Shelley Cohen’s Birthday Wish and Paying It Forward

Where do I start with Shelley Cohen? Let’s see. I could talk about how I was completely enamored with her from the first time we met, in Washington DC through her longtime friend Melissa Fitzgerald and how the three of us talked into the night about Africa, Uganda, helping children there and the nonprofit the two founded, Voices of Uganda. I could mention that when I said I was going for the first time to the Democratic National Convention in Denver in 2008 that Shelley was quick on the forward button, sharing invites and insider information to help guide me through the madness and overwhelming sensation that the DNC holds. But I think if I had to choose, I would talk about Shelley’s deep commitment to her family and instilling a sense of service to her daughter and a sincere desire to make the world a better place. A longtime resident of Washington DC, Shelley is active on nonprofit boards including the National Wildlife Federation and works for a green sustainable energy company, Ameresco. A huge thank you to Shelley for this interview. It’s one of my favorites.

And of course, the birthday wish interviews have been running daily for two weeks. Huge thank you to all who participated. I have a few more to post next week and the BIG news is I also have a delivery date for my own Cause It’s My Birthday campaign for malaria nets in Ghana. So stay tuned, much more in the birthday sphere to come. Plus actionable tips to do a birthday fundraiser of your own!

The Shelley Cohen Birthday Wish Interview:

1) Tell me about your birthday and fundraising campaign. When was your birthday? Was it a milestone? What was your inspiration? What nonprofit did you partner with? Did you tell them in advance? What was your fundraising goal (if you had one) and did you reach it?

FOR MY 40TH BIRTHDAY (MARCH 2, 2008), I HAD A HUGE PARTY AT A LOCAL HOTEL CALLED 15 RIA. IN LIEU OF GIFTS, I ASKED PEOPLE TO DONATE TO VOICES OF UGANDA. I PUBLICIZED IT VERY WELL AS PART OF THE EVITE, AND INCLUDED LINKS. I WAS NOT ON FB AT THIS TIME. I DID NOT HAVE A FUNDRAISING GOAL, BUT I PROMISED TO MATCH WHAT WAS RAISED. THE PARTY RAISED ABOUT $1000, AND I MATCHED IT!

FOR MY DAUGHTER SIENNA’S FIRST BIRTHDAY ON MAY 29, 2009, WE ASKED THAT PEOPLE BRING FOOD ITEMS FOR THE DC CENTRAL KITCHEN IN LIEU OF FOOD ITEMS. WE COLLECTED 5 HUGE BOXES FULL OF FOOD!

2) Did you use online tools? Did you have a birthday party in person? What was your way to connect with people and tell them about this?

FOR THE 40TH BIRTHDAY, I JUST USED CONSTANT CONTACT (I SENT MY INVITE SEPARATELY)! NOT ON FACEBOOK THEN. FOR SIENNA’S BIRTHDAY, I USED EVITE.

3) What have you done for past birthdays?

HADN’T DONE SPECIFIC FUNDRAISERS FOR BIRTHDAYS BEFORE.
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Dev Dugal’s Birthday Wish

Dev is an amazing guy that I got to know in Los Angeles through a mastermind group that I was part of. The group continues to be some of the most dynamic and entrepreneurial people I have ever known and a terrific support group. Dev works in the restaurant/hospitality industry and so is in the amazing position of having a space that he can donate for fundraisers and to help nonprofits. The birthday campaign he talks about below doesn’t do his philanthropy justice and I’d like to thank Dev for all he does to help causes – not just on his birthday but throughout the year.

And now, the Dev Dugal interview on his birthday fundraiser:

1) Tell me about your birthday and fundraising campaign. When was your brithday? Was it a milestone? What was your inspiration? What nonprofit did you partner with? Did you tell them in advance? What was your fundraising goal (if you had one) and did you reach it?

I’ve been working with non-profits for quite some time. I realized over time which fundraising events work and which ones don’t produce. I realized that instead of bringing down the life of the party by jumping on the mic and professing the goodness of the non-profit, the structure needed to be tweaked. What has worked for me in the past is to charge people in advance or at the door and collect in advance. Spread the message about the organization thru the mediums used to invite and provide subtle reminders via auto-run presentation/DVD loop to the guests. Also a status update after the event was also fruitful.

Most people want to do good. The spectrum ranges from getting involved to simply cutting out a check. I decided I would structure my fundraising efforts around the latter and if they got more involved, it was gravy.

I’ve done about 4 events on my birthday throughout the years and they have all been fruitful. It’s a good reason to get people out when they have many choices and in the end, the non-profits win with increased exposure as well as fundraising. The organization I partnered with the most is Manav Sadhna. I had personal goals of $5,000 that I didn’t share and we reached it twice. It’s always a win-win situation.

2) Did you use online tools? Did you have a birthday party in person? What was your way to connect with people and tell them about this?

I primarily used social media to spread the word and collected general invite guest list via evite with a direct link to paypal.

3) What have you done for past birthdays?

