The Online Fundraising Blog

With her husband serving in the military and a 2-year-old son at home, Priscilla wanted to create something for her son to remind him of his dad, even while he’s away – and so begins the story of The Deployment Bear.

The Deployment Bear is a children's book that Priscilla wrote and published on her own.

It’s an uplifting story about how the bear takes the place of a deployed loved one, and the deployed loved one puts all of their love inside of the bear, just to give it to their child. The book is paired with a plush toy bear to match the one in the book.

  “It’s hard for our military members, but it’s also hard for us here at home – especially for these kids who are missing their loved ones like you wouldn’t believe,” Priscilla said. “Frankly, it’s a lot more difficult for the kids than we think. This book is to help them get through the deployments – they are long and hard on everybody, but especially the kids.”

  Her goal is to put these books and toys in the homes of all military families at no cost to them. With a production cost of $26.94, she admits her goal is ambitious.

  The books and bears are currently in production, but Priscilla is paying out of her own pocket. She acknowledges that she can’t possibly afford to place these in the hands of every military child on her own but she knew she had to start somewhere – so she turned to fundraise.com to help raise the money she needs to reach her goal.

  “Eventually the books will be available for purchase, but if I can get them in the homes of military families at no cost to them, then that’s what I would like to do,” she said.

  To DONATE to her cause, click here: https://www.fundraise.com/kids-on-deployment/help-our-military-kids  

Join The Georges River Land Trust for a 3-mile or 6-mile hike along the trails as they host the Georges Highland Path Hike-a-Thon on August 9th!

The goal of the Hike-a-Thon is to raise money to maintain and expand the Georges Highland Path, which is a 50-mile trail network that is unique in that it's based on the participation of private landowners who welcome the public to cross their land.

With a $20 registration fee and $100 fundraising minimum, participants will enjoy a day on the trails while raising critical funds that will allow the Georges River Land Trust to continue to offer opportunities for the public to fall in love with the land around them.

  “We don’t pay the landowners anything and they don’t really get much out of it, aside from knowing that they are helping to foster an appreciation and interest in conserving the natural areas in midcoast Maine,” said Jay Astle, Stewardship Program Manager at the Georges River Land Trust.  

  In helping to foster this appreciation in the public, the Georges River Land Trusts does not charge user fees on its trails.

  Eventually, the Georges River Land Trust hopes to have a continuous trail that runs from the top of their watershed to the bottom – closer to 100 miles, rather than the 50 that they have now. In order to that, they need help in raising the funds to continue managing trail conditions and expanding them further.

  “Over the last 4 or 5 years, we’ve tried to figure out ways that we could raise money – we really rely on the generosity of the public to maintain and expand our trails,” said Astle. “This is our first personal fundraising campaign, but we’ve already been overwhelmed by the success of it. The fundraise.com platform makes it easy to raise money and we’re really looking forward to getting more people involved.”

  FOR MORE INFO & TO REGISTER, click here: http://www.georgesriver.org/hike-a-thon/

  Then, START YOUR FUNDRAISING: https://www.fundraise.com/georges-river-land-trust/georges-highland-path-hike-a-thon

The 2nd Annual Office To Octagon will be held at the House of Blues on Friday, June 27. The doors open at 8 p.m., and the fights starts at 8:30 p.m.

Fighters competing are Boston based business professionals with no prior fighting experience, and the competitors truly go from the Office to the Octagon.

Food and drinks are provided with purchase of a ticket, and VIP Tickets are available, which include an office Office to Octagon t-shirt and access to the after-party. Cocktail attire is recommended for the event.

Why should you go from the Office to the Octagon?

Fighters and O2O Brand Ambassadors commit to a life-altering experience and the betterment of Boston's youth. As Physical Education budgets continue to decline in public schools, funding at the community level is necessary for independent athletic programming, ensuring that future generations can prosper both physically and mentally.

That various organizations that will benefit from this event include: Boston Youth Wrestling, Build-A-Ninja Program, InnerCity Weightlifting, Level Ground MMA, MMA Scholarship Fund and Travis Roy Foundation.

A couple of weeks ago, the robotics team from Alton, New Hampshire, found out they had qualified for the World Championship for U.S. FIRST Robotics. 

The problem is they only had seven days to raise the $10,000 needed to get to St. Louis. The registration fee alone was $5,000, and then there was another $5,000 in travel, hotel and incidentals to make the trip a reality.

Team 319, also known as "Big Bad Bob," raised almost $10,000 and it came from a variety of donors. The local school board in Barnstead gave an offline donation of $5,600, and then more than $4,000 came from donations as little as $10 to as much $200.

But the team headed out to St. Louis. Because of the last minute nature of the trip, they took a charter buss that took nearly 24 hours each way. They left on Tuesday, April 22, and returned back from the high school on Sunday, April 27.

