Create a Causes Wish – for your birthday, wedding, marathon, bike ride, as a memorial, and more!

Use an important event in your life to change the world!  Causes Wishes are personal fundraising pledges that allow any Facebook user to create a Wish and ask their friends to donate to the cause of their choice.

We’ll walk you through really simple steps to create your wish and promote it to your family and friends.

Get started on your wish: http://wishes.causes.com

Tips

• Make it personal – pick a cause that is meaningful to you and reflects your interests. Your friends will feel more invested in supporting your cause if they know why it means something to you.
• Don’t be afraid to ask. Your friends can’t donate to your birthday wish unless they know about it!  Use our tools to send emails and set status messages, but don’t forget to talk to your friends about it, post the link everywhere you can think of, and get the word out.
• Say thank you! Don’t forget to thank your friends who donate; we’ll let you know who donated and remind you to thank them. A personalized heartfelt thank you means a lot.
• Tweet about it! Shout about it! Planning an event or birthday party? Include a link to your wish in the invite.

Tips for nonprofits and cause administrators

• Add a Birthday Wish widget to your website!
• Send a bulletin to your cause members asking them to dedicate their upcoming birthdays to your cause. Make sure to include the Birthday Wish URL in your bulletin: http://wishes.causes.com
• Send an email to your email list asking your supporters to create Birthday Wishes for you. Make sure to include the Birthday Wish URL in your bulletin: http://wishes.causes.com
• Some of our most successful birthday wishes so far have been board members of nonprofits. Make sure your board members, employees, interns, and supporters know about this opportunity!
• Use your website, Twitter feed, newsletter, e-newsletter, put it in email signatures, or use other ways you talk to your existing supporters to get the word out. The more people know about this, the more people can start fundraising for you.
• Get creative – start a contest for who can raise the most money for their birthday next month. Coordinate several supporters to all start birthday wishes and then throw a real birthday party for them.  Offer to recognize the top birthday fundraiser in your newsletter. Challenge your two top supporters to both start a birthday wish and then publicize who’s winning and encourage others to donate to one of their birthday wishes.

Cheryl Black of Convio wrote a great post on Convio’s blog about her experience with Birthday Wish. Her post, Happy Birthday to Me (and my Cause), includes several fantastic tips for both nonprofits and fundraisers. Thanks, Cheryl!