystic kidney disease. His mother donated her kidney to him when he was young and unfortunately, her kidney was damaged during surgery. Shortly after, Adam was back on dialysis and had acquired high antibodies. After 8 years of rigorous three hour trips to dialysis three days a week to Houston, Texas, Adam was matched with his cousin’s friend who proved to be a suitable match. We referred him to Johns Hopkins that specialized in high antibody cases. On September 18, 2010, Adam received the gift of life. Now, he is enjoying his young adulthood and able to attend school for the first time in years.
Our 6th transplant case was a man from New York in his 40’s and the donor was from Ohio. They bonded as both of them worked in the technology field and became close friends during the donation process.
We are currently working on our first international transplant case from London and it’s really exciting to be able to spread awareness for our work globally.
Overall, it’s been an amazing journey to say the least to see all these people that were so ill before be healthy again all because of us. We think to ourselves often, that we are truly blessed to be given this opportunity to educate, inspire and save lives. God couldn’t have chosen a better path for my sisters and family. We believe that we only have one life to make a difference and if we can help one person a day, we know that we have succeeded.
To help us save more lives, please send donations to www.floodsisters.org.
If you or someone you know is interested in being a donor, please contact us at [email protected].
Building relationships is a critical need for non-profits in any vertical. There are many options for keeping in touch with supporters, but more organizations are using email marketing as their primary tool of choice. It is all for good reason because this tool has a lot to offer. Here are some of the benefits email services can deliver to a non-profit organization:
Low Cost Investment
Many non-profits find it difficult to generate the funds needed to support their causes and sustain their initiatives. Raising funding is even harder in this economy, and backing a good cause can get expensive depending on the volume of support you are trying to gain. Luckily, email marketing happens to be one of the most affordable marketing tools around. With so many options on the market, it is relatively easy to find a solution that can accommodate your budget as long as you do the research. If you’re really lucky, you may be able to land a free service that requires you to pay nothing at all to conduct your non-profit business. Whether it’s free or for a modest fee, email services can ensure your investment stays affordable.
Performance Insights
Are you currently measuring the impact of your non-profit marketing efforts? If you are relying on traditional methods, you may not have a viable way to do so outside of tallying donations and inquiries. Effectively tracking performance can be next to impossible with traditional methods, but is actually quite simple with email marketing. The email channel itself is very accountable, meaning it keeps up with all the activity that passes through it. Getting this data is what’s important, and the more extensive the reporting capabilities of the email services at your disposal, the more you can get your hands on.
The Door to Social Marketing
As the web evolves, it becomes a more valuable promotional playground for non-profits. The introduction of social media is a prime example. From Facebook to Twitter, organizations of all sizes are plugging in to build a presence on the social networks. And even if you are already seeing good results with your social media initiatives, combining those efforts with an email marketing strategy can benefit the cause even more. For example, depending on the features included the package, your email services may enable you to place a sign up form to your mailing list on a social profile, incorporate social sharing buttons in your messages, or both. Integrating two powerful channels such as these can take your non-profit message further than it ever would have been able to travel with merely one or the other.
These are just some of the benefits email services can offer a non-profit organization. However, actually reaping them requires all the stars to be aligned. To be specific, you must formulate a solid marketing strategy, and choose a company that can provide all the services your non-profit needs to operate. These two ingredients are vital to your success.
Author Bio: Aidan Hijleh is a freelance copywriter and serves as the Non-Profit Partnership Liaison for Benchmark Email. Aidan advocates free nonprofit email marketing services for organizations involved in aiding youth.
We need your help! We are approaching a major milestone in our organizations history. Just this month, we surpassed the halfway mark of helping 10,000 organizations with free tools and services. We would like your help in updating our membership database so that we can deliver new and exciting products and services at no cost to you. Please take a minute to fill out our short survey.
Grassroots.org wants to hear from you about how we are doing. Here is your chance to tell us what you think about our services and how we could improve our services. If there is a service you would like us to add to our Toolbox, tell us.
The Dream Factory gives children, whose days might otherwise may be spent waiting in hospital rooms, a few days of immense joy to lift their hearts. In the holiday spirit, they would like to be able to share these stories here and on a redone website.
