Supporting the Catholic Education in the U.S.
In recent years, there has been one institution that has struggled across the country more than perhaps any other - and that is the education sector in America. While a high-quality education is the bedrock for successful professional careers, proper funding for many schools has become more difficult to come by and in some cases dried up completely.
Even numerous Catholic Schools across the nation, supported by the Catholic Church, had to shut down or find other sources of funding to provide education to their students. And in order to bring a continued education to their students, some schools are taking matters into their own hands.
For example, John Paul II Catholic High School in Tallahassee, Florida found out earlier this year that that their diocese would no longer be able to provide traditional levels of financial assistance and the school had to become self-funded.
With no other alternative, the board and community launched into an ambitious fundraising campaign to raise $676,000 before May 1st of this year.
Since January, the group has raised more then 2/3 of their required funding and turned to Crowdtilt to crowdfund another $99K towards their goal by April 9th.
More importantly, the Catholic community, including Jeb Bush, former Governor of Florida and leading proponent of school choice, picked up on the ambitious campaign pursued by JPII and provided support on a national level. The article from Catholic.org can be read here as well as other front page coverage. Currently, the campaign is just 9% away from tilting and if you would like to make a contribution and share the campaign with a friend, you can follow this link to the campaign page.
https://www.crowdtilt.com/campaigns/preservation-of-the-only-catholic-high-school-in-floridas-capital-city
Campaign highlight video.
Posted by: G.Case
How to get people to pay you back using Crowdtilt.
Get your stacks back.
Getting friends to pay you back can be a gut wrenching cycle could go on for several months. As a result, the friendships have slowly turned bitter. What used to be a great relationship that included 24-hour marathon listening sessions of the entire Backstreet Boys catalog become an emotional burden. They start avoiding phone calls and stopped “liking” your witty facebook posts. Each month that the loan remains unpaid, you lose more hope on getting your money back. Consequently, feelings of anger and resentment towards your friends begins to consume you. One day soon you might find yourself stuffing bananas in tailpipes and “easy cheesing” someone’s paint job in a Walmart parking lot. Okay, that might be taking it a bit too far but the end result can be lifelong friendships dissolving over something as simple as money.
Crowdtilt can help put that all behind you. Here are three very important steps that can get your money back and relieve the strain on friendships by debt collecting.
1. Set up a campaign.
Create a campaign that details why people own you money.
Example: A few of your friends still owe you $30 each for the Backstreet Boys reunion concert? List the date of the concert, who else played, and maybe recall a funny story or memory from the concert to take the edge off. The reason is you want your friend’s initial reaction to be “oh yeah, that was really fun, I need to pay her back” and not “oh crap, she wants her money right now.”
Make sure to say that the campaign is angled as a friendly and convenient reminder in case they had “forgotten” that they still owe you. (Not likely, Nick Carter was on fire) Be very descriptive about what you paid for and why they owe you the money. People will be less likely to argue over a debt if you’ve covered all your bases and listed them out. It also gives you another chance to go over your expenses and make sure there isn’t anything you missed. (Remember that BSB pillow case that Cindy just had to have.)
2. Use the required payment option.
Set the required amount to the dollar amount that the person(s) owe you. That way you can be sure that they won’t “accidentally” put in the wrong amount.
“I typed in 3 dollars instead on 30? My bad! LOL”
3. Set a strict deadline
Set a deadline (2-3 days) close enough so they don’t put it on the back-burner and come back later. You’d be surprised how many people will forget come back and pay before the deadline. The most active times during the campaign happen at the beginning and end. Make sure to communicate that the window here is very short to create a sense of urgency.
4. Send it out.
Make sure to be very clear about what the link is pertaining to and why you need the money. Don’t be condescending or call people out. This is going to be seen by their social networks so be courteous.
Good example: Hey guys, just wanted to let you know I set up a Crowdtilt campaign so you can pay me back for the ubertastic BSB concert without having to swing by my house. It expires in 2 days so please hurry!
Bad example: Cindy, Brittany, and Brooke. Holy cheeseballs, I still can’t believe you haven’t paid me back. OMG, we saw A.J. Mclean shirtless together and now you won’t even return my calls. I need my greenbacks stat!!!! I know where you live.
Crowdtilt can be used as an online I.O.U.
It’s basically a way to transform Crowdtilt into an online invoice system. It allows Cindy to see that Brittany and Brooke have already paid you back and will motivate her into action. Like dominoes, once the first one starts falling the rest topple into place.
It doesn’t have to be for an event. If you covered someone’s lunch one day and know you won’t see that person for a month or two, throw up a campaign. It’s quick, easy, and most importantly saves gas money.
Silent Disco brings the noise.
A new musical movement is taking the nation’s dance floors by storm - the sound of silence.
Imagine being at one of the hottest nightclubs in town on a Saturday night and the place is filled to capacity. The dance floor is packed with people swaying and grinding to the beat but something is slightly different, there is no audible music. This is the type of experience that only the Silent Disco can provide.
