Friends of Worldchanging: We need your help right now! As of midnight Thursday (Seattle time), we're running a close second place in the Yahoo Charity Badge challenge -- with 293 donors to the leader's 325. We know we can get the most donors by midnight on December 31, but we can't do it without you.

If you haven't given yet, please donate right now.

If you've already donated, please take a few minutes and recruit 2 other people to donate to Worldchanging today. Time is running out, and if everyone who has already given to Worldchanging found just one other person to donate, even at the minimum of $10, we would be well past our goal of 500 donors.

As we've been saying during the last few days, we have a wonderful opportunity to leverage your donations through a matching grant from Yahoo's new Charity Badge program. This could make a big difference for us as we head into the new year. We need just a few minutes of your time and a few dollars. (But if you want to give many dollars, we welcome it! It's tax-deductible.)

Here's the deal: Yahoo! is offering a $50,000 matching grant for the nonprofit which gets the largest number of donations before the end of the year using its new "charity badges." (Ours is the blue box here at left.)

The number of donors matters as much as the number of dollars. Right now, we're trailing by a nose with 293 donors. We know we can pull this out, but we need your help. And we'd like 500 donors to be safe. If we're winning on Dec 31st, we think one of our major donors will step in and help us with a large donation, so we'll get the full $50K from Yahoo!

That means that what we need are numbers, even large numbers of people contributing just the minimum of $10 each (though we are a highly-effective little non-profit and would be happy to put a larger contribution to good use).

Please help us win this challenge by taking two minutes right now, clicking on the donate button in this link or in the charity badge displayed here at left, and making a contribution to Worldchanging on Network for Good (it's all safe and self-explanatory).

Give whatever you can -- $25, $50, $100, $500, or even just the minimum of $10. Every single donation gets us closer to winning. And if you donate $100 or more we'll send you a copy of our book.

After you donate, help spread the word even further by putting this link in your email signature: http://www.networkforgood.org/pca/PersonalCharityBadge.aspx?pcaid=100275

And you can easily display our charity badge on your own website or blog, too. Just click the "Get this badge" link on our charity badge, and you'll find some simple HTML code you can cut and paste into your site.

Thank you so much. It's a small thing, and a minor hassle, but it could mean a big difference for us and help us continue to bring to the world the best tools, models and ideas for building a bright green future.

Thanks again, and happy holidays.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, only donations from US residents are accepted by Network for Good, and thus counted towards Yahoo's challenge. Canadian and other international donors can still support us financially through our online donation form at Groundspring.org. International donors, click here.

[image]

I discovered the US only feature first hand.
(oh the thought of the US receiving overseas aid!)

... anyway, I fudged my way through the silly bureaucracy. I'll let you know if I get some Home Security types knocking on my door...

Posted by: Tony Fisk on December 21, 2006 6:39 PM

Thanks, Tony!

Posted by: Leif Utne on December 21, 2006 7:47 PM

Same here. I now officially am member of the European Armed Forces.

Posted by: Serge de Gheldere on December 22, 2006 10:11 AM

Nice - WC is currently the #1 Charity Badge on Yahoo...but we're only ahead by a handful of donations. Need more! Keep this item on the front page!

Posted by: Patrick on December 22, 2006 6:12 PM

Oh boy, this donation capmpaign is inching up so slowly. Come on folks, fork out the 10 bucks please, because nice things can happen in the future with $100,000 extra $s infused into the worldchanging psyche. It takes 385 more worldchangers out there (living in the US (unforunate that Yahoo has those blinders on)) to step up to the plate. If you have a job, then $10 is not that onerous when coupled with Holiday spirit, I would think. Let's make this happen.

What if I give multiple donations of $10? Will that screw thing up? It is kind of cheating, I think, because I believe that Yahoo is experimenting with "participatory democracy" at a grass roots level.

Happy Holidays every one and Merry Christmas to those who celebrate Christmas and also to those non-Christians who do not mind rceiving Christmas wishes. And a Happy New Year to all even if you use a lunar calendar. How I wish for the old days when I could say "Merry Christmas and a Happy new Year" any where in the world, but that is the price of progress.

Notwithsatanding all this, please still donate the $10 and thank you in advance.

Posted by: Subbarao Seethamsetty on December 23, 2006 8:58 PM

Can a $100 donation still get a copy of the Worldchanging book?

Posted by: Tyler Kremberg on December 26, 2006 1:50 PM

Tyler,

Yes. If you put something like "book please" in the "designation" field on the donation form, we'll be happy to send you a copy of the book in exchange for a donation of $100 or more.

Posted by: Leif Utne on December 26, 2006 9:36 PM

Subbarao: If you give multiple donations, they'll just count you as one donor in the end. You're welcome to donate again. While it won't count as more donors, it will help increase our dollar total and get us closer to the full $50k in matching funds.

Posted by: Leif Utne on December 26, 2006 11:04 PM

Leif,

I am in this for the score and at 207 donors, we are moving at good clip and today was a very good day. I am hoping we will reach our goal of 500. Ok, I will donate again, just because I opened my big mouth about multiple donations.

Posted by: Subbarao Seethamsetty on December 27, 2006 4:34 PM

Thanks, Subbarao! The most important thing you can do now is to find 10 more people (or 100) to donate. We can do this!

Posted by: Leif Utne on December 27, 2006 11:01 PM

Leif,

I already hit my friends for the book and now with this $10, I will loose them all!

One more email blast would help I think. A gentle suggestion to the WorldChangers (wannabes included) across the globe that they can pay through their friends and connections living in the US might help.

With two more days and 200 donations to go, we need lots of momentum.

The fact that only 200 more donations will help gaurantee a major chunk of the annual budget for this young and amazing global forum and the difficulty we are having in generating those donations shines a "reality check" beam on the global sustainability agenda.

Personally, I am continually puzzled and wonder why a lot more people don't go nuts about this worldchanging.com community. Barring fiction and literature, I get all my intellectual, social, anthropological and engineering jollies right here.

Cheers and lets keep our fingers crossed for 200 more click throughs.

Posted by: Subbarao Seethamsetty on December 29, 2006 7:46 AM

I agree, another email would definitely help! I donated because of the first email, when I probably wouldn't have otherwise...

Posted by: Colleen on December 29, 2006 9:59 AM

THE CHINA EDUCATION PROJECT NEEDS YOUR HELP!!!!

http://ruralchinavolunteers.tripod.com/

Posted by: DJ on January 7, 2007 9:12 AM