About the Author
Amy Passmore
Amy Passmore is a fundraising for nonprofit organizations, clubs, schools and groups. Visit her website,
DIY Fundraising for fundraising tips and techniques.
Those of you who have read this blog for a while may know that I like to find ways to set up long-term fundraisers that are relatively maintenance-free. I also like to find ways to fundraise online. I feel that if a nonprofit organization or charity is not fundraising online now, it is only a matter of time until it will.
There are many ways nonprofit organizations can raise money online either with or without having a website of their own. A new and innovative way is by building a lens on the Squidoo.com website.
Squidoo. I know it�s a funny-sounding name that really doesn�t give you a clue as to what it is. I�m sure you are familiar with Google, Blogger, and MySpace. Well, Squidoo is different from all of those services but it does have some similarities.
Squidoo is similar to a search engine, such as Google, but, according to founder Seth Godin, it acts as an intermediary to search engines by giving people the "big picture" view on a given topic. When you perform a search on Squidoo the results are a list of �lenses� instead of a list of links that you get with a Google search. The lenses are created by �lensmasters.� As is with Blogger and MySpace anyone can create a Squidoo lens and have it hosted for free.
So, what exactly is a Squidoo lens? A lens is simply a webpage on Squidoo that is built to serve as a guide on a specific topic. The page contains relevant information about the topic and links to other places on the internet where more information can be found.
Most internet marketers are aware of Squidoo.com and many are creating lenses on Squidoo as a way of building links and bringing traffic to their websites.
However, one of the original purposes of Squidoo, according to Godin, was to provide a way for nonprofit organizations and charities to spread awareness of their cause and raise money over the internet.
How can your nonprofit organization, club or charity can benefit from Squidoo?
Nonprofit organizations and charities may build a lens and provide information about their cause or mission. The lens can contain links to the charity's website, logos, RSS feeds, just about anything relevant to the topic or organization can be included in the lens.
Each lens automatically has Google advertisements placed on it. Every lens receives a share of the advertising revenue earned by the entire Squidoo network... Another way to earn money is to sell items as an affiliate of Amazon, eBay, or Cafe Press. For example, if your organization creates t-shirts on Caf� Press, you can feature them on your Squidoo lens and earn money from the sales.
In addition to creating a lens, nonprofit organizations may register and be added to the Squidoo database of charities. Once your organization is registered, other lensmasters can then choose to donate their earnings to your account, thereby adding another way for your organization to raise money. Currently, there are over 70,000 lenses written by Squidoo lensmasters. Almost one-half of the lensmasters donate their Google advertising royalties to the registered charities.
As of this writing, there are less than one hundred charities registered, so this is a good time get your charity involved.
Ask your supporters to create a lens instead of asking for money.
There is no limit to the number of lenses that can be built on a topic. As a way of raising awareness and increasing involvement in your cause, ask your supporters to visit your lens and then build one of their own. Do this instead of asking for monetary donations.. With a network of lenses, each earning a couple of dollars a day, your organization could be earning a nice sum of money every month.
That is a brief introduction to Squidoo. If you are wondering how the name Squidoo came to be, it is because squid have large eyes, and it is a current trend that successful tech companies have names with "oo" in them. Think Yahoo and Google.
If you are a member of a nonprofit organization or charity, I suggest you visit the Squidoo.com website and see what other nonprofits are doing with their lenses. It is not difficult to build a lens on Squidoo. You do not need any programming skills and there is plenty of information on the site to help you get started
I have already built two Squidoo lenses for charitable projects. Tomorrow I will post about a fundraising project on Squidoo that everyone reading this can participate in to help raise money for congenital heart defects. So, make sure you read the fundraising blog tomorrow!
Article by Amy Passmore of DIY Fundraising. Visit www.diyfundraising.com for do-it-yourself fundraising ideas for nonprofit organizations, clubs, schools and groups.
Published by Amy Passmore on January 30, 2007 09:10 AM
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