'Fund-A-Thon' : The Fundraising Game on the Net
17 June 2002 at 1:06 pm
If you think there is nothing new in fundraising then think again… one American Not for Profit has embarked on a unique web-based fundraising game called “Fund-A-Thon” and plans to help many high profile charities raise new funds.
The game is the brainchild of a US Not for Profit called AworthyCause and the first game will take place throughout June to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International.
100%of the money raised goes to the Foundation! But how do you play and win!
According to AworthyCause all the player (donor) has to do to win $5,000 is to organise a team of people, each of whom make a $10 donation online. If you assemble the best fundraising team, you win the prize, and your team members split another $5,000.
The donated $10,000 cash prize goes to the team of people who visits AWorthyCause’s website and donates the most money to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in the shortest amount of time.
The goal is to raise at least $50,000 so the winning team can also receive a grant-naming opportunity. The cash prize is provided by an anonymous JDRF supporter. JDRF is one of many worthy charities of that AWorthyCause plans to help. So far the game is only available to US residents…
So here are the official rules!
It’s like a sales contest at work, but instead of encouraging people to make sales, AworthyCause is rewarding the people who build the best fundraising team for a good cause. By playing the game, donors agree to abide by the rules.
TO PLAY
Every team has a captain. The captain is the first person to donate money for a team. To start a team and become a captain, visit www.aworthycause.org and use the links to donate $10 to the featured charity. The user will be prompted to register with an email address and to choose a name for the team. Captains may only donate once to their team’s total.
Captains then use email to encourage friends to donate money to the charity on behalf of their team. (Spamming is not allowed) Friends visit www.aworthycause.org site linked from the email. Only the first donation by any person will be counted toward a team’s total, but players may join more than one team and captains may be players on other teams.
Donations made will be counted as points. The team that records the largest total of points before the end of the game is the winner. Every ten-dollar donation is worth at least ten points… though from time to time organisers may offer incentives in the form of bonus points to encourage captains to sign on new members during certain parts of the contest.
The captain of the winning team will receive $5,000 in cash and the remaining members of the team will split an additional $5,000.
In case of a tie, the team that made its last donation first will be judged the winner. If it is still a tie, the prize will be split among all remaining teams.
The game runs for a specific time period…usually one month and in the event that the Fund-A-Thon goal is not reached by the deadline, the $10,000 prize will be donated to the charity. The raised funds go to the specified charity!
Well post the result of the current game in the next Pro Bono Australia e-Newsletter. If you would like to comment on this fundraising technique why not join our on-line Forum at probonoaustralia.com.au.
The website for AworthyCause is www.aworthycause.org .
