Click. Buy. Help.
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Posts by Click. Buy. Help.
Welcome Schoolhouse Supplies
Jan 29th
In 15 Non-Profits and Counting, I proudly announced the continued growth of Click. Buy. Help. and my plan to begin showcasing the organizations that are currently participating. Since Schoolhouse Supplies was the first group to join, it is of course the appropriate group with which to start.
Click. Buy. Help. is an innovative fundraising idea and Schoolhouse Supplies is equally innovative. After being founded in 1999, Schoolhouse Supplies has enjoyed over a decade of supporting students and teachers throughout Portland Public Schools. They operate Oregon’s first and only volunteer-run Free Store to provide teachers with the classroom supplies needed to encourage the learning process for all students. Today, they are a nationally recognized leader in the Free Store movement, which creates direct links between students and members of the community.
As an award-winning nonprofit that supports public education in Portland, their mission is targeted at helping students achieve. “To serve classrooms in need by operating a volunteer-run Free Store for Teachers, which is stocked with supplies donated by the community,” is based on the belief that every child deserves school supplies and has the right to a quality education.
Founded by Portland Public Schools parent Katie Gold, Schoolhouse Supplies has grown from serving 11 schools to all 130 Portland Public Schools. With supply drives and generous contributions of gently used supplies from leading businesses in the northwest, Schoolhouse Supplies has been able to keep their Free Store shelves stocked year round.
If you would like to help Click. Buy. Help. sustain the good work they are doing, start your online shopping from their page. There, they have all three of the big office and school supply retailers shown along with direct links to purchase the items most in need. Tell your friends and share the link to their page.
If you know of a another non-profit organization that could benefit from a new and creative fundraising idea, send them to our Contact Us page and we’ll help them get started!
BlueHost is the Best Web Site Hosting Service
Jan 7th
Click. Buy. Help. has been using BlueHost as its web site hosting service from the beginning. They have been a solid service provider and always there for me when I’ve needed to have a bullet removed from my foot. I am pleased to announce they are now available as a Click. Buy. Help. merchant.
Web site hosting service?
This may not be the usual place to shop for most of your supporters, but think of this: many of your supporters work for, or are owners of, companies. Businesses who probably have web sites. Web sites that need to be hosted somewhere. This isn’t a regular retailer found at “the mall” but is something that nearly every business needs.
The people at BlueHost are absolutely the best at providing support – something that is important to every business owner. They always solve my (self-inflicted) problems quickly and with class. I expect to be with them for a very long time. Not a mainstream fundraising idea, but not a bad one either!
If you click through from this post, Click. Buy. Help. of course earns a commission on the sale. But if you want to become a part of those earnings, give some thought to your supporter base. Do you have a group who are small business owners? Do you have “hobby bloggers” who have their own web sites? Do you have independent consultants who need solid web hosting and the best support around? If so, let me know and I’ll get BlueHost set up for your Click. Buy. Help. page!
Dave
15 Non-Profits and Counting
Dec 15th
It has been a while since I’ve posted any general information or perspectives about fundraising or non-profit trends. That is mostly because I’ve been happily busy working with wonderful organizations to get them started with Click. Buy. Help. I am pleased to say that there are now 15 organizations or sub-groups participating and it is truly rewarding to be helping these groups help others.
As a way to showcase the member organizations to each other, potential members and the general public who visit the site, I will begin an ongoing series of short focus stories for each group. Then, as new groups join, a story will be added, introducing them to the Click. Buy. Help. community.
Look for the first profile soon. They will appear in the sequence they joined Click. Buy. Help.
This is a wonderful opportunity to thank the Group of 15 for allowing me to be a part of their work. Although I don’t participate directly, I am able to provide assistance through the commissions earned on supporters purchases. Fundraising is difficult and assistance is needed from any available direction. I am pleased to be able to provide support.
Dave
Draft Email to Non-Profit Supporters
Nov 3rd
It has been some time since I published the first version of the draft letter to supporters for non-profit organizations to use to announce their partnership with Click. Buy. Help. The last one was earlier this year. The need arose recently to create a fresh version. That turned out quite nice, so it is appropriate to share it here. As always, feel free to copy, paste, edit and use as you see fit.
Open communication to your supporters is important, but then again, you know that. Educating them about your intention and giving them an easy way to help is a great one-two punch. My hope is this provides you with an easy tool to get them to act.
