It would be so wonderful if this year, we could all do something to raise money for those children. To give them something they’ve been asking for all year long: the security that comes from knowing they will have enough to eat tomorrow. I invite you to join me in hosting a holiday bake sale to help feed hungry kids.

As a charity fundraiser blogger, I always enjoy coming up with new ways to raise money for kids in need in fun ways, especially during the holidays. This year, I am hosting a holiday bake sale to raise money for kids in need, working with Share Our Strength to help feed hungry children in America.

It may seem like a lot, but hosting a bake sale can be easy to do and a lot of fun, as long as you plan ahead. I encourage you to join me in making a difference this year by hosting a bake sale for charity!

How to Host a Holiday Bake Sale

Here are some helpful tips for running a successful holiday bake sale:

Choose your cause.  

Who will you raise money for? If you already have an organization in mind, then this step is the easiest! If you’re not sure who to raise money for, think about who you’d like to help the most with your bake sale. As a baker, I like to choose organizations that help hungry children, or children in need.

This holiday season, I am raising money for Share Our Strength. If you’re not familiar with SOS, this is a wonderful organization that works directly with schools, local and state governments, and families to help feed hungry children in America. And, as a bonus this holiday season, every single dollar we raise for SOS will be doubled through December 31st!

Choose your venue.  

Who will you sell your teats to and where? There are several different ways to host a bake sale, such as:

• At a location. Choose to host your bake sale at a church, a school, an office building, or your very own home. If it’s at a public place, ask permission in advance to make sure hosting a charity bake sale is permissible. Make sure the location has an area for you to set up a table with your baked goods, as well as areas for you to post signs announcing your bake sale.
• A virtual bake sale.  After a home bake sale, this is my favorite type of bake sale to plan. I highly recommend this type of bake sale if you do not want the hassle of working at a location, setting up, cleaning, etc. that comes with a traditional bake sale. With a virtual bake sale, all you have to do is spread the word about your bake sale. Tell people what it’s for, and what you’ll be selling. Make sure to include prices, as well as a delivery date for the baked goods, and an email address. You may choose to sell your cookies at an office, a school, a church, or your neighborhood. Use flyers, email, word-of-mouth, anything to help spread the word about what you’re doing. Or, you can take orders by email.  Have people email you their orders, this way you can keep track of how many cookies to make ahead of time. On the day of delivery, deliver cookies to your customers, and collect their donations.

Choose your treats.  

What kinds of treats will you sell? It’s always best to make two or three different kinds of treats to give people an option. More than three kinds, however, might prove to be too much, especially with a large number of orders. Think about how you’ll package them as well. Choose treats that will travel well, as well as ones you may stack in bags or boxes.

Choose your prices.

How much will you sell your treats for? Remember, this is a charity fundraiser, so you want to make sure people buy your cookies. I usually suggest selling cookies for $5-$8 per dozen.

Choose your bake sale date and sell!

When will you host your bake sale? Choose a date, making sure you have plenty of time a few days before to bake, and package your cookies.

Donate!  

Collect your donations and send your organization the money raised. Make sure to contact someone at the organization and let them know what you’ve done. This isn’t about tooting your own horn. Organizations love to hear what people are doing to raise money!

What kind of holiday treats do you like to buy and sell at a holiday bake sale? What do you love most about holiday bake sales?

Whether you are from the Mom It Forward community or the 12for12K team, if you live in or near one of these locations, please come and party with us all for a great cause!

• San Diego, CA (12for12k)
• Dublin, CA (12for12k)
• New York, NYC (Mom It Forward)
• Provo, UT (Mom It Forward)
• Chicago, IL (Mom It Forward)
• Fairfax, VA (Mom It Forward)
• San Pedro, CA (Mom It Forward)
• Portland, OR (Mom It Forward)

View this video to learn more about the cause we are supporting!

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!

The 12for12k Challenge is the combination of social media and fund-raising that aims to change the lives of millions worldwide.

Its aim is to raise a minimum of $144,000 for 12 charities over the course of 2009, with a new charity being supported every month. All proceeds raised go directly to the chosen charities.

The concept is simple:

• 12 months of the year
• 12 charities, a different charity each month
• $12,000 per charity

How will they do this? By using the power and outreach of social media to spread the word. From Twitter to Facebook, blogs to social media newsrooms and more, the 12for12k Challenge will be helping their chosen charities connect with as wide an audience as possible.

To ensure as much help goes to those who need it, all the partners in the 12for12k Challenge are offering their time and services for free. Additionally, every charity chosen must have no more than 10% administration costs, with financial records available on request. Additionally, all donations go direct to the charity’s normal donation page – there is no middle-man to handle donations.

