The NonProfit Times - December 15, 2007 - (Page 10)

Best Fundraisers Continued from page 9 to the breast cancer cause; are they doing embedded philanthropy in terms of educating their employees, as well as helping to educate the general public.” From there, the foundation works with the partner to determine the duration of the promotion, whether it’s seasonal, or a pilot program, and other details.“It’s really a collaborative decision…in terms of what’s going to be best around that particular product,” Drake said. “We obviously want someone that’s well respected, somebody that’s a leader in their field, somebody that can take us in front of audiences that we don’t normally reach; willing to incorporate the educational messaging as well as raise revenue for us; willing to significantly commit to the cause in terms of the dollars that they raise and the length of the relationship and getting their employees involved in volunteerism as well,” Drake said. There’s more to Komen’s cause marketing strategy and its success than just raising money.“We are extremely committed to utilizing it as a vehicle to reach new audiences, because we recognize with the things that we do alone by ourselves, there are huge pockets of the communities that we might not ever speak to,” Drake said.“Some people’s first interaction with the key messages or with the Komen Foundation is actually through our cause marketing department.” INTERNATIONAL ■ Free The Children Kids raising dollars for kids By Marla E. Nobles It was 1995.A young boy picked up a newspaper, searching for the comics and stumbled onto the headline,“Battled child labour, boy, 12, murdered.” Curious, he read on. He learned that the young victim, Iqbal Masih of Pakistan, was sold into child labor by his indebted parents. He learned that the boy escaped, and after some time began to speak out against child labor. He then learned that the boy was murdered, not for escaping, but for standing up for the rights of children. “Age does not impact the kind of social change we are capable of,” said the boy, Craig Kielburger, now 24. Kielburger said that he spoke out that day; standing in front of his seventhgrade class, article in hand, and asking his peers,“Who will help me?” What started Craig Kielburger, 24, founded that spring day Free The Children with a dozen seventh- graders has grown into the international nonprofit Free The Children (FTC), the world’s largest network of children helping children through education. And as founder and chair, Kielburger is its leader. A fourth-year student at the University of Toronto’s Trudeau Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, he said it is FTC’s mandate that young people are engaged in all aspects of the organization. According to Kielburger, 65 percent of donations 10 are from involved youth, with just 7 percent of every dollar going towards administration. FTC offers a two-year internship to recent university graduates, and the average age in the office is 24.“We do have retired teachers, an amazing accountant and some generous adult volunteers, but the spirit of the staff is youthful,” said Kielburger. FTC has engaged more than 1 million youth through its leadership programs and Youth in Action (YA) groups, based mainly in elementary and middle schools. Kielburger and company also founded Leaders Today, a sister nonprofit dedicated to teaching youth tangible skills, including public speaking, writing and researching. FTC has garnered the support of school boards across North America, and partnered with National Bank Financial, Oprah Winfrey’s Angel Network and the United Nations. FTC received three nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. Internationally, with the help of the more than 1,000 YA groups,FTC has built more than 450 schools in 16 countries; delivered 202,500 school and health kits; implemented alternative income projects to benefit more than 22,500 women; shipped $11 million (USD) worth of medical supplies to 45 countries; and provided 132,000 people with access to clean water and improved sanitation. To learn more about child labor, at 13 the Toronto native set off for India and Thailand.“I needed to see it firsthand.”Kielburger also met with Canada’s thenprime minister, Jean Chretien, to discuss the issue of trade practices, particularly imported goods made by child laborers. The media played a significant role in publicizing FTC, but participating youth are its biggest champions. “I have been fortunate enough to have spent time with amazing individuals such as Mother Theresa and former United States President Bill Clinton, but to this day our organization is helping millions of children around the world because of the dedication of young people here in North America.” Kielburger noted a Toronto daycare center that recently raised $12,000 for FTC, and Monarch Park Collegiate in Toronto that raised more than $32,000 in medical supplies for tsunami relief.