Father’s Day is this weekend on Sunday, June 19^th. It’s a day to celebrate all the dads out there – your dad, grandpa, step-dad, father-in-law, husband, etc. It’s also a day for giving that wonderful person you’re celebrating a gift that’s just as special as they are.

So do you have your Father’s Day gift ready? If not and you’re still looking for something unique and special, then consider a gift that’s not only special, but also gives back. Make it a gift of charity.

Here are some ideas:

Make a donation – Donate to a charity or fundraiser in dad’s honor. Support a charitable organization that dad likes, consider an organization that help fathers in need or find an organization that concentrates on male related causes, such as prostate cancer.

Create a fundraiser – Help dad fund his socially conscious enterprise, project or cause. Create a fundraising campaign and make it a group gift. Invite family, friends and other poeple in your network to make a donation. Everyone’s contribution will add up to a very memorable gift.

Purchase a gift that gives back – Buy products from socially conscious companies that support charities. There are many companies that donate a portion of an item’s purchase price to charity, so you can buy something great for dad while doing good for others.

But of course, don’t forget the most important gift of all – a few simple words like “I love you”, a warm hug, and a big smile

Happy Father’s Day!

Consider SocialWish for your fundraising needs. SocialWish is a fundraising platform that leverages social media. You can quickly and easily create a fundraising campaign and use built-in tools to spread the word about your campaign via social networks, as well as host your campaign on other platforms (i.e. website, blog, Facebook page).

Team SocialWish is getting ready for another annual NYC Century Bike Tour. Last year was such a great experience that we’ve decided to do it again. We’re looking forward to riding the streets of New York in the fresh open air, bonding with other riders, and pedaling in support of a good cause – Transportation Alternatives efforts to create better biking in New York City.

This year’s ride is on Sunday, September 18th and we’d love to have your support. Here’s what we’re looking for:

Sponsors – Put your company name and logo on our bike jersey for a chance to advertise your company plus support Team SocialWish. Different pricing packages are available.

Benefits to the sponsor:

• Get recognized as a socially conscious company. By supporting Team SocialWish, you’re also supporting the NYC Century Bike Tour (and Transportation Alternatives), which is a great cause.
• Gain publicity for your company during and after the bike tour, since Team SocialWish will be wearing the bike jersey at other events throughout the year.
• Feel good by knowing that you’re doing a good deed – helping to make biking better and safer in New York City.

Riders – Join Team SocialWish and ride in great company for a good cause.

Benefits to the rider:

• Get a free Team SocialWish bike jersey.
• See amazing views of New York City from the best vantage point, your bike – the tour links NYC’s breathtaking bridges and beautiful parks to its incomparable neighborhoods and famous waterfronts.
• Benefit your own health, getting great exercise in the wonderful outdoors.
• Help support SocialWish by banding with us to make the world a better place.

If you’re interested in sponsoring or riding with Team SocialWish, please contact founder@socialwish.com. You don’t have to be a resident of New York to be a sponsor or a rider.

We look forward to having you on our team!

Register for Team SocialWish

Memorial Day, celebrated on the last Monday of May, is just a few days away. Since it’s a federal holiday, many Americans will have the day off from work on Monday, May 30^th and are looking forward to enjoying a three-day weekend. It’s an opportunity for many to have a day of rest, fun and celebration, so plans for spending time with friends and family, having a picnic and firing up the grill for a barbecue, or taking a trip somewhere for a mini vacation are already in the making. But what is really the point of this holiday and why do we celebrate it?

Originally called Decoration Day, Memorial Day is a day to honor soldiers. It’s a day of remembrance for those who have died while serving in the American military, sacrificing their lives for our freedom. Many Americans still observe the true spirit of this holiday by visiting cemeteries, memorials, participating in parades, and taking a moment of silence at 3 pm local time.

Help keep the true spirit of this holiday alive by giving back and honoring all the men and women who have served our country. Here are some other things that you can do to pay tribute to those who have given so much to us:

Make it a day of service – Donate your time or money or both to an organization, individual or group. You don’t have to look far. There may be someone in your community, school or family that might be in need of assistance.

Start a fundraiser – Create a fundraising campaign to help others. Lead by example and others will follow.

Help with a fundraiser – Support someone with his or her fundraising efforts and encourage everyone in your network to get involved too.

