Play a simple word game and based on your success, rice will be donated to hungry children.

How It Works

A word appears and asks you to define it. Every definition you correctly identify donates 20 grains of rice. You're intriguing the mind, using social media tools AND giving. Talk about collaborative innovation.

There are 55 different vocabulary levels, with customized options for your own vocabulary growth...the site says that most people don't get beyond level 48. Will you be the one to reach level 55?!?

The words are also constantly evaluated on their difficulty level depending on how many people get the word right or wrong and new words are always being added.

Why

Free Rice also lists many reasons why its encourages the development of vocabulary as part of its mission in its FAQ section of its website. They include:

• Formulate your ideas better
• Write better papers, emails and business letters
• Speak more precisely and persuasively
• Comprehend more of what you read
• Read faster because you comprehend better
• Get better grades in high school, college and graduate school
• Score higher on tests like the SAT, GRE, LSAT and GMAT
• Perform better at job interviews and conferences
• Sell yourself, your services, and your products better
• Be more effective and successful at your job

Who Finances The Donation?

According to the site, the site's advertisers are the ones who actually pay for the rice to be donated. And, the site itself does not run a profit. Thus, you play, advertisers pay to be listed on the site, that money funds the rice donation.

Distribution

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) distributes the rice. The WFP works with over 1,000 organizations in over 75 countries, making it the world's largest food aid agency. When possible, WFP buys the food through the local growers and economy.

Results

From its start on October 7, 2007 to April 27, 2008, the total number of rice grains donated = 29,724,130,370! For a break down of results, click here.

More

To learn more about hunger, visit Poverty.com, an interactive site that teaches about hunger and poverty, and even tracks how many hunger deaths occur per hour through a moving, interactive map...

Other Helpful Sites include:

I completely agree with you on online giving. I was shocked when I read some of the statistics you listed on your last post.

As much as I want to research charities and other good  causes, I get so many emails every day that I don't need any more! I think this topic plays into the building relationships issue we have talked about in class many times. You need to actually find a connection, not email address, to insure more success in finding donors.

Like Libby said, I think that emails every once in a while can be beneficial, but when that is the first contact between a potential donor and the organization, that has disaster written all over it.

My company just became affiliated with a new company specializing in Church Kiosks.  I was looking for a strategic partner that could do more than just giving, just info, just small group sign up, or more than just nursery sign in.  I have found ChurchMedia.  They are a company that has some great experience in assisting churches with Kiosks, web presence or custom CRM's. The great thing about this kiosk is that it is not just a giving kiosk or whatever.  It is fully customizable and scalable.  You can use the same  kiosk to handle multiple duties AND choose to implement those functions at different times.  Anthony Coppedge, who many of you know of, is now the "Chief Technology Evangelist" for this company and has blogged about the kiosk in the past.  I would love to help develop a solution for your worship experience.

I think that one way that this on-line buying could really benefit people is that if a non-profit org. used it as a fundraiser. I think that if they took donations of gifts, or things people would buy off e bay, and then sold them, and they got all the money for the organization that would be great. I can really see someone like FHCC using this, and making a few hundred off of it. 

I belive that one of the reasons it is not working or blowing up right now, is that people have not heard about it.  The general conscience I got from the class was if they had two items in front of them they could buy, and one the profit would go to charity and the other would go to Joe Brown's pocket of course they would by the one for charity, even if it meant no tax deduction for them. 

I think this is a great idea, and hope that larger corporations start to grab on to this.

"Charities hit by falling donations over the past year yesterday welcomed figures showing online fundraiser justgiving.com had channelled more than £250m to the sector since its launch in 2001.

The Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), which advises good causes on fundraising, said the private company was enabling charities to tap Britain's youth with viral marketing and sophisticated processing technology for online donations. Smaller charities, which find it costly to raise funds and track donations, benefited the most, CAF said.

Charities need all the help they can get to target a new generation of donors after a recent drop in charitable giving. According to the latest figures from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) and CAF, the proportion of the population that gave to charity in 2006/07 dropped to 54%, down 3% from 2005/06."

Similarly to the Community Fundraiser, a charity utilises with justgiving.com the trust network of an individual to raise new donations.

Founded in 1971, Cancer Family Care (CFC) provides counseling and understanding to cancer patients and their families in the tri-state area. “Our social workers are specially trained to help individuals and families deal with the fears, frustrations, and communication difficulties that occur when cancer is diagnosed,” according to CFC.