Please enjoy the story, and if you are interested in working with them please contact Laura Walitsky at [email protected]
The Dream Factory of Rochester
The Dream Factory is a national organization that fulfills dreams for children ages 3 through 18 who have been diagnosed with critical or chronic illnesses. We are a bit different from other dream fulfilling organizations for a couple of reasons. Many groups will only fulfill dreams for children with life threatening or terminal illnesses. At The Dream Factory, we recognize that life threatening or terminal fits into our "critical" category, but it's the chronically ill children -- those with Type I diabetes, spina bifida, hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, cerebral palsy, heart defects, etc. that are excluded from the other groups. Children with chronic illnesses are required to constantly monitor the daily challenges and routines that often impede upon the spontaneity of being a carefree child. Their lives are frequently quite different from their peers. When a child with Type l diabetes should be running and playing with their friends, they're checking their blood sugar levels. Instead of a child with hemophilia participating in after school sports activities, they're getting IV infusions and hoping not to get any skinned knees or simple bruises. Instead of having a sleepover with friends, a child with cystic fibrosis may have to spend a week or two in the hospital getting tests and surgeries and medicine. Instead of playing football with their friends, the children with heart conditions can only sit on the sidelines and watch. They are experiencing a life that no child deserves. The Dream Factory seeks to reward the strength and courage which these children possess by showing them that dreams can come true.
The Dream Factory of Rochester was established in 1998 and has fulfilled nearly 145 dreams. In just the past few months, we have taken a teenager with a rare disorder to the mall shopping for video games; we have given two children hot tubs, and sent 6 children to Central Florida. One young lady went to Hollywood to see the sites before returning home for open heart surgery. Two boys went to animation studios in CA to see how their favorite cartoons are created. One young man with cystic fibrosis went on a cruise; and one young lady met Joe Jonas while another met Greyson Chance. On the day before Thanksgiving, an 8 year old boy with a heart condition called pericarditis was handed a puppy.
Currently, The Dream Factory of Rochester is working to fulfill dreams for 6 more children -- Zoe, who lives with cystic fibrosis, wants to meet her favorite surfing professional. Her brother, Cole, also living with the disease, has asked for a pool. Another set of siblings with Type I diabetes has asked if they can go on a cruise in the spring and the other two are planning their trips to Orlando, Florida and visits to the most popular area attractions.
The Dream Factory achieves our mission with a lot of volunteer help. The 38 chapters of the organization are all completely run by volunteers. Our National Headquarters in Louisville, KY has just 4 paid employees. As a direct result of our extremely low administrative costs, a majority of the funds raised are used for their intended purpose - to fulfill the dreams of the seriously ill children in our communities.
The Dream Factory chapters each raise their funds locally to spend on local children. We rely upon individual donations, corporate dream sponsorships, and the fundraising efforts of schools and community organizations to make these dreams come true. We consider ourselves a grassroots organization because all of our support comes from volunteerism. We ask for help, search for the best, and we don't have high paid executives micromanaging our local efforts.
The Dream Factory of Rochester has joined Grassroots.org because we want to have a strong online presence. Our website is in need of an overhaul. We have so many wonderful photos, videos and stories to share of the children whose dreams have been fulfilled. We want to share the children’s stories; we want to share The Dream Factory's story, and we want to do it in the grassroots, yet professional manner that we do everything else.
Our National Headquarters is also looking for a website overhaul as well as people who can help us with public relations and marketing. We are not as well known as some other dream fulfilling organizations, but we want to become a household name. We want volunteers to think of our organization. We want corporations to know how far their donations to our organization can stretch. And, we want families to see our website, see our logo and think of us when their child needs a dream to come true.
The Dream Factory once was jokingly described as “the whipped cream on a poop sundae -- Something good on top of all the bad.” What would you do if you had the opportunity to make a child's dream come true?
I have had the fortune to speak to Aisha Desince about her organization Khadarlis. Over the years, I have heard about the devastation and corruption that have plagued Sierra Leone. It has been her driving force that has helped to bring relief to her hometown of Jimmi and her country. But in giving back to Jimmi, she has to spend a vast amount of her energy and money.
Her hope is that using our website, she can bring attention to the struggle in Sierra Leone. Aisha would love to have the support from her fellow members and volunteers of this site. Please visit her site at http://khadarlis.org/ to learn more about the fight for a better future for Sierra Leone.
