Tag: charity

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Knoxify’s Friday Five

Knoxify is an excellent example of hyperlocal group blogging. The site has a beautiful design with a pleasant balance of photos and words with easy navigation to relevant information. The topic matter is Knoxville, TN and the articles always well written. To make Knoxify even better, they’ve introduced First Friday Five to feature the wonderful non-profits in Knoxville and encourage the Knoxify readers to donate $5 to the organization.

For their first First Friday Five, Knoxify choose one of my favorite non-profits, FISH Hospitality Pantries. FISH provides food and basic staples to any person or family in Knoxville who needs it with no questions asked. People of all economic backgrounds can find themselves in tight economic positions and FISH exists to make sure that no one goes hungry. Well chosen Knoxify!

Chattanooga also has First Friday Five.

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Is $1000 for someone else not worth YOUR time?

I am really enjoying participating in The Problogger Birthday Bash Darren Rowse and Lara Kulpa have put together. I do find it a little troubling that when they offered a prize of $1000 to your favorite charity it only generated 24 qualifying entries! Now turn it around. Instead of offering a decent sum of money for someone else, offer a $20 gift certificate for yourself and they got 724 comments! (not all of those would have been qualifying but I’m not going to count). Granted, there was a prize in that post which could have gotten you $500 for yourself but winning any other prize did not disqualify you from entering the charity giveaway. Every single Problogger reader should have entered the charity giveaway!

Ok. Let me get off my soap box and add in a little rationality.

  1. The money for self contest required no effort, just a comment under the post itself with as little as one word in it, so it makes sense that the number participants would be far greater.
  2. We assume that every reader of Problogger, due to its subject matter, has a blog BUT that could be a false assumption; ergo, the participation in the money for self would be higher.
  3. Not everyone is into charities. And that’s ok. So the participation in the money for self would be higher.
  4. The charity post required a little substance and effort. Unfortunately, effort and substance do knock a lot of people out of the game. Therefore, the money for self would be naturally higher.

All that said, it does make sense that some of the other contest posts would generate more comments. But only 24 valid entries for giving $1000 away to a meaningful cause?! Surely we should have done better than that! Karthik shares my sentiment.

Life is a participation sport. Get up! Participate! Be active in your community. Vote! Go to school board meetings. Pick up trash. Bring a shopping cart into the grocery with you instead of leaving it in the parking lot. Say hi to your neighbor. Hug someone daily! Volunteer your time. Leave a legacy. Make a difference!

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I want Problogger to give STAR $1000

Darren Rowse of Problogger fame and Lara Kulpa are busy giving away $54,000 for the Problogger Birthday Bash. FreeMoneyFinanace.Com has agreed to help them by giving $1000 to the favorite (US tax deductible) charity of a person who blogs about it and has their post linked by from Problogger by 9am Sunday Oct 7, 2007 (50 minutes from now).

I would like Problogger and FreeMoneyFinance.com to give $1000 to Shangri-la Therapeutic Academy of Riding (STAR). $1000 will cover more than half the cost of a class of 4 riders for 1 session.

STAR’s mission is to foster personal growth and achievement by providing educational, recreational, and physically challenging therapeutic experiences using horse related activities for persons with disabilities.

Our oldest son, Tommy, has Asperger’s Syndrome. We blog about it at Asperger Teen. Tommy has lived a life of being told "never." He did not speak until about age 3. At age 6, we were told he would never read. At age 10, we were told he will never function in society and to lock him away in a home. The nevers go on. Tommy has surprised the world today is a well-rounded, good natured, polite 17 year old. If I never announced his Asperger’s, no one would ever guess. He has succeeded were many expected him to fail. We have STAR to thank in part for that.

Tommy rode with confidence!Tommy’s success comes from the incredible support system that surrounds him. Shangri-la Therapeutic Academy of Riding is an important part of this support system. STAR has nurtured his love of animals, given Tommy confidence, and really helped his social skills. Tommy is now hoping to go to college to study in vet school!

As an independent consultant, I have broken many of the rules required for success. As such, we live with constant cash flow problems. Without STAR’s Rider Sponsorship Program we would not be able to participate. Whenever possible, I try to encourage donations to STAR because I believe in the program and by encouraging donations I feel I have giving back where they have helped me. I do not have the means to give directly. Whenever possible, I give my time to help STAR through efforts like our Blogathon blog. I have seen many more than just my son touched by their love. It is difficult to drive through Knoxville and not see a license plate with a reference to STAR or see someone wearing a STAR t-shirt. Their success and growth can only continue through the generous donations by people like Darren Rowse, Lara Kulpa, and FreeMoneyFinanace.Com.

Please consider STAR for the $1000 charity giveaway. Thank you!