Everyday, as all of us continue with our daily lives, routines, and careers, there are many people in the world who are struggling with the onset of a terminal illness, or perhaps the death of a loved one to a terminal illness. The physical and emotional effects of an illness such as cancer require a great amount of kindness and support. CFC works hard to provide loving care and friendships, reaching out to those who struggle with such difficulties in life. They offer group counseling, education, and emotional support to all people affected by cancer or death.

Through with Cancer Family Care, I have experienced warm, positive attitudes in everyone I have worked with. They are highly optimistic in all that they do, and friendly to work with.

I hope that echo is able to provide help for them as a token of appreciation for all they have done for so many families in need.

My Name is Noah Curran.

I have recently started a charity and it has caught wildfire amongst the internet sector. It is based on the premise of the game, "TAG" you played when a kid.

TAG or Turning Actions into Good, is a web-based non-profit charity which revolves around the kindness of strangers. The concept allows anyone to participate in a charity, regardless of financial status.

Briefly, here is how the process works: Member's would print off pre-made TAG-cards. Commit an act of kindness. Give the person a TAG-card which asks the stranger to do another act of kindness and go to the website to report about the deed that was done to them. After submitted, viewers can vote for the most touching act of the month. The leading vote getter would receive a prize and a donation towards the charity of their choice.

You're probably thinking that's great and all, but why does that matter. Well….. I entered into a contest online, though my college (Belmont University) and the idea spread virally throughout blogs and new sites world-wide. IdeaBlob (the contest) awards start-up money to the winner of this contest. I won the very first leg of the race and was immediately entered into the finals. The finals are Feb 22^nd-Feb 29^th and everyone will have to vote again.

As we both are consumed with the idea of random acts of kindness, I would love any support your following could provide!

Please feel free to contact me.

E-mail: NoahCurran@gmail.com

Also, to read more about the charity and to vote please visit my website:

TurningActionsIntoGood.com

Whatever you and your following can do to help, will be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Noah Curran

There are those who believe that $5 cannot logically have any significant impact on the well-being of their local parish, or that their one vote has very little value in a nation wide poll. However, if you break down the big picture, there are always small pieces. Without the pieces, there is no larger whole.

Like pieces of a puzzle, every act of generosity contributed to a cause is significant to the whole. You cannot expect to build a brick house without starting with the individual bricks. In the same way, you cannot expect the American Cancer Society, or the Make-a-Wish Foundation to survive on only the contributions of the extremely wealthy.

This is our goal: to make every donor aware of the impact of their generosity, however large or small, and feel appreciated for their gifts. If you felt you could make a difference with $25 to a cause you are passionate about, wouldn't you be much more likely to give??

The other day I came across a fairly new concept developed by Yahoo, called Goodsearch. It's a fairly simple concept. Goodsearch is a search engine developed by Yahoo. By choosing to use Goodsearch on your web browser, Yahoo will give a penny to your favorite nonprofit organization every time someone does a search through them. That's a lot of pennies! Again, maybe a penny sounds insignificant, but as a part of the whole, it's quite significant.

Also - Britt Bravo has a wonderful blog in which she wrote about the importance of the indivdual recently. Check out her post, "Kenya: What can one person do?" at havefundogood.blogspot.com.

How would you like to make a difference??

“Raising money for a cause these days has become much like trying to walk up a “down” escalator while it is accelerating. It’s getting tougher just to break even and much easier to fall behind. “The problem is not that [charities are] not getting new money; the problem is that they’re losing an enormous amount of money,” says Bill Levis, the author of a new pilot survey by the Urban Institute that documents the trend. Levis’ survey shows that most nonprofits post an average gain of just 10 percent each year: they lose 52 percent of their donations, which is then offset by a 62 percent gain in new or upgraded donations. In short, says Levis, nonprofits are losing almost as much as they’re gaining, pouring a river of money into a nearly open drain.

And

“Of the donors who withdrew support, 47 percent did so because they felt uninformed or unappreciated.”

Click here If you want to read the full article.

I have several questions for you to ponder upon:

• As a nonprofit, what are you doing to keep your current donors engaged and spreading the word? Request for money letters do not count.
• How open are your books? Do you show your donors where their money is going? Donors want transparency. If you do not give it to them, they will go elsewhere.
• Do you send thank you letters and emails for all donations? Even the ones as low as $25? Recently, I made small donations to numerous nonprofits. About a third did not send even an email thank you note.
• What are you doing to reward the small donors? T-shirts, DVDs, and trinkets are somewhat effective; but are boring. Think outside the box. (I’m biased. I know cash rewards always get people of all income brackets interested. They can keep the cash rewards or give them away to the charity.)
• What are you doing to make your organization different that the other 1.3 million 501(c)3 other nonprofits? For example, did you know that there are over 7,000 501(c)3 nonprofits in Cincinnati, OH?

