Two Cool New Online Fundraising Tools / Techniques

This week I learned about a couple of very cool things going on in online fundraising.

First: The Greater Chicago Food Depository and other similar nonprofits are using a platform called “AidMatrix” to conduct virtual food drives. Here’s how AidMatrix explains what they do: “Aidmatrix leverages the power of technology and partnerships to bring items such as food, clothing, building supplies, medical and educational supplies to people in need during the time of need. ” Visit their website to learn more:
http://www.aidmatrix.org/home.jsp

See what a virtual food drive looks like in action here: http://www.chicagosfoodbank.org/vfd.htm

Next: I’m always hearing about teachers not having enough funds to do art projects in class etc… Most of our schools are really lacking in funds! So here is a very creative way that teachers are able to raise funds for their projects. It’s called “Donors Choose.” Teachers post a description of the project they need funds for and then donors can choose to fund all or part of a project that is of interest to them. They can search by project topic or region. I love this. I think the new breed of donors really likes projects like this too. It taps into their need to see where they money they donated is really going and to feel like even a smaller donation can really make a difference.

Check it out here: http://www.donorschoose.com/

I think a project like this could work for other types of organizations as well.

What do you think of these two cool ways to raise money online? Have you seen other interesting projects, tools, techniques that might be interesting to readers of this blog? Let me know.