All the events have been at bars in Southern California. My relationships allow me to generate donors for product like alcohol or deals with the bar operators for drink specials for my guests. It always works out and everyone has a great time. My motto is keep it simple with the least amount of overhead for the maximum amount of output in terms of fundraising and exposure.
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Shercole King’s Birthday Wish

Today’s birthday interview is bringing it home to New Orleans where I’m interviewing Shercole King, an all-around woman about town with a bunch of cool projects under her belt including GoodNOLA, Minority Weirdos and New Orleans Tech. I had the chance to catch up with Shercole and her birthday campaign to benefit the New Orleans Women’s Shelter. What I like most about Shercole’s campaign is that this was her first time and while the bar wasn’t set too high, she was really thoughtful about how to engage her friends and community. This interview really shows, to me, that our birthdays can be anything we want them to be if we just put it out there in the Universe.

Here we go, big thanks to Shercole for participating in the birthday interviews.

My birthday was December 4th. Not really a milestone, I made 27. My inspiration was the fact that I have everything I want and need for the most part and I just wanted to help others. I felt this was a great way to do it. The nonprofit I partnered with was New Orleans Women’s Shelter. No, I didn’t tell them in advance just went on a spur and started it up. My fundraising goals was just $270. I reached my goals, I actually exceeded I was excited. In the end I made it to $320.

2) Did you use online tools? Did you have a birthday party in person? What was your way to connect with people and tell them about this?

Yes, I used online tools. I used Facebook Causes, my Facebook profile, and my twitter accounts. No, didn’t have a birthday party. I mainly connected with my friends via social networking encouraging them to help out with this cause.

3) What have you done for past birthdays?

Past birthdays, I haven’t done much. This was my first birthday doing a fundraising cause.
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Adam Gilman’s Birthday Wish

Continuing the birthday interviews this week and we’re kicking it off with Adam Gilman. Adam is a change agent, he is passionate about leaving a positive mark on the world and through his One Cause At A Time campaign is looking to reach millions to promote causes. It’s because of Twitter that Adam first came across my radar and when I was looking for people to interview about birthdays and making it about giving and not getting, I knew Adam had to be on the list. Hope you enjoy the interview below.

I set up the September 11th Fund to support the National September 11th Memorial & Museum / World Trade Center Memorial. The 9-11 Families for a Secure America Foundation and the Courage and Valor Organization, raising thousands of dollars a month for our One Cause At A Time Program. My birthday is September 11th, a day that will forever be a day of mourning for our country. No longer special for me or a day to celebrate. Not a milestone (43) but will always be remembered in a negative way. Our fundraising activity is not a traditional one-time event but an on going monthly process utilizing the power of online commerce. We have partnered with the Together We Can Change the World Foundation which supports our causes plus at least 12 others directly and thousands of others indirectly on a monthly basis..

2) Did you use online tools? Did you have a birthday party in person? What was your way to connect with people and tell them about this?

We use online social networking sites such as Ning.com, Twitter, and Facebook to develop awareness to our One Cause At A Time program.
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Les Gebhardt’s Birthday & Kiva Fundraiser

This is the fifth in a series called Using Your Birthday for Good.Monday was Beth Kanter’s campaign for the Sharing Foundation in Cambodia; Tuesday with Matt Rosen’s campaign for Operation Gratitude; Wednesday with Denise Wakeman and Kiva and Thursday with Meg Brogan and 9th Ward Field of Dreams.

Today, I’m interviewing Les Gebhardt who had a 45th birthday fundraiser to benefit Kiva. Les is someone who I first came across when I got a google alert for my name from his blog. I clicked on the link and wouldn’t you know, it was about a birthday campaign. It was such a nice post and reflection on how Cause It’s My Birthday had inspired him and moved me to get in touch with him, connect and say hi. Because that’s what this crazy internet is for. Connecting and saying hello. I’m glad I did.

Les graciously answered my questions below. Check it out and then stay tuned for MORE birthday fundraiser interviews next week. That’s right, more good info and personal stories coming your way!

My birthday was December 1.

I turned 45.

My inspiration was 3-fold: your “causeitsmybday” campaign, the Movember campaign to raise money for childrens cancer research and the Lance Armstrong foundation which a friend and part of the Nashville “geek” community joined as a team to grow mustaches for the month of November with “support” via donations, and my HS aged daughter and her own activist work to get the presidential candidates to pledge to get our troops out of Iraq as well as her new commitment to environmental awareness thru a campaign to get families to pledge to live a greener lifestyle.

I chose Kiva.org and created a Kiva Team: Team Forty Five.

My goal, initially, is $450.00 by the end of the month. I plan on carrying this forward to raise, hopefully, much more than $450.00 for the whole year. I just figured $450.00 was doable by the end of the month since I’ve never done this before. I have yet to reach the goal.

2) Did you use online tools? Did you have a birthday party in person? What was your way to connect with people and tell them about this?

I used the following: my blog, where I set up a special page with links to Kiva, my Kiva team and a paypal donation button for folks that didn’t want to donate the minimum $25.00 to Kiva directly.

I also used the Causes app within Facebook to get the ball rolling.

I have used, and continue to use Twitter to relink to my blog posts and my page to try and spread the word. Unfortunately, I didn’t plan any parties although I would do this if I was better organized.
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