There is an old business maxim that states to do whatever it takes to keep an existing customer………as the cost of keeping one is cheaper that the cost of getting a replacement.

Over two years ago, we started a nonprofit with a new idea...create an incentive for donors to give more to their favorite charities. After extensive listening to donors about what they wanted from their nonprofits....we created www.echoDonations.org.™

We are here to help you. Let us know how we can help.

They seem to be a fairly new tool on the Internet, but so far have 23 registered members from over 10 countries around the world. It’s an interesting concept, but seems a little vague to me.

If any of you have ever read about or considered registering with the Street Market, let me know what you think. How do they help entrepreneurs? How do they help them gain exposure and find investment opportunities? Have they had any success?

Read more at http://thestreetmarket.com. They also have a blog you can read.

But for some people, Facebook is a way to track every detail of everyone they know. They can look at pictures, find events that people attend, find who else attends their school, and much more. There's also social media sites such as LiveJournal, where writers can share some of their inner-most thoughts with hundreds of people, some they might not even know. However, the one I find the most interesting is Twitter – a place to share what’s going on in your life with people literally every 5 minutes. Is it really that important?

It’s a little odd how we feel that we can get to know someone so well through what’s seen on a computer screen. It is quite a powerful tool. The ability to share information instantly to someone who may be 500 miles away from you is amazing. For instance, this blog is a means of discussing, sharing, and questioning through the Internet. It provides a vast array of resources across the globe for many individuals. If you used appropriately, social media can be a wonderful means of learning and sharing.

I'd love to hear what you think about social media sites and their use in today's highly digitalized world!

Jason Dick, who writes for asmallchange.net, recently posted a blog discussing the use of online fundraising. Every company he interviewed stressed the importance of having an online fundraising plan. If you want to read more visit Jason's blog, A Small Change - Fundraising Blog.

I'm interested to hear your thoughts. Would you be more willing to give to non-profits if you could simply click a button...? Would you trust it? Would you be glad that there was no paperwork involved? Or would you be weary because there's no physical piece of paper to document your donations?

Food for thought...

In our books, it’s a technology tool: an active item that can be embedded onto a webpage. In other words, a widget is an advanced form of communication for the Internet. As a developing organization, we want to share our new idea with everyone! The widget is a tool that does just that.

It has been added to our webpage as well as other social media websites, such as MySpace and Facebook. It has the capability to link to other sites, such as our homepage or our blog, and can be shared with other people who have accounts with MySpace or Facebook. The following is merely a screenshot, but visit the site to "grab" the actual widget.

In a sense, the widget is a program in itself, which allows for advanced communication in a very simple, concise way. It’s physical appearance looks somewhat like a button or badge on the screen, and it contains a simple, clean message in the graphic, “echoDonations.org: Give the gifts that give back.” Check it out and tell me what you think!

It was designed to spread our message as far and wide as the Internet will allow. Anyone who finds the widget online can click it, grab it, or share it. By clicking the widget, the user is linked to our website and blog. The widget also has a feature that allows its user to “Donate Now,” a button that links directly to echoDonations’ donation page. Secondly, by choosing the option on the widget to “grab it,” they can take the widget themselves and add it to their website, if they wish to do so. Lastly, the user can “share it,” or invite others to add it to their website.

It’s a fun way to promote something you care about. With so many people out there that use the Internet, widgets are great viral marketing tools. I encourage you to use them if you wish to share your passions through the Internet! And please – use ours if you enjoy our organization and its efforts!

I’d love to hear some stories of ways you support causes you are passionate about!

My name is Michelle, the newest member to the team at echoDonations.org (echo). As a new member, I have jumped into the world of nonprofit organizations; charities, service organizations, foundations, endowments, etc. I have found a place that genuinely cares for the well-being of everyone. During my time at echo, I want to keep this blog alive, and use it as a tool to keep readers interested and updated on all of our exciting news and great opportunities.

In today’s world, nonprofit communities struggle just to maintain basic operating funds. Donor loyalty is hard to come by – donors often come and go like the wind. When funds become scarce, it hurts the simple objective of most nonprofits - assisting those in need.