Team 319 traveled about 2,400 miles in six days and traveled through nine states, and they came away finished 49th out 100 teams in their division and battled some of the best robots in the world. Some of the teams they went up against had six figure budgets for their robots and had major corporate sponsors like Boeing.

At the end of the day, the team is already looking forward to making the trip next year, and hopefully they will have a better outcome in St. Louis. And one thing is for sure, without the use of Fundraise.com and creating a fundraiser page and getting the word out on social media, the trip never would have happened.

The team has already started thinking about next year, and they always need to donations. To learn more about their fundraiser, visit: https://www.fundraise.com/first-robotics-team-319/first-robotics-team-319-world-championship-fundraiser?utm_source=created&utm_medium=f&utm_campaign=OCzB

Elevated Thought is hoping to send students to Washington D.C. and the organization needs financial support to make this happen.

Their Creative. Community. Change. (C3) programs focus on urban youth between the ages of 12 and 18. Through C3, students discuss various social issues happening in and around their community, address those issues through creative writing, translate their writing visually through various art mediums, and develop a community art project donated to their city based around the social themes and art medium they have been exposed to.

Their programs provide skills development, art expression, the articulation of important ideas, entrepreneurship and community leadership. They help students explore the issues of social justice, its importance in society, and the role they can play in creating change through creative thought.

The process moves pre-teens and teenagers away from frustration and an inability to express themselves to more positive, creative channels for their opinions and creativity. This will aid students not just artistically, but academically and socially as most of our students have no available art classes in their schools and have never experienced working in a collaborative group to reach an end goal.

To make a donation to this effort, please visit: https://www.fundraise.com/elevated-thought-foundation-inc/help-our-students-get-to-washington-dc

In addition to the trip to Washington D.C., a special Mural Unveiling will be held at the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence, MA on Friday, April 25, from 6 to 8 p.m. 

There will also be a pub night held at Rolph's in North Andover, MA, that will benefit Elevated Thought. For details on the pub night, check out the flyer below.

Lester Sydney, co-founder, of the organization, recalled when the organization was formed during a discussion in wearhouse.

"We got into a social discussion about ways that we can break the cycle," Sydney said. "We though art could be a way to break the cycle."

Elevated Thought became a 501(3)c officially in 2010, and hopefully, a total of six students will be sent to Washington D.C.

During the program, the students will write poetry and based on the discussion about their poetry they will then created a visual translation of their work.

Danny Wood, a member of New Kids on The Block, will be running in this year's Boston Marathon, and he will raising money for three organizations near and dear to his heart.

After the death of his mother, Betty, from breast cancer in 1999 Wood searched for a way to keep her memory alive. He started the Betty Wood Breast Cancer Foundation during his solo career to help raise funds for breast cancer research and early detection. The return of New Kids On The Block in 2008 gave Wood a larger audience for the story of his mother and her fight against breast cancer. Fans began walking and raising money under the name "Team Betty" at breast cancer awareness races across the US and Canada in 2009. Rallying behind their brother, the members of the band created pink ribbon items to sell during their reunion tour. Using his mother’s memory as inspiration, Danny released a solo album, ‘Stronger: Remember Betty,' with all proceeds being donated to the fight against breast cancer.

Known today as Remember Betty, there are 140 teams in 20 countries and have raised over $1.2 million in the fight against breast cancer. 2014 sees the organization launching our own charity in an effort to support the financial and quality of life needs for breast cancer patients and survivors.

It is the mission of The Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation to improve the quality of life for inner city youth through a working partnership with other youth organizations. The goal of the organization is to remove and eliminate barriers that prevent youth from succeeding. Their mission is to assist youth in order to ensure that no child is limited or prevented from attaining their lifetime goal or dream due to financial circumstances. Through the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation, they will provide financial and community support to assist in making the dreams and ultimate potential of inner city youth become a reality.

Established in 1974 as the Colonel Daniel Marr Boys and Girls Club, The Boys & Girls Clubs of Dorchester is dedicated to making a positive impact on the youth and their families in our community. Inside our three clubhouses we are a place for Dorchester’s young people to learn, explore talents, play and make friends. Today, as always, members are between ages five and 18 have access to 200 plus activities for just $5 a year.

The mission of the club is to inspire and enable all young people, from diverse circumstances, to realize their full potential by providing opportunities for personal growth to become contributing, caring and responsible members of the community.

The club provides a safe place to learn and grow, ongoing relationships with caring, adult professionals, life-enhancing programs and character development experiences and hope and opportunity.

Back in January when the Prospect Mountain High School Robotics Team got word that the challenge from U.S. FIRST would be called "Aerial Assist" they got right to work.

