The Currency of Appreciation

Image by jaredchapman via Flickr

Twitter really is a great place to do good! Epic Change have used it to great effect with their Tweetsgiving campaign, then there was Twestival successfully raising $250,000 for Charity:Water and TwittaCause working to raise $1 million for charity. Now there are Twollars!

Twollars are Twitter's currency of appreciation. They are designed to do good by rewarding positive actions on Twitter - posting a great link, sharing a useful tip or inspiring tweet.

How do you get them?

Every Twitterer starts off with 5o Twollars to pass on to other Twitterers as a Thank You or donate to Charity. When you run out you can buy more from a Charity registered on Twollar (so far there are 27 to choose from) at an exchange rate of $1 for every 10 Twollars.

Passing them on is easy - all you do is tweet something along the lines of @acfusa 5 Twollars for doing great work.

Twollars is a great way to help out some great charities even if you have no funds to donate. It offers charities an opportunity to raise awareness for their cause by having supporters tweeting Twollars to them. Its also a great way to launch a campaign via Twitter - supporters can help by tweeting Twollars or by purchasing them for cold, hard cash.

Join the appreciation economy - its booming!!

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Got Skills?

Image by laihiu via FlickrReddit.com has launched its first Feed a Need project in time for the holiday giving season! But they aren't asking for monetary donations - instead they are asking you to donate your skills and your time to charity.

So head on over, fill out the form and vote for your favourite charity to be on the receiving end of Reddit.com's Feed a Need charity drive (if your favourite cause isn't on the list you can always submit it!).

Leave a Comment for Charity

Check out the NICE Assignment this week over at Operation NICE. All you need to do is leave a comment for Melissa at the bottom of her post and she will donate $1 to charity! How NICE is that?

The Charities she has chosen to support are:

The One Dollar Give

The One Dollar Give is a website set up to help you discover great new charities to support. Each day of December 2008 The One Dollar Give will feature a different charity - complete with a link to donate to the cause. All they ask is that you donate $1. Its not much for you - but together all the $1 donations add up and really make a difference.

Mandi & Tara of The One Dollar Give plan to continue the project through 2009 introducing a new charity each week. What a great idea!!

If you have a charity that you would like featured on The One Dollar Give and you would like to write a guest post about it, contact The One Dollar Give at onedollargive@gmail.com

Help NZ Children's Charities

Image via WikipediaSovereign Sunshine is a new initiative from Sovereign Insurance set up to raise money for New Zealand children's charities like Heart Children New Zealand and Make a Wish New Zealand among others.

Each month, six different children’s charities are shortlisted by Sovereign staff – and New Zealanders everywhere have the opportunity to vote for which of these charities will receive a donation of up to $15,000 from Sovereign.

Once you’ve registered, each month you vote you will go into the draw to win a cool monthly prize from a range featuring iPods, digital cameras and mobile phones.

Visit Sovereign Sunshine today and help kiwi kids!!

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Create an ammado giving circle

ammado is an online community set up to connect non-profits, individuals and companies that want to effect change at a global and local level.

Unlike similar communities such as Razoo, ammado is truly global in that non-profits do not have to be US based and registered. This means if you live outside the USA you can support your local sports club, favourite local charity organisation or local school. Of course, this also means there is a much wider range of non-profit organisations for Digital Philanthropists to choose from.

A recent press release sums up how it works:

Now fully live the ammado giving circle enables people from around the globe to conduct all their giving and cause-related activities from one central space. ammado members start their ammado giving circle by donating to one of the many participating nonprofits on ammado. The minimum contribution is €4, or its equivalent in 32 other currencies. Whatever the donor’s giving budget is, he can “slice and dice” or divide it between his favourite ammado nonprofits (charities, sports clubs, schools, universities), thus benefiting multiple organisations simultaneously. ammado members can also set up recurring donations from their profiles with the flexibility to change the recipients and the giving amount every month. Donating on ammado is not exclusive to ammado members, as non members can also make once-off donations through the platform.

