Shelley Cohen’s Birthday Wish and Paying It ...

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.
(more…)

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.
(more…)

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.

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?

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.
(more…)

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.

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?

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.
(more…)

Les Gebhardt’s Birthday & Kiva Fundrais...

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!

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?

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.
(more…)

Birthday Wish for 9th Ward Field of Dreams...

This is the fourth in a series called Using Your Birthday for Good that kicked off Monday with Beth Kanter’s campaign for the Sharing Foundation in Cambodia and continued Tuesday with Matt Rosen’s campaign for Operation Gratitude and yesterday’s interview with Denise Wakeman and Kiva.

Today, I’m interviewing Meg Brogan. Meg’s passion for the nonprofit she ran her birthday campaign is definitely the strongest of any of the other interviews because she’s currently volunteering for 9th Ward Field of Dreams full-time! She’s also looking for work in the New Orleans area and I really want her to stay and hope she finds the right fit soon. She is passionate and engaging and it was fun to see her launch this campaign and see the results. I also have a soft spot for 9WFOD (as we’ll call it here) because it is New Orleans based and a really remarkable organization in the final stages of fundraising for a new field and track in the 9th Ward. You can learn more and (maybe even) make a donation HERE.

So here we go, an interview with Meg Brogan:

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?

I partnered with 9th Ward Field of Dreams, a nonprofit organization here in New Orleans that I volunteer for full-time. The idea for my birthday fundraising campaign really came from the Cause It’s My Birthday Campaign. It was inspiring to see the outpouring of support shown from 7 cities toward 2 people to support 1 cause. 9WFOD set up our Facebook Fundraising page about 2 weeks before my birthday and I really wanted to kick things off right and inspire others to do the same for our cause.

My fundraising goal was $2,500 for my 25th birthday. I exceeded my goal, raising $2,980!

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?

My fundraising campaign was held completely online using 3 major tools. First off, I utilized the Causes Application on Facebook to launch my birthday campaign. This application allowed me to create my own page very simply so that my friends and family could easily donate and track my progress. I could also send messages to my Facebook friends and fans of the 9WFOD cause. I also used MailChimp to quickly and easily send emails to everyone in my personal network. My initial email announced the goal of my campaign, some basics about 9WFOD, and clearly stated how to donate. I sent subsequent emails briefly updating my contacts of my progress and urging others to donate. Lastly, I used Twitter to tap into another network and spread the word about my goal. Here, I posted links to my facebook page, progress updates, and thanked donors.
(more…)

Denise Wakeman’s Birthday Campaign...

This is the third in a series called Using Your Birthday for Good that kicked off Monday with Beth Kanter’s campaign for the Sharing Foundation in Cambodia and continued yesterday with Matt Rosen’s campaign for Operation Gratitude.

Denise Wakeman is a truly remarkable woman. We first met online through a mutual passion for Kiva this past spring when I was fundraising to go to the Philippines as a Kiva Fellow. She was an immediate advocate of my fellowship and I supported her birthday campaign when she launched it. We kept in touch online and through social networks through the year and we both found ourselves at Blog World Expo in October and literally tracked each other down so we could meet in person. I’m so glad we did (proof is in the picture). So here we go, an interview with Denise:

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?

I’m a big fan and supporter of Kiva.org. As my 50th birthday approached I was thinking about ways I could leverage my online community and do some good. I have a video and details HERE.

My Kiva Lending Team is located at Kiva Challenge.

My goal was to raise $5,000 in micro loans during June 2009 – my birthday month. Though I did not meet my goal in June ($3,500 on June 30), the amazing people who joined my lending team have continued to reinvest and make new loans and in October 2009, we surpassed the goal. Today, members of the team continue to loan and the Team has reached $5,650 in loans to date

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?

My primary communication was through the internet: email to my list, blog posts, Twitter, Facebook – about 20,000+. I tweeted like crazy. Every time someone made a loan, I announced it on twitter and included a link by to my lending team page. If I knew their twitter ID, I sent them a tweet thanking them. I did blog updates and I used the messaging system on Kiva.org to thank lenders as well as post progress reports.

Many of my colleagues blogged and tweeted about the event as well. I got a lot of retweets.
(more…)

Cause It’s My Birthday Press Hits aka Mom Ar...

Really why do we do anything but to curry favor with our parents? In my case, my mom. I told her I was up to BIG things this year and that my good deeds wouldn’t go unnoticed. So see Mom! Aren’t you proud of me? At any rate, what I really want to share is that our grassroots campaign Cause It’s My Birthday is closing in just a few days (10/31 at midnight EST to be exact). We’ve kept the donations open all month in part because we’re sooooooo close to our $20,000 goal. Yes, only $1,200 shy. That’s a few clicks of the button from people like YOU. Ahem, just saying. But also because donations REALLY do keep coming in. In large part because of press, blogs, word of mouth and we figured, hey why not keep it open all month.

