Well this time we want to involve our supporters.

MaryMargaret came up with the idea of covering LMFAO’s “I’m Sexy and I Know It” rap song but changing the title to “I’m a Hero and I Know It!” It’s going to be a ‘G’-rated effort with MaryMargaret writing the new lyrics herself and of course performing the song. And it’s going to be F-U-N!!! Once our friend Leify Green heard about it he asked to do a cameo. We of course said we’d love to have him. And that gave us another idea of holding a pseudo contest where people can send in their cameos and we’ll pick the best ones to include in the actual video. If you have seen the original, there are many “Ah’s” and “Yo’s” and even a “What?”. That’s where you come in. We want to have a different person performing each “Ah” and “Yo”. To give you an idea of what we’re looking for, rather than show you the original, we will show you a Sesame Street version of it, “I’m Elmo and I Know It”.

So, if you want to be included in our video, send us a short clip of your best work. You can do any or all of the aforementioned exclamations. The idea is to be original and funny. You can even promote your biz by splashing a logo on it somewhere, or even your Twitter handle, but it still has to be done well for us to use it. If you are the shy type but still want to help, we would love for you to tweet to our fave celebs @DB_Brownie (activist Denise Brown), @RickiLake, @RichardBranson and/or any other celebrity you might think who would like to do it.

Send email to rapvideo[at]kidsareheroes[dot]org with the short video attached, and make sure you add the following text in the body of the email: ” I, <your-name> do authorize Kids Are Heroes to publish the video I sent them on <today’s date>. I understand it will be posted on YouTube and aired in a public forum.”

Have fun!!

When we first designed the house we made sure there was no cable connection in her room and never wanted a computer in there either. This was of course to protect her from “vegging out” in front of the TV and doing something that might endanger her own well being on the computer. However being brought up in a tech-savvy household has done wonders for her, and with the prevalence of wireless computers we have now succumbed to the idea that she can be trusted with a computer in her room.

Still the door being closed for long periods of time was starting to irk me. What is she doing in there? Is it something I should worry about? I decided to do something revolutionary. I knocked on her door and paid her a visit.

I must give kudos to my wife Michelle for insisting MaryMargaret have a window seat in her room when we built the house. It turns out that that window seat is her favorite spot. When I entered the room MaryMargaret was reading the second “Hunger Games” book while seated on her window seat. The windows were open and a very nice breeze was passing through. She invited me to sit down and we had a long talk about how her day went. When I asked her what else she does there was no surprise in her answer. She is either instant messaging, skypeing, or sending Facebook updates to her friends while sometimes holding several conversations at once. I remember when the complaint about teenagers was that they would talk on the phone all the time monopolizing the phone line. Now it’s different. Kids are still talking to their friends but just doing it in a different way. I personally think this is a fine way to communicate as long as it augments the face-to-face interactions the kids already have. I believe this is true in MaryMargaret’s case.

So I no longer see the closed door as a menace. I see it as an opportunity. We have made my “door knocking” a regular thing and I look forward to each and every occasion.

To the cynics out there: Please spare me the doomsday prophecies. I plan to hold on to this as long as I can.

MaryMargaret was invited to speak there and she did just that about a month ago. The Montessori school is a very small school but the room was full of kids ranging from first to eighth graders. She was very well received and the kids were extremely attentive. MaryMargaret and I both are looking forward to meeting with the children again.

The fundraiser will be in the form of an art show. All the kids from the school have created their art in support of Kids Are Heroes^® for display.  Attending adults will be charged an entrance fee of $8.00, 100% of which will go to our charity. Entrance for kids is free!! MaryMargaret and I will also be there to greet the attendees and hand out our information. This event is open to the public. So if you are in the area, please come out and support us and the kids of the Montessori School!!

Saturday, April 21st, from 10AM-2PM

The Montessori School
10807 Tony Drive
Lutherville, MD 21093
410-321-8555

Everywhere I look I read that direct mail marketing is where the bulk of the donors come from for non-profits. So why are we not putting our efforts into it?  The truth is that as long as we have existed Kids Are Heroes has never spent a dime on postage. From what the experts say in order for it to be effective you have to spend a lot of money and recruit some expertise before a campaign can be successful. In doing a bit of research, given the cost of the material, postage and the mailing list itself, if you send out 1000 pieces it would cost approximately $800-$1000 and you may get 10 responses back. Someone also suggested hiring someone to write an effective letter which exacerbates your costs significantly. As I admitted, I am no expert on the subject but I do feel that there are more efficient ways to market if you have a tight budget.