Mom It Forward feels fortunate that 12 for 12K has chosen to suppport Yehu Microfinance for their April charity. In addition to raising money, the fantastic 12 for 12K community is helping us throw parties on and offline. It’s great to see two different communities/organizations coming together for one great purpose—to help women in Kenya raise themselves out of poverty!

Before I dive in and explain the reason behind our choice for this charity, I wanted to share something a bit personal. My family has experienced some of the hardships I know many of you are experiencing… and in the not too distant past. I know these struggles are real. I know times are hard. A layoff or losing insurance is extremely unsettling and stressful. The lack of knowing when you’ll round the corner or where the next meal is coming from is downright scary at times. Whether you live within or outside of the US, during this time of economic hardship, I encourage everyone to reach out to each other with support and love and kindness and to Mom It Forward on a daily basis both on and offline. And if you want to help on a larger scale and are wondering why Kenya, please read this post and let me know if you have any additional questions or feedback (momitforward [at] gmail [dot] com).

Why Kenya?

When we began planning this fundraiser in January, we seriously considered which charity to support.

Several factors influenced our decision. I’d like to share a little bit about each one of them.

• The Mom It Forward Mission
• The Steps to Accomplish Our Mission
• Our Global Community
• My Personal Experience With Yehu Microfinance and BasaBody

The Mom It Forward Mission

The Mom It Forward mission is: “to change the world one mom at a time.” We will achieve that by 1) strengthening women, 2) helping them become the best moms and/or influencers they can be, and 3) providing ideas, opportunities to, and recognition for carrying out the Mom It Forward mission in small and large ways, locally as well as internationally, in their communities and beyond.

Since the primary focus of our mission is to change the world one mom at a time, we have chosen to spearhead two major fundraisers each year and to rally around important causes that we, as a community, can support with our hearts, our pocketbooks, our volunteerism, our publicity and/or any of the talents and skills we are willing to offer. We recognize that not everyone is in a position to donate financially and we feel strongly that community members know that we see all contributions as important and valued, not just those that keep the Chip In numbers soaring!

The Steps to Accomplish Our Mission

For our two annual fundraisers, we’ll have one in the spring and another in the fall. We have chosen to focus one event annually on a local charity (North America) and one event on an international initiative. Since our fall fundraiser was for Feeding America, which benefited families facing hunger in the United States, we felt that focusing on an international charity was important for our first fundraiser of 2009.

That said, we have not forgotten that many of the most impactful ways to Mom It Forward are acts of service and kindness performed within our neighborhoods and communities. They are small as well as large tasks and projects that rely on local resources and community outreach. To help women make an impact within their communities, Mom It Forward is setting up a worldwide organization. What this means is that women come together to form a Mom It Forward chapter in their area. Our first chapter is forming right now in the North East with @rachelferrucci as the president and @ginalaguardia as the vice-president. We also have been beta testing the chapter idea in Utah and finally feel ready to give it a go in another location.

While we don’t have all of the details ironed out, here is what we know. Local chapters are in a much better position to reach out to organizations, families, and women in their communities since they have local resources and know of area-specific needs. In Utah, we have done big projects like serving at an assisted living facility and a center for abused and neglected children as well as taking meals into women in the Mom It Forward community who were sick.

In Nashville, we prepared lunch for 1,500 people at the Nashville Rescue Mission.In the North East, they are planning a project for a center for women of domestic violence in Connecticut. In Utah, we also had a workshop where speakers came to talk about life balance, parenting, and other uplifting topics. It was a great way to network, come together for a great cause, and leave feeling uplifted and strengthed in our roles as women, mothers, influencers, and community members who want to make a meaningful difference.

I point all of this out, because my greatest hope is to change the world one mom at a time. While Mom It Forward itself can certainly influence people toward a couple of major initiatives a year both at home and abroad, we cannot have the impact that local chapters can. Therefore, one of our greatest focuses will be to get these chapters up and going with enough structure and guidance so that the amazing women that sit on their boards can really make a positive difference in their communities.

Our Global Community

While focusing on our mission and the steps to accomplishing that mission is important, Mom It Forward is not anything without its amazing community members—the #gno gals (and guys!) as well as the bloggers, the IRL friends and family, and all the many people who support and contribute in meaningful ways to the community. We recognize that our community lives in or is from various backgrounds and countries. This is what makes us rich, diverse, and fun. But what makes us unique is the reason we all come together—our passion for making a postive difference in the world. So, at Mom It Forward, we wanted to show sensitivity to the fact that we are a global group and that together, we are facing a global economic crisis and hardship. While we took the US economy and the many hardships so many of us are facing into consideration when we made this decision, we didn’t feel that focusing solely on US events for both of our major fundraisers would be sensitive and fair to the many people in our community that live outside of the US. That, coupled with our mission to change the “world” helped us decide to focus outside the US for our second fundraiser.

