America's Giving Challenge Inspires More Than 48,000 People From Around the Globe to Donate $1.2 Million Online in Just Fifty Days

21 Feb 2008 06:01 Africa/Lagos


America's Giving Challenge Inspires More Than 48,000 People From Around the Globe to Donate $1.2 Million Online in Just Fifty Days

PARADE Magazine and the Case Foundation to Award an Additional $500,000 to the Charities and Causes of the Fundraising "Champions"

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- PARADE Magazine and the Case Foundation, along with their online donation processing partners, Network for Good and GlobalGiving, announced today the champions of the first-ever America's Giving Challenge.


The Challenge was designed to encourage the charitable use of social networking and Web 2.0 tools and to empower individuals to fundraise and build networks of caring people around the organizations and issues they care about most. During the six weeks of the Challenge, 48,000 unique donors contributed to nearly 700 charities and, with an average donation of $25, the Challenge raised a total of $1.2 million for a combination of US-based charities and globally-oriented causes. PARADE and the Case Foundation will add $500,000 to this total. Four national and four globally-oriented charities will each receive $50,000 for driving the greatest number of unique donors to contribute to their cause. An additional 100 charities will each receive $1,000 for collecting the most total donations for their cause, from all sources, during the Challenge.


PARADE's America's Giving Challenge Winners:
The $50,000 national winners, sponsored through Network for Good, include:

-- Heidi Dormody, Boulder, CO, championed Engineers Without Borders, Inc., Longmont, CO (2979 donations, $60,655 raised, plus $50,000 award);


-- Peggy Padden, Portland, OR, championed Fanconi Anemia Research Fund, Inc., Eugene, OR (2732 donations, $65,522 raised, plus $50,000 award);


-- Stephen Hollister, Tustin, CA, championed IDEA League, Afton, MN (2634 donations, $62,746 raised, plus $50,000 award);


-- Mary Parente, Rockaway, NJ, championed The 11th Hour Animal Rescue Inc., Rockaway, NJ (2448 donations, $54,358 raised, plus $50,000 award).


The $50,000 globally-oriented winners, sponsored through GlobalGiving, include:


-- Michele Martin, Philadelphia, PA, championed the Sharing Foundation/Route Out of Poverty for Cambodian Children, Concord, MA (1650 donations, $41,673 raised, plus $50,000 award);


-- Erin Kelly, Fredericksburg, VA, championed Students Helping Honduras, Fredericksburg (1639 donations, $28,796 funds, plus $50,000 award);


-- Scott Beale, Newark, DE, championed Atlas Service Corps, Washington, DC (1615 donations, $32,021 raised, plus $50,000 award);


-- Suzanne Plopper, Chester, CA, championed Friends of Burkina Faso, Washington, DC (1598 donations, $41,879 raided, plus $50,000 award).


"We were excited to see how many PARADE readers embraced this innovative effort to promote charitable giving," said PARADE President and Publisher Randy Siegel. "We look forward to building upon our first year success and making America's Giving Challenge bigger and better in the years to come."


"We are very pleased by the tremendous response to this initiative and thrilled by the way individuals and smaller nonprofit organizations embraced the Challenge -- and these technologies -- to bring giving into their daily lives and their fundraising efforts," said Case Foundation CEO Jean Case. "We are eager to begin studying the results and to share that information with anyone interested in what we believe is a new phase in the growth and importance of online giving."


The America's Giving Challenge, which started December 13, 2007 and ended January 31, 2008, asked participants to promote their own cause by creating an online charity badge, a so-called "widget" or by donating to others' badges. The widget keeps track of total donations (and dollars) and allowed Network for Good and GlobalGiving to determine the number of unique donors. Participants distributed their badges via email, on Web pages, blogs and social networking sites. Well-distributed messages spread from person to person, creating a web of unique donors that determined the ultimate winners.


Erin Kelly, a student working with Students Helping Honduras, says, "As a student organization working on a cause we feel passionately about -- providing fuel-efficient stoves for families in Honduras -- America's Giving Challenge was a great opportunity to put our ideas out there and find support, from hundreds of individuals who gave through our fundraiser to organizations such as GlobalGiving. This support is enabling us to go from hoping something can happen to being able to make a tangible difference in the lives of the people we work with."


"Winning America's Giving Challenge has energized the staff, the board, and thousands of members and friends of Engineers Without Borders - USA. The Giving Challenge inspired so many people to give -- from the student members who handed out flyers in their college towns telling people how to make a donation online to the board members and staff who e-blasted their entire address books -- all in just 9 days from when we first read about the Challenge in PARADE Magazine," said Heidi Dormody, Director of Development for EWB-USA.


To see a full list of America's Giving Challenge winners, please visit www.Parade.com/givingchallenge or www.casefoundation.org/givingchallenge,


About Parade


PARADE, the most widely read magazine in America, is distributed in more than 400 of the nation's top newspapers. The magazine, which launched in 1941, now has a circulation of 32 million and a readership of 71 million. Each Sunday in PARADE and every day at Parade.com, our mission is to connect emotionally with Americans about the issues they care most about and move them to action. For more information, visit www.parade.com.


About the Case Foundation


The Case Foundation was created by Steve and Jean Case in 1997. The Foundation invests in individuals, nonprofits, and social enterprises that aim to connect people, increase giving, and catalyze civic action. For more information, visit www.casefoundation.org.


About network for good


Network for Good (www.networkforgood.org) is the Internet's leading charitable resource, an easy-to-use, secure Web site that includes detailed listings of more than one million U.S. charities and a searchable database of more than 40,000 volunteer opportunities. Network for Good has raised more than $175 million online for more than 25,000 charities since it was founded in 2001 by AOL, Cisco Systems, and Yahoo!. Network for Good is an independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.


About GlobalGiving


GlobalGiving (www.globalgiving.org) enables individuals and organizations to find and direct funds to high-impact, grassroots projects. By aggregating many donors, GlobalGiving is creating a new source of funding for people with innovative solutions to challenging world issues. Corporate partners include eBay, Hewlett-Packard, Gap, Inc., Ford Motor Company Fund, Nike, and The North Face, among others. In addition, major funding partners include Omidyar Network, the Hewlett Foundation, the Skoll Foundation, USAID, and the Sall Family Foundation.


Source: The Case Foundation

CONTACT: Alexis Collado of PARADE,+1-212-450-7014; or Rich D'Amato of
The Case Foundation, +1-202-467-2080


Web Site: http://casefoundation.org/
http://www.globalgiving.org/
http://www.networkforgood.org/



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