Saverocity charity update post. We selected Stop Hunger Now as our charity for Q4. We did this by shortlisting and voting over in the Forum. I promised to assign an amount equal to all of my own credit card income from 10/1 to 12/31 to this cause. Additionally, as this charity was our first to support I elected to include anything that came in a bit before we went fully live.
Stop Hunger Now
- Physical Headquarters Location: Raleigh, NC
- Web URL: http://www.stophungernow.org/
- Starting Year: 1998
- Efficiency: 86.54% (2012 per Charity Navigator)
- Type of Charity: International hunger relief agency
- Basic Description/Mission Statement:
Mission Statement: To end hunger in our lifetime by providing food and life-saving aid to the world’s most vulnerable and by creating a global commitment to mobilize the necessary resources.
Description: Stop Hunger Now coordinates the distribution of food and other lifesaving aid to children and families in countries all over the world.Their primary focus has been on packaged meals that combine rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables and a flavoring mix including 21 essential vitamins and minerals into small meal packets. Each meal costs only 29 cents. The food stores easily, has a shelf-life of two years and transports quickly. They with international partners that ship and distribute the meals in-country.
Stop Hunger Now currently provides over 70% of its meals to support transformational development programs such as school feeding programs, vocational training programs, early childhood development programs, orphanages, and medical clinics . Their goal is to allocate 80% of its meals to transformational development programs by 2015.
This is the first time I have tried to collect money specifically for the benefit of a charity, in the past I had toyed with allocating some, but not all to causes, but now I feel that I somewhat represent the group, having spent some time exploring the shortlists with the team, and being excited to help out. Since I’ve not done this before, I’m trying to figure out the most effective way to market this, and I think if me giving up my time and money to make this work could be considered the carrot, this post could be considered the stick.
- Current Posted Revenue for Q4 = $0
Revenue does drip in at random times, so there could be some in the pipeline, but as of today, earned revenue for Q4 is zero dollars. Luckily, because I decided to look back, and assign more money to Q4 Stop Hunger Now is going to get some money. But nothing earned since Q4 launch, during which time I have added links on the credit card page for all the top cards.
I’ve said in the past that I worry about promoting credit cards, since they have risks attached. The risks do not evaporate just because I assign the income to charity. As such, I still don’t enjoy plastering posts with links in the off chance someone randomly signs up. I want a conscious decision to be made, by a sophisticated consumer. That means heading to the tab that says ‘Credit Cards’ and reviewing the options, should it be the right thing for you to do.
Additionally, if you are in favor of the idea of my donating money to charity, but not currently getting cards yourself, please consider what else you could do to help. For example, are you sharing using your social channels?
- A Favorite is nice, but does almost nothing for spreading awareness of a campaign
- A Retweet is fantastic, it shares with your network
- If you are feeling really sassy – do both. Twitter will not explode (i’ve tested this myself)
A share and a comment go a long way
You can email URLs from this site to your friends/colleagues.
Affiliate links are like tip jars (sometimes)
I do think that you should consider the overall value a blogger has offered you, for example, I think that TravelisFree is a great site with great value, and of course I love the guys here who write on Saverocity. If you appreciate their work too, you should consider giving them your link instead. On the subject of tips, I once worked for them, back in my heady youth I worked in casinos. I remember working on the craps tables and every now and then you’d have a group of players who would start tipping one another, but not the dealers working for them. Needless to say that got a bit annoying 🙂 If you are a supporter of this charity concept, but you are asking other players to tip you instead of the people working for you… that can be a bit annoying too….
Giverocity Launched
In other news, one of our Forum members, Caleb, decided that we needed a Kiva lending team. I agreed it was an awesome idea and Giverocity was born after many minutes of discussion. I’m excited to see us up to 12 Team Members, and $2,200 assigned to loans. Kiva lending teams don’t cost you money – you just decide to dedicate the action to the team, so we get to share in a group effort. If you aren’t a member of Kiva, here’s my invite link
This charity effort is only going to work if You make it happen. Let’s make a difference.
Great idea!