Dreams for Sierra Leone
Aisha khadar Desince's Khadarlis
My name is Aisha khadar Desince. I had been in the U.S. for 15 years before my first visit to Sierra Leone. I can still see the mountains and smell the scent of the countryside. The memories I have of the villages where the people that help raise me, showed me kindness, fed me fresh food. I remember the love of family whether or not they were my own blood. These families were always willing to accept me with open arms, to hug me. The homes had fresh bread baking, and my grandmother’s cookies from her bakery could be smelt 20 miles away. Home where everyone was welcome and a meal to greet you with proud, kind and loving people that I miss. These were my memories before the civil war commonly known as the Blood Diamond War destroyed my people, the core of my soul, and the inspirational drive of my being.
Years after the war, a war that lasted 11 long years, my heart sang songs of returning home to see the damage. To my shock, it was an understatement of what I saw in the movie Blood Diamond and on CNN. With no lights, no running water, and the comfort of my new home USA, tears greeted my eyes as I made my way through the darkness to the arms of family and friends. My soul was longing for my village, Jimmi, and not the city.
As the van pulled up to a stop at a village that was covered with debris and houses burned down to the ground, I did not recognize this town at first to be my beloved Jimmi . I had spent many vacations with my loved ones here. One thing that was present was smiling faces, tears of joy, and a song with beautiful words about a daughter returning home to bring HOPE!
As a child, my parents and grandparents instilled in us the sense of responsibility, you have to give back, and you have to take care of the less fortunate, Aisha. It is the right thing to do they told me. Pray for guidance Aisha, surrender your life to helping others and you will never be alone. People are here for each other, we need each other to make this world work, years of hearing that and as I stood in the middle of Jimmi, I smiled to myself.
It took several meeting for me to realize that this was my calling, as it was for my grandmother, my mother and now me, to see that my villages will return back to some form of normalcy. That was the day Khadarlis for Sierra Leone was born in my heart and soul.
Khadarlis for Sierra Leone was formed with HOPE, for rebuilding villages in Sierra Leone with sustainability through education, water and sanitation, agriculture, basic health care and HIV aids, renewable energy, and housing.
Every time I make a trip to my villages, I see hope, proud people who cannot wait to tell me how many tons of sand they have moved to use in rebuilding their homes. How great it was to get the mud all piled up high that was used to build mud/cement combination houses, and the women gathering fire wood to cook as we worked while I heard songs of inspiration to cheer us up.
As we rubbed our sore feet and back at night by born fire, I heard joyous stories from parents of how the notebooks that I had left for their kids ran out, but a mother sold dry fish by the main road to buy more until I returned. And, the son that was so sick until the Advil I left cured him. I smile as I remember the countless postings from my volunteers to get these simple donations.
I have a story that I cannot keep in my heart alone. I must share it with you. These people, my people have a strong sense of self-worth, perseverance, and the ability to improvise. For example, using a baby stroller as a shopping cart, or using it to transport necessities, or their resourcefulness to reuse empty bottles and containers and making toy cars for their children with iron hangers. I sit and watch because I must have forgotten what drives them to persevere, by making due with what the little have and putting their faith in love and HOPE that things will get better in their homeland.
Every so often someone sends me a check for Five dollars or so, and the Volunteers that come in just to say hello or to see how they can make a difference those are the real heroes because without volunteers, interns there will be no khadarlis.
Children of Promise was one of the organizations that Grassroots had the pleasure to work with during the Capacity Building Initiative. As apart of the event, our volunteers provided their organization with a template on how to utilize their website best. However, the work is far from being done. This is why we would like one of our website designers to pick up the torture that the CBI volunteers started with and help them to implement the ideas.
If you would like more information, you can find their request on the opportunity board or email us directly at [email protected].
But please do enjoy the following article written by PRMarketing.com, the fantastic marketing team that works to spread Grassroots.org mission.
Nonprofit Finds Success Through Partnership with Grassroots.org
Children of Promise, NYC sees increase in engagement after Grassroots.org provides business services
Between the Occupy Wall Street Movement and the upcoming holiday season, New York City is busier than ever. And Children of Promise, NYC is no exception. The non-profit organization has been bustling since Grassroots.org helped revamp its website, CPNYC.org.
CPNYC provides after-school mentoring and mental health services to children of incarcerated parents in Brooklyn, New York.