Rather than using a traditional speaker system, music is broadcast via a FM-transmitter with the signal being picked up by wireless headphone receivers worn by everyone in the crowd. It lets the attendee hear the DJ in crystal clear audio rather than getting the sound degraded by a crappy PA system or poor building acoustics. Those without the headphones hear no music, giving the effect of a room full of people dancing to nothing. To add to the fun disco-goers may tune in to two or more music channels created by competing DJs, creating the delicious sight of half an audience head banging to some fast techno while the other half gets down to some slow jams. Silent discos are also becoming increasing popular with city officials as they allow dancing to continue past noise curfews. Did I mention that you could now have a conversation with somebody at a club without having to scream two inches from their ear? It’s one of the many reasons these “silent clubs” are becoming very popular.
Check it out Dallas, we’ve got a campaign going for one right now on Friday, July 22nd at the Green Elephant. The first 100 tickets are $15 and then the price gets bumped to $21. Hurry up!
Wanna read more about the silent disco experience?
Dallas Morning News article on Crowdtilt
Feels awesome to get some love from our hometown paper!
Posted by: G.Case
Tax break tips for Non-profit donations.
Giving to Non-profits? Here are some quick tax break tips.
Americans gave more than $307.75 billion to their favorite causes despite the economic conditions in 2009. By 2050, an estimated $41 trillion will transfer from one generation to the next, with gifts to nonprofit organizations projected to exceed $6 trillion. That much money can mean big time tax breaks for the general public if you know how to file them correctly.
Tax deductions are a significant bonus for many people that donate money to various worthy causes. The IRS understands that many organizations that offer valuable services could not operate without a considerable portion of their budgets being funded privately. In order to encourage people to continue helping these organizations do their jobs within their communities, the IRS offers tax breaks to reward the contributors.
Make sure the charity is registered.
The main requirement is that the charity must be registered as a 501(c) organization. This means that it is a non-profit entity. So what if you’re not sure a charity is registered as a 501(c) organization? Place a quick call to the IRS Customer Account Services division for Tax Exempt and Government Entities with the charity’s name and address they will verify the status for you.
The number is toll free: (877) 829-5500
There is also new section of the IRS website where you can search through their database for approved organizations: http://www.irs.gov/app/pub-78/
Subtracting the correct amount:
Once you’ve got this verification, you can offer money and take the deductions for the donations. Also, any donations over $250 must be documented with a receipt showing the transaction to the charity. Your records must indicate the name of the charitable organization, the date of your contribution, and the amount your contribution. Remember to always deduct the Crowdtilt 5.5% operating fee when making a contribution to a non-profit campaign. (Claim the amount you typed in, not how much you were actually charged.)
Also, keep in mind that if a person received anything in return for a donation, such as a service, merchandise, or admission tickets to a musical or sporting event, that person can deduct only the amount of the donation that exceeds the value of the gift. For example, if someone gives $100 to the local PBS station and they give a $20 DVD of a Stevie Ray Vaughn performance to that person in return, he can be deduct only $80 as deductions for the donations, not the full $100. So in another words, subtract the value of what you received from the total amount you contributed.
The smaller gifts are usually simple and straightforward as far as the tax guys are concerned. You declare a nominal value for your donation and get a receipt. It only gets complicated when you give larger amounts to national and international organizations.
Need some more info?
Check out the IRS documents “Form 8283” and its instructions, as well as Publication 526, Charitable Contributions. These forms and publications are all available at http://www.irs.gov or by calling 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676).
Statistics provided by: Giving USA 2010
Posted by: G.Case
Top 10 ways to tilt your campaign
Here are a few quick tips on how to get your Crowdtilt campaign started off on the right foot.
1. Never stop promoting the campaign.
Send e-mail, facebook updates, or tweets to your friends and family. One of the single most important tips for an online campaign is to be persistent. While some people will contribute the first time you ask them, the reality is that it will take at least 2-3 friendly reminders before the majority of your friends and family open up their wallets for you. Campaign pages who keep their donor base engaged with frequent updates tend to be the most successful.
Keep in mind this doesn’t mean peppering people with links. (They will ignore it after a while) A well-timed and placed tweet, facebook post, or e-mail will go a long way. Here is a great guide to limit how to limit your outreach without becoming overbearing on your friend’s social feeds.
Tweets: 4-5 times a week.
Facebook posts: 1-3 times a week.
E-mails: 3-4 per duration of campaign
Some tips on generating traffic on social networks:
- The three biggest usage spikes tend to occur on weekdays at 11:00 a.m., 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. ET.
- The biggest spike occurs at 3:00 p.m. ET on weekdays.
- Weekday usage is pretty steady, however Wednesday at 3:00 pm ET is consistently the busiest period.
- Although most posts and comments appear around 3:00 p.m. ET, posts published in the morning tend to perform better than those published in the afternoon.
- Fans are less active on Sunday compared to all other days of the week.
Remember: The campaign’s chance of success is directly related to the amount of work and promotion the campaign administrator is willing to put forth.
