GiveForward - Fundraising Made Simple

Those who have the pleasure of knowing Jonny Imerman are aware that he has almost exclusively worn an Imerman Angels shirt for the last three years. This all changed earlier this week, however, when Jonny donned our Giveasaurus shirt.

How did this once-in-a-century event come about? Well, it was the result of a recent burrito-eating contest between the GiveForward interns and the Imerman Angels interns.

The agreement heading into the contest was that a GiveForward victory would put Jonny in a Giveasaurus t-shirt for a day, while an Imerman Angels victory would leave our co-founder Ethan Austin in an Imerman Angels-branded banana suit for a week.

Even though the GiveForward squad ultimately came up short and lost the bet, Jonny and his Director of Operations, Aaron Hadley, were good sports and decided to wear the Givesaurus shirts anyway. We couldn’t believe our eyes when they sent us the picture. Enjoy this moment because you may never see Jonny in this shirt again… unless, of course, we win round two of the contest next year!

Alright so the bad news is that GiveForward fell to Imerman Angels in yesterday’s intern-on-intern burrito-eating contest by 12 ounces. 12 measly ounces. The good news is that everyone survived, AND we raised money to help people with cancer!

Both organizations went all out for this competition, and we want to thank everyone who made it possible (including the many Chipotle employees who posed for pictures with us). This event was a ton of fun, and as soon as we finish digesting, we will begin to plot and scheme for our next shindig. In the meantime, check out our Facebook page for some awesome, mildly disturbing snapshots from the action!

As many of you faithful readers already know, the GiveForward interns are preparing to face off against the Imerman Angels interns in an epic burrito eating contest.

In an effort to strengthen the weakest member of the team (me), GiveForward brought in a world-class competitive eating coach. Watch what happened, show it to all your friends and family, and (if you’re in the Chicago area) come out to see if it paid off tomorrow!

Who: GiveForward interns vs. Imerman Angels interns
What: First Annual Burrito Battle Royale
When: 1:00 p.m. on July 28, 2010
Where: Chipotle (6 W Grand Ave, Chicago, IL)

Those in the Chicago area are strongly encouraged to come cheer us on. Those who just want to help a good cause, regardless of geographic location, can make a donation here and get one of our team jerseys (aka a Giveasaurus T-shirt) in return. All of the money raised will be donated to Imerman Angels, a non-profit cancer support organization that cannot beat us in an eating competition but has proven to be amazing at helping people beat cancer.

GiveForward and Imerman Angels are two companies built on helping people. Neither endorses violence or would ever condone the intentional harming of others in any way. That being said, the interns of each company are readying to go to war with one another. Delicious, belt-busting war.

The 1^st Annual Intern Chipotle Chow-down Challenge is just around the corner. In what is sure to be 45 of the most epic minutes to tick off the clock this summer, each company will put three interns on the front line to eat as many pounds of Chipotle burritos as they can. The winning team will crawl away from the scene with more stomach pain, more pride, and a happier boss, as the side-bet between Imerman founder Johnny Imerman and GiveForward co-founder Ethan Austin has some high, still-being-negotiated stakes.

If you visit our Facebook page, you’ll find some pictures from a recent training session we held in preparation for this event. In case anyone is wondering about the formal wear, the reason is obviously that we mean business. And as far as the inanimate representation of the Imerman angel goes, again, we mean business.

More details (including a date and time) to come, just as soon as the interns over there stop dodging us!

On May 4, 2010, GiveForward and 32 other organizations are announcing the First Annual World Give Day (@worldgiveday).  People all over the world will come together in support of the causes that matter to them the most. The goal of World Give Day is to mobilize world-wide philanthropy in a way that has never been done before. Through partnerships with non-profit organizations all over the world, World Give Day is encouraging people to give back through donating, volunteering, or raising awareness about their favorite causes. The purpose of World Give Day is to serve as motivation for people to unite in one day of giving, and inspire people to make giving back a priority in our everyday lives.

People all over the world have shown our ability to unite for a cause on a global level. In 1985, December 5 was designated International Volunteer Day by the United Nations, and is now observed by more than half of countries around the world. International Volunteer Day was established to recognize all that is achieved through the efforts of volunteer work, and serves as a means to increase public awareness of the effect we can have on society. Global Youth Service Day, established in 1988, is now the largest service event in the world, being celebrated by over 100 countries. Global Youth Service Day mobilizes millions of children and youth to address the world’s most critical issues through service and service-learning. Most recently, people all over the world came together to participate in the fourth annual Earth Hour. Earth Hour is a global call to action that encourages millions of people, businesses and communities to join together and turn off their lights for one hour in order to recognize our responsibility towards our planet.

World Give Day is working towards achieving this same global success through what is truly a grassroots effort, inspiring people all over the world to make a difference in the lives of others regardless of how much time or money we have to give. Making an impact on World Give Day could be as simple as posting a link to your favorite charity on Facebook or Twitter, or reminding those around you to get involved in whatever way they can, because World Give Day is based on the underlying belief that every effort, no matter how big or small, can have a significant effect on our society.

GiveForward is excited to be participating in midVentures25 competition– an event that brings together 25 tech start-ups, all competing for the chance to win valuable prizes.  We will be among the “best investor-ready early-stage start-ups” Chicago has to offer.  Win or lose, the event is a great opportunity for GiveForward and the other start-ups to pitch our businesses to over 400 investors and attendees.

