Play It Forward

PIFWORLD is a fascinating new online fundraising community.

It currently has 45 projects on its books, ranging from helping to provide the Women's Garden in Jiboro, Gambia with a solar water pumping irrigation system, to helping dance4life empower young people around the world to take action themselves to push back HIV and AIDS.

You can spin around this great interactive globe to find a project you like and want to donate to. Pifworld has so far raised nearly €6000 in donations for the projects it has listed.

As much as I love the site and the great community feel, it really is let down by a fairly complicated donation processing system. Donations can be made using major credit cards - but I personally think that the addition of PayPal as an option would be very useful.

Despite this it seems a great site, and I love that it offers plenty of opportunity to engage with other users and with the projects themselves.

From now until July 1st 1009, Pifworld is running a competition in which you could win €10,000 for your favourite charity project. All you need to do is sign up and get your friends to join Pifworld. Whoever has the most friends wins! So sign up today and get the word out!

Online Dating for Donating

DonateNZ.com provides a unique matchmaking service to help those with something to donate find worthy organisations who need what they have to give.

Individuals, organisations and companies can donate goods, time and discounts to schools, early childhood and not-for-profit organisations in New Zealand.

The process is simple! All you have to do is list what you have to offer, then Recipients have the opportunity to accept your donation. Alternatively, browse the Wishes section and if you can help, simply click "Fulfill Wish" to be provided with the Recipients details.

If they accept, they contact you directly to arrange delivery of the goods or make arrangements to utilise the time or expertise you offer.

DonateNZ.com lets all users enjoy the following benefits:

• Save time and money
  Think of the time and resource taken to store, sort and dispose of unloved, neglected, excess and unwanted goods. To add insult to injury, you may have to pay for rubbish bags, skips and tip fees.
  
  
• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!
  Don't dump it, donate it! Give what you have to offer a new lease on life and reduce the strain on our local landfills.
  
  
• Be a Tidy Kiwi
  DonateNZ helps you pass on things which you no longer need, helping reduce your 'spare room' stockpile of neglected items.
  
  
• Get involved in your community
  DonateNZ puts you in touch with a whole world of new faces crying out for people like you to help out.
  
  
• Target your support
  Specify your preferences as to whom and where your donation will go.
  
  
• No money involved
  Constantly bombarded by people asking for more cash donations and sponsorships? By donating with DonateNZ it's the best way to give back, without emptying your pockets.
  
  
• Donations get immediate results
  Recipients need what you have to offer, therefore the donation is put to immediate positive use within the community.
  
  
• Use us as you need to
  No binding or fixed term contracts with us! Use as you need to complement your existing charitable initiatives.

Effective Charitable Giving

Image by emdot via Flickr

If you're giving money to charity, you no doubt want to be sure that your making the biggest difference possible and that your giving is effective.

What is the best way to give?

One off large donations can boost a Non-Profit Organisation's coffers and allow large projects to get off the ground ... but then what about the day to day running costs. Regular donations can really help when it comes to covering regular bills and they allow an organisation to budget with some certainty.

And if you have several causes you are passionate about - is it best to choose just one and to give more. Or do smaller donations to many organisations make more of a difference?

Have your say in the poll below - and add your thoughts in the comments.

Contribute to a Malaria Free Future

Its World Malaria Day today.

With Ashton Kutcher's recent race to reach 1,000,000 Twitter followers before CNN and his victory donation of 10,000 mosquito nets to nothingbutnets.net, malaria has been in the headlines lately. Many of us aren't aware that it is the leading cause of child mortality in Africa, claiming 1,000,000 African children under the age of five every year. Hard to believe it doesn't make the news more often!

For World Malaria Day 2009, the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health Global Program on Malaria is partnering with the Global Health Counsel, Populations Services International (PSI) and VOICES for a Malaria Free Future to share the story of success in Rwanda, where they have reduced malaria related deaths by 60%.



Find out what you can do to help in the fight against malaria here!

How to Make Your Dreams Come True

Got a special occasion coming up? Don't want to get another pair of socks or soap-on-a-rope? Why not post a dream at DreamBank so you can be sure of getting exactly what you want.

DreamBank provides a fun, easy way for you to receive your "dream" gift. It might be something really special to you like a trip, a course, piece of art or even a once in a lifetime experience. By posting a dream gift on www.dreambank.org, friends, family and fans can contribute for birthdays, housewarming, weddings, Christmas, pretty much any occasion or just because!

And to make it an even better idea, Dream Bank gives 10% of its net transaction revenue to charity. Dreamers are given a choice of organizations to associate with their dream. This acts as a vote and tells us how to divvy up the charity pot according to our Dreamers' wishes.