There are many people who still don’t get either Facebook or Twitter, but to me these are no-brainers for marketing because they are FREE. Yes they do take time and effort but so does any type of marketing campaign. I have stopped “preaching” about it because people will believe what they want to believe. Recently I was speaking to a business owner who said,”Yeah we tried Twitter but it didn’t work. We only had 2 check-ins on FourSquare and those were our regular customers anyway.” Now that would normally have triggered me to vehemently argue the benefits of the platform if it is leveraged properly. But I have discovered it’s almost like arguing politics with someone. They have their side of it and they rarely change their opinions.

We have owned a YouTube channel for quite some time now but until recently have used it mainly as an outpost. If you have been following our Twitter stream recently you would have noticed that we have been delving much deeper into video production for marketing purposes. This new focus was partially triggered by the folks at GivCause who have graciously offered a platform for our new videos on a weekly basis. They have asked us for 5-10 minute “shows” where we either feature our heroes or cover new and interesting topics regarding our organization.

So the one problem with video production is that it too can be very expensive. Cameras, filters, lighting and video production software can add up thousand of dollars — money we do not have. So how are we doing it?

Well let’s just say that with the help of TechSoup.org and EBay we have acquired the software and built a “studio” in our basement for less than half of what that one direct mail campaign would have cost us. And as of this writing we have produced 3 marketing videos that have collectively garnered 2297 views on YouTube and SchoolTube combined. Admittedly to my knowledge they have not translated directly into donations but I do know they have helped us with awareness immensely. And they still live on which cannot be said for direct mail pieces.

When I was looking up arguments that were pro direct mail marketing, one said, “Well there’s only so many people who will see your marketing on the Internet so you will have to get involved with direct mail marketing sometime.” This baffled me because if I had spent $1000 to get 1000 “impressions” via the mail that would have been more than twice the money I spent to get more than double the views of our videos.

So here are the Top 5 Reasons I think videos are a more effective marketing tool than direct mail advertising for non-profits.

1. Videos are more engaging. Every Friday I go to the post office to check our mail. More often than not I receive an expensive tri-fold brochure from the same non-profit in my box. Each and every time it goes directly into the recycle bin at the post office. I have heard of this non-profit but to this day I still do not know what they do. I just don’t see how you can engage with someone through a piece of paper.

2. Videos last longer. Our videos remain on YouTube indefinitely whereas mail pieces can’t be looked at again once they have been discarded to the trash.

3. Videos connect with the audience better. It is far easier to demonstrate the passion of your charity through video than it is through a brochure. People can get to see your personalities and why you care so much about it.

4. Videos can be shared. When was the last time a friend came up to you and said, “Hey, you really need to see this postcard I got in the mail from a charity!!”? Yet when we post our videos on Facebook and Twitter they get shared with others all the time.

5. Videos can reach multiple audiences.  As we approach 50,000 Twitter followers we can send them to our YouTube channel whenever we like. If I do it in the morning and then in the evening

6. Videos are FUN to produce! OK I know I said the “top 5 reasons” but I had to add in here that we are having a lot of fun producing them. In our case I do it with my daughter so we get to share ideas and spend some real quality time together. In addition these are skills that will help her immensely in life as she is comfortable both in front of and behind the camera.

Producing Compelling Videos

Sorry to disappoint those who jumped to this spot to see a definitive answer on how to produce a compelling video as I do not claim to be an expert here. It’s up to others to even say if we have hit the mark yet with one of our own.  I had lunch last week with Conrad Weaver (@conjostudios), a friend who is in the video production business, and he was very gracious with his advice. He reminded me that 5-10 minute videos are on the “too long” side for casual YouTube viewing. I was aware of this but stubbornly felt that our fans would stick it out to the end. One thing Conrad told me that I did not know is that you can track the retention rate of each video in on YouTube.  Sadly he was right, only 25% of our viewers were watching these longer videos to the end.

But that was not a deterrent for me. I knew instinctively that I would have to improve and get better from each experience. That is happening as planned so as far as I am concerned we are right on track. We do plan to keep our future videos under 3 minutes as best as we can. I also expect us to get better and better at creating interesting content. Our goal is to have one of our videos go viral one day so it can help spread the word about our organization. Any tips that you guerilla videographers out there have for us we would welcome you to leave them in the comments.

So I think with what we have we are now equipped to produce professional looking and (hopefully) very interesting videos. Look for our next one entitled “Find Your Passion” which will be our first experience with green screen technology. Feel free to ask questions if you have any.  We are using a Flip Video camera and Adobe’s After Effects among other tools to produce these videos. Here are is a sample of one of our videos that was done using After Effects. Let us know what you think.

So for all of you folks who insist we still need to get into direct mail marketing, we would love it if you convinced us as to why. But be careful, if you do this we may have to ask you for the money to fund it.

Raegan Junge, (pictured below) is a 7-year-old girl with a huge heart. Seeing the devastation suffered by the tornado victims in Joplin, Missouri and other places, Raegan had to do something. She made bracelets to sell and donated $450 for victims in Alabama. She learned of an elderly couple who had lost their home due to the destructive storm in Joplin which left them living in a shelter. The husband is a veteran. Raegan decided that she wanted to sponsor them. Her mom drove her 8 hours from Iowa to meet them personally and hand deliver the check for $1600.00 that Raegan had personally raised. (To see all of what Raegan accomplished, visit her feature on the Kids Are Heroes website here.)

So why did this picture affect me so much? Seeing the sheer devastation in the background representing lives being torn apart balanced by a little angel who had taken it upon herself to help out and do something really moved me. If the legacy of our generation is represented by shocking, tasteless and sensational reality TV that we so care about then at least there does seem to be hope for the future if Raegan and our other heroes have anything to do with it. Keep it up, young lady we are so proud of you.

15o Kids

As of this writing Kids Are Heroes features 265 children from 9 countries. We featured approximately 100 kids in 2011. Taking that up a notch seems reasonable as our profile becomes a little higher.

6 More Countries

Currently we have kids from the USA, Canada, England, Scotland, Kenya, Australia, Indonesia, South Africa and Trinidad and Tobago. Two of the countries were added recently. I think 6 new countries is a reasonable target.

3 Radio Interviews per Month

Our first one of 2012 is with Denise Brown this coming Saturday that will be aired at a later date. (And yes, this is a hint to all of you radioheads reading this.)

5 Hosted Events

So far Kids Are Heroes has had at most two events in a year. However there are three on the horizon for 2012 and why not shoot for two in addition to that?

$15,000 Raised

In 2011 we raised approximately $8000 that paid our bills and hosted a great reception for Kids Are Heroes Day, among other things. It also helped us to build up a bit of a reserve which is something we have never enjoyed before. But if we want to establish programs to fund our youth initiatives, sponsor heroes to Kids Are Heroes Day 2012 and fund a mobile website we’ll need more. We are realizing new initiatives that will gain donors outside of our social media influence which is also new for us.

5 National/International Mentions/Features

In 2011 MaryMargaret was featured in two international magazines: Discovery Girls (10th Anniversary Issue) and Girl’s Life (Dec/Jan issue). Although there are no current irons in that fire I see no reason why we shouldn’t achieve this goal.

3 Major Speeches

In September of 2011 were invited to Richmond to speak in front of 500 entrepreneur types. We hope to be invited back this year and also plan on expanding our outreach as much as we can.

25 More Relationships

In the past we have enjoyed great strategic relationships with folks who have helped us raise our profiles. We have also helped them as best as we could. This strategy may be the most important one for us to achieve our global recognition. I so look forward to meeting and working with these new people, whoever they are.

So what is the meaning of all this goal-setting? Our everyday goal is to “tell the next family about Kids Are Heroes®”. We do not sell it to anyone. Either people understand it and think it’s a great idea or they don’t. But the ones that do take advantage of what we offer end up with kids who prosper from it immensely. If we weren’t making any impact what would be the point? Having seen the impact we have made with so few resources, I expect to go on to much bigger and better things in 2012.

Yesterday I came across the following tweet delivered by John:

How to create Facebook covers for your nonprofit (template included) aweber.com/t/IsLJ8

— John Haydon (@johnhaydon) December 30, 2011

Now always being the last to upgrade my stuff, I hadn’t even adopted the new timeline in Facebook yet. But after having read his post, I felt I had better do it quick and also offer some covers of our own. The post discusses not only making covers for one’s own page, but offering a variety of them to fans so they can display them proudly and help us get our message out. This is a great way to promote our organization in a really fun way.

Not actual size. Get original from kidsareheroes.org/fbcovers

Now word has it that these covers are not supposed to be too “pushy” as far as selling anything goes or even asking for donations. And according to Facebook’s terms and conditions you cannot sell this space to anyone. I can understand the latter part but find it kind of odd that what you put on your ‘personal’ cover is anyone else’s business. However we are up to this challenge to create covers that are attractive yet as John says, “lightly branded”.

So we were off to the races yesterday. Our “so far” list of covers that are free for all to use is here on our website. If you know us well enough you will know that Michelle Maritz, an amazing artist from South Africa, has been helping us design posters and calendar pages. I took the graphic from her January calendar and made a cover out of it. I can’t wait till she and her daughter Margot send me some more original covers. Their works are so whimsical and wonderful.

Not actual size. Get original from kidsareheroes.org/fbcovers

So we would love it if you let us know what you think of our new covers. And if you use one of them let us know about it in the comments and we will “brag” about you on Facebook and Twitter. You can even vent about what you think of the new Timeline feature. Like everyone else I really get annoyed with Facebook when it consistently gives us sweeping changes like these. But this new Timeline feature is growing on me. I just hope they keep it around for more than a month.

Not actual size. Get original from kidsareheroes.org/fbcovers

As you would guess our main focus has become the Kids Are Heroes movement which has also been our passion for the last four years. We often get asked to support other causes. It’s not that we turn a blind eye — we simply cannot solve all the world’s problems and if we support too many other causes then ours will indeed suffer. So to be fair we politely recuse ourselves from all of these types of requests so that we can remain focused on the task at hand.

Something has touched our lives however, that makes us want to make an exception in this particular case. We were not asked to support this cause in this way, and that is another reason why we want to do it. Let me explain.

A few months ago, two of our heroes from Indonesia, Farah Amalia and Fara Muntu, asked us if MaryMargaret would like to become involved in a pen-pal program with orphans from their country. MaryMargaret happily agreed. How it works, is that Fara and Farah recruited youth volunteers from around the world to be involved in this program. The children from the orphanage would select their pen-pal from that group and write their letters.  Fara and Fara would translate them all into English and disperse them to their pen-pals. Now when the pen-pals wrote back, the two heroes would translate them and deliver them to the children.

I thought that this was a wonderful exercise on so many levels. MaryMargaret got several letters and she corresponded back to all of her kids. If that wasn’t enough Fara and Farah made a wonderful scrapbook of all the letters for all the pen-pals. I printed it out for MaryMargaret and my wife Michelle to see. When Michelle arrived home she saw this packet I had left for her and started reading it. The tears started flowing immediately. She said to me, “I know what I want for Christmas: to send a package to these kids!” After having read all the letters I couldn’t have agreed more.

So this is what we are going to do. So why are we telling you this? We have no interest in applauding ourselves in public. We could easily just do it and shut up about it. The reason I thought it should be shared is because of the efforts put in by our heroes in Indonesia. This is just such an innovative idea that makes a world of difference to these kids. I also wanted to share MaryMargaret’s portion of the scrapbook with our readers so you can be touched by that as well. I did get permission to do that.  Here is the link to MaryMargaret’s correspondence with the orphans.

The Al Mansyuriah orphanage in Tangerang Selatan, Indonesia has 70 children aged 7-17. The common themes in their letters are wanting to improve conditions in their own country and making their parents proud of them. Despite being orphans it doesn’t necessarily mean that their parents have died. Many of the parents gave up the children so the kids could have better lives — so that they didn’t have to live in squalor and could get an education. The letters also prove to me that kids are indeed heroes no matter where they live or what conditions they live under. All of these children have the desire to help others and their country.

So if you have taken the time to read the letters and are inspired enough to want to help us with our efforts, we offer a Donate button below. Please bear in mind that this will be done with our own money and NOT Kids Are Heroes’ as we are unable to send monies overseas as a non-profit. So in interest of transparency your donation would not be tax deductible and it will go into my personal Paypal account. But also rest assured that less the PayPal fees ALL the funds collected from this effort will go towards these orphans. We plan to send them notebooks, pencils and other school supplies, and maybe even some clothing. And if we get no donations whatsoever, we will still send them something (hopefully by Christmas), so please only donate if you are moved as much as we are. If you would rather send material things, email us here. Thank you.

Please note: We have learned that the most expensive part of this operation will be shipping charges. If any company would like to sponsor those charges, we will give them an equal value of “bricks” on the Kids Are Heroes Corporate Wall.

So we really hope that all you locals (and those within an hour’s drive or two) will make the effort to come out on Saturday (10/29/11) to the Francis Scott Key Mall, center court between 1-3PM, and check out the wonderful cupcakes and support Kids Are Heroes at the same time!!

To learn more about Moxie here is a quote from Elin the founder: “Moxie Bakery & Café combines classical European pastry art with a vision for providing young people in the Frederick community with real job skills in a real work environment.  Operated by the non-profit organization, Cakes for Cause, Inc. this small restaurant in Frederick’s historic downtown bakes a mean cupcake (among other things) with a purpose…to provide employment and skills training to young people who are transitioning out of the foster care system. Apprentices in the bakery work for six months and develop not just their job skills in a food service environment but also learn critical lessons about how to realize success in all aspects of their lives once they reach adulthood. Everything at Moxie Bakery is made from scratch in small batches and our chefs take pride in their craft and in the life lessons they teach every day. For Moxie Bakery & Cafe, it’s about much more than the cookies!”

From Lindy Angel the owner: “Sisters Lindy Angel and Jolynn Wright combine the best of flavor and artistry. In the world of cake, anything is possible and all is only a sketch away. And, did we mention cupcakes? Stop and smell the buttercream.”

Angel Cakes and Cupcakes
319 East Church Street
Everedy Square and Shab Row
Frederick, Maryland
301.898.2666
Visit website 

Check out these pictures!!