Friday was a lot of fun! We went from nowhere to first place with $12,000 in donations for Feeding America. But we were so successful that we actually have a chance to win, which means that we can't just stop now. So this post is about what has happened over the weekend and what comes next.
First, of course: Please give if you haven't yet, and please keep publicizing this good cause.
As of 9:30pm on Sunday, we had raised $12,211 from 84 donors. The
(skewed) average donation was $145. The mode was $100 and the median
was $50.
I've discovered that Feeding America has some really well-done videos that explain the hunger problem in America and what they're doing to address it. I've linked to my favorites from the TeamJS page at crowdrise.com
Speaking of the TeamJS page, I've I've made some changes to it:
- It includes more information about Feeding America, including the videos mentioned above
- It includes a bit of information about what "JS" is, since now that we're in first place, I expect that non-geeks will be clicking through to our page.
- I've upload JSconf and Jupiter Consulting logos to the page and they display as small icons beneath the big JavaScript logo, in recognition of the major gifts from those two businesses. (There are three spots left on the page: if you've got a business, a $1000 donation will get your logo on the page, until some other business gives more and knocks you out of the spot.)
I've got to hand it to crowdrise: they do a great job at online giving. I don't like that I have to reload the entire page to check for new donations, but the site is responsive and they do imbue the whole process with a sense of fun!
I've noticed that many donors (about a third or so) are creating crowdrise accounts and formally joining TeamJS as a fundraiser. That's great. Anyone who does that can use their own page as a donation URL to publicize and gets public credit for the donations they've brought in. You can post a photo, and you can participate in team discussions on the site, if we ever have any. But you don't have to do that to be part of TeamJS. If you donate, you're part of the team!
We're comfortably ahead for now, but I don't think we can dismiss the competition. These are people with hundreds of thousands of twitter followers, and they haven't really gotten serious yet. Also, three of the celebrites are old hands at fundraising on crowdrise. Barbra Streisand, Sophia Bush, and Ed Norton are the #2, #3 and #4 all-time biggest fundraisers on the site. So we should expect them to come on strong. (And if they do come on strong, it is in part because we've forced them to work harder, and everybody's cause wins!)
So what's next? How can we keep the momentum going? Please share your ideas in comments, by email, on twitter, or on the crowdrise site. Should we have a TeamJS presence on Facebook or Google+? Go for it! Can we get other programming language communities involved? Can we attract other business donations? Can we broaden the appeal of the campaign beyond the tech community? Everyone one is welcome to dive in and help in whatever way you can!
@__DavidFlanagan