Dave
(Click More for entire letter)
Social Entrepreneurship – A Sentiment That Matters
Oct 9th
How to create a successful and profitable business, but give back to your community as well.
Blake Mycoskie, the CEO of TOMS Shoes has a new book, Start Something That Matters, that looks at the success of Social Entrepreneurs. As an accomplished Social Entrepreneur himself, he explores why it is not only possible, but beneficial to create a business model that is purposeful in its philanthropy. This review comes on the heels of another Click. Buy. Help. post about the Social Entrepreneur definition which was an observation of the Social Entrepreneurial spirit that lives at Click. Buy. Help.
First some background.
In just five years, Blake Mycoskie has built substantial success with his company, TOMS Shoes, that has philanthropy at its very core: for every pair of shoes he sells, he gives one pair away. He calls it “One for One.” To date, he has helped over 1 million people with the free pairs generated from a like number of sales.
In addition to TOMS Shoes, Mycoskie has launched TOMS Glasses using the same philosophy. One could argue that shoes and eyeglasses are two of the most basic needs we all have. His passion and successful business acumen are helping those most in need acquire those items. There is a certain Zen-like quality to the balance he has struck in his business model. In college, I had a Business Ethics professor that defined ethical as, “doing more More >
Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving
Jul 24th
See this on our new TRENDS page!
One of the ways Click. Buy. Help. adds value to participating non-profit organizations is through helpful resources and observations. Here is a handy index published by Blackbaud, Inc., a company that provides technology solutions to nonprofits. Their index provides a quick glimpse into giving trends. You can read more about their methodology here. They break down the stats in a number of categories, but the two that caught our attention are:
- The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving
- The Blackbaud Index of Online Giving
More >
First Increase in Charitable Giving in Three Years
Jun 29th
One of the many benefits of being involved with Click. Buy. Help. is the addition of a new and steady revenue stream. This innovative fundraising method can add to a non-profit organization’s revenue base, without taking away from existing sources. Being in a position of “increasing revenue” is where all organizations want to be.
Fortunately, there also seems to be good news overall in the world of philanthropy.
Fundraising Tips to Help Your Supporters Help You
Jun 6th
The promotion of your non-profit organization is important and complex. Your Click. Buy. Help. efforts are but a component of your overall fundraising strategies, but can be another tool in spreading the word about your work.
Are you doing everything you can to make it easy for current and potential supporters to engage with you? Does your web site stand out in a crowd? These are simple questions, but of course have many interrelated answers. Let’s approach this by asking (and have you answering) a few basic questions.
Click. Buy. Help. Determines Drobos Destinies
May 25th
Hurry! Voting ends June 17!
Click. Buy. Help. is dedicated to helping non-profit organizations earn commissions through the purchases made by their online supporters. If you are reading this post, you may already know that. What you may not know is that Click. Buy. Help. is employing a slightly different strategy for helping its member organizations. If successful, we’ll have the capacity to help not only the current members, but many, many more in the future.
Enter Drobo. Drobo? What the heck is a Drobo, you ask?
Drobo is a simple, safe, and expandable disk drive storage system that works with both Mac and Windows systems for the ultimate in file backup security. Huh? What does that have to do with helping non-profit organizations earn new sources of revenue?
The good people at Drobo are running a contest to identify the best uses of 100 Drobo storage systems. This post is my entry and if I win through voting (that’s where you come in), each Click. Buy. Help. organization will win one. We don’t have 100 organizations (yet), so there may be some distribution details to work out. However, that is a great problem to have.
Social Entrepreneur: Click. Buy. Help. Defined
Aug 21st
Posted by Click. Buy. Help. in Commentary
1 comment
Sometimes it’s easier to answer a question with an example.
Inc.com recently posted the perfect answer to the questions. In this story, they discuss the passion that is held by Scott Harrison, the founder of charity: water. (Yes, lower case and punctuated as shown.) charity: water is aptly self-described as “a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. 100% of public donations directly fund water projects.”
How can you not get behind this one?
My point of the example? It is the passion that strikes each one of us at times that can’t be explained, but grabs you and doesn’t let you go. The fulfillment I receive for my 3 cents per hour salary is priceless. I hope to grow that not just for my personal gain, but because when I make a buck, so does one of the Click. Buy. Help. organizations.
Again, I can’t explain it. I can only say that it is fulfilling to make monthly contributions to the participating Click. Buy. Help. organizations. My wish to anyone reading this is that you find your own passion to help others.
Dave