They began building their robot, creating code, fabricating the parts and then they had a finished product. After two District competitions at the University of New Hampshire and in Lewiston, Maine, Team 310, also known as "Big Bad Bob," had totaled 88 points and they ranked 22nd out of the 53 robots that headed to Boston University's Agganis Arena for District Championship.

Over three days, Bob battled and came away with an 8-4 record, and they just missed qualifying for the Quarterfinals of the tournament that surely would have sent them to National Championship in St. Louis, Missouri, taking place April 23-26.

They were in fact the highest remaining seed that wasn't drafted into the quarterfinals, and they did make a brief appearance in the semifinals, but they were up against the number one seed.

It seemed as if the season was over. But on Monday, April 14, Coach Brian Hikel received an email from U.S. FIRST stating that they were a bubble team and that if five teams dropped out of the National Championship, where 400 teams will be competing, that they would be invited.

And then late on Tuesday, April 13, it happened. Hikel got word that the were invited. Only problem, they would have to ship their robot out by Thursday, April 17, and they would need to leave for St. Louis on a bus by Tuesday, 22.

Bob needs your help, and the team needs to raise $10,000 in the next five days to make this dream a reality.

To see what the students have learned check out this video:

To read more about Bob's trip to Boston check out this article: 

http://www.newhampshirelakesandmountains.com/pdf/BAY.2014.04.17.pdf

The 27th Annual Beyond Shelter Gala is on Thursday, April 10, from 7 to 10 p.m. 

The event is sponsored by The House of Blues Boston, 92.5 The River, The Improper Bostonian and Eastern Bank.

To purchase tickets for the event visit: https://www.fundraise.com/27thanniversary or call 617-942-8671 and 617-942-8683. Follow the organization on Twitter @beyond_shelter

Tickets are $125 a piece and will greatly benefit the organization.

Musical acts include: Los 4 and The Berklee Bob Marley Ensemble

Jace Evans recently climbed her first 14,000-foot mountain with her dad Jeff. Through the climb she raised more than $2,000 for No Barriers. 

Evans was excited to do the hike with her dad and thought she wasn't going to be able to make it.

"It was really hard. I thought I might not make it when I was about an hour from the top but I saw a man from our group with no arms climbing down from the top and it gave me strength," Evans said.

The organization helps provide transformative experiences that empower people to embrace a “no barriers” mindset and discover the potential that lies within themselves and the world.

A fundraiser at Next Level Basketball is designed to give underprivileged kids an opportunity to enroll in their basketball camp.

The camp was created to teach kids to become skilled winners on the basketball court, but most importantly to become winners in life.  Sponsorship of $150.00 will give a youngster between the ages of 10-17 a full scholarship and a opportunity to attend one of our basketball camps. Sponsors will also have the opportunity to place their business contact information on camp tee-shirts or on the Web site.

The candidate must write a one-page paper excluding why they should be considered as a canidate for the scholoarship excluding mentioning basketball ball skills or talents. The first camp of 2013 will be hosted June 17-21 and the second will be hosted August 5-9 in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Some of the ideologies that the camp shares with the campers are self improvement, taking responsibility for self and actions, the proper well being of our bodies through physical exercise and proper diets, leadership, and avoiding peer pressure.

The unique edge that Next Level Basketball has is that NBA and college basketball players attend the camp daily to give campers solid advice to become productive citizens. The goal is to sponsor 30 kids this summer that have financial hardships, they may be a product of a unstable home, or they are residing in poverty stricken areas such as Detroit, Flint, Pontiac etc. 

This year they will be working with Crossroads for Youth, a non-profit organization located in Oxford, Michigan. This organization is an open campus treatment facility that work with kids from ages 11-18 from all sorts of backgrounds, primarily kids that come from very unstable home environments and are currently learning basic social skills through the crossroads program. 

David Ocean Babin is originally from the U.S., but has lived in Europe since 2001, more precisely Hungary. He taught English at a secondary school (high school). Life in Hungary was hard, but he survived. Unfortunately, the government has changed and made it harder for him to stay on as a teacher. Being a teacher was never his real dream, it just happened.

His goal at the moment is to raise the money to return to the U.S. He does not have a plane ticket to the U.S. and needs enough money to move his things back to the U.S.

HIs dream is to become a chef or pastry chef. He loves cooking for people who love food. He like it when people taste my cooking and appreciate it. He has found a school there that has inspired his to return home. Escoffier is located in Boulder, Colorado and has accepted me. He has two problems: first being traveling home and the second is the tuition. 

The pastry program is where he hopes to begin and it takes 27 weeks, after he would like to study the culinary aspect of it for 47 weeks. The program is exciting and will teach him also how to run a business, which he hopes to have one day. He wants to have a cafe or something, but he also want to find ways to use cooking to help others.