News from betterplace.org

In his article about aid to Haiti, Alexander Glück predicted that “Initiatives that aren’t engaged in Haiti will see a slump.” We have been discussing this question as well on our team, and analysing the impact at betterplace.org. More donations for Haiti means more donations for other projects What we’ve seen is actually that the opposite prognosis is the case! Compared to previous months, the numbers between the 15th and 26th of January 2010 show very clearly that many people who have donated to aid in Haiti have at the same time decided to donate to other projects at betterplace.org. Once they’re on our platform in the mood to help, they browse through other projects that may not have anything to do with emergency aid and click on the Donate button! Apparently, engagement is not just a zero-sum-game. And that makes us happy!

The betterplace LAB has now placed another Hamburg Media School production online. It is a Slidecast, a Power Point presentation that anyone can post online with an overlaying audio text. This Slidecast presentation deals with the potential of using social media for online fundraising. Which platforms offer which services to raise awareness for an organisation? What are Google Grants? And how can Facebook help with my publicity? Lean back, click on “Full Screen” and enjoy our Talking Picture. P.S. You can download other media resources—in the form of pdfs—from our cooperation with the Hamburg Media School here: The best way to present your project on betterplace AND to keep it up to date: this pdf Activating your betterplace.org project and networks: this pdf How to setup a Team on betterplace.org: this pdf

Last year we sent out out betterplace works! brochure (in German only). But we think the photos that Ostkreuz Photo School photographers made about five different projects continue to be beautiful. We only published photos from three projects in our printed version of the brochure since there are limits where paper and printing is concerned. But a blog has endless space, and therefore we are presenting photo slideshows over the next five weeks of the various projects that were documented. What do you think? Comments? Created with flickr slideshow.

EXPO in Shanghai Arriving at the EXPO sight makes you feel like you have entered a modern city with electric buses and one building is more impressive than the other. Not all of the pavilions focused on the topic of a better city as in being more environmental friendly. A visit to the astonishing Saudiarabian pavilion showed the use of digital technology to show of beautiful sceneries and architecture, but the message of a better future was somewhat lost in the technology and the WOW-feeling. The EU celebrated Europe Day with a drum party and a EU-China Youth Summit to prepare for the EU-China year of youth 2011. The youth representatives from China and the EU countries discussed together with representatives from the European Parliament and the European Commission as well as a few representatives from Chinese ministries. One of the political themes of this year’s discussion was also the topic of dealing with climate change. This is obviously an important theme for the younger generation. A panel discussion with panelists such as Jie Yu from the Climate Group’s Policy and Research Program in China and Dr Elina Bardram, climate change policy coordinator from the European Commission discussed climate change as a major challenge how ever with opportunities of more employment with green jobs and innovative ideas. Having this discussion in Shanghai was very effective due to the gray air from the pollution and the massive spread of lung cancer that has followed. Mr Gunesse, the ambassador of Mauritius in the EU also mentioned his friend’s island that is likely soon to dissapear a long with his friend’s house and millions of people are dying due to the lack of drinkable water or sanitary means. The pavilion Urban Planet was one of the few pavilions really taking the issue of climate change seriously and very effectively visually showed the visitors how we have to change our lifestyle to be able to save the environment. After visiting a lot of pavilions and spending three days basically living in this EXPO land, I started referring to the different areas of pavilions with their continents and found myself saying sentences like “I am going to take the bus down to Africa” or “I think I am going to eat in Italy today”. Leaving the EXPO feels a bit like leaving Disneyland behind and going out in the real world.

On July 13th, connected with the launch of the new feature Fundraising Events, we started with a competition. The challenge: Get as many people as possible to donate for your Fundraising Event and collect at least 250 Euros. The prize is a German Football Association jersey with original signatures of the German team. The jersey was sponsored by the organization Goals Connect - as a thank you many Fundraising Events supported their project Namibia Streetkids Gobabis. Exciting weeks lay behind us, and there was always new drive in the competition. The creators of the Fundraising Events understood: If they are not spreading the word, no donors will show up. They used all kind of channels: Face-to-face persuasion, print-out-flyers, activate a forum-community, spreading through Social Media like facebook and twitter, sending out E-Mails and SMS - and much more. The numbers proof their success: 440 people participated in Fundraising Events and collected a total amount of 6898 Euros. Now: Let’s hale the winner. The Fundraising-Event-Champion is: Fistula Fundraising Event: with 120 donors they collected 1281 Euros. The money will be forwarded to the project Help Ethiopian Women with Childbirth Injuries. Congratulations! But some more achieved a lot, especially because of their creative ideas and a lot of personal engagement. [gallery] U2 Forum Spendenaktion (82 Spender, 1638 Euro) Buchmann mit Bart (63 Spender, 701 Euro) Singing for Change (47 Spender, 390 Euro) Gib dein letztes Hemd (35 Spender, 254 Euro) Thanks a lot for everyone who participated in this competition! Pretty impressing, how much money was collected in those Fundraising Events! If you want to start your own Fundraising Event now, then what are you waiting for? Register here. If you need any help, get in touch with us via support@betterplace.org!