Giving back requires only a fraction of your time – a day, an hour or even a minute. Yes, a minute. In less than a minute, you can make an online donation or spread the word about a cause via email and social media tools like Facebook and twitter, so you’ll still have plenty of time left for relaxing, barbecuing or whatever other holiday activities you have planned.

Consider SocialWish for your fundraising needs. SocialWish is a fundraising platform that leverages social media. You can quickly and easily create a fundraising campaign and use built-in tools to spread the word about your campaign via social networks, as well as host your campaign on other platforms (i.e. website, blog, Facebook page).

Last year, we experienced a lot of firsts – first official entry into the startup world, first presentation and launch of SocialWish at the DEMO conference, and first encounter with some of the challenges that entrepreneurs and startups face. Through our participation at various events, we discovered that other startups faced similar challenges and it was comforting to learn that we were not alone. We then quickly realized the benefit of a startup community, a group of people who have walked in your shoes and can lend advice and support, and in seeking such a community we experienced another first – the birth of the Third Tuesday Tech Event one year ago this month.

Meeting on the third Tuesday of every month, the Third Tuesday Tech Event brings together entrepreneurs, startups and idea people to network and share their knowledge. Participants come from diverse backgrounds and industries, with different missions and levels of experience. But all share the same interest – the desire to connect with like-minded people, find support and advice, and offer feedback and support to others.

It’s not a big event. You won’t find 50 participants attending or even 25, but that’s just how we like it. We purposely aim to gather 15 people or less in order to create a more intimate and personal experience. When attending larger events, we would find that by the end, we would end up speaking to about that number of people anyway. Plus, larger events don’t really lend themselves well to having a ”real” conversation, where you can really get to know each other. Nor do the people attending these large events always come with the intention of actually listening to other people’s issues and helping them.

When we started the Third Tuesday Tech Event, we weren’t sure how it was going to be received and if others had the same interest as us, but every month we meet new people who prove us right. Just as with our decision to create SocialWish, we’re happy we have taken the leap to create this event. We thank everyone that has attended, shared their stories and advice, and helped us build the event into the support group and startup community that it is today. We’re excited to celebrate its 1st birthday and look forward to more Third Tuesdays ahead!

For more information about the Third Tuesday Tech Event, please see the following:

• http://thirdtuesday.eventbrite.com
• http://facebook.com/socialwish
• Check the #3rdTuesday hashtag on http://twitter.com

If you would like to receive notifications about the Third Tuesday Tech Event, you can subscribe via http://thirdtuesday.eventbrite.com or send us an email with subject “Subscribe to Third Tuesday” to founder@socialwish.com

Professional fundraisers use direct response marketing techniques to maximize the success of their fundraising. You can use precisely the same techniques and not have to spend any money. Here’s how.

SocialWish provides you with essentially the same tools that professional fundraisers are using for the latest and hottest trend in fundraising…social fundraising.

Let’s use the example of raising money for a playground. Before you set up your campaign, consider the following details:

• Think about a realistic sum you want to raise.
• Can you find a corporate partner who will match the amount you raise? For example, let’s say the playground costs $3,000. Maybe ABC Corporation will donate $1,500 when you raise $1,500.
• Write down what’s important to the people who are going to donate – safety, fun for more children, a better location further from a busy road, etc. Remember what’s important to you, the fundraiser, may not be important to the person who is going to donate, so put yourself in the donor’s shoes.
• Break down the amount you want to raise into realistic pieces. For example, if the amount you want to raise is $1,500 you could say, “we need just 100 people to give $15.”
• Clearly define what the money will fund.
• Take some photos of the old playground focusing on the parts that are worn out.
• Go to the playground company’s site and see if they have photos, testimonials, and other marketing materials…videos even.

Now that you’ve done your homework, it’s time to set up the social fundraiser. Create your campaign on SocialWish and start filling in the details.

