May 3rd, 2011
Written by lee, Comments Off
As Christchurch commences the long road of rebuilding and recovering from the devastating earthquake on 22 February 2011 we at Givealittle, along with many others, have been humbled by the incredible and swift response to help our Cantabrian neighbours.
We are proud that our online tools at have helped many create their own fundraising response to support a range of organisations continue to assist in Christchurch. Every action is worth mention and acknowledgment but with over 40 individual pages created I’ll just highlight a few.
Telecom stepped up early in the initial Givealittle response and supported the New Zealand Red Cross Appeal at Givealittle with sponsorship that allowed us to ensure 100% of donations to this fund go directly to the Red Cross. With over $200,000 given to this fund alone, we are grateful to Telecom for their support.
Individuals and businesses took up the challenge to assist the Salvation Army’s fundraising efforts including the team at Bell Gully who donated nearly $40,000.
The Student Volunteer Army captured the heart of New Zealand when they hit the streets after the September earthquake and they were back in force in February. Working around the clock to assist the residents of Christchurch these incredible volunteers also received donation support to support their operations.
In a fantastic display of collaboration led by SAFE, Animal Aid was founded to provide a central resource for six Christchurch based organisations caring for animals post the quake.
An incredible effort was demonstrated by the team behind the Christchurch Recovery Map website. A global reachig team of digital volunteers created this resource and manned the effort providing essential information to over 100,000 Cantabrians until official channels were established and adequately resourced. Well done guys!
And to all who donated, created a fundraising page, volunteered their time, shared their homes and worked around the clock – you are all stars!
November 24th, 2010
Written by nathalie, Comments Off
29 miners were confirmed dead after a unsurvivable second explosion ripped through the West Coast mine this afternoon.
Givealittle has set up a sponsored web fund to take online donations for the Pike River Miners’ Fund, post confirmation of the establishment of an official mayoral fund by Tony Kockshoorn, Grey District mayor. 100% of all funds donated here will be passed into this fund to support families that have lost fathers, husbands, brothers and sons in the Pike River mining disaster.
ANZ have also set up a bank account to receive donations –
ANZ account number: 01 1841 0052483 00
Tags: donate to miners families, mayoral fund, mine disaster, miners fund, miners' family support, pike river, Tony Kockshoorn
November 23rd, 2010
Written by nathalie, 2 Comments
The devastating wait for rescue continues following an explosion late Friday 19th November at the Pike River coal mine. Families of the trapped 29 workers continue to hold on with hope for their loved ones.
Feeling helpless in this situation is natural but it is so important that the support for the families and the wider West Coast community continues. Extraordinary pain and anguish calls for an extraordinary demonstration of support. Does anyone have ideas for how the rest of New Zealand (and indeed the international community) could show their support for the trapped miners, their families or for people on the West Coast? Is there a gesture we could make to show solidarity in a tangiable way? Are there any unmet needs or comforts that we could work together to provide?
We’d love to help in some way…
Tags: coal mine disaster, miners, New Zealand, pike river, west coast
July 27th, 2010
Written by lee, Comments Off
We are often asked why some Givealittle pages seem to receive stronger donation levels than others. 
There are number of factors that lead to donation support but the first question I always ask someone who asks why their page is lacking support is:
‘Who have you told about your page?’
Remarkably, a number of people say, ‘Well… no-one‘.
Whilst we do know some fantastic people who browse Givealittle every month to find new causes to support this is not the norm.
Givealittle provides smart online tools that provide a place to tell a story and share that story with the social web with the aim of receiving support.
Here are a few tips to get your Givealittle page working for you:
Tell your story, try to use more than words, load images and video to the galleries
Update, use the update blog to provide more detailed information and to update on progress and news
Share, share, share! Email the page link to supporters and your team and ask them to share it far and wide. Post on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter and again ask people to share.
Links, add a link to your page or use a widget on your own website or blog. Ask others to do the same.
When creating your page think about who you should be sharing it with, then share it. Remember, your Givealittle page, just like your website, blog or service is only going to work for you if someone knows it is there!
June 10th, 2010
Written by nathalie, 2 Comments
When I was young and innocent, I would often spend the weekends at my Nana’s house while my 20-something parents partied through their youth. I would find all sorts of activities to keep myself amused. Around 8 years old I made friends with a typewriter in Nana’s spare bedroom. Every weekend for about a year I would sit at the typewriter and belt out Letters to the New Zealand Prime Minister – addressing a full range of early 90s injustices relevant to the world of an 8 year old. Crimes against furry arctic animals, lack of native trees at my school, why Home Alone 2 should premiere at school assembly etc etc.
In recent weeks I have been channeling my inner 8 year old.
Like many of you – I have found it hard to stomach the images coming out of the Gulf of Mexico. My brain can not compute the devastating impact that the spill is having as every hour goes by.