Since I have been working with echo, I have discovered that a vast majority of people who donate to nonprofits are very wealthy. Celebrities often give to their favorite charities – they receive great tax breaks and a lot of recognition for their generosity. The benefits are obviously far greater for someone who donates $1,000,000 as opposed to someone who donates a mere $100.

What about the rest of the population that wants to give, but can’t afford to give away a huge amount of money? echoDonations.org has come up with an innovative, web-based solution for this particular segment of people. Through its Lifetime Cash Rewards™ program anyone can donate as little as $25 to a charity of their choice, and still receive tax benefits and cash rewards every year as the fund grows. It’s a bit like owning stock in a company and receiving a return on your investment every year for your entire lifetime. Why shouldn’t everyone have an option like this? Does it sound like something you would like to do? Being wealthy shouldn’t be a requirement in order to donate to nonprofits.

I believe that giving to those in need should be a simple, sensible process. Echo does just that—I wish everyone could see the amazing benefits of giving a small amount of money to charities and other service organizations, as it will continue to grow throughout their lifetime. Questions? Is it simple and sensible to you? Let me know what you think!

Razoo is a community united around making a positive difference in the world. Where passion leads to action, and a whole lot of collective good comes from individual contributions.

Razoo is a for-profit online community where members can create profiles, join groups, create groups, post comments, share blogs, support causes and keep updated on new events in the non-profit world. Causes include a full range from saving the ocean to aiding the homeless to international development. In turn, Razoo then donates grant money to the causes who host the most members. I encourage you to check the site out. The best past about the site is that you do not have to be a member to browse.

Razoo has recently been featured in the Washington Post. Both articles come from December 07:

1. Social Networking for Social Causes. This article talks about Razoo and other social networking applications that work for the social good.
2. Social Networking for the Socially Minded. This article provides more background on how the internet start-up began and its history.

Dear Friends of echoDonations.org

With the cold weather and hectic shopping associated with the holiday season, it’s easy to lose track of the simple things that make this time of year special. Whether it’s eating that delicious homemade holiday dinner, spending time with friends and family, or seeing the smile on someone’s face by giving them a gift; the holidays can’t be summed up by how much money you spend on someone.

For that reason, we are beginning an annual tradition of giving back to the nonprofit community by giving away 20 copies of our software. We need your help by sharing this NPO coupon with all of the nonprofits you know that need donor loyalty and on-line fundraising capabilities.

These organizations must meet the following qualifications:

• Less than two years old
• Have less than 1 million dollars in revenue

The Charity Loyalty Rewards™ software package from echoDonations.org™ gives these organizations the ability to offer Lifetime Cash Rewards™ for their donors, while collecting operating funds and endowment building donations on-line.

We believe that with your help, we can strengthen the nonprofit community and maintain the holiday spirit.

Have a Safe and Happy Holiday,

Nathan Brown

echoDonations.org

Click here for a pdf of the coupon.

Business Courier - Article!

Hot off the press! The Cincinnati Business Courier has written an article profiling echoDonations.org and our commitment to changing the online donation giving industry. Check out a pdf of the article here.

It is really exciting to see a publication write such a detailed article on us and truly understand our mission and concept.

I hope you enjoy the article, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or leave a comment!

We have completed our official press release announcing echoDonations.org™ - you can check it out over at our news section or download a pdf at this link.

I am proud to announce that, after over a year of development, echoDonations.org finally launches today, October 26, 2007.

I first met Chris Hytry-Derrington when he took a chance to meet with members of the local Association of Fundraising Professionals at their 2005 One Day Conference. I immediately believed that his ideas were valid, so when he asked me to become a sort of advisor, I never thought that it might lead to echodonations.org or any such technology. In short, I was unsure that it would work. What I saw was an unbelievably intelligent process and a driver (Chris) who had an immense amount of experience in start-up companies. When he and I reviewed, and conservatively edited the estimated outcomes (on mile-wide spreadsheets, no less) I understood the power he was about to unleash. What impressed me further was his tenacity to see it through. I have observed him in many challenging situations defending his position, and taking ideas and advice to higher levels. Today, the world gets to utilize what I think is the smartest way for nonprofit institutions to add an invisible staff person which will generate income, endowment and planned gifts all in one. There’s no place on the planet that can accomplish that, that’s why it’s internet-based. Echo is something that needs to be tried out to be appreciated.

As we go through the final stages of testing, we are almost ready to launch echoDonations.org. Keep your eyes out at the end of next week for our official launch.