BlogHer - BlogHers get creative with donation ideas for Global Giving. There's still time to act and save women's lives. - Comments

Great challenge

Denise — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 07:00:52 -0500

I certainly hope you get those 200 comments!

~Denise
BlogHer Community Manager

Flamingo House Happenings

My Own Bloghers Act Donation Challenge

smtwngrl5 — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 06:58:50 -0500

Not only have I decided to get involved and make a donation, but I'm asking my readers to help. Here's the gist from my challenge post:

For every comment I receive between May 5th and May 9th,
I'll donate $0.10 to one of the Blogher-supported organizations (for a
maximum donation of $100). That means I'll need your help to average
200 comments from unique bloggers per day. That's quite the feat for
someone who averages about 15 visitors, and even less commenters, per
day. (Note: While you're welcome to comment as many times per day as
you'd like, only one comment per unique visitor will be counted toward
the total. The goal here is to raise awareness and get as many people
involved as possible.)

I'm so excited to raise awareness and money for a wonderful cause! Bring on the comments!

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens up. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are

Amy is indeed one of my heroes Sue Walsh

Lisa Stone — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:21:43 -0500

...along with Susan Getgood, Writes Like Chocolate and all these other bloggers. There's a huge amount of change we can make together -- thank you, Amy, for all your blogging on this fundraiser!

And definitely check out Amy's links to my post, anyone who wants to grab the great widget that GlobalGiving.com cooked up for us. :)

Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder
Surfette

Thank you amamasblog! Every little bit...

Lisa Stone — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:17:42 -0500

...really does count. :) Best of luck with your online store.

Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder
Surfette

Wonderful!

Sue Walsh — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:07:25 -0500

You ladies are true heroes! What a creative and hardworking group you are. I found all of you and your projects truly inspiring. Bravo!

Wedding Tips

Global Giving

amamasblog — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:40:57 -0500

It is great there are so many bloggers willing to help out and doing so many creative things. I hope in the next two weeks even more money will be raised, and I can't wait to make the donation from my on-line store to the Global Giving Project.

Heather

A Mama's Blog

Little Pumpkin Sweet Pea Designs

BlogHers get creative with donation ideas for Global Giving. There's still time to act and save women's lives.

Amy Gates — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:46:24 -0500

It's been just over two weeks since Lisa Stone announced that BlogHers Act was teaming up with Global Giving to make a difference on the issue of maternal health and asked, "How many women's lives can we save with donations from the BlogHer community, between now and Mother's Day?"

Immediately responding to Lisa's call to action, BlogHers like Mamikaze, WhyMommy, Karianna, and SoCalMom who is "continually amazed by the accomplishments of the women of BlogHer" and challenges her readers to "show the world just what a force we really are," as well as Catherine, Broad-Sheet, and Liz all blogged it.

Nickie donated and blogged it saying, "We can use the power of our blogs to make a difference. And that's a good reason to blog. I, for one, am excited about this opportunity. The opportunity to use the privileges and rights I have to help someone who, only because she was born in a different country, needs my help."

Writes for Chocolate believes "You can be a hero." She says, "If you listen to the economists, those 'experts' on cable news will tell you the dollar doesn't buy much these days. Dig deeper, and find out that a mere $10 can cover medical care for five women and children in Nepal for a year. That's TEN dollars, FIVE people, for A YEAR. Imagine what $15 can do!" Other bloggers posted the widget in their blog sidebar, and some even Tweeted it across the Internet.

Speaking of Twitter, Corvida at SheGeeks wrote about @tedmurphy and @confessionist who said they were willing to donate to the BlogHer initiative, $25 for each new follower and up to $1000 max, within a specified time frame. @QueenofSpain was more than happy to help spread the word to her over 2,000 followers. Corvida marvels:

Talk about the power of Twitter! In this case, Twitter has become an effective substitute for "word of mouth". What might’ve been emailed, IM’d, or phoned about has now been easily and efficiently spread to hundreds of thousands of users on Twitter. Just think of how many lives may now have been saved because of this one message sent via Twitter. Though Twitter did not start out as a way for promotion or advocacy, you can’t deny that it’s an extremely effective tool for both.

Other creative donation ideas:
Average Jane suggests using some of your tax return to make a donation.

Colleen says even though the "economy is down, gas is up and people are steeling themselves for a frugal summer," she wonders how many people still indulge in a weekly or daily latte. She donated and encourages her readers to give up the $5 or $10 treat here and there and instead donate it to Global Giving as well.

In a post on my blog last week, I mentioned that I am going to donate a portion of the proceeds from my online stores to Global Giving and challenged others to consider making similar donations. Heather at A Mama's Blog took me up on my challenge and stated she will donate 50% of the sales from her online store from April 17 through Mother's Day. Anyone else want to join us in this challenge?

Lastly, Susan Getgood has some excellent advice for the "consumer companies salivating over the mom blogger segment":

If you want to reach women bloggers, especially in the United States and Canada, don't dump thousands of dollars into a big event. Devote a fraction, just a fraction, of that budget to supporting a BlogHers Act initiative. This year, the focus is on maternal health in the US, the environment in Canada, but there are other causes within this umbrella as well. I guarantee you, you will reach more people, garner more positive attention for your company, your brand, than any slick event.

When I started writing this post tonight, BlogHer had raised $1950 for the five maternal health projects. By the time I was done writing it, the total was up to $2010. Nice.
We still have two and a half weeks before Mother's Day. How much more can we raise? How will you help?

Visit Lisa's original call to action post or her excellent post on how we can work together to learn more and get started saving women's lives today. Then please leave me a comment to let me know how you are doing your part. Thank you! :)

Contributing editor Amy Gates also writes about attachment parenting, activism, green living and photography at Crunchy Domestic Goddess.