Giving may be better than receiving, but receiving has its perks too. Yehu Microfinance and Basa Body, in gratitude for your participation in this fundraiser, will randomly select three lucky winners who have made a donation of $20 or more and/or made any product purchase from Basa Body or Coast Coconut Farms. The perks?

• $250 Disney Gift Card
• $150 Amazon.com Gift Card
• $100 Target Gift Card

Note: Participants who have made donations of $20 or more or who have purchased any product from Basa Body or Coast Coconut Farms are eligible to win one of the gift cards. Yehu Microfinance will randomly select the winners for each gift card. Friends and family members of Yehu Microfinance or Mom It Forward are ineligible to win. The giveaway runs from Tuesday, March 31 through Tuesday, May 12 at 9:30 p.m. EDT. Winners will be announced at #gno and on this website Tuesday, May 12 at 10 p.m. EDT. No purchase necessary.

How Can You Join the Party?

1. Get on Twitter on Thursday, April 30 from 12-2 p.m. EDT (11 a.m. CDT, 10 a.m. MDT, and 9 a.m. PDT).
2. Follow our international hosts: @yehu_adet, @yehu_rose, @yehu_bernice.
3. Follow our domestic hosts: @yehu_troy, @basabody, @momitforward.
4. Click here to tweet from our custom Tweetgrid.

How Is Twitter Connecting People for the Power of Good?

Twitter has become a buzz word, as of recently, but how can Twitter bridge the distance and connect people for the power of good? As part of a larger effort to raise $50,000 for Yehu Microfinance Bank to help empower moms in impoverished areas of Kenya, Mom It Forward will be hosting a Twitter party Thursday, April 30 from 12-2 p.m. (EDT) and two of the moms who will benefit from our efforts will actually be tweeting with us live from Africa on the popular Twitter application: Tweetgrid.

Thanks to new tools in social media like Twitter, groups like Mom it Forward don’t have to travel to Africa to offer humanitarian aid. The Twitter party will feature two women from Kenya, as well as the bank’s CEO, who will be tweeting live from the Kenyan Bank in Mumbasa with approximately 200 Mom it Forward members, talking about what the program and fundraising efforts mean to them and their families. We are excited to personally connect Yehu women entrepreneurs from rural Kenya with other women around the world on Twitter so that they may share together, learn from each other, and strengthen each other. We are grateful that there is technology today that can narrow the divide of distance and culture to allow us to discover the common bonds that connect us all together.

What Is Yehu Microfinance Bank?

Yehu Microfinance Bank is an organization designed to bring impoverished communities in the rural coastal areas of Kenya out of poverty and into a better, fuller life. The organization works to provide communities with a series of loans, which villagers can use to start their own small businesses and build economic strength in their communities.

How Can You Join the Party?
1. Get on Twitter from 12-2 p.m. EDT (11 CDT, 10 MDT, and 9 PDT).
2. Follow our international hosts: @yehu_adet, @yehu_rose, @bernice98.
3. Follow our domestic hosts: @yehu_troy, @basabody, @momitforward.
4. Click here to tweet from our custom Tweetgrid.

Please invite your friends for this awesome opportunity to virtually travel to Africa and meet some amazing Kenyans right from the comforts of your home or computer.

Reminder! 100% of donations go to Africa. And, when you donate $20 or more to Yehu or make any Basa Body or Coast Coconut Farms product purchase, you’re automatically entered to win one of three amazing gift cards, including a $250 Disney Gift Card.

You may recall I announced a Wisconsin blogger’s get together awhile back. The event was to be part of a campaign put together by the lovely ladies at Mom it Forward and would raise money for a great charity that helps Kenyan woman start their own coconut oil extraction business. Those oils are then sold to a company that make them into lotions, soaps and other products.

Besides, it’d be a lot of fun, yo.

I’ve planned a lot of events, and never have the details fallen into place so easily. It was like putting together a preschooler’s jig saw puzzle.

Easy peasy.

One great blogger offered to have the event at her house. Another owns a great online store and donated a gift card for our raffle. Early on, I had a lot of people excited that something local was being planned and looked forward to meeting other “imaginary friends” in person.

But somehow when it came time to collect registrations for the event, the numbers, well…trickled in. In the end, only three of us lovely ladies met for dinner this past Saturday.

Boy, did the rest of you miss out!

Carrie S., Carrie C. and myself (an honorary Carrie for the evening) met at Trattoria Stefano in lovely Sheboygan, Wisconsin and laughed ourselves silly.

It really was a great time. And who would have thought that in a small Wisconsin city, in a teeny little restaurant one could find such GREAT FOOD?!? Honestly, the prices were comparable to that of one of the chain crap restaurants, only Trattoria Stefano featured salads with “organic farm raised Norwegan salmon” and other entres with so many delicious ingredients that our server stood for five minutes at a time reciting them back to us.

