Chase Community Giving on Facebook is no joke. They are doling out
$5 million -- but only to nonprofit organizations that operate on less
than $10 million a year. They are doing it in some pretty interesting --
and compelling -- increments: $25,000 goes to every organization that is in
the top 100 list for votes received from November 15 until December 11.
Another $100,000 will go to the top 5 and $1 million to the organization
with the most votes. And they are reserving an extra $1 million for yet
another oft-voted charity.
Chase is being very smart and crafty with this idea. Not only have they
gotten everyone engaged with their brand, but they are promoting
something good for society and using new media in the process. And here
I am, publicizing the initiative.
I think this is a great model. But in the interest of full disclosure,
I am the executive director of a nonprofit called ThinkImpact
(formerly Student Movement for Real Change) and we are involved in this competitionVote for us here if you'd like!
There are some features about this campaign that I love, and a few that irritate me. First, I love the amount they are giving and to whom they are giving it. By targeting organizations under $10 million, they are sending help to some innovative, smaller or more community-based organizations that are feeling the pinch of an economy gone south.
Additionally, they are giving all Facebook users a whopping 20 votes to
pass around. But you can only vote once per charity.
My favorite part is that this contest promotes organizational
cooperation. By allowing for 20 votes and 100 different winners at
$25K, all the young nonprofits I work with are getting into the game.
It’s brilliant. We are promoting each other’s work. We are encouraging
folks to support causes we believe in, and we don’t feel that there is
any zero sum game involved.
Here are the organizations that have teamed up in this effort:
The
irritating part? The contest has no leaderboard. You literally have to
click around a lot just to see who is doing well at all. This is okay
because then we are all forced to really reach out to folks, but there
is simply no way of knowing if we are competitive at any given time.
Also, we don’t get a comprehensive list of folks who voted for our
causes, so we won’t know who cares about our mission to get them
involved in the future.
Overall, I think this contest will bring
out hundreds of thousands of voters, create a big stir, and ultimately,
help a ton of organizations. Right now, with the holiday season here,
and the economy tight, who wouldn’t want to give, without opening their
wallet?