• Include photos of the old playground and the new one you’re going to fund.
• Write a benefit-driven headline. For example: Morgan Elementary’s playground is falling to pieces and will be unsafe. Let’s raise $1,500 for a new one with the latest safety features.
• Include a sub-head and give a reason to act now. For example: We need just 150 people to donate $10. The ABC Company will give us $1,500 when we raise $1,500 by June 15th. So donate now!
• Write a short description of the problems with the current playground, followed by the benefits of the new playground.
• Include a testimonial from the principal or the head of the P.T.A. and something from someone at the ABC Company.
• Make the description a conversation between you, the fundraiser, and a fellow parent you’re trying to persuade to donate.
• Use the same techniques in emails, Facebook pages, and other social media.
• Use vivid descriptions and language. For example…instead of “the playground is unsafe” write…The slide is rusted and made of old materials and your child could be on it when it collapses.
• Create anticipation and excitement.
• Include plenty about the happy outcome…When we have our new playground, we’ll have the safest playground equipment made and more children will be able to play longer. And we’ll be providing a playground for generations to follow at our school.
• Always TELL the parents and others precisely what you want them to do…go now to this page and make a donation…

These are just a few of the techniques professional fundraisers and direct marketers use.

Remember these key items:

• People buy for emotional reasons backed by logic.
• People give money because they want to help a group solve a problem.
• People respond to compelling offers.

Are you still looking for Mother’s Day gift ideas, but don’t know what to get? Perhaps you’re struggling because your mom is the type that never needs anything or she could be difficult to shop for because she already has everything. Or maybe you’re just trying to find something different or extra special for her this year. Well, here are some ideas that will help you not only please your mom, but support social good as well.

Create a fundraising campaign on SocialWish:

For your mom’s personal project or cause – Does your mom have a creative project (art, film, book, etc.) that she needs assistance with? How about a cause that she’s passionate about, like a community program? Help your mom raise money for what she’s working on or would love to start.

In support of other mothers and women in need – Consider the less fortunate. It could be a person or even a group that you know. Maybe it’s someone who is going through a hardship, someone who is without family or whose family is far away, or even someone who is a single mom. Honor them and make them feel loved by creating a fundraiser on your mom’s behalf to raise money for what they need.

In support of your mom’s favorite charity or organization – Get involved with your mom’s philanthropic interests. Support and join her efforts to give back by raising money for an organization that she’s involved in.

And if you’re a mom yourself and would love others to support social good in lieu of buying you a gift, you can ask them to do the same for you.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom’s (and mother figures) out there!

In the past, fundraising often involved setting up parties, events, fashion shows, phone-a-thons, and selling anything from donuts to wrapping paper. While effective, these methods take a lot of time and energy. Modern fundraising tools, like the ones found on SocialWish, make raising money significantly easier and enable you to conduct a successful fundraising campaign directly from your computer.

How?

Simply leverage the power and scope of your social network to raise awareness for your fundraising campaign. For example, let’s say you’re a parent and the P.T.A. has put you in charge of raising money for a new playground.

Let’s say your school has 500 children. That’s approximately 1,000 parents. Each parent has an average of 125 people in their social network (a conservative estimate) through LinkedIn, Facebook, their email database, address book, and more. So that’s at least 125,000 people you can ask for donations for the playground. And that’s before including teachers, uncles, aunts, grandparents, and everyone else who would like to help with the playground.

A social fundraising platform like SocialWish can help you leverage the power of your social network AND collect donations quickly and easily. Simply create a campaign and share the link with everyone in your database and the P.T.A.’s database. Better yet, host the campaign directly on the school’s website and have parents with blogs put the campaign on their blogs. Pretty soon you’re multiplying the number of people that see your campaign. The more you engage your network of followers, visitors and supporters, the more likely you’ll meet or exceed your fundraising goal.

Besides saving time and energy, a social fundraising campaign saves valuable resources and money. Fundraising events like bake sales or galas rely on assistance and coordination from volunteers, staff or other members. Such events also rely on goods to be provided for sale at the event. Plus, don’t forget the cost of the event space itself. This all equals to a large investment of time, money and resources that can be used elsewhere.

And what about all those people that can’t attend your event? Perhaps they have a scheduling conflict or they don’t want to pay the cover charge for the event (and see only a portion of it go towards the fundraiser). Don’t miss another opportunity to raise money for your campaign! Let your supporters “attend” and “give” at their convenience. A social fundraiser gives everyone access and the ability to donate at any time and from anywhere.

1. Stake Your Ground
Identify the problem. Explain your objective in simple language. Your mission statement should be clear and concise, informing donors about your need and how they can help. Does the library need tables and chairs for the new children’s room? Does a local artist need crates to ship paintings for a gallery show?

2. Offer a Value
Be frank. Explain how your organization is unique. Highlight your expertise and experiences in order to illustrate how you are qualified to manage this fundraiser. By emphasizing your specialization, you showcase how you are aptly skilled to solve this particular problem.