Judging the competition are online innovators such as Andrew Mason, CEO for Groupon, and Chuck Templeton, the founder of OpenTable.  The top 5 finalists will get the opportunity to do a 3 minute pitch for the audience and judges before the ultimate winner is chosen. 

Grand Prize includes hosting from SingleHop, software development consulting from Pathfinder Develoment, tech consulting from midVentures Group, legal services from Pasky IP, online advertising TheNextWeb,  an HP Business Netbook from ChicagoMicro, and $1,000 cash from Inventables.

midVenture25 was founded by Geoff Domoracki, CEO of midVentures, a technology based consulting firm and Jonathan Pasky, a patent attorney and founder of boutique Intellectual Property firm, Pasky IP.

The Demo Day and Conference takes place today, March 11th from 5:00 to 10:00pm at 200 S. Wacker Drive.  The event is open to the public, (with an admission fee of $10), and we encourage you to come out and support GiveFoward! 

For additional information on the event and midVenture, please click here.  For tickets, click here.

We’re not the only people holding holiday parties for a good cause this year (might as well make sure your karma’s in check while you’re rocking out, right?). Jelly Chicago, a group that allows freelancers, entrepreneurs, telecommuters and other professionals that may normally work from home to hang out with others with similar working arrangements, is holding their second annual “Tech the Halls” holiday party on December 11 and you’re invited to hang out with some awesome people and donate to a very worthy cause.

This year’s “Tech the Halls” will take place at Noble Tree Coffee at 10 PM on December 11. Jelly is taking donations for one of our favorite nonprofits, Cabrini Connections, a “grassroots non-profit organization founded to address the large number of children who live in educationally disadvantaged environments.” (You may remember them from their Northwestern vs. University of Illinois Alumni Fundraising Challenge held on our site last month)

So if you missed our Ugly Sweater Pub Crawl (or if you just can’t get enough of fundraising and partying simultaneously!) RSVP for “Tech the Halls” ASAP—the party is in 3 days!

In case you missed our Ugly Sweater Pub Crawl this weekend, here a couple links from NBC Chicago so you can experience some truly horrendous sweaters virtually. If only we could share booze with you through the internet…

Cheers to Ugly Sweaters!—A Slideshow

Three Places to Pimp that Fugly Sweater — by Marcus Riley

It’s time to dig into your closet — or maybe your grandmother’s closet — to uncover the most hideously ugly Christmas sweater you can find, because it’s time to party.

The second annual Ugly Sweater Pub Crawl kicks off Saturday at 1 p.m. at Redmond‘s (3358 N. Sheffield).

The ugly party continues south, passing through Sheffield’s, Trader Todd’s, Mad River, and Uncle Fatty’s.

Tickets are $15 in advance or $25 at the door, which gets you a wristband for drink specials at each participating bar.

A $100 cash prize goes to the best/worst dressed, and proceeds from the event go to www.GiveForward.org charities.

Timothy O’Toole’s pubs are also joining the ugly sweater craze.

The Streeterville and Gurnee locations are hosting ugly sweater parties on December 11 at 9 p.m.

Prizes, including a $200 gift card to Water Tower Place, will be given to customers with the ugliest sweaters.

And forget the high fashion the Gold Coast is known for, the tackier the better will be expected at Luxbar‘s Ugly Sweater Christmas Party on Dec. 19.

The customer with the ugliest sweater will receive a $250 cocktail card to Luxbar.

Sip on $5 Grey Goose martinis and work up a sweater sweat on the dance floor to the mixes of LuxLounge’s all-female DJ team.

And of course you’ll want to embarrass your kids with the evidence one day, so take advantage of a green screen Christmas photo booth where you can choose from a variety of backgrounds to match your holiday apparel.

Consider it a “tongue in chic” homage to the holidays.

Remember that sweet Yelp! party I posted about a couple weeks ago? Well now you don’t have to take my word on how awesome it was—we’ve got visual evidence! See3 Communications created this great video of the event. They do videos specifically for nonprofits. If you need this for your nonprofit, or you know of a nonprofit that does need this, definitely contact them!

On my second day at GiveForward, I was lucky enough to work the GiveForward table at Yelp’s October 15 event—Community: Causes for a Party! By work, of course, I mean eat some free spring rolls, hand out chocolate, explain GiveForward to any interested person, and award scavenger hunt prizes!

That’s right, we had a scavenger hunt—but instead of finding objects, we had our participants discover facts about some of the other nonprofits at the party. We gave out cards with questions about organizations such as Imerman Angels, Climate Cycle, Open Books, Clearbrook, Chicago Inner City Outings, etc. and when participants came back with three correct answers, they could choose a prize from our lovely, colorful, sticky note prize board of awesome.

One super awesome GiveForward enthusiast won a $350 8 bottle wine tasting at PRP Wine—congratulations, Lisa Center! You can bring up to 12 people for your private wine consultation—or less, if you don’t like to share

Other winners weren’t quite as lucky. Prizes ranged from gum to Giveasaurus t-shirts to GiveForward coozies to Sticks & Twigs (it’s a snack food, I swear). One player won our only set of Energizer Bunny foam ears. Other equally lucky participants won instant grits, cans of soup, and “vintage” (circa March 2009) GiveForward t-shirts! Only one awesome winner managed to choose the right sticky note and left with the highly coveted Giveasaurus tee.

Our next event is on December 5, the ever-fabulous Ugly Sweater Pub Crawl, so if you’re just dying to get some more GiveForward SWAG, be one of the first people there and receive a sweet GiveForward Santa Hat. For more information, check out uglysweaterpubcrawl.com!