For the Love of Liz

Liz Logelin died on the 25th of March 2008, leaving behind her husband, Matt, and one day old daughter Madeline.

Matt Logelin had been writing a blog to keep friends and family up to date throughout Liz's pregnancy. He continued writing after her death and a supportive community of individuals formed around it. His blog became a place where he could share his joys, frustrations, sorrows and challenges. Where friends and well-wishers could offer support and where other widows and widowers could find friendship and comfort.

The Liz Logelin Foundation sprung from this community and has been created to offer assistance to families who find themselves in the heartbreaking, catastrophic situation of having lost a spouse, life-partner, and parent. The Foundation’s goal is to financially assist these families as they deal with the loss of their loved ones, and struggle to move forward.

You can help the Liz Logelin Foundation by joining their community of donors and donating $7 on the 7th to help families who have lost loved ones.

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.

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:

What Causes Do You Donate to?

Share your favourite charities in the comments below.

Operation NICE Comments for Charity Update

Melissa at Operation NICE raised a fantastic $115 for Children for Children with her Comments for Charity! She had 115 people leave comments - and a wonderful anonymous donor who matched the $115 that Melissa raised - so in total she was able to give a fantastic $230. WOW!

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• Dollars for Comments Results!

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