Events

The T.J. Martell Foundation for Leukemia, Cancer and AIDS Research is proud to announce the honorees for the 36th Annual Awards Gala, which will take place Nov. 3rd in New York. The award winners are Bea Perez, chief sustainability officer at The Coca-Cola Co.; Scott Borchetta, president/CEO of the Big Machine Label Group; golf legend Arnold Palmer; and actor/comedian Drew Carey. Each honoree is heavily involved with nonprofit organizations and fundraisers dedicated cancer and AIDS research.

Opportunity is everywhere, and not just strictly in the form of donors and dollars. Sometimes it wears a mask, and it hides in plain sight. But most development professionals have the innate skills to find it, learn from it and use it to help with future challenges. Here are two examples of what I mean.

Fundraising events are a foundation for many nonprofit fundraising programs. But they are the most inefficient way of raising money.

Lots of fundraising is built around socializing, isn't it? Whether it's a formal fundraising event or not, we are often organizing large or small groups of people in social situations. So it's really important to know your social skills and be able to throw a fabulous party.

Charity Dynamics, a provider of comprehensive online marketing and fundraising solutions for nonprofits, announced that nonprofit organizations across the country have now raised more than $100 million directly through the company’s Boundless Fundraising solution since it first launched less than three years ago.

Boundless Fundraising is a suite of online fundraising applications that enable participants in nonprofit special events to extend their fundraising efforts through Facebook, email and mobile devices. More than 75 U.S. charities currently use the applications as part of their overall event marketing and fundraising strategy.

Add this to the annals of extreme fund raising: jumping off a 41-story building to raise money for charity.

Endurance events, such as marathons and bike cross-country expeditions, have long held appeal for participants who ask their friends and relatives to “sponsor” them by making donations. But another  type of event has entered the extreme fund-raising circuit—and is raising hundreds of thousands of dollars.

More than 100 rappelling events have occurred since 2008, when Over the Edge, a Canadian company, brought the concept to the United States.

While crews work to erect tents and stages for the upcoming Newport jazz and folk festivals, the festivals' creator and guardian angel continues to build something else: a legacy that he hopes will continue long after he's gone. New York jazz impresario George Wein, who started the festivals more than 50 years ago, took them nonprofit earlier this year to shield them from the financial ups and downs of corporate funding.

The America’s Cup Event Authority has chosen a Newport, R.I.-based organization, Sailors for the Sea, as its first partner in a new international program intended to better preserve and protect the oceans of the world.

The authority is now beginning pre-regatta activities before the next America’s Cup competition, set for 2013 in San Francisco, and a key component of the 34th America’s Cup legacy program is promoting sustainability of the ocean waters, organizers said in a prepared release.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research seems to have it all wrong, going against conventional fundraising wisdom at seemingly every turn. Yet the $57 million MJFF raised last year ($50 million of which went toward its mission) tells a different story. The foundation, which has funded more than $240 million in research since its founding 10 years ago, is light on its feet and built for speed.

ElizaJ, providers of upscale, self-contained restrooms for special events, has recently announced a new “Fundraising Division” geared towards helping nonprofits and other organizations meet their fundraising goals through successful events.