3. Keep Communications Open and Two-Way
Once you’ve crafted your message and begun focusing on donor development, keep communications open. Consider feedback both positive and negative. Your donors are more than a source of crowdfunding. They are people who care about your objective and are willing to help. Cultivate a sense of community by listening to and acknowledging feedback. Let them know their opinion matters.

4. Diversify Your Communication Methods
Communication is key. Your audience wants to know the latest developments in your fundraiser. Build off standard offline methods of direct mail and phone calls. Become interactive by employing online tools. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and social bookmarking are dynamic ways to disseminate information quickly. By utilizing multiple channels of communications, you can reach a wider array of demographics.

5. Share Your Content
Showcase your experiences and real world results. What hardships and obstacles have you faced—and overcome? How have you succeeded? What accomplishments are you most proud of? Which case studies would effectively engage and interest donors?

Then, consider how to share these experiences through pictures, video, and well-written stories, or vignettes.

6. Show Your Gratitude
Regardless of the contribution, show your gratitude. Acknowledge donors who’ve subscribed to your newsletter, posted on your Facebook fan page, or simply spread the word about your campaign. Through the community’s support and fundraising efforts, you are able to meet your objectives. Through their help, you succeed. In exchange, your gratitude acknowledges their part in that success.

Create a Distinct Goal

Project based fundraisers define their goals as an item, supply, or need. These campaigns utilize the power of crowd funding to collect donations for a specific purpose. Donations are earmarked for a particular need such as the community clinic’s new x-ray machine or the business fraternity’s scholarship that provides tuition assistance for members in need. So instead of giving money to the Girl Scouts in general, funds are directed toward the purchase of new vests. As a result, the drive’s objective become extremely transparent to the donor.

Break Down the Goal

By implementing a project based campaign, organizers of a campaign can diversify their goals into monetary and tangible parts. So, if a school needs $1,000 for new art supplies, organizers can compartmentalize the needs into $500 for paper, $300 for paints, and $200 for clay. When goals are identified, donors know where their money is going. They don’t feel as if they’re throwing it away. Instead it becomes a gift.

Think Crowd Funding for Individuals, Non-profits & Associations

Both groups and individuals can execute project based fundraisers. Non-profit organizations such as orphanages can raise money for pajamas and books. Individuals such as writers, filmmakers, and musicians can amass capital to market new books, movies, and albums. Religious communities can sponsor afternoon programs for school-aged children. By implementing project based principles, goals become manageable and attainable.

Evaluate Donor Trends

During these campaign drives, organizers may also evaluate which projects appeal to donors the most. Are people donating to disaster relief? Park benches? Abused animals? A project based fundraiser can identify trends, enabling organizers to predict future behaviors while continuing to service community needs through social philanthropy.

When I updated my Facebook status today with “I like it on the bedroom cabinet”, one of my friends was shocked, commenting immediately with “Are you OK???” and then following up with a text message to make sure that I was indeed ok and that my Facebook account wasn’t hacked! The “I like it” post obviously has a sexual connotation, which if perceived in that way, is truly out of character for me to post on Facebook. So although my friend’s reaction was a bit stronger than I expected (sorry I scared you my friend), naturally it was reasonable. However I still couldn’t help but laugh.

To my friend who deserves an explanation and everyone else out there who may not know, the “I like it” post actually answers the question, “Where do you like to put your purse?” It’s an interesting viral campaign, which seems to be working (it definitely got my friend’s attention), but why so much focus on keeping it a secret and why are only women targeted in this campaign? Although rare, men can have breast cancer too. Breast cancer doesn’t just involve the ladies. So why are men being left out? Since both sexes are affected, the question should really be more gender neutral like, “Where do you like to put your bag?” Come on men, speak up. Tell us where you like it too!

Exclusionary or not, the campaign got my attention in more ways than one, prompting me to want to take action. Not only by raising awareness, but also by learning more about the cause and helping with the fundraising efforts towards breast cancer research. As a result, I’ve created a wish to raise funds for The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. I chose this charity because it’s ranked #1 among the 5 top-rated pink ribbon charities. What makes it #1 is that over 90% of it’s funds go towards supporting the cause. Please check out my wish and take action too. Whether you choose to contribute to this important cause through SocialWish or any other website, your support is appreciated no matter where it goes.

Spread the word. Tell your friends. Get involved.