We’ve all seen heard of the great philanthropists: Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Nobel. We revel in the celebrity philanthropists from Oprah to George Clooney to Bill and Melinda Gates.
But how many of us have heard of Rachel Beckwith? At 8 years old, the Seattle resident learned about charitable efforts to build wells in Africa. This child, who had already donated her hair once to Locks of Love, decided to forego her 9th birthday party to raise $300 for charity: water. Tragically, she hadn’t quite reached her goal when she was killed in a car accident.
When Rachel’s story hit the Internet, the Internet came to call.
When it was clear that Rachel would never regain consciousness, the family decided to remove life support. Her parents donated her hair a final time to Locks of Love, and her organs to other children. Word spread about Rachel’s last fund-raiser.
Contributions poured in, often in $9 increments, although one 5-year-old girl sent in the savings in her piggy bank of $2.27. The total donations soon topped $100,000, then $300,000. Like others, I was moved and donated. As I write this, more than $850,000 has been raised from all over the world, including donations from Africans awed by a little American girl who cared about their continent.
To date, Rachel’s charity:water page has raised over $1.2 million dollars and served over 63K people! Her story, while tragic, also underscores the role the Internet is playing in transforming philanthropy from the domain of the very wealthy few into something anyone can share. Already there are scores of sites online that accept charitable donations. But couldn’t it be easier?
We’re all familiar with social media buttons. You can’t read a news story or blog post without those ubiquitous prompts to Like or Share or Tweet.
At iGivefirst, we had a revolutionary idea that transforms online charity and donations. What if, next to the Like and Tweet button, readers had a button that could let them donate to a charity associated with the article? The iGivefirst button is displayed on a wide variety of blogs and online media, making giving back to participating nonprofits safe, easy and efficient.
In five short steps, a would-be philanthropist can go from desire to donation, all in a safe, easy-to-use format. If you have a nonprofit and/or a charity and want to streamline your efforts to get online donations, contact us.
Like Rachel, people of all ages want the opportunity to make the world a better place. IGivefirst just makes it a little easier.