Well it is not 1992, and the tools have moved on from Nana’s typewriter – but together with some other angry people I hope to pull off an online protest action capable of putting a small dent in BP’s medium to long term retail fuel consumption.
I don’t vote Green, I use disposable nappies – but if this oil spill doesn’t make you sit up and think about Mama Earth, then we should all go to sea in a rowboat because there will be no hope.
I am looking for expressions of interest from anyone keen to contribute, individuals with skills and experience in getting stuff done online.
Take a look at this EOI form and please share as far and wide as you can.
Also check out @BPGlobalPR.
Tags: BP, Gulf of Mexico, oil spill
May 31st, 2010
Written by lee, Comments Off
Dip your toes into the online space with a read through the yMedia Online Toolkit. It is hot off the press and gives some great tips on how to engage online and use online tools to work smarter.
What are your favourite online tools?
Tags: online toolkit, social media, yMedia
May 12th, 2010
Written by lee, 1 comment
Simply fantastic visualisation of charitable giving in the USA from www.wallstats.com.
budget planner – Mint.com
Tags: charitable giving, charity navigator, wallstats.com
May 6th, 2010
Written by lee, 1 comment
I’ve been told recently that if Facebook was a country it would be the third most populated in the world. An interesting number to grasp when you are from a country with a population of approximately 4 million.
Facebook has come along way in the last few years. It is now more than just a social network for the younger generations but an important tool for individuals, businesses, community groups and causes to engage.
While we all understand why we should we dip our toes in the water, it is important to create a Facebook profile account that is appropriate so that your experience starting out in Facebook is a positive one.
A common mistake I often see is an organisation creating the wrong profile and therefore limiting their potential interaction with supporters. So what kind of profile should you have?
Facebook Personal Profile Page:
Personal Profiles are for individual people only. As obvious as this might seem, many businesses and other organisations make a mistake here and create a Personal Profile.
If you have persevered in registering your organisation with making up a first name, last name and date of birth and you are now asking people to be your ‘friend’, stop right there! You need to create a Facebook Page and delete the Personal Profile. If you already have ‘friends’, let them you will be deleting the account and where they can find your new page.
Facebook Brand Pages:
Pages allow businesses, organisations, bands etc to have a Facebook presence. These were once referred to as Fan Pages and individuals became ‘fans’. Now these are called Brand Pages and individuals simply ‘like’ your page.
A key difference of engagement with a Personal Profile and a Brand Page is privacy. When you become ‘friends’ with a Personal Profile you give the other profile access to your information (limited to your privacy settings). When you ‘like’ a Brand Page you are not providing access to your information, however you can interact with the Brand Page in a similar way that you would with a ‘friends’ Personal Profile.
Facebook Pages can have multiple administrators and it is smart to have more than one administrator, even if they are not very active, to ensure your page access is not lost if someone moves on.
Facebook Community Pages:
A new addition to the Facebook family, Community Pages have been created to cater for non-organisations. Pages had been created for things such as sports and these will be replaced with Community Pages. They will look very similar but over time will allow contributions by a wide range of people, a little bit like Wikipedia.
Facebook Privacy:
It pays to check out the default privacy settings on your personal Facebook account from time to time, you’ll find these under the Profile Setting menu.
Have you connected with Givealittle on Facebook?
Tags: Facebook Brand Pages, Facebook Community Pages, Facebook Profiles, Non-Profit Facebook Pages
April 12th, 2010
Written by nathalie, Comments Off
I have just signed the petition endorsing the Wellington Declaration – a result of the PublicACTA conference in Wellington on Saturday.
From the PublicACTA site:
“ACTA is a controversial international treaty that impacts digital rights and is being negotiated in secret meetings. PublicACTA has been organised by InternetNZ so that the public can critique the known and likely content of ACTA proposals ahead of the next round in Wellington.”
You can watch the podcasts of the conference held at the weekend here
You can proceed to sign the petition here.
Do it, do it 
Tags: ACTA, anti-counterfeiting trade agreement, PublicACTA, wellington, wellington declaration
March 31st, 2010
Written by lee, Comments Off
Celebrate, reward and recognise your fantastic volunteers by nominating them in the Intrepid Travel National Volunteer Awards. One lucky volunteer will be off an adventure of a lifetime with Intrepid Travel.
Last year Good Magazine launched a National Volunteer Award with lead partner Intrepid Travel and in 2010 we’re stoked to be involved.
So what’s it all about?
Quick smart head over to Good Magazine and get all the details.
Nominate your super star volunteers and forward the information to your industry colleagues. The more organisations and volunteers involved means more spotlights will shine on volunteering.
Don’t delay – get the details and get nominating!
Tags: good magazine, intrepid travel, national volunteer awards, volunteer
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