Starfish Circle

Yu Gi Oh eBay Sale Recap

As an update to a previous post, we sold my son’s YuGiOh cards! It was a painless process. I encourage you all to give it a whirl.

As non profits, you have some great options:

1.) Sign up to sell items. You know the items that didn’t sell at your silent auction or have been randomly donated. Why not open it up to 222 million eBay users? You can also follow up by sending a note to your constituents to check out your on line auction. It is another soft touch to your donors/constituents and something new.

2.) You can also encourage your donors/constituents to hold their own auctions benefiting your organization.

3.) You can even outsource the whole thing, by hiring a group who will collect the items, list them and donate the appropriate percentage

Roman Garcia from eBay sent me a Powerpoint presentation walking you through the options. (See attachement.) It is pretty thorough. If you have any further questions, you find out more here.

First things first, sign your agency up on MissionFish. In San Jose there were only 9, not much of a choice for potential sellers. It is quick and easy, so just do it!

Download ebay_giving_works_fundraising_on_ebay_for_nonprofits_0107.pdf

Bloggers tackle Global Health Issues

Imagine hundreds of bloggers around the world blogging about the same issue. The potential impact is astounding. This year the BlogHer community voted to focus its energy and influence on over the next year on Global Health. Yup, that is a little broad, so they are taking a poll to help define the focus.

I have embedded the poll here, so you can vote on this very important topic too. You can check out more here. It takes a minute really and will make such a difference. I am so excited about the change we can make together!

Direct from the BlogHer site:

Go to this post by BlogHers Act leaders Cooper and Emily to learn more about how we plan to proceed, and our timeline for doing so. And most importantly: go to that post to VOTE on the specific aspect of Global Health you think BlogHers Act should tackle...or to commit that you will spearhead your own sister campaign. You can even embed the poll on your own site and encourage your readers to take it:
http://blogher.org/vote-which-global-health-issue-should-bloghers-act-champion-year

Buy Yu Gi Oh Cards on Ebay today!

Okay, this is not my standard post on Starfish Circle, but it is relevant believe me. Yesterday, I attended the Craig's List Boot Camp and attended great session on Ebay's Giving Works Program. It allows non profits to auction items directly and it also allows individuals to hold auctions and donate proceeds to a non profit of their choice.

What fantastic timing! I was just talking to my seven year old about cleaning his room and his desire to own a Wii. Well since I was not forking over the $400 for the system and he had no money, we were at an impasse. Taking out the garbage and doing extra chores are only going to take him so far (Did I mention that he is only 7?), so we thought we'd have to have a garage sale. Ugh!

But low and behold, there was ebay to save the day. We decided to put what mommy learned into action and test it out. Being a seller was fairly easy. Finding a charity on the other hand was the challenge. I was surprised to find that of the 11,000 organizations signed up that only 9 were based in San Jose, our home town and ebay's hub. Yikes! It really is easy, agencies should take the 10 minutes to sign up. You start by registering at Missionfish.

We also recorded a short fundraising video that is a new feature on ebay. Now how do you say no to a face like that?

I'll keep you all posted on how it goes and the kind folks at ebay have offered to send me the slide deck for posting that will be useful for non profits.

So go out there and bid on the Yu Gi Oh cards! Please help him clean his room!

Support this 7 year old as he cleans out his room by buying his Yu Gi Oh Cards.

Craig's List Foundation Boot Camp Roundup

Just got back from the Craig's List Foundation's Boot Camp, where 1500 mostly Bay Area social change makers gathered at UC Berkeley to get inspired, learn more about the nonprofit field and network. If you have not been before, I highly recommend it. One thing in particular, the folks that attended were a good mix of people entering the field and veterans looking for new inspiration. There were more vendors than I have seen at a non profit conference in a while. I wonder if that means we are coming out of the Internet Bubble recession - hmmm or rather that the Craig's list folks were better at partnership building outside the non profit circle than most. I think some combination of both.

I learned quite a bit, so much that many warrant thier own posts, so here are a few highlights of my take aways from today:
* Wiser Earth is building a meta site that is trying to capture info on all the world's nonprofits in one place - no smal task. Think wikipedia on the non-profit sector worldwide.
* Change.org launched earlier this year , is hoping to be the Facebook for nonprofits and the socially conscious.
* Ami Dar, founder of Idealist, on refelcting back on the trials and tribulations of being a non profit executive director/founder reminded us that "It is all about the money. If you thought you were going to get out of thinking about money by working in a non profit, you were wrong!" He also emphasized hiring only "people you like" afterall you sometime spend more time with your co-workers than your loved ones. (Great advice Ami!)
*The nonprofit sector as a whole is in big trouble if we don't get a handle on retention and recruitment of talented staff. One session focused on the challenges that lie ahead and explored a "Leadership Deficit". By the amount of interest and questions that remained untouched by the panel, it is clear this is a topic worth a whole dedicated conference.
* Allen Gunn of Aspiration and speaker of the "Weaving the Internet into Your Non profit Strategy: Best Practices for Communicating, Campaigning, and Organizing" session knows his stuff. More importanly, he is hilarious and shared his secret dream to open up a "geek bar" and share of bit of his comedy stylings! Sign me up!

It was an inspiring day! I will blog more details later.

Macy's Shop for a Cause

There is nothing I like better than an afternoon of guilt free shopping. Guilt free shopping? Heck yeah, you know shopping when I get to rationalize that part of the money I spend that day goes to the charity, specifically the charity of my choice. Now, most folks find that kind of rationalization a bit hard to pass up.

For the past few years, Macy's Department store nationally has hosted their "Shop for a Cause" day raising over 9 million last year in a single day. This year shopping day is set for Saturday, October 13, 2007. They are looking for agencies who want to participate now.

From the perspective of a non-profit, it is quite simple to take part. Basically, you download a form and sign up your agency. You are then given tickets to sell for $5.00. For every ticket sold, you keep all the profits.

What does a ticket buyer get? They get 20% or more off in certain departments. There are raffle drawings and other in-store promotions. Random shoppers off the street can buy tickets at the door. It is a fun afternoon, many shoppers make an afternoon of it - imagine soccer moms, social workers and shopaholics all in one place.

Pros and Cons of participating:
Organizations I have worked with have participated in the past with mixed results:

Pluses:
Easy to sign up.
Does not cost a cent to participate.
Immediately get cash, no waiting for check to be cut.
Can use funds any way you like, not linked to a particular project or grant.

Challenges:
*Have to actually sell tickets.
You have to first decide if it is worth the effort.
*Who leads the campaign?
Will the return from the effort be worth the time spent? Will a staff member or volunteer lead the effort?
* Is this an easy way to engage your volunteers or prior donors?
This may be a low cost/low risk easy ask to engage new donors. However, this could be burdensome if you are going back to your sole donor base. Are you risking over-asking by selling tickets?

Overall, I think for organizations that can sell tickets en masse it is well worth the effort. Schools, Girl Scout troops and children's organizations seem to do well and are able to bring out the shoppers. BTW, Macy's also does a nice job of PR on the day, which may mean their PR machine may help get your story out.

Good luck!