I wanted to give a press update then – as a follow up to THIS post on the first round of press.

• Triple Pundit by Gennefer Snowfield; It’s My Birthday and I’ll Give If I Want To
• Socialbrite Interview by JD Lasica (video seen at the top of this post); An inventive cause campaign to fight malaria
• Social Earth by Ashley: October 3rd-9th: Bring Out the Birthday PresNETS!
• LAist post by Christine Ziemba: Pencil This In: ArtNight in Pasadena and Sloane’s Birthday Bash
• Escape Hatcher podcast with Susan Baker (this one was super fun, LONG story how I know Susan but she’s one of the first five people I EVER met in LA. Ask me about it sometime. Small world); Sloane Berrent of TheCausemopolitan.com and Causeitsmybirthday.com
• Pirate Cat Radio by Steph Dub; CAUSE it’s my birthday- Fight Malaria benefit
• les pensées insouciantes a blog by Matt Rosen: GPICT – “Cause It’s My Birthday:” A Birthday Celebration and Fundraiser All in One
• Drew Meyers (a Seattle host has this to say): Help Raise Money for Malaria
• SeaMo: Connecting the Microfinance Community happily promoted in Chicago and Seattle (thanks!): Cause It’s My Birthday

Of course to everyone who twittered, facebooked, emailed, spread the word and in general rawked and made things awesome – WOW. This literally could not have happened without everyone’s support and from our nonprofit partner Netting Nations and the net manufacturer, Vestergaard Frandsen to the families you’ve helped and from Doug and I – THANK YOU.

If you liked this post you might like:
What You Can Do To Help Cause It’s My Birthday
#fightmalaria campaign update
The Fight Against Malaria Press for Cause It’s My Birthday!

Los Angeles Cause It’s My Birthday Pictures...

Los Angeles! Man were Doug and I happy to be on the 7th day, and the 7th party and to see all of you for the Cause It’s My Birthday finale! The Ecco Nightclub was a terrific host (not to be confused with The Echo, ahem you know who you are) – thank you to Jenn Laskey for hooking it up! Ecco is the old Tokio spot (epic Sunday night dance-offs were had there in a previous life) and now it’s a GREEN nightclub. GREEN IS THE NEW BLACK to be specific.

The party would NOT have happened without Stephanie Schneider and Joey Soto to start. A big hand to Lynn Langit and Robyn Cohen for their support. Marc Salsberry for taking pictures. 200+ friends for coming out to celebrate the BIG 30 with Doug and I and also soaring Los Angeles donations OVER $5,000. I mean that’s incredible.

TOTAL RAISED TO DATE: $18,102.

Hard to believe it’s all over. Feels like such a whirlwind. Until next year? Well it’s too soon to tell. More posts will be coming with lessons learned, what we loved and what we’d do differently and connecting you MORE to the cause we choose for this campaign, malaria prevention through malaria nets.

But remember, The Causemopolitan is for all things related to CAUSE-FILLED LIVING, so if there is a topic or issue you’d like me to talk about, just ask.

Cause I L-O-V-E you all,
Sloane

San Francisco Cause It’s My Birthday Picture...

San Francisco! You were our 6th party in 6 days. So Doug and I knew we could see the forest through the trees, but we weren’t quite in the homestretch. This basically meant that we were a little worse for wear but ready to pull ourselves together.

The San Francisco event could not have happened without Gerard Ramos, Jacob Mullins and Dave McMurtry. We’d like to extend a little thank you to Joe Brilliant and Jess Sykes as well for being part of the team. A huge guffaw happened two days before the event. Doug and I were literally walking out the door to the Chicago party and I got a call from the manager at SLOANE (the original venue for SF) saying they had been closed for over-capacity by the fire marshall over the weekend and still weren’t able to reopen. My cleverness at having the party at a venue with the same name as me was NOT meant to be. I sent an email to the team, suddenly we had Aubrey Sabala and Shannon Farley and a slew of other SF party hosts at the helm helping us name other spots we could try and then Gerard went after work to check out Eve Lounge and secure it for us. A younger me would have been having heart palpitations, but the grownup 30 me was surprisingly calm. “It will all work out,” I said to myself.

Work out it did! The party was packed! Everyone had a blast! We raised lots of money!

The total for San Francisco for money raised for malaria is $2140, that’s 428 nets.

The party was full of friends new and old, lots of great tech community folks, Kiva Fellows past and Kiva staff, entrepreneurs, art school friends of Doug’s and Burning Man friends too (that came dressed AS mosquito catchers…yes I’m serious look at the pictures).

Thank you San Francisco! And remember, donations close SATURDAY, so if you haven’t made you donation, there is still time!

If you liked this post you might like:

San Francisco Video Update
Los Angeles Video Update
What You Give You Will Get Back Tenfold