Volunteering, Fundraising and Social Networking

I consider myself an active volunteer, but a fledgling fundraiser. I am a long-time blogger, but a novice at social networking. Now, I am beginning to discover the ways in which these things converge.

I forget where I first read about Carlo Garcia of Living Philanthropic, but he is the Chicago blogger that wrote about donating a small amount of money to a different charity every day for a year. Microphilanthropy. As his first year ended (and he has gathered over 3,000 followers of Facebook) he kept up the momentum and changed his strategy. Carlo pointed his fans to Crowdrise, which is:

”…revolutionary. Really. Crowdrise is an innovative, crowd-sourcing community of volunteers and fundraisers that are answering the call to service, online fundraising for charity, and having the most fun in the world while doing it. Charities can use Crowdrise to raise money in new ways by turning their grassroots supporters into grassroots fundraisers.”

Social networking and fundraising. Brilliant. Crowdrise uses the GuideStar database of charities to set up accounts, so that even smaller charities that lack an online presence can use the resource.Or their volunteers can use it for them by setting up projects that support these favorite organizations.

Stopping now before I really start to sound like an advertisement. But if you would like to read more about crowdsourcing in the interest of making the world a better place, check out this article by Erica Swallow on mashable.com.

And if you decide to join Crowdrise, drop me a note – I’d love to hear about your cause!