“Our services try and address the needs of children of incarcerated parents from every angle,” said Rebecca Zook, director of government contracts for Children of Promise, NYC.
As with many non-profit organizations, finances are tight, and obtaining funds for marketing purposes is nearly impossible.
This is where Grassroots.org comes in.
Grassroots.org is a non-profit organization that assists other nonprofits by providing valuable business resources and technologies for free. This allows the groups to focus on what they do best while increasing their efficiency and productivity.
Grassroots.org held a capacity-building initiative event in New York City on Oct. 29.
The workshop organized professional business volunteers to provide no-cost plans in finance, marketing and strategy consultation for nonprofits like Children of Promise, NYC.
“Grassroots.org volunteers analyzed our website and gave us suggestions on how to improve and streamline it to make it more user-friendly,” said Zook. “They also gave us advice on how we can strategically use the website for social networking and PR purposes to get the word out about what we’re doing and get people involved.”
Grassroots.org also provided CPNYC a document to track their volunteers, as well as strategies to engage people through social media.
Since CPNYC renovated their website, they have seen an increase in cold calls from those wanting to know how they can get involved.
“We want to speed up the process of finding professional volunteers for these nonprofits,” said Benjamin Cohen, outreach manager for Grassroots.org.
Children of Promise, NYC received a development plan, and they will find their web developer from Grassroots.org’s volunteer program, Cohen said.
“We thought our website was more for advertising,” Zook said. “We have since learned that our website is really a tool to market ourselves and engage people to get them involved. The suggestions Grassroots.org made were terrific. We definitely want to utilize their services in the future.”
Grassroots.org’s goal is to adopt 10,000 non-profit members and provide each of them with $10,000 worth of services for free each year.
Media Contact
Alyssa Vincent
PRMarketing.com [email protected]
801-541-5546
Events are extremely important for many non-profit organizations. Aside from raising necessary funds, they also present opportunities to build strong relationships with supporters and convert them into loyal evangelists for the cause at hand. There are numerous marketing tools that can help get the word out, but in this article, we will focus on how a non-profit can utilize email marketing to bolster their event marketing efforts.
Pinpoint the Right Timing
When it comes to event marketing, the timing of your invitations and communications is incredibly important. Unfortunately, the rules on timing are anything but hard and fast as the right strategy will vary depending on a wide range of factors. For instance, you have larger, annual non-profit events that require the hosting organization to start making announcements and sending out invitations a year in advance. Only you can determine the right time, so take your event into consideration and figure out when the email invites and information needs to start going out. While it’s good to get an early start, you don’t want to begin so early that people lose interest by the time the event finally rolls around.
Target Your Communications Through Segmentation
If you haven’t already segmented your list of supporters for more focused targeting, we are here to tell you that it should be done before proceeding with your event marketing campaign. Why is it important to break down your list into segments and target individual groups? Because each of your supporters has different needs, wants, and preferences. More importantly, segmentation is a proven practice that can help you get the right message to the right person. For example, if some of your supporters already secured their tickets, putting them in their own group will make it easier to target them with information regarding what they can expect at the event rather than send them invitations. It’s all about making the most of each email interaction and being as relevant as possible.
Blend Email with Other Channels
Email marketing is an extremely powerful marketing tool on its own. However, its power increases tenfold when combined with other methods, essentially making it even more effective for a non-profit looking to generate hype around their event. One of the best channels you can turn to in this regard is social media. By simply including social sharing buttons in your campaign, you are giving supporters a convenient means to pass your event information along to their community of friends and associates. If you don’t know by now, social media is the perfect catalysis for viral marketing. Other channels that can boost your event marketing efforts when combined with email marketing include mobile, daily deals platforms, and direct mail.
Conclusion
Email marketing is one of the most effective methods a non-profit can use to drive their event marketing initiatives. It’s affordable, straightforward, and gets the job done. Use it correctly, and you will find that this tool is more than capable of making your events a huge success time and again.
Aidan Hijleh is a freelance copywriter and serves as the Non-Profit Partnership Liaison for Benchmark Email. Aidan advocates free email marketing services to assist with the flourishing of grassroots organizations.
“Our Experience in Malawi: Learning How to Make Something from Nothing!”