My Personal Experience With This Charity

After going to Washington DC last summer, visiting the Holocaust Museum, and going through an exhibit on Darfur, I felt a call to action to help people in rural Africa. I returned home with hope and immediately put calls into and sent e-mails to a variety of organizations set up to do just that. To my dismay, not a single one returned my calls or e-mails. That is when I met Troy Holmberg. Troy lives in my neighborhood and is a VP of Operations for a corporation where I live. His “other” job, besides being a father of 5 children, is overseeing the US side of the volunteer operations of Yehu Microfinance, Basa Body, and Coast Coconut Farms (all falling under the same 501(c)3 founded by his family more than 12 years ago).

If any of you have ever been stalked, you know how Troy felt when I began, in earnest, to demand suggest that he bring me on as a volunteer (think STALKING!). He brought me on in September and had me edit marketing materials for the Basa Body product line. By January, we were talking about partnering on this major fundraiser initiative. I knew, after having worked with him directly for 4 months, that he and his charitable organization were the right fit for Mom It Forward. He is trustworthy and puts his heart and soul into his volunteer work. He does everything from making and assembling the product and overseeing operations to making regular trips to Africa to work with the employees there and visit the women in the local villages. He is learning the language and loves the people. And, he does it all as a volunteer. These charities have no administrative costs. I was sold!!!

How Can You Get Involved?

If after reading this, you’d like to participate in this fundraiser; become more involved in Mom It Forward in general; or if you have questions, concerns. or feedback for us, please contact us at momitforward [at] gmail [dot] com. If you’d like more information on the charities, please visit Yehu Microfinance, BasaBody, or Coast Coconut Farms here or here. Together, we can change the world one mom at a time!

What Are the Results of Using Twitter for Charities and Non-Profits?

Over the last six months, I’ve seen some pretty cool results for charities and non-profits using twitter.

Tweetsgiving

This was a very clever, well planned, successful viral fundraiser.  The goal was to raise $10,000 to build a classroom for children in Tanzania.

Tactics:

• Asked twitterers to tweet their gratitude along with website address and the hashtag #tweetsgiving
• Enlisted influential twitterers (via direct messaging) as seed evangelists
• Chip-in for donations

Results:

• People tweeted 3,000 gratitude messages
• They gained 1,337 twitter followers
• Tweetsgiving was a top trending term on Twitter for 48 hours
• Tweetsgiving.org received 15,830 page views from 7563 visitors in 101 countries
• More than 100 press and blog mentions, and here’s one more

One Day For Human Rights—Anca Foster

This campaign was focused on the Dec 10, 2008 Human Rights Day, and modeled after Blog Action Day. The goal was to get signatures for a petition to get the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into people’s passports.

Tactics:

• Twitter avatar mod/logo
• Tweets
• Badges for blogs
• Got commitments to blog about it on the actual day

Results:

• 1,849 signatures
• 1,535 Twitter followers
• 387 members of Facebook group
• 2,349 inbound links

12 for 12K Organization—Danny Brown

This is a fairly new, ongoing year-long effort for 12 different charities.  Each month, a new charity.

Tactics are fluid, but they include:

• Avatar mod, tweeting, badges
• Chip-in for donations
• Raffle contests

And they just did a tweet-a-thon… March 19 2009 to Raise $12,000 for the Share Our Strength charity.

Results:

• Website traffic: 3,117 unique visitors with 6,239 page hits
• Twitter: 100+ pages of search results for the #12for12k hashtag
• Twitter: 300 users of the #12for12k hashtag between 11.00am and 1.00pm EST
• Twitter: Topping numerous Twitter trend sites (above March Madness hashtag)
• Donors: 459 contributors, raising a total of $14,847.69
• Amount: Target of $12,000 was raised in just 6 hours. On average, more than $1,000 was being donated per hour.

Real World Results

• Connect 546,840 families to programs that provide free meals to their children during the summer.
• Provide 14,112 preschool children with a nutritious lunch.
• Give 352,800 schoolchildren a glass of milk
• Feed 420 children three meals a day for a month

Um wow.

So What Works For Charities and Non Profits on Twitter?

Tips for Getting Action and Participation

• Widgets and logos for people’s blogs
• Logo that’s avatar-sized for Twitter pic modification
• Hashtags
• Reason for people to constantly tweet about it
• Chip In widget
• Get commitments to blog or tweet

Brian Carter is the director of Search Engine Optimization for Fuel Interactive. See Brian’s lifestreams at FriendFeed, Profilactic, and MyBlogLog. And check out his social network, Brian Carter’s Amazing Friends and the Brian Carter Social Media Blog.

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.

Teaming up with Share Our Strength; Kate tells her story.

