Squidblog

Hi Squidoo Charity Partners!

As you know, becoming a Squidoo Charity Partner takes some work. There’s getting to know Squidoo, developing a lens, setting up a PayPal account, and spending countless hours asking volunteers to create lenses for you. After all that work, we want to make sure you’re able to continue to succeed.

Maintaining your Charity Partnership is a short lens detailing what we need in order to keep your partnership in good standing. The list is short; a few items are:

1. reliable contact info
2. proper PayPal address
3. your participation with an official “about us” lens

Since you’re reading this, the “sign up for our Charity Network News” part is taken care of.

These are all things we need in order to keep you signed on as a Charity Partner. If you’re unsure of what you need, or have changes to report, send a note to charity at squidoo.com

Thanks for your help!

Hello Partner Charities!

As a respected non-profit, you understand what it takes to become an officially recognized charity and maintain your public image. You also understand the challenges donors face when giving. They want to make sure their donations are going to the right place, and you want to use them as efficiently as possible.

On Squidoo, we have a few measures in place to make sure our new charity partner applicants fit the bill for official charities. But what about after a charity is selected? What do you need to do in order to maintain your partnership?

Maintaining your Charity Partnership is a must-read that explains what we need to have in order to keep you on our list, plus a few other details about how you can boost your activity on Squidoo and earn more donations for your important projects.

While you’re at it, why not forward this email to another charity officer or volunteer? Two sets of eyes keeping track of new Squidoo events will ensure you’ll never miss a thing!

Have fun!

It’s already 2010! In the last month, we’ve had three new charity partners join us so they can make tons of great lenses on Squidoo and earn donations for their worthwhile community causes.

Bears on Patrol
Bears on Patrol provides police officers with free teddy bears to use in cases involving small children..
 

Black Pine Animal Park
Thousands of captive exotic animals are abandoned, confiscated, and otherwise displaced annually. We provide them permanent refuge and offer unique programs that influence people to be responsible pet owners, to conserve and to protect animals and their natural habitats.
 

CASA of Jefferson County, NY
Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) programs provide advocacy for children who have become wards of the court due to abuse within their families. CASA volunteers work to keep all parties involved focused on the best interest of the children they serve.
 

It’s easy to make a lens and set your royalties to a deserving charity, or two or ten. Learn how to edit your payment settings for charities.

Visit these and our other partner charities listed at Charity Central.

Congratulations, and welcome!
~Kimberly Dawn Wells
YOUR Charity Organizer on Squidoo

PS - not yet a partner charity? