Posted by Gabe on March 2, 2011 under Kids are Heroes, Non-Profits | 
That sounds dramatic, doesn’t it? What I’m referring to is a new discovery in the realm of fund raising. I’ve openly admitted this has been the biggest challenge Kids Are Heroes has faced to date. My palms start to sweat when I think about asking for money. I’m simply not good at it. Period.
So when I saw this new idea (at least new to me) I said to myself, “I have to get that for our site!”. I stumbled across something I thought was called the Support Wall. Since I heard about that someone else told me about the new Promo Wall. The basic idea is that people buy squares on the wall for a relatively little amount of money. They can be in denominations of $25, $10 or even $5. What makes it interesting is that for that little amount they get to purchase real estate on that wall that can be used to promote their business or non-profit. The square can be hyperlinked to their web site, Twitter or Facebook account, or wherever they want it to go. They can even have a message that pops up when the mouse hovers over the image. So I couldn’t wait to sign up. The problem was that these sites weren’t going to be ready for a month or so. I loved the idea so much I built our own on the Kids Are Heroes site. We call it our Foundation Wall. People can buy three different kinds of “bricks”. 100x100px spaces are $25, 50×50 are $10 and 25×25 are just $5. Check it out in all of its glory here.
Why I feel so strongly about why this would be beneficial to us is because we are giving true value for their tiny investments. Between Facebook and Twitter we can invite more than 30,000 people to go to this page as often as we want to. We have our own traffic to send to it. It’s actually fun to see who is up on the wall and why they bought a square. We often think that $5 is so little so why won’t people donate it? The reason is because it’s too much trouble and normally you get nothing in return. Everyone’s asking for just a small donation. But If I can give $5 for a plug and a link back to my site while helping a charity on a page that will get lots of traffic, why wouldn’t I do that?
So I am encouraged by our first square purchased right away and a promise of another. (As this was being written another $25. square was also gobbled up.) It remains to be seen how successful it will be, but on paper it should be amazing. It encourages people to buy early as if they do they will be on the wall for a longer period of time. Our wall has a capacity of raising $2500 for us and when it gets filled we simply start another. There is virtually no cost to us yet the squares offer real value to our donors.
So, in the indomitable words of Peter Marshall, pick a square!!
Update 3/03/11: Well the Foundation Wall got off to a GREAT start. We sold 5 big squares last night and the reviews were very positive. This gave me another idea. Why not build a second wall for corporations? The bricks would be a bit more expensive but they would be up longer as this wall won’t get populated as fast. And at $100 for the most expensive square it’s still very reasonable. So the corporate wall is up and we have already sold 2 $100 squares!! Looks like we might be on to something…
Posted by Gabe on November 9, 2009 under Kids are Heroes |
So, how many readers out there are envious of us right now as we start our fund raising journey with a brand new non-profit? Oh, I forgot to add: in this economy? Well this is something we do not cherish as I am sure most people do not. When I was president of Wags for Hope, and we asked for people to do fund raising, no hands ever went up. Currently my now 11-year-old daughter, my wife and I make up the entire Kids Are Heroes team. But somehow we must do it or our doors cannot remain open. We have a lot of plans on how we can effect change and that goes way beyond inspiration. (To see a list of our future plans, please visit here.) So how will we do it, especially with so many other established nonprofits competing for the same donations?
I’ve always been of the sort to try new things, and that is the way I believe we must effect our fund raising. Thankfully, I have had people approach me with their unique ideas. Our kids have inspired them so much that they want to help. Mary Kate of Mary Kate McKenna Photography approached us last week about wanting to do a fund raiser for us. She plans to take holiday pictures at an outdoor location for two days this coming weekend. She is offering a 15-minute session and your choice of two hi-res pictures for just $40.00, and the entire disk can be purchased for an additional $30. Families like ours simply cannot normally afford a photographer of her caliber, but you know we signed ourselves up for a slot! It is a great value and half the proceeds will go to Kids Are Heroes. We are so thankful for that. (As of this writing there are still a few slots available – if interested click here.) Now my head is spinning to see how I can tie in other similar services. This is a win-win situation as it is simply good business for Mary Kate to do this. UPDATE -11/18/09: Mary Kate raised a grand total of $890.00 for us during this event!! Thanks SO MUCH!!!
A Twitter friend who has also been following our progress for quite some time now has also come up with a different plan to help us financially. Zephora Haddon is a social entrepreneur who has extended a very generous offer to us. She owns a company called “Amber Alert Registry”. For every family that signs up and selects our organization as the beneficiary (it will be evident how to do that on her web site), her company will donate $5.00 to us on a quarterly basis. I have also been watching her progress at the same time and she is doing great things with her organization. Those numbers can add up to a significant revenue stream for us as time progresses. To explain what Zephora’s company does, I will use her own words: “Amber Alert Registry is a secure online database that captures key information on children for parents to be empowered to disseminate the information in an emergency – whether your child goes missing, has a medical emergency, or legal or personal information needs to be on hand for caregivers and parents. We support parents living without fear, but with tools to protect their family and assist law enforcement from anywhere in the world. We have babies to university students registered, and new schools signing up every day.“ So please check it out and if you do sign up your family kindly select Kids Are Heroes as your charity of choice. Thanks so much, Zephora!!
We also plan to sell Kids Are Heroes branded items in our store to help offset costs. Currently we do have wrist bands and piggy banks available. (Great stocking stuffers!!)
UPDATE - 11/09/09: As a response to this post I was contacted by Christy Mossburg who just happens to be the mom of our very own Mandy Mossburg. (See Mandy’s Kids Are Heroes bio here.) Christy is also an Arbonne consultant. For the unaware, Arbonne makes all kinds of skin products for women. They likely do more than that, but you probably already know that too. For the entire month of November, Christy will give 100% of her commissions for all sales if you purchase from her web site, provided you put the letters “KAH” in the middle name. Even if you have trouble ordering from the site itself, you may contact Christy directly and order through her. If you mention Kids Are Heroes then she will still donate all her commissions to us as long as it is done by the end of the month! This couldn’t come at a better time since the holidays are coming up. So you can get your shopping done and know that you have helped a charity at the same time. Thanks Christy!!
I would be interested in hearing any other different ideas you might have. If you have a business that wants to help us in some way, we will be glad promote you in our Businesses section as we have others. We have seen first hand how we have affected people, both kids and adults alike. We are changing people’s lives by opening up a whole new world of philanthropy to people who may have never discovered it. With your help, we can continue to do that. Oh, and if you would like to chip in to the cause, you can do that here. Thank you.