“Youth are the heart and soul of the organization.” ONLINE ■ Athletes For Africa Aiming high from the bottom up By Marla E. Nobles Number 2665, Jacqueline Brower of Victoria, B.C., Canada, pledged $100 and raised $270. Michael Poffenberger, number 3, pledged $1,200 and ultimately raised $1,371 from 26 sponsors around Washington, D.C. And although George Farkas of Toronto reached only 8 percent of his $30,000 goal, the 2,626th person to register raised nearly $2,500. “We’re grassroots, bottom up,” said Adrian Bradbury, co-founder of the international nonprofit Athletes for Africa (A4A), and the first person to register online for the organization’s sophomore run of its global GuluWalk campaign. More than 5,400 people worldwide registered for the 2006 event, which according to Bradbury, became “something of a phenomenon.” The 2006 event posted an astounding 1,200-percent increase compared to last year’s, raising nearly $600,000.Additionally,via promotion on popular websites like myspace,YouTube and facebook, GuluWalk connected to thousands and eventually netted for A4A more than 15,000 unique email addresses. Bradbury and A4A co-founder Kieran Hayward kicked off a much smaller version of GuluWalk in July 2005 with a 31-day walk to promote advocacy and awareness for the children suffering in northern THE NONPROFIT TIMES Uganda.The pair completed a second walk that October, this time joined by thousands of others worldwide. “We never intended it to be a fundraising initiative,” said Bradbury, who noted they never intended GuluWalk to be an online initiative either. Bradbury and Hayward established the Torontobased A4A in early 2004. “We wanted to do something that wasn’t exporting sports, but was simply using the profile or the platform that sport provides to tell a story and raise money for sustainable development projects.” Just as A4A was getting off the ground, the two began hearing stories about the atrocities occurring in northern Uganda. After two successful walks during 2005, the second raising $40,000 and garnering worldwide interest, the partners went looking for a concept for the 2006 GuluWalk with the objective that “anybody can get involved,” said Bradbury. The theme became “10,000 reasons for hope in northern Uganda,” the platform was the Web, and the concept was in one word, grassroots. A4A created a Web page (www.gulu walk.com/main/) that would display 10,000 icons. Each gray icon would represent an individual who pledged money to GuluWalk, and using flash technology would turn black upon registration. The ingenious part: scroll over each black icon and a bubble pops up, with information Adrian Bradbury, left, about the donor. and Kieran Hayward “We got great feedback,” Bradbury said of the main page.“We also had some challenges, too. When you do something like that, in Flash, and it’s pretty robust from a user standpoint to load, you’re going to lose people. It’s about understanding your audience.” GuluWalk’s audience is largely university age and young families who are tech savvy, added Bradbury. “Everything that we’ve done we’ve really focused on or want or make sure that it’s grassroots, and that everybody has an opportunity to impact it,” said Bradbury, who calls each GuluWalk donor “the star of our campaign.” Ideally,A4A had hoped to fill each of the 10,000 spots with donors pledging $100, ultimately raising $1 million. “To go from $40,000 to $1 million, people thought we were crazy,” said Bradbury. “But we thought we might as well give it a shot, and if we fail, it’s going to be a pretty good failure.” Athletes for Africa will use 85 percent of the $600,000 raised for its programming, with 60 percent specifically for programs on the ground in northern Uganda. TRENDSETTER ■ Family Foundations Family philanthropy’s generational transitions By Marla E. Nobles Throughout the history of family foundations, the default practice has been for the family members to be leading the family’s funds, resulting in more funds directed to arts and education,and less – infinitely less – to social change.There has been very little questioning of that structure to philanthropy -- until now. Two young philanthropists, one who at age 25 gave up her $3 million inheritance to start a foundation, the other who’s worked extensively within Best Fundraisers, page 11 DECEMBER 15, 2007 www.nptimes.com http://www.guluwalk.com/main/ http://www.guluwalk.com/main/ http://www.nptimes.com

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The NonProfit Times - December 15, 2007 Say Hello To 2008, Kissin’ Cousin of 2007 Scandal Ensnares Red Cross CEO Contents Nonprofits Getting A Second Lease On Life Hot Nonprofit Auctions Is It $10, $25 or $100? The World’s Best Fundraisers Turbo-Charged Web Use Help Wanted: 640,000 Open Positions Focus On Community Impact Has United Ways Changing Donor Migration - North Putting That Spark In Your Script NPT Jobs Resource Directory

The NonProfit Times - December 15, 2007

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