We’re introducing a new series to the Online Fundraising Blog: the Nonprofit Spotlight.  Each month we’ll highlight a couple of our nonprofit partners who have unique fundraising events, great success stories, or something else fantastic going on that we’d like to tell you about.

This week’s Nonprofit Spotlight shines on Organs R Us.   Located in Redwood City, California, Organs ‘R’ Us has done a wonderful job of getting the word out about the importance of organ donation.  And in addition to raising awareness, they’ve raised over $25 million in funds since they were founded in 1996.

We chose Organs ‘R’ Us for our Nonprofit Spotlight this week because we were so impressed by their annual relay fundraising event, held in the beginning of May every year.  The Relay is a two-day running and walking event that stretches over 200 miles through 36 California cities, including Calistoga, Napa, Sonoma, Sausalito, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Silicon Valley, and across the Golden Gate Bridge to Davenport.  Teams of 12 fundraisers split the course down to 3-8 mile sprints to get to the finish line.

As you can imagine, this events draws plenty of attention to the northern California area, and these event participants are serious about fundraising.  Over 3,000 runners lined up last month for The Relay and we are sure that number will grow in the years to come.  The Relay started with nine teams in 1996 and since has become the 2nd largest long distance relay in the nation.  For more information about Organs ‘R’ US and the Relay click here.

Bravo Organs ‘R’ Us!

If you would like us to spotlight your nonprofit please email ashley@firstgiving.com

Professional runner Ryan Hall will toe the line with 26,000+ other runners this Monday at the 113th running of the Boston Marathon.

Like the 900 Boston-bound runners fundraising on Firstgiving, Ryan and his wife Sara (also a professional runner) have a fundraising page, too.

If you can’t be in Boston to cheer Ryan on, show your support by donating to their fundraising page.

Good luck, Ryan!

Applications are due Wednesday, January 21, 2009 for charities to participate in the 2009 Chicago Marathon Charity Program. Get your application here.

If you’ve never considered teaming up with a major marathon, consider this: the Chicago Marathon raised more than $10.5 million for 85 participating charities in 2007. Chicago has over 45,000 runners and attracts 1.5 million spectators. See how a few FG  fundraisers did last year.

…and the best part for your organization is - you don’t have to organize an event.

Firstgiving can provide information on how to get started and motivate your fundraising runners. We can even help you connect with runners in your area looking for an opportunity to run. We also have literature and hand-outs to support their efforts.

Apply Now

If you have questions about how your charity can work with Firstgiving to raise money, contact us at inquiries@firstgiving.com.

Team Firstgiving
www.firstgiving.com 

It’s NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and you’ve hit the wall: you have a case of writer’s block.  What’s a novelist to do? 

In anticipation of a mid-month lull, NaNoWriMo organizers have created a brilliant mini-event to help their marathon fundraisers push through the effects of writer’s block and on to success.   Tomorrow evening NaNoWriMo sponsors the Night of Writing Dangerously (so popular that registration is now full):

The Night of Writing Dangerously will be held from 6 PM to 11 PM on November 15, 2008. Eat great food. Drink great drinks. Take part in writing challenges and sprints with fellow participants and the NaNoWriMo staff, or just plug in the headphones and lose yourself in noveling abandon for five delicious hours.

The Night of Writing Dangerously is sure to get those brain waves moving again.  And since our last NaNoWriMo posting, Firstgiving fundraisers have been busy raising more money with their personal fundraising pages, bringing their fundraising total to almost $33,000!

Have fundraiser’s block?  Check out our free webinars and the Tips and Tricks section of our blog for ideas and inspiration for fundraising dangerously.

It’s marathon season, and this past weekend the 33rd Annual Marine Corps Marathon took place in Washington, D.C.  For Alex Counts, President of Grameen Foundation and friend of Team Firstgiving, the race was an opportunity to “run poverty out of town.”  We caught up with Alex to hear his thoughts on training, fundraising, and microfinance.  

• This is your second marathon; why did you decide to run again?

Despite the agony of the last 4 miles of my first marathon last year, I found the training process invigorating and had a vision of getting my time down closer to 4 hours, so I decided to try it one more time. Also, last year’s marathon-related fund-raising was quite successful for Grameen Foundation so I wanted to see if we could build on that in order to bring more resources to support our anti-poverty mission.

• What does Grameen Foundation do?