(I translated after he left: “A salad with fish, a dish with some meat, and one with noodles, sauce and more meat.”)

We sampled the silky and yumma-licious lotions from Basa Body. (And found that despite how delicious it smells, the chocolate mint soap still tastes like soap if you take a bite. Thanks for that, Carrie S.)

And we laughed.

And enjoyed the fact that there were no little short people yelling, “MOOOOOM!”

And then we saw this guy and the night just got *thismuch* better.

Yes, that’s a full grown man in a nice restaurant wearing a Snuggie. (Who rocked because he didn’t bat an eye when we took his picture. And then told his wife, “You married THIS!” which was super awesome because we all concurred that was something our husbands would say.)

So, big thanks to the Carries for joining me for a super rad evening. Thanks to Basa Body for the lotion and Mom it Forward for organizing such a great chain of events for a great charity. And huge thanks to Angie of Good for the Kids for the raffle prize.

The rest of you — well, we hope you’ll be able to join us next time!

Just a few finishing thoughts:

1) Buying a product from Basa Body or donating $20 to The Pope Foundation (the charity that trains Kenyan women to start their own oil extraction businesses) between now and May 12 enters you to win one of three great gift cards, including a $250 Disney Gift Card, a $150 Amazon.com Gift Card or a $100 Target Gift Card! Click here for more info, or visit the Basa Body site or click on the widget in my left side bar to make a donation. You can still win!

2) If you don’t have money to donate right now, check out Mom it Forward’s “10 Ways to Donate to Charity Without Spending a Cent” article. Good stuff.

3) If you’re ever in Sheboygan, I highly recommend Trattoria Stefano or its “sister restaurant” across the street (owned by the same folks). Their menu was impressive and their prices budget friendly. Plus they let us sit and be all loud for nearly three hours and never once gave us the evil stink eye.

4) Come back on Friday – I’ll be giving away some of the Basa Body lotion. And, no, it doesn’t smell like coconuts.

Reposted with permission from Mommy Always Wins.

Join us for an inspiring evening where you’ll learn how to raise giving, service-oriented, and charitable children. We hope you’ll bring your best tips, insights, and experiences to share with other party goers as well!

When: Tues., Apr. 21 from 9 pm to 1 a.m. EDT (8 CDT, 7 CDT, and 6 PDT)

What: Girl’s Night Out (What’s GNO? Click here to find out!)

Topic: Raising giving children—in conjunction with our charity to fight poverty in Kenya (Yehu, BasaBody, Coast Coconut Farms)

• • What are the best ways to be giving and charitable and teach this to your child(ren)?
  • What are the best ways to model service and giving to others?
  • How can you engage children in “giving” conversations?
  • Given the state of the economy, what volunteer activities can you
    do as a family that don’t cost money?
  • What are fun activities that teach service, giving, and sharing?
  • In what ways can you focus on your & your kid’s skills sets,
    talents, and interests to engage them in giving and service?
  • What fundraisers or volunteering have you done or are currently doing?
  • What are ways you can teach being charitable with your money?

Where: Tweet Grid (use the #gno hashtag)


Who:@kidsareheroes @MMsmusicforlife @pencilbugs @lemonadedayfun @txworkingmom @resourcefulmom

RSVP: Use Mr. Linky below (enter the twitter URL and your twitter ID (e.g., http://twitter.com/jyl_momIF). If you would like to include your blog, please enter it next to your name. Make sure to include your twitter URL in the URL line. Please do not enter your blog URL there.

Make a Meaningful Difference Without Reaching Into Your Pocket Book

Here are 10 ways you can make a difference for Yehu Microfinance between now and May 12:

1. Promote the fundraiser in your social media circles: on twitter, on facebook, to your friends through e-mail, on the ning networks you frequent, etc.
2. Write a blog post about the fundraiser or the charity to raise awareness.
3. Place this Chip In widget code on your blog:<embed allowScriptAccess=”always” src=”http://widget.chipin.com/widget/id/2d59742089239480″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” wmode=”transparent” width=”250″ height=”250″></embed>
4. Advertise the fundraiser on your site using this button:<a href=”http://momitforward.com” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://i668.photobucket.com/albums/vv43/momitforward/MIF_FightPoverty2_125x125.jpg” alt=”Africa, Poverty, Women, Mom It Forward, Moms Helping Moms” border=”0″ /></a>
5. Promote and/or attend our live events. See the calendar of events post for details, including invitation and press release links.
6. Start using products with coconut oil, especially those sold at Basa Body and Coast Coconut Farms. You can sample the products at all of our live events.
7. Put on a fundraising “Tweet Up” or event in your area. This doesn’t have to be a huge, formal event or something that raises a lot of money. Meeting up with friends and family at your home, at a coffee shop, or another informal gathering place and spreading the news about this initiative goes a long way in raising awareness.
8. Familiarize yourself with the charity’s mission by visiting and reading information on these three sites: http://yehu.org, http://basabody.com, http://coastcoconutfarms.co.ke, and http://coastcoconutfarms.com.
9. After visiting the sites, promote them in your social media circles with the goal of raising awareness.
10. Determine what you will do today to Mom It Forward to your family, your friends, and/or people in your online networks, etc. Go out and Mom It Forward and help change the world one mom at a time. This applies to moms as well as anyone that has a mom!

