charity posts

Filed under: Blogging

Today's the day: Blame Drew's Cancer with the all-day Blame-A-Thon!

by Adam Maras Sep 9th 2009

A few months ago, we brought you news of Download Squad's long time friend and blogger Drew Olanoff's Hodgkin's Lymphoma, as well as his efforts to get everyone to blame everything on it. Since then, almost 12,000 people have credited Drew's cancer with more than 26,000 of their unfortunate or ridiculous happenings.

At midnight this morning, Drew and his crew of blamers kicked off the Blame Drew's Cancer Blame-A-Thon party/benefit concert in Philadelphia. The blame games will go on for 24 hours, during which time Drew and company will be Livestreaming the event for all to watch and chat about.

The Blame Drew's Cancer team has put together a few ways of helping to support LiveStrong during the Blame-A-Thon; blamers in Philadelphia can purchase tickets to the second portion of the event, which will be located at North Star Bar and begin at noon. Supporters can also purchase a raffle ticket for a Twitter raffle going on during all 24 hours of the event. If you simply want to donate, the blame squad encourages you to donate directly to LiveStrong on behalf of Blame Drew's Cancer.

Tags: cancer, charity, donations, drew olanoff, DrewOlanoff, livestrong, support

Filed under: Blogging, Social Software

We're going to Blame Drew's Cancer for everything

by Grant Robertson Jun 4th 2009

Longtime Download Squad lovers and fans may be shocked to hear that our occasional blogger and always friend Drew Olanoff has been diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Anyone who knows Drew knows full well his incredible personality is immutable, and likely won't be surprised to find that a bit of serious health news hasn't dampened it in the slightest.

Enter Blame Drew's Cancer, Since diagnosed, Drew says he's been blaming absolutely everything on his cancer. "Losing his keys, misplacing his wallet, Twitter being slow, the Phillies losing, etc. Why? Because you have to beat up on Cancer to win.."

And beat up on cancer we shall! You can show your support for Drew (and get your tweet on the Blame Drew's Cancer site) by using the Twitter hashtag #blamedrewscancer.

If you're in a position to be a person of charitable influence, Blame Drew's Cancer is looking for a sponsor or sponsors to donate to the American Cancer Society and the Make a Wish Foundation for each unique Twitter user who blames something on Drew's cancer.

From all your friends at Download Squad, get well soon Drew.

Tags: cancer, charity, drew olanoff, DrewOlanoff, twitter

Filed under: Internet, E-mail, Web services

Use your email signature to support charitable causes

by Lee Mathews Feb 20th 2009

The "Consider the Environment" meme spread across email signatures like wildfire, and now Reply for All is hoping they can accomplish the same thing.

Their service inserts an advertising-supported signature into your GMail or Yahoo Mail messages that supports a charitable cause of your choosing. Currently, there are eight choices: AIDS prevention, cancer research, children's rights, animal rights, climate change, fighting poverty, clean water initiatives, and supporting education. The insert can be customized three ways: display your cause only, or add rotating relevant facts and your contact information.

Once you begin using your new signature, you can check on the impact you've made on the Reply for All web site. They also provide global statistics, and it's nice to see that they've been able to make some fairly significant contributions since launching their service.

You won't be spamming your mail recipients with ads, either. It's only added once every four hours, and you can always click the brightly-colored no signature button to remove it from a message.

To use Reply for All, you'll need either a Gmail or Yahoo Mail address, Firefox, and the Reply for All addon - which you can install after signing up. There is a privacy policy and a TOS that you may want to read, just so you know what you're agreeing to by signing up.

[ via Digital Inspiration ]

Tags: activism, aids, charity, climate-change, donation, humanitarian

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Microsoft, Social Software, web 2.0

Microsoft's I'm Initiative hits Hotmail

by Danny Mendez May 6th 2008

Microsoft is expanding that successful I'm Initiative we heard about last year to include Hotmail. The company started the I'm Initiative in 2007's March and has so far raised nearly $1.5 million to give to charities.

The "service" makes using Microsoft's services -- specifically Hotmail and Messenger -- beneficial to several causes. Microsoft shares a portion of its advertising revenue collected through its email and instant messaging apps, and although this is "nice" on Microsoft's part, there's a clear business-minded motivation behind it.

Despite that, at least there's some good coming out of the ridiculous amount of instant messaging and emailing we all do. Though we can't praise Microsoft too much: $1.5 million out of the billions Microsoft makes everyday is hardly significant. Then again, if more companies donated a tiny portion of the tremendous amount of money they make everyday, the world could benefit significantly.

Tags: cause, charity, donate, donation, im initiative, ImInitiative, microsoft

Filed under: Internet, Microsoft

Microsoft i'm initiative raises $1.3 million for charity

by Brad Linder Apr 24th 2008

A little over a year ago, Microsoft announced a program that sounded just so crazy it could... be crazy. The company's i'm Initiative lets Windows Live Messenger users choose from a list of charities, and then every time they send an instant message, Microsoft will donate a small amount of money to that charity.

While this all sounded a bit silly to us last year, Microsoft has now donated $1.3 million dollars to ten charities through the program.