Dream Bank supports the African Wildlife Foundation, CARE, Doctors Without Borders, Kiva Microfinancing, Save the Children and the Global Greengrants Fund.

MicroGiving - Connecting Those Who Have With Those Who Need

MicroGiving is an online community that connects people with people globally - people who need (Recipients) with people who have (Donors).

As a Donor you have complete control over who you help - and as a Recipient you get the opportunity to ask for help when you need it.

Donors can rest assured that 100% of their donation goes to where it is intended (via paypal) and that you are giving to real people with genuine needs. MicroGiving requires its recipients to go through an extensive (and manual) verification process.

Here's how it works:

Fruit for All

Image via Wikipedia

The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation is a unique charity with the goal of encouraging and inspiring the planting of 18 billion fruit trees around the world.

Their vision is to provide healthy nutrition for communities by planting trees that provide edible fruits, nuts, leaves or roots.

But its not all about the food. The fruit trees will be planted alongside other native trees and plants to help improve the soil and the air, to address erosion issues and attract water.

"While our ultimate vision is one of overall ecological harmony, incorporating a great number of elements for a self-sustaining world, we chose to name ourselves “The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation” to ensure that as our efforts continue, with the help of those who join us, we will be united in the goal to heal the planet and nourish future generations by planting fruit trees.

We envision a place where one can have a summer picnic under the shade of a fruit tree, breathe the clean air it generates, and not have to bring anything other than an appetite for the healthy fruits growing overhead. A world where one can take a walk in the park during a lunch break, pick and eat a variety of delicious fruits, plant the seeds so others can eventually do the same and provide an alternative to buying environmentally-destructive, illness-causing, chemically-laden products."

The 12 for 12k Challenge

The 12 for 12k challenge is a social media experiment that aims to raise $144,000 in 2009.

The concept is simple:

12 months of the year
12 charities - a different one each month
$12,000 per charity.

So far they have supported Stop the Silence & War Child and raised over $15,500 for Share Our Strength in March.

In April they are fundraising for Yehu.org with the Mom It Forward network.

Yehu is a microfinance organization in the rural coastal region of Kenya for the poor, run by the poor. It provides financial and other support services for small businesses owned by very poor people.

Yehu operates in conjunction with Choice Humanitarian, an international NGO specializing in village development. Yehu was created based on the principles and procedures of the world-renowned Grameen Bank.

Yehu mission is to empower poor rural entrepreneurs in Kenya to help lift themselves out of poverty. This is done through enhanced accessibility to sustainable financial services, business opportunities, and skills training.

As well as normal donations, the 12 for 12k Challenge will be running a host of special events throughout April. These include virtual pajama parties, 24-hour fund-raising marathons and perhaps the most exciting event - international charity meet-ups.

Cities across the U.S., Canada and Australia will be hosting live events on April 18. These will be a mix of fun, drinks, socializing, prizes, silent auctions and much more. The 12for12k events will be held in San Diego, Toronto and Sydney (Australia), with more hosted by Mom It Forward.

Visit The 12 for 12k Challenge for more info or donate with ChipIn below.

Better the World

Better the World is an interesting way to support your favourite charities for free.

All you do is download the Better the World sidebar and surf the web as you usually do. The sidebar shows you a selection of ads and the revenue generated by the companies that pay for these ads is donated to the charity of your choice.

Better the World donate 90% of the money earned to charity and the remaining 10% goes to cover their costs.

The Charities currently supported range from Habitat for Humanity to the World Wildlife Fund. I'm earning money to help the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy restore an old migratory route for elephants in Kenya.

You can download the Better the World sidebar here.

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• BetterTheWorld.com - Advertisements With A Difference (killerstartups.com)

Carnival of Digital Philanthropy Volume 4

Image by Hanoi Mark via Flickr

Welcome to the April 2nd, 2009 edition of The Carnival of Digital Philanthropy.

Please Stumble the posts you like, or submit them to other social bookmarking services. Let's promote each other, as well as this blog carnival.

Scott Allen presents Change It – A Social Media Meme for a Better World posted at Scott "Social Media" Allen, saying, "My 14-year-old son came up with an amazingly simple, but effective way to raise awareness for causes - even to fundraise. Spread this."

A. Lee presents Art Dealer’s Gift to the British | e Art Fair .com posted at eArtFair . com, saying, "This is the story of some famous philanthropists which I think will inspire us all today."

Obadiah Shoher presents Israeli charity for Jewish women and children, a zero-overhead non-profit organization. Donate to Jewish cause. posted at Samson BLinded.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of digital philanthropy using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.