GiveForward - Fundraising Made Simple

On Saturday afternoon, Janet Myers of Bainbridge Island, WA helped put GiveForward over the $2 million mark in total donations with her contribution to the Haiti Relief Effort, a fundraiser to help send Stephanie and Shannon to Fond Parisien, where they will enlist as relief workers in a field hospital. This is a fantastic cause and we are confident that these two ladies will reach their goal soon thanks to helpful people like Janet.

It’s so cool to now be able to truthfully say that we’ve technically helped people raise millions of dollars, so we want to express our gratitude to not only Janet, but all of the people who have ever donated to fundraisers on GiveForward or encouraged their friends and family to do so. Thank you all so much! We couldn’t have made it this far without you, and if we may say so, we’re excited about our future together.

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!

It’s hard to believe, but Saturday was the two-year anniversary of the launch of GiveForward.   We couldn’t be more grateful for all the wonderful people who have been a part of our community thus far and just wanted to send out a quick thank you to everyone.

nom nom nom!

During this time, we’ve helped 1300 families raise almost $2 million for things like chemotherapy treatments, organ transplants and out-of-pocket living and travel expense. None of this would have been possible without our amazing community getting involved.  We appreciate the fundraising tips you have shared with us over the years, your positive (and occasionally negative) feedback and most importantly your willingness to spread the word about GiveForward to others who can benefit from our service!
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We’ve noticed lately that, much like those seeking alternative cancer treatments, an increasing number of people with rare diseases are using GiveForward to raise money for their often-higher medical costs.

This actually isn’t too surprising because we recently learned that roughly 25 million Americans are living with rare diseases. Most people have probably never heard of these ailments and thus don’t even think to help because they aren’t aware that their help is needed. We are very excited by the indication that we might be able to help bridge this gap, however.

We currently have people fundraising for: a woman undergoing treatment for angiosarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer; a woman undergoing treatment for hemangiopericytoma, another rare type of cancerous tumor; and a 2-year-old undergoing brain surgery as a result of complications brought on by Sturge-Weber Syndrome.

It’s good to see these folks getting the help they need, and it’s also nice to see an increased awareness – even if just around this office – with regards to these rare diseases.

If you have a rare disease (or you know anyone who does) and you want to help get the word out, email a little bit of information to dshar@giveforward.org.

Everybody here at GiveForward would like to congratulate Laci Green for winning our Giveasaurus Challenge, thus earning an additional $500 donation towards her fundraiser for Child Family Health International. In just two days, Laci raised $40,000 for this wonderful organization that helps “bring healthcare and sustainable healthcare programs to under-served communities around the globe.”

We want to thank Laci and everyone else who participated in the Giveasaurus Challenge.  Altogether, this edition’s participants raised more than $70,000 for things like healthcare for children, chemotherapy, and out of pocket expenses for loved ones. Great work, folks. We hope the next Giveasaurus Challenge — which might happen sooner than you think — will be just as successful (if not more)!

GiveForward is looking for bright, enthusiastic, highly-motivated rising juniors, seniors, new graduates and grad students who want to really sink their teeth into a project and run with it.  You must have excellent writing and communication skills, and a sense of humor is a REQUIREMENT. Additionally, the ability to finish a two pound burrito from Chipotle in one sitting is viewed favorably (see below).

If you are interested in applying, please send a resume and a short cover letter explaining why you want to work with us to jobs@giveforward.org.

Please include which position you are applying for in the subject line. We are currently hiring for the following positions:

This could be you...

Fundraising Coach Extraordinaire: Are you a fundraising king or queen? Do you enjoy helping people and coming up with creative ways to raise money for good causes? If so, you could be perfect for this position.

We need someone who is an excellent communicator both with emails and on the phone.

Responsibilities will include:

* Working closely with individuals and organizations to help them better understand the ins and outs of online fundraising  (don’t worry, if you don’t know the ins and outs, we’ll teach you)

* Reaching out to new users to help them do a better job of fundraising

* Serving as the “face” of GiveForward to the Giveforward community and the outside world

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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 is pleased to announce a new partnership with Century Wellness Clinic, where Dr. James Forsythe combines conventional cancer treatments (such as chemotherapy) with alternative cancer treatments (such as homeopathic remedies).

This relationship came about after Meg Patterson (one of our all-time favorite GiveForward friends) set up a fundraising page on GiveForward and raised $16,000 for her breast cancer treatment at the clinic, none of which was covered by insurance.

Meg was so successful with her first fundraiser that the Clinic started recommending that more of its patients use GiveForward to raise money for their treatments as well. As he writes on his website, Dr. Forsythe believes “that effective cancer care should include many different types of therapeutic support; from the intelligent and safe use of chemotherapy to innovative applications of homeopathic remedies, intravenous delivered nutrients, herbs and dietary measures and immune-stimulating therapies.”

Unfortunately these types of homeopathic therapies are rarely covered by insurance, and that’s where GiveForward comes in. We are happy to say that since Meg Patterson’s successful fundraiser, we have seen many more people successfully raising money for homeopathic treatments through their GiveForward fundraising pages. We certainly believe people should be able to get the treatment they need even if it’s not covered by their insurance policy, so we are especially thrilled to be working with the Century Wellness Clinic to help this happen!

And, if you’d like to help Meg in her journey, you can find her second fundraiser for medical expenses here.

GiveForward co-founder Ethan Austin has yet another fun and insightful guest post up on StepByStepFundraising.com, and this time it’s all about using Facebook to raise money. It turns out the website perhaps most commonly used in direct opposition to productivity can actually be used to great benefit by organizers of medical fundraisers.

In this blog, Ethan suggests four of the best, most simple strategies to apply to your Facebook usage as you work towards achieving your goal. The four things I would like to suggest you do now: read the post, adopt the techniques, raise those funds, and poke us.