<< | May 4, 2006 | >>
Below is the monthly report mailed out to 135 member CharityFocus Tiger Team, which can loosely defined as close friends of CharityFocus. To be added on the list, let me know. --Nipun
April 2006 Tiger Team Update
Dear Tigers,
Last month, 250,000+ visitors surfed more than 1.5 million CF pages. We can't possibly contain all that inspiration in one newsletter but I'm including some of the highlights below. Regular updates are always online on the CF blog.
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Latest Happenings From CF Teams |
Top Stories |
HelpOthers.org
(Team of nine led by Guri)
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Smile Cards are simply off the hook. Another record shattering month, for the fourth consecutive month! Highest number of orders (231), website hits (275K), story submissions, new newsletter signups, and more. To top it off: 72 story comments in the first month of the feature launch.
And the stories that come in are unbelievable. Based on our newsletter, Kim and her family of eight decide to pay for someone's meal; later the same day, we got a note from Carrie -- a cancer patient who gotted tagged. Tons of heartwarming stories, but Shannon of Oaklahoma takes the top nod -- with a $1 donation!
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Snow Angel
A Firefighter's Point of View
Chocolate Insanity
Art With Heart
Dinner Out
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Quote-A-Day
(Team of five led by Tripp and Viral)
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Today, Ed writes us a thank you note for making his Dad -- a bad news junkie -- a happier person. Ed is one of the 28,481 daily readers of QAD. Enough said.
Last month, QAD launched a new site with interactive features like comments from readers, forwarding QAD archives to friends, simplified voting, and more. In the first week since the launch, QAD saw record number of new subscriptions (189 on highest day!). But in a move that Jim Schyuler says is worthy of "loud and sustained applause", Viral asked readers about their one-word sermon.
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A Dog with Infinite Patience
One-word Sidewalk Sermons
Unexpected Outcomes
The Paradoxical Commandments
Silence at the Emmys
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ProPoor
(Team of six led by Yoo-mi)
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Last week, Yoo-mi wrote this to the ProPoor team: "The CharityFocus Tech Team has made some incredible changes to the ProPoor site (both front and back end!) - I hope you've had a chance to check it out. It is now time for us to get together and strategize about how we'd like to take ProPoor to the next level!"
Callibrated focus in three core areas: (a) South Asia developments news, with 20 monthly stories and 7189 newsletter subscribers; (b) NGO directory, with 7 new additions in the last weeks alone to hit a grand total of 13,162; (c) email queries, which numbered a whopping 150+ in April.
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VCARE, Delhi
Child Rights, Nepal
Crosslife Fellowship, Pakistan
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PledgePage
(Team of five led by Ragu and Pete)
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Hakuna Matata writes about his journey to Nigeria: "I know many of my loved ones are 'slightly' concerned as I attempt to remove myself from the comforts of western world and immerse myself into the culture of a far off place, but let me assure you that you all have made me the strong, intelligent man I am ..."
Hakuna Matata was one of 82 new PledgePages last month, a site record that almost doubles the 2005 monthly average of 43 PledgePages. Oh, and a new PledgePage was setup three days ago with a goal of raising a million dollars! |
Run with the Neals to fight Thyroid Cancer
Hope Runner
In Loving Memory of my Son, Sean Taft
Timberman Triathlon
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Service eXchange
(Team of many led by Trishna and Ashish)
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Karen Essig recently finished a website project with
CharityFocus. Absolutely floored by her "heroes" on
the project team, she donated $100 to CF with a note: "Dedicated to Miguel Carlos and Trishna Shah". Way to go, team!
This team is the pillar of all CharityFocus work. Last
month, 113 new volunteers signed on and 48 completed a half-hour online
orientation. 42 new nonprofits requested help and currently we are
working on close to 50 concurrent projects.
The projects team has also initiated a "tag" game to keep the CF blog updated. |
Women Rise
Children's Service Board
Long Island Lesbian Cancer Initiative
Asian Health Coalition
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What is mentioned here is barely the tip of the iceberg. People who went to the Miles of Smiles know how many smiles we generated by just standing on the streets with a simple suggestion; those who attended the event with Bo Lozoff heard so much wisdom from a living legend of service on this planet; Ashish, Ragu, and Fred know the impression of CF when they were invited by Google Foundation's CEO to hear Bill Drayton of Ashoka; those who were there on DJ's last Wednesday saw the offering-of-a-lifetime from "Grandpa and Grandma Burrowes"; volunteers who are part of team aliases -- which get 1000 emails/day -- know the high-octance inspiration that CharityFocus is surrounded by on an everyday basis.
Drop me a note if you know of folks who can help with these unresolved needs:
- A highly-skilled system administrator, local to the bay-area, to manage our servers (someone donated money for a QAD server but now we need someone to manage it).
- Volunteers in Canada/Australia, who'd be willing to ship smile cards within that country (helps us save cost).
- Couple of coordinators who can help brainstorm ideas about Inspiring Messgaes (which clocks in the highest number of website sites)
- A finance-savvy leader for the "five-bucks" clubs -- which has 35 members even before we can launch it! (For those who'd still like to join, let me know.)
Guri and I were to invited to a conference recently. It was quite fancy with many world-class speakers; at lunch, a gentleman on a wheelchair asks me, "You are a speaker? But you are so young. What are your credentials?" I don't have a graduate degree, no major awards, no high rollin' bank accounts, no books that are displayed in conference hallways. Yes, I did start an organization but you know, its annual budget is $7000 after seven years of operation! So that's exactly how I opened my talk -- "I'm just an ordinary guy, I have no original content, no letters postfixed to my name, no fancy accolades, nothing. But I stand here in front of you to dialogue with your presence."
The talk rocked for exactly the same reason that CharityFocus rocks -- we have no agenda.
In service,
Nipun
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Posted by Nipun Mehta
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