The flood catastrophe in Pakistan is getting worse: More than 20 million men, women and children are affected by the catastrophe – according to the United Nations the flood is much worse than the Tsunami in 2004. The next days and weeks are crucial to save lives and to relieve the distress. Together we can make a difference: Donate now! With just one Euro you make sure one victim gets first aid, 25 Euro provide food for a family of five, with 40 Euro you help to keep up hygienic standards. betterplace.org forwards 100% of your donation. UNO secretary general Ban Ki-Moon said on Sunday the catastrophe was „heartbreaking“. He has seen many natural catastrophes all over the world, „but nothing is like this one“. The dimension of the disaster is incomparable, the misery so big. Let us help and donate together. Click here to support a Pakistan project of your choice. How the disaster-management in Pakistan looks like and what effects the donations collected on betterplace.org have shows this video of the organization Shelter Box. betterplace.org also started a Fundraising Event to support Pakistan. The collected money will be forwarded to seven projects that are run by experienced organizations. Thanks to their several years of experience in international disaster relief they can guarantee that the help actually reaches those who are in need. Contribute your own part and join the Fundraising Event „Nothilfe in Pakistan“. The volume of the donations is much smaller than it was in Haiti or after the Tsunami wave. You can do something against that by spreading the word and encourage people to help. Tell your friends, family and colleagues about the Fundraising Event on betterplace.org – send an E-Mail, post the link to facebook or twitter, share the betterplace.org facebook posts – give your voice for Pakistan! Photos © German Red Cross

As you have probably heard already, we now have a new “product” on betterplace.org: Fundraising events! Everybody can start a fundraising event by his/her own choice and support an existing project on betterplace.org. What could be your event? A marathon run, where you collect money for each kilometer? A birthday party, where you ask for donations instead of presents? Shaving your head for a certain amount of donations? Jumping out of a helicopter with a parachute - for a good cause? Playing music on the streets for streetkids in Africa? Any other crazy event coming up? Make it a fundraising event! Those are the pictures of our campaign we are currently running in Germany - everybody who was involved, from the agency to the photographer and models worked pro bono. Thanks a lot, once again! You don’t understand German? Go to osocio’s webpage - they were so kind to translate it into English! We offer you all the tools you need to create your own page and to spread it among your family, friends and colleagues. Plus: we are offering E-Mail support for your fundraising event - try us! Send your feedback or questions to support@betterplace.org Note: A fundraising event is NOT a project! It supports an existing project! Everybody who wants to register a project, please go here. Organizations can of course start a fundraising event for their own projects! Go ahead,start your fundraising event now! We are excited to see your creative fundraising ideas!

By now I hope all of you have heard about our Fundraising Events and seen our brandnew posters on betterplace.org. You still don’t know which occasion is best for starting a fundraising event? No problem, we can help. These events are perfect to connect a good occasion with a good cause and a good feeling. Always a winner: Classics Birthday: Your birthday is coming up soon but you don’t really know what to wish for? How about wishing for donations for your fundraising vent instead of presents? Of course any other party works too, like a wedding or an anniversary. Marathon run: You always wanted to participate in a run, but never had the strength to do it? What if your friends would donate for your fundraising event, would you train harder then? Or are you already a passionate sportsman/-woman? Even better, then your friends could donate 1 Euro for each kilometer you run! Assuming, you make it all the way! Same goes for Triathlon or a cycling-contest. Crazy ideas can suddenly turn into successful fundraising events: Shave your head: You love your long hair, it took you ages to get to this lenght? How much do your frineds have to dnate to see you with really short hair? 100 Euro? 500 Euro? 1000 Euro? How much would they donate to see you with a short haircut? The oppsite works to - let your beard grow! Parachute jump: You are scared of heights, even when jumping into a swimming pool? There is just one single reason for which you would jump out of a plane: somebody else benefits from it. If your friends donate a decent amount of money, you’ll do it - for a good cause! Anything else that takes a little extra-strenght works, too: jumoing into the local river or lake in winter, showing up in a clown’s costume at university or eating bugs - the limit is your own creativity! Play music: Your guitar skills are quite good? Then make your talent into money. No, we do not offer record deals. For every 10 Euro donation you sing a song according to the donors wish - and proof your performance with a video clip! These are just a couple of ideas - basically anything goes which is fun, drawing interest and brings in donations. Check International Days - like Worlds Children Day - perfect to start a fundraising event for kids. Bathing in beans or take off one piece of clothes for every 50 Euro donation - the more crazy the idea, the faster people will hear about it and the faster you are getting the first donations for your fundraising event! As you might have noticed, we don’t have that many examples for English Fundraising Events yet. Start your fundraising event now and get promoted in the next blog post! Here you can start your own fundraising event right now! For more information check the file of the betterplace lab here. Send us your feedback via support@betterplace.org, via twitter @betterplace_org or via facebook on our page. Coming up next: Beautiful fundraising pages

Together we are collecting thousands of euros month per month for those who need our help the most. Not only we know that we are making a notable difference – many media channels noticed the engagement of betterplace.org. Therefore we are starting our German-wide campaign to spread the word about our „product“ Fundraising Events. Advertising? Sounds like a lot of costs! No! From the photographer to the outdoor advertising, from the magazine publisher to the advertising agency – all of them were working pro bono for us during the last week and will print our ads for free in the upcoming week. Once again: Thank you very much ! You want to know how what exactly a fundraising Event is? Click on the video, it explains how you can make your birthday special by making it a fundraising event. This is just one of many examples for fundraising events. Start your fundraising event now! It’s the perfect opportunity to connect a good occasion with a good purpose and a good feeling. Which event is right for you to call on your friends to support you in raising funds? One of many examples: For your next birthday, ask for donations instead of presents. On betterplace.org, you have more than 3.000 projects to choose from, which are just waiting for your support through a fundraising event. You can find many other ideas here, we will blog regularly about fundraising events now! Join now and start your own fundraising event! Coming soon: Beautiful fundraising pages!