An emotional story by 60 Minutes about homeless kids living in cars in Florida sparked $1 million in donations after the story aired.  In fact, the outpouring was so unexpected, that 60 Minutes re-aired it.  “We’ll do several updates a year, but it’s not exactly common,” said 60 Minutes spokesman Kevin Tedesco. “But in this case, within two weeks there has been a large enough outpouring of offers to help that we felt we needed to let our audience know.” This is a great example of the power of journalism to drive giving.  Imagine the multiplier effect if giving was enabled from journalism itself, distributed across local markets across the county?
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An emotional story by 60 Minutes about homeless kids living in cars in Florida sparked $1 million in donations after the story aired.  In fact, the outpouring was so unexpected, that 60 Minutes re-aired it. 

“We’ll do several updates a year, but it’s not exactly common,” said 60 Minutes spokesman Kevin Tedesco. “But in this case, within two weeks there has been a large enough outpouring of offers to help that we felt we needed to let our audience know.”

This is a great example of the power of journalism to drive giving.  Imagine the multiplier effect if giving was enabled from journalism itself, distributed across local markets across the county?

Charlie Sheen vs. nonprofits: Eugene Cho, founder of the terrific Seattle nonprofit One Day’s Wages, can’t believe that Charlie Sheen set a Twitter record for hitting 1 million followers in just over 24 hours.  “(It) really bothered me because well, that’s a commentary about what ‘moves’ and ‘speaks’ to us as a larger culture,” he writes. “Nonprofits and causes don’t entertain.” The fact that Cho is a savvy social media marketer makes the point even clearer.  Sure, Charlie Sheen is a bit of an extreme case, but most people aren’t going out of their way to follow (virtually or otherwise) local nonprofits and causes.  As Cho says, “it often feels like an uphill battle as we invite attention and participation in the midst of all the noise and clutter.” The implications for Care Movement are obvious: how can we cut through the clutter to become a true movement around needs in the news?  We think it certainly helps that we’re positioning our fundraisers to capitalize on the compassion sparked by compelling journalism — stories that people are already talking about it.  And the crowdfunding element helps, too.  But people in need isn’t the most entertaining topic to share with your friends.  Your ideas are welcome in comments…
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Charlie Sheen vs. nonprofits: Eugene Cho, founder of the terrific Seattle nonprofit One Day’s Wages, can’t believe that Charlie Sheen set a Twitter record for hitting 1 million followers in just over 24 hours.  “(It) really bothered me because well, that’s a commentary about what ‘moves’ and ‘speaks’ to us as a larger culture,” he writes. “Nonprofits and causes don’t entertain.”

The fact that Cho is a savvy social media marketer makes the point even clearer.  Sure, Charlie Sheen is a bit of an extreme case, but most people aren’t going out of their way to follow (virtually or otherwise) local nonprofits and causes.  As Cho says, “it often feels like an uphill battle as we invite attention and participation in the midst of all the noise and clutter.”

The implications for Care Movement are obvious: how can we cut through the clutter to become a true movement around needs in the news?  We think it certainly helps that we’re positioning our fundraisers to capitalize on the compassion sparked by compelling journalism — stories that people are already talking about it.  And the crowdfunding element helps, too.  But people in need isn’t the most entertaining topic to share with your friends.  Your ideas are welcome in comments…

Spot.us shows success in crowdfunding news

One of the innovative models we’ve watched carefully over the last two years is Spot.us, a crowdfunding site where users can donate to pay for original journalism.  Founder David Cohn has posted a great write-up of his successes and challenges to date.

The greatest challenge, as you might imagine, is financial.  One of the big lessons of the Spot.us approach is revenue diversity, ranging from transaction costs to sponsorships and donations.  While our approach is different than Spot.us — Care Movement will raise money for people in need through stories — the financial challenges are the same.  We’ve run a series of similar financial models aimed at ensuring the non-profit is scalable and sustainable. 

Like Spot.us, we’re open to hearing your ideas about how to finance a non-profit crowdfunding company.  David’s transparency in talking about the company is refreshing, and we share his excitement “to tackle the future.”

Avoiding perceptions of checkbook journalism

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation here in Seattle isn’t shy about funding coverage for stories it believes in, like the fight against poverty and HIV.  But as this Seattle Times story explains, some in the journalism community are concerned that direct funding of news coverage — with stipulations on the types of stories to be written — encroaches on the objectivity of news organizations.

While we don’t have any misgivings about the Gates Foundation’s approach, we understand why some journalists may be concerned.  That’s why we believe the role of Care Movement is not to finance additional news coverage, but to provide ways for people to give through existing stories in the news. 

However, we do believe there are opportunities to provide follow-up coverage on stories  where donations were made.  After all, those who give will want to know if their donations are making an impact.

The story that sparked an idea: On a sunny Saturday morning in June 2010, a fire tore through a small apartment in Seattle, killing 5 members of an immigrant family.   While the story dominated the news through the weekend, there was no way anyone could donate money to the surviving family members — until Monday, when an account was set up at Bank of America.  But few people visit banks anymore, and by Monday evening, the story had all but fallen out of the news. This started us thinking: how can people give online to the most urgent needs, acting immediately on their compassion while the story is still in the news?  That’s the idea behind Care Movement.
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The story that sparked an idea: On a sunny Saturday morning in June 2010, a fire tore through a small apartment in Seattle, killing 5 members of an immigrant family.   While the story dominated the news through the weekend, there was no way anyone could donate money to the surviving family members — until Monday, when an account was set up at Bank of America.  But few people visit banks anymore, and by Monday evening, the story had all but fallen out of the news.

This started us thinking: how can people give online to the most urgent needs, acting immediately on their compassion while the story is still in the news?  That’s the idea behind Care Movement.

Welcome to our adventure

We’re a small team of journalists working on an innovative nonprofit startup called Care Movement that will connect urgent needs in the news with people who want to help.

We’re starting up on Tumblr to bounce ideas around, narrow down some strategies and listen to what you think about our grand adventure.  Welcome, and stay tuned for more…