You know about integrated fundraising campaigns. In a new white paper, "How Giving Contests Can Strengthen Nonprofits and Communities", long-time NTEN Member Geoff Livingston takes a look at the next level: coordinated integration. With his analysis of "Give to the Max DC", Geoff hits on some important points that make the entire paper well worth a read, but here are a few things that stood out to me.

For the 5th year in a row, the annual DoGooder Nonprofit Video Contest, presented by YouTube and See3 Communications, is open for submission during the weeks leading up to the Nonprofit Technology Conference. If you're a nonprofit and you made a video in 2010, you should:

> Submit your video today!

Flickr Photo: clevercupcakesI recently got an email from an NYU graduate student in Public Relations, Paola Christina Lamarca. She's working on her Capstone and wanted to hear a few of my opinions about the impact of social media on the nonprofit sector. I answered a few questions for her, but I told her your two cents would be even more valuable.

Remember America's Giving Challenge, that great test of online fundraising sponsored by the Case Foundation and Parade Magazine a couple of years ago? With more than 80,000 people contributing $1.7 million, it went a long way toward proving Jean Case's assertion that "Small amounts of money given by large numbers of individuals can be combined to do great things."

Now that the warm days of summer have finally graced us with their presence, January seems like a distant memory. But for those of you who participated in the Case Foundation Giving Challenge, it probably feels like yesterday. We hate to bring up all those sleepless nights and the constant campaigning, but now we've got a great write up about the Challenge from Beth Kanter and Allison Fine.

A total of nearly 2 million dollars raised from nearly 75,000 people means there were a few lessons learned. Many align nicely with some of the principles of We Are Media. Here are a few tidbits I found particularly compelling:

The Case Foundation-sponsored "Make It Your Own Awards" just announced the 20 finalists.  In a sign that I'm not the only NPTechie who likes watching basketball, they even have a "Final Four" theme.

> Vote for your favorites

According to Rich D'Amato of the Case Foundation, "Make It Your Own is another of the Case Foundation's efforts to introduce the use of new technologies to NPOs, to do so by incentivizing the use of the technologies with grants, and to make the participation easy for them and for their supporters."

The 20 finalists have already won $10,000; the 4 finalists will receive additional funding.  And, in a cool, NCAA-pool-style twist, the first 10 voters who correctly identify the Final Four will receive $2,500 for their favorite charity.  They've even incentivized the vote!

The Flash-based site running the vote is pretty cool in itself, so go check it out and vote for your favorites today.  Voting will be open until April 22nd, 2008.

[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.]

Mark Miller, Children's National Medical Center

Today is the last day of the Parade and Facebook giving challenges. Unless we receive about 1,500 donations through our charity badge today -- there's still time to give! -- we won't be among the top four nonprofits that will win $50,000.

But as I wrote earlier, the value of participating in the Parade and Facebook challenges is that it's helped us attract new donors, raise our national profile, and educate our staff and supporters about the potential of online giving. I applaud the Case Foundation, Parade magazine, and Facebook Causes for their creativity in designing these initiatives, and I can't wait to see what they do next.

Today's the final day of America’s Giving Challenge and the Causes Giving Challenge. We've given over blog space for updates from a few participants, and mentioned others in our newsletter, and as they round the corner into the home stretch, 3 of the causes we've touted are in position to finish in the final 4 of the Global Causes category:

• Michelle M's Route Out of Poverty for Cambodian Children (Beth Kanter's birthday cause) is currently in 1st.
• Scott Beale's Invest in International Development Leaders stands 4th, right at the cut-off for the $50,000 prizes.
• Suzanne P's Education for 900 Rural Girls in Burkina Faso is in 5th, but not far behind.

I've been following the leaderboard this week, and I believe the top 5 have all increased their number of donations by at least 50% just this week. Scott's cause, which has been as high as first, slipped to 5th before recovering today.

[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. You may want to read Mark's first post.]

Mark Miller, Children's National Medical Center

Watching the Facebook and Parade challenges unfold has been fascinating.  Because we are doing very well in the Parade challenge, winning that one has become our main focus.  In fact, we have had some success using Facebook to drive people to our charity badge for the Parade challenge.

Last I checked, our charity badge, featuring Mike Green of the Washington Capitals, was a donation or two out of the top 10 leaders.  Among nonprofits focused on children or children’s health, we are first. (I have a dog and generally like animals, but I have to wonder if the current trend will hold up -- three of the top four leaders are nonprofits looking out for our furry friends.)

We’re picking up steam, thanks in part to the Washington Capitals, who have really gotten behind this challenge. They created an ad for their homepage, featured the campaign in their online newsletter, and helped us reach out to bloggers – whose support I can’t say enough about. And owner Ted Leonsis promoted it in his blog.

A few lessons:

[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.