When You Make a Purchase, Choose Products With a Proceeds Going to Charity

If you happen to have the means and desire to contribute financially, here’s several ways to make a difference that way:

• Make a cash donation to Yehu Microfinance through our Chip In widget.
• Purchase one of the Basa Body Kiss Me Packs (made using the coconut oil extracted by the women in Kenya) for your Mother’s Day Gift (a portion of the proceeds goes to charity).
• Purchase any of the Basa Body products (a portion of the proceeds goes to charity).
• Purchase a limited edition #gno t-shirt (a portion of the proceeds goes to charity).
• Purchase coconut cooking oil. This is perfect for cooking and food storage and has a longer shelf life than other oils. Proceeds from this purchase also go to charity.

The fabulous Ria and Suzanne from My Mommy Manual and in partnership with Mom It Forward and the 12 for 12K team, are throwing the pajama party of all pajama parties and you’re invited. In support of our 6-week focus on charity, service, and giving, they are raffling off a wide array of prizes with the proceeds going to Yehu Microfinance, Basa Body, and Coast Coconut Farms. Click here to enter to win!

What’s more? Guy Kawasaki is joining in on the fun! After all, what’s a pajama party without a GUY? Join us Tuesday, April 14 from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. eastern (8 CDT, 7 MDT, & 6 PDT) to chit and chat about tips for entrepreneurs—starting and running your own business and using social media to do it.

Guy Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of nine books including Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. He has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.

When: Tues., Apr.14 from 9 pm to 1 a.m. EDT (8 CDT, 7 CDT, and 6 PDT)

What: Girl’s Night Out (What’s GNO? Click here to find out!)

Topic: Tips to Starting & Running Your Own Business—in conjunction with our charity to fight poverty in Kenya (Yehu, BasaBody, Coast Coconut Farms)

Where: Tweet Grid (use the #gno hashtag)and on UStream


Who: @guykawasaki, @riasharon, and @zenmommy

RSVP: Use Mr. Linky below (enter the twitter URL and your twitter ID (e.g., http://twitter.com/jyl_momIF). If you would like to include your blog, please enter it next to your name. Make sure to include your twitter URL in the URL line. Please do not enter your blog URL there.

How Do You Enter to Win the Giveaways?

My Mommy Manual has rounded up nearly $5,000 in prizes. Check out this short video below to see how to enter!

Giving may be better than receiving, but receiving has its perks too. Yehu Microfinance and Basa Body, in gratitude for your participation in this fundraiser, will randomly select three lucky winners who have made a donation of $20 or more and/or made any product purchase from Basa Body or Coast Coconut Farms. The perks?

• $250 Disney Gift Card
• $150 Amazon.com Gift Card
• $100 Target Gift Card

Note: Participants who have made donations of $20 or more or who have purchased any product from Basa Body or Coast Coconut Farms are eligible to win one of the gift cards. Yehu Microfinance will randomly select the winners for each gift card. Friends and family members of Yehu Microfinance or Mom It Forward are ineligible to win. The giveaway runs from Tuesday, March 31 through Tuesday, May 12 at 9:30 p.m. EDT. Winners will be announced at #gno and on this website Tuesday, May 12 at 10 p.m. EDT. No purchase necessary.

When: Tues., Mar. 31 from 9 pm to 1 a.m. EDT (8 CDT, 7 CDT, and 6 PDT)

What: Girl’s Night Out (What’s GNO? Click here to find out!)

Topic: Social community & responsibility—kicking off our Mom It Forward Moms Helping Moms charity (Yehu, BasaBody, Coast Coconut Farms)

Where: Tweet Grid (use the #gno hashtag)

Who: @ChrisBrogan, @dannybrown, @briancarter, Catherine from @herbadmother, Rainee Baldwin from @basabody, Troy Holmberg from @yehu_africa

RSVP: Use Mr. Linky below (enter the twitter URL and your twitter ID (e.g., http://twitter.com/jyl_momIF). If you would like to include your blog, please enter it next to your name. Make sure to include your twitter URL in the URL line. Please do not enter your blog URL there.

Technorati Profile

Please Enter Your Twitter URL and not your Blog URL to RSVP.