Bretta Blanton, PhD
President of Brilliant Scientists of Tomorrow
The mission of Brilliant Scientists of Tomorrow (BSOT) is to increase science literacy as well as to provide opportunities for a science education to people of all walks of life both here in America and abroad. During the 2010-2011 academic school year, BSOT worked on several projects in Malawi.
One of the laws of physics states that matter can neither be created nor can it be destroyed. In other words, tangible objects cannot be created out of thin air. Nevertheless, based upon my observations, the Malawian people defy this law on a daily basis. Malawi is amongst the least developed of all of these nations. Even the poorest American would be rich by Malawian standards. The majority of this country lives off of less than $1 per day (i.e. nothing), and they do not have access to basic social services, such as welfare or food stamps. The average 10 year old in the US receives an allowance of over $7 per week.1 This is a little more than $1 per day, and it is probably used on candy and toys - not survival.
Another sad but interesting fact is that less than 1% of the population receives a college education. Jobs and other opportunities are few and far between. Approximately, 60% of the population lives below the poverty line. The average income is only $160 per year. Although, the cost of living in Malawi is lower than in developed countries, $160 per year is still not enough to get by. Malawi is one of the ten poorest countries in the world.2
Malawians, who do manage to receive their Bachelor’s degrees, usually end up teaching at the secondary school level. However, there are not many opportunities in Malawi. Teaching is a noble profession, but these people are boxed into teaching. They teach in over-crowded classrooms with 200 plus students with no books, no computers, no stationary, etc. The average pay for a secondary teacher is around $70 per month. Yes, this beats the minimum wage, but it is still a dismal amount for such a hard day’s work.
Although the students are taught in such an environment - lacking so many important resources - they still are quite brilliant. This is amazing to me. The majority of the students, with whom I have interacted, have a very high science and math aptitude. For example, many of my physical chemistry students could very easily recite thermodynamic equations for Gibbs Free Energy, Entropy, and Enthalpy from memory- not a normal thing for most people (even those with access to books). Furthermore, they are very articulate. How can this be? They have never owned a text book in their lives. They were taught without books. They do not have access to computers or the internet; they have never heard of amazon, ebay, or kindle. Generally, most of my students and most people who I came in contact with did not have access to clean water or food…. They were able to make something out of nothing.
I feel that Malawi is a beautiful country with beautiful people, and I am happy and blessed to be working with an organization like BSOT who can help to fix some of its problems. The degree of poverty in Malawi is heart breaking. For example, at one of the secondary schools, a friend of mine witnessed the following. There was a student who was so hungry that when my friend accidentally dropped crumbs from some stale cookies onto the floor- the student rushed to hurriedly eat these crumbs from the floor. No one even batted an eye….
This academic year, we are working on some projects in Nigeria, but we still have ties to Malawi - especially through our Study Abroad Program. This program helps science students from Third World countries to attend colleges and universities in the USA. It is common knowledge that education is the key to solve most problems. The students in our program want to become educated in the US so that they can go back to their home land and help it to develop. It is estimated that one scientist is required for every 200 people in order for a nation to properly develop. BSOT is doing its part to help with the development of these nations. It is such an honor to server. For more information on our organization, our opportunities, and our projects - both here in the USA as well as abroad, you can visit our website at www.brilliant-scientists.com.
My name is Elena and I just started as an intern for Grassroots.org helping out with print, web, and social media. How did I get to this awesome title? I'd love to tell you!
Back in the summer of 2007, I interned at a small graphic design studio in Brooklyn, NY whose clients were mostly non profit organizations. It gave me a great sense of fulfillment knowing that I was helping companies who wanted to change the world for the better. Unfortunately, this internship was only four months long. Begrudgingly I went back to college and received a BFA in Graphic Design from The College of Saint Rose in 2008. I was extremely comfortable designing anything for print or web and knew I needed something more; a new challenge.
Sometimes you really do get what you wish for. I became the graphic designer for Nike Childrenswear creating graphics for clothing. I was happy, or at least I thought I was. After three and a half years, I felt my sense of fulfillment slowly diminish. I wasn't helping anyone get ahead except myself. I missed the feeling of truly helping people who needed and wanted it.
I am a 25 year old who decided to quit her job and go back to the start. I was very lucky to become a Grassroots.org intern. This will be a great learning experience for myself and I hope that my design and social media skills will benefit the people who are trying to make a difference in the world.
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