February 7, 2008

Dancer Raises Money with ChipIn, Twitter and YouTube to Fight Breast Cancer

Boston-based choreographer and dancer Amanda Gravel (her Social Honeycomb blog and LinkedIn profile) conducted an online fundraising campaign last year in conjunction with a November benefit concert to raise money for the fight against breast cancer.

Amanda reached out to her friends and others by using fundraising badges, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, blogs and other tools. Her campaign was successful and resulted in raising $988 online and a total of $1,650.

Here's her post about this fundraising drive, Flickr photos from the benefit concert, and a video clip:

Amanda was kind enough to answer my questions about her fundraising effort by email:

Can you provide some background about your fundraising efforts for the Susan G. Komen foundation?

Every year, The Dance Place, Inc. in Worcester, Massachusetts puts on a benefit concert where all the proceeds go to the Susan G. Komen foundation. Carolyn Pluff, the owner of the studio, has always been a mentor for me and provided a second home for all her dancers. She had had a stressful year, so I decided to surprise her at the November show with a secret piece and a check. Carolyn is very hard to surprise, but we pulled it off and in the process raised a lot of money for a worthy cause.

Why and how did you use ChipIn? Do you have to be a not-for-profit to use this application?

A friend in the social media space pointed me to ChipIn when I mentioned I wanted to do my own fundraising for the show. ChipIn was extremely easy to use. You sign up for the service, create your widget with a fundraising goal and then you can embed and link to your ChipIn campaign all across the Web. I think you can use the service for any type of fundraising--whether you're a fraternity that wants to raise money for a Spring Break trip or if a Girl Scout troop wants to raise money for a local animal shelter, you can create a ChipIn widget to help your endeavors.

How did you promote your fundraising effort?

I mainly usedTwitter to promote my fundraiser. I asked my Twitter friends to donate and to spread the word, and the response was overwhelming. I used my blog, Social Honeycomb, and YouTube to show my video and the ChipIn widget as well. Social media friends like Chris Brogan, Beth Kanter, Laura Fitton and Kyle Flaherty all posted about me and encouraged others to join in.

Did everybody pay who committed to paying? Or, the financial transaction happens on the spot? Do you first get the donations and give to your cause or does money go directly to the cause you're supporting?

The payment is through PayPal, so it's virtually immediate. The money went into my personal PayPal account and on the day of the show I wrote a check to Susan G. Komen.

What advice do you have for dancers/dance companies who want to raise money online for their upcoming performances, their outreach efforts or causes that they support?

Be sincere in your efforts. Tell a story and give people a reason to donate. Make people feel that they are part of something bigger than just handing you $10 or clicking a widget on their computer. There are so many channels and communities you can tap into as long as you are authentic and sincere in your interactions. Twitter, YouTube, Ning communities, blogs...people are out there on the Web and if you establish relationships now, you'll have a strong network of supporters in place for the time when you want to raise money, volunteers or awareness.

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