All nonprofits, big or small, regional, national or international can join ammado for free. Amnesty International was one of the first to join. Colm Ó Cuanacháin former Chairperson of Amnesty International’s International Executive Committee, explains why: “ammado will change how people think about the web. It will be the fulcrum that all organisations, groups and individuals use for leverage to achieve their vision for the world. ammado will be a space where communities can organise, will provide the tools and techniques needed to campaign and the audiences and activists that can make change happen."

The community management team at ammado verifies that all nonprofits are who they say they are and that they adhere to the ammado Nonprofit Policy, so you can be sure that your donations go to the people you intended them for.

Spread the word for Charity

Image via WikipediaHotelsCombined are donating $20 to charity if you take the time to spread the word about their service on your blog!

You can choose to donate to WWF, Make a Wish or World Vision.

And all you have to do is give HotelsCombined a quick write up!

Don't have a blog? Become a fan of their Facebook Page and they will donate $5.

In September they donated $155 . . . How nice is that?

HotelsCombined is a unique search engine that consumers can use to find hotel availability and rates, and to compare prices and offers from multiple merchants. Using their service, you don't have to search websites one by one to find the best deals and lowest rates. HotelsCombined does that all for you!!

Once you find the supplier suitable for your needs, they link you through to the supplier website to book directly.

What's more, they aren't paid for your booking - so you get the full picture about each hotel before you book.

So, help them spread the word - and raise some funds for your favourite Charity!

I recommend Hotels Combined and sent $20 to WWF!

FundraisingIP.com has compiled a list of the 15 most popular online fundraising applications. Well worth a look if you are planning an online campaign.

"Which one is the right one for you? First, make a list of what kind of services you need: online payments and tracking, online auctions, volunteer management, marketing, e-mail campaigns, website design and hosting? Anything else?

Then - remember that each of these services is in business to make money from the groups that sign up with them - compare services and fees of three to five of the fundraising services listed. Fees to consider are one-time setup fees, any monthly fees and per transaction fees. Some fees might be higher or lower depending on how much you collect in donation dollars.

Each of the websites below provides a variety of services, some which might be useful for your group, some won’t. Be sure you don’t pay for services you don’t need and that the customer support offered is sufficient for you. Of course, make sure the website itself appeals to you and is easy to use!"

Check out the list at FundraisingIP.com

The Internet is Key to Combating Poverty

Image by uncultured via FlickrIt was Blog Action Day on the 15th of October - some 12000 bloggers joined in the conversation about Poverty.

Here's an interesting post from DailyBlogTip on how the 'internet is giving people their voice back'.

"The Internet is basically democratizing the access to information and making the world flat. Here is what Bill Gates once said about it, and which summarizes the point well:

"If you had a choice, thirty-five years ago, between being a B student in the Bronx or a genius born in Bangalore, there is no question; your life opportunities would be so much better if you were a B student in the Bronx. You could be a super-genius in Bangalore, but you really couldn’t translate that into anything. When the world is flat, it is just the opposite. You do not want to be a B student in the Bronx, because every genius in Bangalore can now plug and play more directly than ever.""

Read the full article at DailyBlogTips

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Philanthropy is Going Digital

Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post wrote:

"...the Internet is definitely energizing philanthropy and changing the way that we give. According to the ePhilanthropy Foundation, online donations have skyrocketed, going from $250 million in 2000 to close to $7 billion in 2006."

Its not surprising really. The internet just makes it so easy. Whether you have funds to give or you're a fundraiser, there is something out there for you.

Here's a round up of the great stuff online for Digital Philanthropists:

• If you need help deciding who to give to . . . Let the Donation Dashboard help you choose.
• Are you a non-profit needing software to manage your fundraisers and keep up with your donors? Try Kimbia!
• Are you a Woman with money to give? Take a look at the Women's Funding Network and Women Moving Millions .
• Love Ebay? You'll love it even more if you take a look at Mission Fish - a fun way to fundraise or to give.
• Want to be a bit retro and hold a raffle? Visit TicketPrinting.com and get some eyecatching raffle tickets printed. You can even design your own!
• Be sure your donation really is going to a good cause with UniversalGiving. They connect donors and volunteers with top-performing, quality organizations all over the world.

What are your favourite tools for online giving?