America’s Giving Challenge 2009: Let’s Get Organized!

During the next 30 days, thousands of causes will be doing everything they can to get as many people to donate as possible in the hopes of winning prize money, up to $50,000 for the overall winner. This might lead you to believe America’s Giving Challenge is all about fundraising.  It is not. It is about organizing.

Organizing is at the core of our work here at Causes.  Not the type of organizing you do when your room gets messy—in fact, after the last few weeks of nonstop work, the Causes office is a more like a Cheetos-filled monument to disorganization.  I am speaking of course about grassroots organizing, the kind that was of so much debate on Candidate Obama’s resume.

Organizing is first and foremost about empowering people, not only as a philosophy, but as a necessary tactic.  To have maximum impact with limited resources responsibility must be devolved and decentalized; one person can only do so much.  Instead of wandering the streets asking people to donate, you ask friends to commit to get their friends to donate, and hopefully some of those donors will become fundraisers themselves.

Organizing is as old as civilization itself, and the most successful movements have always been born out of and held together by the bonds of real world relationships.  Online social networks, with their representation of people’s real identity and relationships, present never before seen opportunities for organizing.

We are excited to be playing a leading role in a paradigm shift in which nonprofits are expanding from top-down direct marketing to grassroots organizing online.  This is already having the effect of leveling the playing field for individuals and smaller nonprofits, or what we like to call “equal opportunity activism”.  We are still in the early stages of this development, but as with any big change, this one can benefit from a shot in the arm.

The first America’s Giving Challenge was over a year and a half ago, when Causes and even Facebook were much less developed.  Nothing like it had ever been done, and we had no idea if anyone would even participate, much less the types of causes that would be successful.  We designed the Challenge, along with out partner the Case Foundation, to be as level a playing field as possible, and to favor causes that focused on building a vibrant grassroots organization. To this end, we made the Challenge about getting the most people to donate (you could not win by having a few people donate a lot of money).

One of the most rewarding parts of working on Causes is constantly being amazed at how creative and effective people can be in the pursuit of helping others.  The Giving Challenge last year introduced us to tireless advocates like Amy Eldridge of Love Without Boundaries, and rare diseases like Chordoma.  They were successful not by having big names, but through effectively organizing and building relationships with people by regularly communicating with members, recognizing individual contributors, and being very specific about where their donations were going.  And people got creative, from bringing laptops to classrooms and dorm parties to asking the exterminator to donate before spraying.  But perhaps most important, many of the causes that did well last time kept using these great tactics after the Giving Challenge, building ever-larger and more vibrant communities that have an impact on the world.

This year’s Giving Challenge has kept the core of what made it special last time, while making some key improvements. So I and our whole team want to encourage everyone, from high school kids to the executive directors of nonprofits, to take advantage of the opportunity presented by the Giving Challenge.  Do not be intimidated if you are inexperienced or have a small organization; the winners last year had not done this before either.  There are lots of awards out there to win, and with the daily $1000 and $500 prizes, every day is literally a new day.  And even if you do not get a cash award, the process of competing will lead you to engage your supporters and discover what you can achieve when you organize.

So to mix metaphors, I will fire the virtual starting gun: Let’s play ball!

Looking forward to the postseason,

Joe Green

Causes Co-Founder

Get started now!  Go to www.causes.com to find out more about the challenge.  You can donate to a cause already in the challenge, enter your cause or start a new cause.
Causes, the Case Foundation and PARADE Publications organized the Giving Challenge and have provided tips and suggestions to get started in the America’s Giving Challenge Survival Guide.