Pharoth, an orphan in Cambodia, wearing a Foo Camp T-Shirt

In mid-December, I decided to enter the America's Giving Challenge and raise money for the Sharing Foundation.  The contest, sponsored by the Case Foundation and Parade Magazine, would award the winners $50,000 for their charities.   This wasn't going to be my first campaign, I had implemented four personal campaigns previously.  However, these other campaigns were for smaller goals and much shorter duration.    This contest was going to be marathon versus a sprint.

My strategy was to write one post per day that shared something I learned about fundraising on the social web, a story about one of the children helped by the Sharing Foundation, or acknowledge.  As I look back over the posts, I will have a lot to reflect on over the next few weeks after the contest is over about how to do this all better.  

The process has definitely been a valuable experience.  First, all nonprofits need to use stories as part of their communications and fundraising.  Research and studies have shown that donors are more likely to give if they are hear a story about one person who has been helped by the charity versus numbers and statistics. I now have a collection of stories about the Sharing Foundation.

That brings me to the story about Pharoth, pictured above in a Foo Camp T-Shirt.  Seven years ago, Pharoth came to the gate of Roteang Orphanage crying, with her baby brother Darith in her arms. Their mother had died and their step father had disappeared, and Pharoth was living with the baby on the earthen floor under an aunt’s house in Roteang village.

She was crying because they had no food.  She was making Darith’s feeding with one scoop of formula  powder to 11 ounces of water or sometimes just feeding him sugar cane sweetened water. They had no  clothes. The aunt would not let her go to school, which she desperately wanted to do, as she had to  care for the baby and also work picking about 30 cents worth of morning glory daily for income for her aunt.

After negotiations with the aunt, the Sharing Foundation was allowed to admit Darith to the Orphanage and to provide clothes and supplies for Pharoth to go to the local school and a small amount of money weekly to the aunt to replace Pharoth’s earnings.  With a Sharing Foundation generous sponsor who not only covers her school costs, but also provides moral support through quarterly letters,  Pharoth was able to attend an English school in Phnom Penh.

When I was invited to keynote and lead workshops at the Cambodian Bloggers Summit this summer, I collected technology and nonprofit t-shirts to bring over.  People responded generously. (so genersously that I had to pay for an extra suitcase to carry over all the t-shirts that were donated) and had enough extras to bring to the children in the orphanage.

One of the most generous t-shirt donations came from Citizen Agency from Tara Hunt  and Chris Messina who were in my BlogHer session in Chicago, "Getting It Own for a Cause."  Soon after the conference, they sent me a big box with coveted the Web2.0 t-shirts , including Tara's foo camp t-shirt that you now see Pharoh wearing.

I also created a simple "Blogger's Campaign Wiki" that I've been using to make content available and to document was being written.  What was very exciting was to read some of the creative ways that different bloggers shared the stories about the Sharing Foundation with their communities.   I'd like to point out a few because they offer a lot of valuable insights on how to engage people around a cause.

Michele Martin who writes the Bamboo Project, was one of the first bloggers to help with the campaign, setting up the Global Giving and writing many posts about the organization.  One of my favorites is her birthday card to me!   Holly Ross, NTEN, also sent her birthday wishes on her blog, along with the suggestion that people donate on my birthday.  As did Deborah Finn, Britt Bravo, Beth Dunn, Amy Jussel,and Laura Whitehead.  Christine Martell at VisualsSpeak created a hilarious screencast analysis of the photos that I used to illustrate blog posts that made onto Betsy Weber's "Screencast of the Week" at TechSmith.

Along the way, many women blogger helped by posting a call to action, including Amy Sample Ward, Audrie Schaller, Zena Weist, Rebecca Krause-Hardie, Jane Quiqley,ChelPixie, and Catherine Morgan.  Vicky Davis, Coolcat teacher blog, wrote a post that raises some great questions about using Web2.0 tools in places like Cambodia with limited Internet access.   I held a rally on Twitter which resulted in the Twitter Wall.  Connie Reece, Susan Reynolds, Jen Lemen, and Laura Fitton twittered their support.  I am also honored that Chez Pim added the Charity Widget to her blog side bar and that it is also making its way through the BlogHer Ad Network.

The America's Giving Challenge draws to a close on January 31, 2008 at 3:00 PM EST.  I am excited and hopeful, despite the fact that I be flying part of the day to attend a conference to give a keynote.  In fact, I'll be on the stage hours before the contest ends.  That makes me a little nervous because during campaigns, I'm glued to my computer. 

There has already been over $22,000 for the Sharing Foundation's America's Giving Challenge raised through the unselfish giving of over 800 people like the bloghers I've pointed to above. If you have not yet donated $10 (or more) to this important cause and asked your friends to do the same, there is only 36 hours left to donate and change a Cambodian child's life!

Beth Kanter, BlogHer CE for Social Change and NGOs, writes Beth's Blog.