Grameen Foundation works on a global basis to spread the self-help strategy known as microfinance that was pioneered by the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Through this strategy, poor people – mostly women – get access to financial services, especially loans, that allow them to start or expand tiny businesses and earn enough money to slowly get out of poverty.

• Why is microfinance so important as part of the international development discussion?

Many anti-poverty programs indirectly address poverty, through building infrastructure that in the long term benefits the society. Microfinance is a more direct approach. It makes the poor economic actors themselves by working directly with them to allow them to create their own jobs. While many poverty strategies address the poor’s weaknesses, this builds on their strengths – their ability to make a small amount of resources go a long way by hard work.

• How do you think the current economic climate will impact international development initiatives, and what role can microfinance play?

This climate will prompt everyone to prioritize and only support the most effective approaches. Microfinance can benefit from that. Microfinance is a kind of ethical version of sub-prime lending. It can show the world what happens when the poor are provided funds for investment (rather than consumption) from lenders who are incentivized the right way and who maintain a close relationship with the borrower.

• What is your best training tip?

Turn training runs into meditations – don’t talk or listen to music. It makes the runs good for the soul as well as for the body.

• What is your best fundraising tip?

Realize that giving someone an opportunity to contribute to a good cause is a favor, not an imposition. Have fun!

• How did you hear about Firstgiving?

My staff recommended it when they heard I was doing another marathon fund-raiser.

• How has Firstgiving helped you to fundraise?

Its user-friendly site has allowed people to support my run, and Grameen Foundation, easily. 

 Read more about Grameen Foundation, social business, and creating a world without poverty on their blog.

Skydiving in stilettos?  That’s one item on Melissa’s life list of to-do’s and the title of her blog, where she also claims to have raised “an obscene amount of money” with Firstgiving.com 

After crossing #1 (run a marathon) off her list last year, Melissa has been training for marathon #2 and will be racing in NYC on November 2.  She’s raising money for the Achilles Track Club, a New York-based non-profit whose mission is to enable people with all types of disabilities to participate in mainstream athletics. 

Melissa is at 90% of her fundraising goal and looking good to succeed in both fundraising and beating her PR (personal record) in the next couple of weeks.  If the comments left by her donors are any indication, she’s quite an inspiration to her family and friends, and she’s an inspiration to us as well.

Melissa’s done several things which have helped her to be successful in her fundraising:

• Included a personal story on her fundraising page about how she and her family support and are involved with the Achilles Track Club.
• Written a description of why she is passionate about the work that this organization does and why she is running 26.2 miles to raise money for them.
• Posted regular updates to her fundraising page about her training and past races.
• Linked her Firstgiving page to her blog with a widget.
• Blogged about her training, fundraising and racing.

Best wishes, Melissa, as you pound the NYC streets.  We applaud your gusto!

Don’t just rely on emailing out the link to your page. It’s an easy way to ask your immediate family and friends, but won’t help you reach out to (and grow!) your network of supporters. Here are a few ways to turn people in your network into donors:

Add your fundraising page to you Facebook profile. Rally your Facebook community for support by installing our Facebook app. Go to http://apps.facebook.com/firstgiving, click “Add Application” and enter the address of your Fundraising Page. Now everyone can see what you are doing for charity. You can even ask your friends to add your page to their profile.

Change your email signature at work. After your name and title etc, add a line at the bottom including the address of your Firstgiving Fundraising Page and why you’re raising money. This is an easy way to raise awareness of your event and ensure every email you send has the potential to prompt a donation. It’s also a great way to ’softly’ ask for donations from co-workers you may not feel comfortable approaching otherwise.

Blog about it. If you already have a blog, great, you’re ahead of the curve. Update it regularly with your training milestones and keep communicating why you’re running the marathon. It will help people keep up with what’s going on, and keep you on track.
If you haven’t entered the blogosphere, it’s easy to get started. Any of the big blog sites will do, such as blogger. For a more marathon focused blog, you can get started easily at realbuzz.com. If you’re more the 140 character type, Tweet your success. Be sure to include links to your Fundraising Page in each post!

Some cool marathon training blogs:

• http://got2trotlibrarian.blogspot.com
• http://eastcoastrunner.blogspot.com
• http://www.getyourserenity.com/blog

Next week: Stay Flexible. In the mean time, check out some other marathon fundraising pages.