CHERUBS on Firstgiving! All members can fundraise on-line!

[Dawn Torrence Ireland]

My sister sent me a link to a fundraiser she's doing for Special Olympics and I had to check out the site they use. Firstgiving.com is wonderful!!!!

Now, all of our members can raise funds on your own!!! Your own fundraising pages, drives, etc. You can raise funds in memory of someone, in honor of someone, as an event, etc and the funds come to CHERUBS. Here is how our page:

http://www.firstgiving.com/npo/10125

You just go there to get started to create your page. Here is an example of one I did:

http://www.firstgiving.com/cherubs

Now, since it's a 3rd party system they send money at intervals instead of the instant donations that we receive through PayPal. But it's a BBB site, secure, extremely reputable and a great way to raise money and awareness! I'm very excited about this, can you tell? :)

[StephanieOlivarez]

Dawn- the way you set up your page is great.
What a wonderful way for a fundraiser.
Firstgiving.com is definetly wonderful.
Thanks for sharing.

I can tell you are excited. It is great that you can do two things at the same time- raise money for CHERUBS and get CDH awareness out there!!!!

[Corin Nava]

Thats great! Very cool way to promote fundraisers.

[Dawn Torrence Ireland]

What I love is that everyone can set up their own pages. Like, if someone wants to have a Birthday Fundraiser for their cherub's birthday they can set up a page and people can donate directly there with a credit card and they can keep track of how much money they have raised.

My sister is doing the Special Olympics Polar Plunge (in February, in ice cold ocean water... Brrrrrrr!) so she set up a page for that to raise money for entry fee (it's a $100 a person to plunge or something like that). She's been sending a little donation box all around the internet to raise funds. She did it herself without needing help from the Special Olympics people and she can see who has donated, etc.

People can add it to their web pages, MySpaces, Facebook, etc. I think I'm going to add one to Shane's website.

Stephanie, you might want to look into for the ATV Rally.

Yeah, I'm excited. LOL. This is such a great idea and one of the guys who started it called me a few hours ago after he saw our site just to say hi and see if I had any questions. That was so nice! I'm hoping he'll put our link on their homepage of Firstgiving.com. ;)

[KateC]

This is such an awesome idea! I love it!

[StephanieOlivarez]

Ok, Dawn...I will look into it!!!
I already did it!!!!!
I"M SO EXCITED about this!!!! that's so cool the guy called you!!!
How do you link all these things? I have no clue how to do that.

www.firstgiving.com/ratpatrolrideforcherubs

Please be honest and tell me what you guys think?
I think this is a great way for people who will not be able to come to the actual ride.
THANKS DAWN!!!!!! :D

[Dawn Torrence Ireland]

It looks great, Stephanie!!! :)

Click on the Share This Page link in the upper right of the page and it will tell you how to do all the cool little link stuff.

[LiseDill]

i love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!what a cutie pie!!!

[StephanieOlivarez]

Thanks Lise and Dawn.
I have been sharing it with friends/family and I truly love the picture of Shelby on the four wheeler, it gives me great joy for people to be able to see her. This isolation issue-she really sees no one.
I can't wait for spring.

[StephanieOlivarez]

I was checking my emails and got one from a gentleman named James from firstgiving and he told me I could link Shelby's youtube video to my fundraising page. I did it and it shows all the videos!!!! Kate's, Lise's, Tania's, Corin's, Kristin's......ALL of them. It was so cool.

[LiseDill]

OMGosh!!!!!!!!! look at all those videos! That little girl ariana.........she is adorable! 6 minutes of fun and laughter and, oh gosh...so sweet!!!

Very awesome!I love it. Do you need fliers made for this event???

[StephanieOlivarez]

I have made some flyers with Shelby's picture on a four wheeler- but need to make different ones to pass out at the actual event.
I need to think about those.
Why do you ask? I am hoping you have some great ideas for me!!! I see the three questions marks and am thinking what does lise have on her mind???? :D

[LiseDill]

HA! No ideas. I'm always curious :-)
I was wondering if you would pass them out at your daughters school?
Our school has a monthly newsletter. We can buy for 15$ a business card size spread and promote whatever we want to sell or our business.
We also have a website and a community newsletter( we have 600 homes in our association) that we can use for free. Like a 12 yr old kid can promote his dog sitting business for free...stuff like that.
You should also use free services like Craigslist to let people know what's going on in your area.

[KateC]

I love it Steph. I was in the store last night and I heard Ariana's song in her video, the exact one, all I could do was smile, you are right, Lise, she is so cute!

[StephanieOlivarez]

Lise-we plan on handing out phamplets at the actual event and then putting it in our local paper. I have written the paper in Attica where the badlands is and have three ATV magazines that are willing to put a write up about it in there.
That's a great call to hand them out at the girls school.
We also have three dealerships that are sponsoring raffle prizes and we have the flyer with Shelby on a ATV hanging in those stores. In a few weeks we will go down to the Bad Lands and hang the flyers and leave phamplets all over the town.
As you can see I am so excited for this event. It is turning out very well.
I'm rambling again....but this is exciting for us!!!!
What is Craigslist? I have never heard of it??

[LiseDill]

It's like an online newspaper. Loads of guys go on there too. www.craigslist.com
I have sold baby clothes, asked for bear donations, sold bowling shoes
You have to go to your hometown , .You should post a ad for it in misc.It's totally free.

[StephanieOlivarez]

That sounds awesome.
I will get on it today and check it out and list the upcoming ride!
Thanks Lise.

[AmyMiles]

Steph
I think the page looks great! The ATV ride will be soooo much fun! Our little one will hopefully be home by then, but I don't think we would be ready for that car trip:) I hope that your event raises a tremendous amount for CHERUBS! I love the video links!

I created one also, just so that people who are always asking how to help us out could help thousands of people!

www.firstgiving.com/faithgraceCDH

[StephanieOlivarez]

Amy- I looked at Faith Graces and started to cry. That is such an awesome picture of her.
Your words on Faith Grace's fundraising page where beautiful.
Great job.
Yes- I am SO excited about this ride for CHERUBS. If this one goes well and it is going well now and the event is months away. We will do it every year!!!!!

[Dawn Torrence Ireland]

We received our first Firstgiving check a few weeks ago! :) This site is just amazing!!! I love how each page can be personalized with info for each event or each cherub. It's so much more personal than people being referred here and clicking the donation button.

[StephanieOlivarez]

That ROCKS!!!!
You could not be more right. It is a great way to make donating a more personnal experience.
Do you know how many CHERUBS members have pages at Firstgiving?
I think when the ride is over, I will do a different page!!!!Using the pictures from the ride.

[kgalli]

wow, that is great, i am going to check it out also, just hope it is not too complicated, not that smart at somethings. Working on getting a fundraiser going myself with iron-ons that you can iron onto a tee shirt with your cherub's picture and cdhsupport.org on it, been on the phone all day with different companies to see if they can donate supplies for us.
nancy

[StephanieOlivarez]

Aunt Nancy--you will be able to figure it out!!!Let us know when you do, so we can check it out!!!
The tee-shirt with iron ons of our CHERUBS pictures sounds really neat.
Let us know how your phone calls went.

[Dawn Torrence Ireland]

If any of you have firstgiving pages for your cherubs, please post links to them! I'd like to add a list of them to our site.