A couple of weeks ago my friend Geoff Livingston called me up and asked me how I'd like to be part of a new group advising Razoo, the excellent nonprofit fundraising platform, on the development of a new personal fundraising tool. The group would involve fundraising, community-building and social media experts who would engage in a series of exercises followed by conference calls and Twitter chats to share what we're learning. In other words, a chance to connect with smart people and learn from their collective wisdom while supporting an organization or my choice to raise funds and expand their community? Hell yeah I'd like to be involved.
The group is know as the zooGooder Council and is every bit the great collection of advocates and nonprofiteers I imagined. In addition to myself it includes:
• Andre Blackman of Pulse and Signal. • Nicole D’Alonzo of Niki’s Notes • Abby Flottemesch of Atlas Corps • John Haydon of his eponymous blog, http://www.johnhaydon.com • Rachel Matthews of A Southern Fairy Tale • William Neuheisel of DC Central Kitchen • Armando Rayo of El Mundo de Mando • Jennifer Roccanti of Miriam’s Kitchen • Amber Rodriguez of Noah’s Kitchen • Jenna Sauber at Lagniappe • Andy Sternberg of his eponymous blog, http://andysternberg.com/ • Andrea Weckerle of CiviliNation • Jennifer Windrum of WTF Lung Cancer
This is a fantastic group of experienced do gooders and I'm excited to have the opportunity to learn from them and share my own experiences along the way. We'll be testing the new DonateAnywhere widget that Razoo have launched, which allows a blogger or organization to fundraise without sending their visitors to another site.
Unfortunately I cannot fully test out this functionality, which is a genuine step forward, as it requires that the host accept external javascript (that's what allows the widget to process financial payment securely). Wordpress.com does not. Another reason for me to update to a wordpress.org install soon I guess.
Regardless I'm excited to play with Razoo's tools and help an organization I admire: The Global Lives Project. I'll be blogging about why I chose this organization tomorrow but if you'd like to check out the DonateAnywhere widget in action and, even better, donate to this cause check out my donation page.
You can participate in the learning and conversation around the zooGooder program by joining the weekly #zooGood twitter chat, 6-6.30pm Pacific each Tuesday.