Of course, the money doesn't come from nowhere. Essentially, Microsoft agrees to donate a small amount of its advertising revenue to the charity of your choice. And the company really could have done that without asking you to sign up for a program. But then how would you know about this big charitable thing Microsoft was doing?

Microsoft says the initiative has been a success over the past year, which has prompted the company to continue the program.

[via WebWare]

Tags: charity, im, microsoft

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Social Software, web 2.0

Mister Wong offers empty bottle for charity

by Lisa Hoover Nov 17th 2007

Well here's an idea you don't see every day. Geekdom superhero Tim O'Reilly stopped by the shoomze-booth of social bookmarking site Mister Wong at the recent Web 2.0 Expo and the forward thinking gents at the booth snagged the empty water bottle he was seen swigging from. They decided that selling it would be a great way to raise money for a worthy cause and now it's up for sale on eBay. The proceeds will go toward Unicef's safe water campaign.

No, seriously.

Look, we laughed ourselves right under the desk at first too. Then -- and maybe it's the heady sense of philanthropy talking -- it began to sound like a halfway decent idea. After all, where's the harm in it, y'know? Unicef is a worthwhile cause that could surely benefit from a few extra dollars and maybe there's someone out there who's been longing for a bottle that's known to have rested gently on the lips of the The Tim.

Let's just hope there's no backwash in it.

Tags: charity, ebay, mister-wong, misterwong, unicef, water, water-bottle, web-2.0

Filed under: Business, Internet

Need money? Get your friends to 'ChipIn'

by Ted Wallingford Oct 19th 2007

When Jammie Thomas got slapped with a $220,000 judgment by a jury friendly to the recording industry, the entrepreneurs at a little company called ChipIn had no idea how much free publicity they were going to receive. That's because Jammie is using their donation-tracking widget to raise money for her legal defense.

ChipIn lets you park their widget in your web site, MySpace page, and so on, in order to collect money for any cause you choose. ChipIn will handle the credit card transactions needed to bring in the funds. The more money you collect, the higher your 'progress meter' indicates on your widget, until you've hit your goal.

Tags: charity, chipin, donation, jammie thomas, JammieThomas, web

Filed under: Finance, Internet, Video, Google

Google launches new tools for non-profits

by Brad Linder Sep 28th 2007

Google has launched two new services aimed at non-profit organizations. Or rather, two new ways for non-profits to use existing services.

The YouTube Nonprofit Program lets 501(c)(3) organiztions create premium branded channels with higher uploading capacity than typical user channels. Nonprofit videos will also be rotated through the "promoted videos" sections of the site. And nonprofits can embed a Google Checkout "donate" button for fundraising.

Google Checkout for non-profits lets organizations collect money without paying a transaction fee to Google. Right now, Google has only committed to offering this service to non-profits for free through the end of 2008, but we wouldn't be surprised to see the company extend that deadline.

The American Cancer Society, Friends of the Earth, YouthNoise, and 10 other non-profits have already signed up for YouTube channels, and the William J. Clinton Foundation and March of Dimes are among those that have signed up for Google Checkout.

Tags: charities, charity, google-checkout, non-profits, nonprofits, youtube

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Microsoft

Send an instant message, save the world

by Brad Linder Mar 2nd 2007

Microsoft has partnered with 9 charities to donate a portion of ad revenue every time you send an instant message. You have to sign up for the i'm program, but this is the real deal, unlike the countless internet rumors about similar deals that offer cash rewards for sending messages or emails.

The American Red Cross, Boys & Girls Club, National AIDS Fund, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, ninemillion.org, the Sierra Club, StopGlobalWarming.org, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and the US fund for UNICEF are all working with Microsoft on the program. Microsoft says there's no cap on how much money will be donated, but the company has promised to send at least $100 thousand to each charity.

In order to participate you need to use Windows Live Messenger 8.1 (no Trillian or GAIM for you do-gooders), and you need to copy and paste some code into your settings to choose the charity you want to donate your proceeds to. You can change charities later.

Some web sites are reporting that you need to start instant messages with "i'm" in order to generate revenue for the charities. But in fact, it appears that when you add the script to your settings, an "i'm emoticon" will pop up next to your name. Now every message does start with "i'm," and a portion of revenue generated from that emoticon (it looks like you can click on it) will go to charity.

What's in it for Microsoft? Well, when you're a company the size of a small planet, any charitable donations are a good tax write-off. And this is a rather innovative way to get that deduction while giving users an incentive to use your product.

[via TechBlog]

Tags: charity, chat, instant messaging, instant messenger, InstantMessaging, InstantMessenger, windows live messenger, WindowsLiveMessenger

Filed under: Open Source, Holiday Gift Guide

Gift Guide: Support open and free computing

by Jordan Running Dec 20th 2005

Once you've sorted out gifts for your family, friends, and favorite bloggers, why not give a bit back to the people whose free software you enjoy (and depend on) all year 'round? Devanshu Mehta has put together a great list of free software projects and organizations that depend on your donations and involvement to keep producing great products. Among his picks are the Mozilla Foundation, the Wikimedia Foundation, OpenOffice.org, the Fedora Project, Emacs, Adium, Fink, and, of course, the EFF. I would also add to that list the Free Software Foundation, WordPress, and in a slightly different category, Child's Play.

Tags: charity, donate, free software, FreeSoftware, open source

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