Ever since I was a little girl, I have been passionate about helping children that were less fortunate than myself. When I was in fifth grade, I began sponsoring a child through Christian Children’s Fund with my allowance money. I loved giving in that way – feeling like I was doing something important for other children. Never in my life did I imagine that someday I might have children on the receiving end of that cycle.

But that is exactly what happened a few years ago. A series of events led to our family relying on the kindness of strangers and food pantry donations to see us through. I saw first hand the work and compassion of organizations whose first priority is making sure children are fed.

Now that the tide has turned toward the better for our family, I feel that same passion I did as a child, except this time I’m armed with first-hand experience. A commercial on Food Network for Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale really got me thinking. I knew I wanted to get involved. I tried to figure out what I could do that would have the greatest impact. That’s when the idea of the Virtual Great American Bake Sale occurred to me.

I emailed Share Our Strength with my plans. I was thrilled when they responded that they loved the idea and set up a conference call with me.I partnered with them to create the official Virtual Great American Bake Sale.

I can’t wait to see the power of the blogosphere in action. I hope you’ll join me in my vision to make the Virtual Great American Bake Sale a success. Let’s support Share Our Strength’s work to make sure that no child goes hungry!

You can read all of the details and find out how to participate on my blog, Cooking During Stolen Moments. Click the button to find out more!

~~~~~~~

Calling All Foodies! The virtual bake sale needs your recipes! Hurry, deadline is April 5th!

click to tweet this

Mom It Forward, in partnership with 12 for 12K, is kicking off 6-weeks of fundraising for moms and by moms (Tuesday, March 31 through Tuesday May 13) and we need your help!

On Saturday, April 18, Mom It Forward and 12 for 12K events will be taking place all over the US, in Canada, and in Australia (see list of locations below) to raise funds and awareness for Yehu Microfinance, BasaBody, and Coast Coconut Farms. The goal? To combat poverty by empowering poor rural entrepreneurs in Kenya to help lift themselves out of poverty through enhanced accessibility to sustainable financial services, business opportunities, and skills training.

Yehu Microfinance, BasaBody, and Coast Coconut Farms work together to achieve this mission. How? First, women secure micro loans from Yehu Microfinance. Next, they purchase a franchise from Coast Coconut Farms, which gives them the materials, skills/business training, and opportunity to run a coconut oil extraction business right from their village. Then, Coast Coconut Farms makes regular village runs to purchase the coconut oil and processes it in its plant. Finally, Coast Coconut Farms exports the oil to the U.S. where volunteers there use the oil to create and sell bath, body, and cooking products—part of the Basa Body and Coast Coconut Farms product lines—returning the proceeds right back to Africa to help more and more women.

How Can You Help?

Our goal is to raise $35,000 for Yehu Microfinance (click here to learn more about donations) and sell $5,000 worth of Basa Body and Coast Coconut Farms product like mint chocolate truffle and cherry soap with coconut oil (shown left) or hand lotion (shown below). Cash donations or product purchases is certainly one way to help and is much appreciated.

We recognize not everyone can donate cash during these tough financial times. Therefore, we have come up with many ways to contribute:

1. Be part of a Moms Helping Moms event planning committee in your area.
2. Volunteer at a Moms Helping Moms event.
3. Donate product or services for the event (the venue, food, raffle items, etc.).
4. Help us publicize it on and offline.
5. Attend the event.
6. If there is not an event listed for your area, consider putting one together. We have a team and materials in place to help with this initiative.

Where Are Events Taking Place?

Mom It Forward and 12 for 12K are working with volunteers within our communities all over the US, Canada, and Australia to support Yehu Microfinance, BasaBody, and Coast Coconut Farms through fundraising efforts. The live events listed below (details to come) are being planned and carried out by amazingly giving teams of volunteers in local areas. The success of these events relies on terrific volunteer involvement and every team is looking for help. If you have time, services, or products you would be willing to donate, please e-mail us at momitforward AT gmail DOT com so we can put you in touch with the team leader in your area.

Note: Hyperlinked cities mean there is a Facebook group already formed for this team. If you are near one of these cities and would like to contribute, please click on the link, join the Facebook team, and let the team know how you’d like to contribute. Thanks!

The United States
Chicago, IL
Dallas/Ft Worth, TX
DC Metro (DC/MD/VA)

Denver

Kansas City, MO

Los Angeles
Milwaukee, WI
Nashville, TN
New York City, NY
Philadelphia, PA
Portland, OR
Raleigh, NC
Salt Lake City, UT
San Diego, CA

Canada
Toronto
Vancouver

Australia
Sydney

If you are interested in participating or having an event in your area, please contact us at momitforward AT gmail DOT com. Thanks for your interest! Together, we can change the world one mom at a time!

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