[Ed. Note: As you probably know, the Case Foundation, together with Facebook Causes and Parade magazine, is going to award $750,000 to charity. To help illuminate the process and generate discussion and ideas, the NTEN Connect Blog will be posting occasional updates from actual participants in the Challenges.]

Scott Beale, Atlas Service Corps (Atlas Corps)

With three weeks to go in America's Giving Challenge, the competition is heating up and we have a real race on our hands. We are in a tight race for first place with two other organizations. The prognosis: we are in a strong position to finish in the top four and win $50,000, but we have our work cut out for us to win the competition out-right. Nothing is certain in this kind of contest.

The competitive juices are flowing as I seek new ways to raise money and awareness for Atlas Corps, an organization I passionately believe will revolutionize international service through an innovative and sustainable fellowship program -- as long as we can find the resources to complete our two year pilot phase successfully.

America's Giving Challenge is getting more intense than the Clinton/Obama or McCain/Huckabee races. Here is where we stand with three weeks to go:

Tight Race For First: This week, one project went from third to first -- with 210 new donors in three days -- breaking the 300 donor mark before anyone else and placing themselves in a strong first (especially if they can keep up that pace). The 5th place organization has averaged only one donor a day the last week and lags behind at 78.

But Why is it so Hard? In truth, while I am very proud of our strong position and very grateful for the 255 donors, I do not know why it is SO hard to get people to donate $10 online. I have a list of excuses that include :

• people concerned the site is not secure
• by the time the competition started people had done their end of year donations
• we are a new organization that most people have not heard of
• they are not familiar with the contest
• maybe the don't have $10?

I think that raising money is just difficult, no matter how much you incentivize the gift. This is one of the biggest reasons Atlas Corps is striving to become self-sustaining through our Host organization cost share in the years to come. Our program creates value, so we hope to leverage that and not have to beg people for $10 every few months.

Our Updated Goal: With three weeks to go and a real race on our hands, we have a new goal and new strategy. We hope to get 500 donors, raise $10,000 from them, win $50,000 and end in first place. Not modest, perhaps, but within reach.

We are moving to a phone call strategy next week to get people off their couches.

One Last Note: Atlas Corps is seeking partners to host Fellows in 2008. Now that you've learned some about Atlas Corps, is your organization interested in hosting an overseas volunteer for one year? If so, check out this video and contact me at scott@atlascorps.org

Thanks for your continued interest, three weeks to go, and we're off to the races.

Stay tuned for more updates from Scott Beale.