Events

According to the National Council of Nonprofits, if the nonprofit sector were a country, it would have the seventh largest economy in the world. During ‘CT Nonprofits Week at the Capitol,’ the Connecticut Association of Nonprofits (CT Nonprofits) seeks to illuminate the fact that nonprofits are an essential component of the community and economy, providing much needed services while keeping costs to a minimum and creating jobs.

Cast members from The Upfront Theatre will spend 27 hours performing improv on stage beginning 8 p.m. Friday, April 8, and ending 11 p.m. Saturday, April 9, at the theater, 1208 Bay St. New shows start every hour including the super-popular "Hellingham" and "Space Trek."

Throughout the event, local nonprofits will be trying to fill the theater with patrons who will be logging audience hours for the individual charities.

And the end of the event, whichever nonprofit has logged the most hours will be awarded a fundraiser benefit show by the Upfront.

Bo Jackson will be hosting the 3rd Annual Celebrity Charity Golf Classic Friday, June 24, at Old Oaks Country Club in Homer Glen, Ill. The event will benefit the Give Me A Chance Foundation, dedicated to guiding disadvantaged youth toward personal and professional growth.

All proceeds will go toward the development and support of the many athletic/educational programs offered by the foundation.

More than 150 cities across the world participated in Twestival this year. Each city selected a local charity and received a Web page from FirstGiving.

'Twestival' brings the Twittersphere offline and onto a physical location — a fairground, skating rink, park — for a single day to highlight a community cause. This year, it was March 24, with donations accepted through March 31 on the website. As of March 31, they had raised more than $550K for more than 150 local nonprofit causes.

Alex Levin had arrived two days early in Las Vegas for a conference that the Jewish Federations of North America called Tribe­Fest, a social and cultural gathering of Jews ages 22 to 45.

The federations are gambling that his revelry will eventually translate into serious donations from younger Jews and build stronger relationships with donors like Mr. Levin.

There are four major online communications tools that every fundraiser should take advantage of — event marketing, social-media marketing, e-mail marketing and online surveys — according to Erik Mintz, director of event marketing at nonprofit software provider Constant Contact.

When Welcome Home 2011 commemorates the 25th anniversary of the 1986 Vietnam Veterans Welcome Home Parade in Chicago, event planners can count on a new leading-edge online platform to help sell tickets, raising funds and awareness for one of the Windy City’s most anticipated events. The platform, www.tix4cause.com™, founded by Chicago businessman Kevin Nemetz, was designed specifically to help nonprofits. Its application is ideal for “Welcome Home 2011” which takes place in downtown Chicago, June 17th-19th.

Twenty of the top 30 fundraising races, walks and other endurance events increased donations last year, a big change from 2009 when 20 such events lost money, according to the Run Walk Ride Fundraising Council’s fifth annual study.

Overall, the 30 fundraising events produced $1.65-billion in revenue in 2010. That was an increase of 1.6 percent, or $25.9-million, from the year before.

The online tools you use help make your event fundraisers’ jobs easier, but most volunteer fundraisers need your help and coaching. Don’t depend on the technology tools to do all the work.

It’s March, and for tens of thousands of people, that means it’s time to go bald for St. Baldrick’s Foundation. People who shave their heads have helped raise $100-million to finance research on children’s cancer since 2000. So far this year, St. Baldrick’s has already raised more than $10-million. More than 27,900 people have registered to shave their heads in 2011 at more than 800 events across the country, with about 600 of them taking place this month.