2. Promote Tactically.
While we recommend telling everyone you know about your campaign page, before you send out mass e-mails to everyone in the contact book, first send out e-mails to your closest family and friends. This is one of the most important tips for success. The reason you want to do this is because your inner circle of friends and family will be the most generous and easiest to recruit to help spread the momentum for your campaign by setting the tone for subsequent contributors. For instance, if your first four contributors each give you $75, future contributors will view this as the appropriate contribution size and will be more likely to give this or a similar amount as well. You can also manually set the donation amount in the campaign creation settings.
3. Start with a modest goal.
One of the keys to a successful Crowdtilt campaign is building momentum. Your friends and family will be more inclined to give if they think their contribution will help you reach your goal. By setting a modest tilt goal for the campaign and quickly reaching fundraising milestones like 10% and 25% of your goal you can build a lot of momentum and get your donors excited about the campaign. On the other hand, if you set your goal too high, some people will be discouraged from contribution because they’ll view your goal as unattainable and will feel like their $25 or $50 bucks won’t really make a difference.
4. Offer your contributors a chance to get something in return.
A great way to get people to contribute is by offering them a raffle prize. Example: When you e-mail your contacts you might include that you will be raffling off a $50 gift card to Home Depot [or whatever prize you choose] to the first 20 people to donate. This creates extra motivation for those people who are on the fence about donating. A well-run raffle with the right grand prize can raise incredible amounts of money for campaign. Most groups underestimate how much money a raffle can raise. Your choice of prize or prizes should vary depending on your financial goal, the size of your potential market, and how many volunteers you have to sell tickets.
Remember, bigger prizes mean more tickets must be sold to turn a profit, but they also mean substantially higher profits. Design your raffle prize offerings to match your community’s tastes.
The most successful raffles generally have between one and four prizes. When you decide on the selling price of your raffle tickets, keep in mind the market value of the raffle prizes. For high-end prizes ($800+) it is not uncommon to see prices on the raffle tickets of $6 or more.
Selling raffle tickets is really easy on Crowdtilt. Set up a campaign that has predetermined amount equal to the price of a raffle ticket. Contributors will also be able to purchase multiple tickets at once. The campaign administrator will be able to track who bought tickets and how many were purchased for the drawing. It brings a level of excitement and anticipation to the deadline from the contributors.
5. Get your story in the media.
The local paper will usually be more than happy to write about your campaign if it benefits the community in some fashion. The more exposure you get, the better your campaign will do especially if it’s a local campaign on the local news. It’s no secret that people like to be apart of something that is high profile within the community.
6. Make your campaign go viral.
The most successful fundraising campaigns are the ones that go “viral” on the Internet. The results can be astonishing with hundreds of people making contributions across the country and raising thousands of dollars for a cause. Although not every campaign will go viral, here are some tips to help get you there:
- Ask friends and family to spread the word. When you send out your e-mail make sure to ask your contacts to share your campaign with their friend’s co-workers.
- Create a 24-hour Facebook “Wallflower” Campaign where everyone donates their status message for one day to direct the participant’s networks to contribute to the cause.
- Make sure to get off to a good start with a big donation off the bat (close friends and family can help). This will give you some quick momentum to get people excited about your campaign.
7. Thank your contributors.
When you create your campaign page, you can draft a thank you message that automatically goes out whenever someone makes a contribution. You can also send personalized thank you e-mails to your donors from their profile pages. Thanking each contributor individually is essential if you plan to fundraise again in the future and hope to ask the same people.
8. Create a blog about the campaign.
This will give the campaign a human face and a voice (yours) as well as providing an outlet to publish updates, stories, and highlight the people behind the campaign. It’s a great resource that builds credibility and enthusiasm about your campaign. Once the information gets rolling it will get picked up and re-blogged by other sources. We recommend tumblr.com for functionality and sharing capabilities.
Tumblr tip: Run a search for like-minded blogs to start following. If you follow a blog they will most likely start following you back. If you have good content then you are more likely to get your posts re-blogged.
9. Create an attractive campaign page
Personalize your fundraising page as much as possible with a heartfelt description and a striking photo.
The campaigns that do the best are the ones who really make an effort to tell their stories or are super descriptive about what the funds will be used for. Explain to your contributors what you are raising money for and why it is so important to you. If your friends and family see that you are passionate about the campaign, they are more likely to give and give generously.
Campaign photo:
Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words so make it count. Also remember you must choose a picture that will also be attractive and striking in thumbnail size from the search page.
A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself whether you would click on a link if you were scanning the page. Get advice from others as well. The larger a focus group you have the better shot you have at nailing down a picture that will get noticed.
10. Have Fun!
It’s always important to remember to have fun. Getting a campaign tilted can be hard work but it can also be very fun and if you’re not enthusiast about it will tough to fake. It should be a fun activity and if you’re having fun with it, the positive emotions become contagious and will make people want to contribute.
Posted by: G.Case
The office now has a Les Paul. It’s getting extremely tough to find a reason to go home.
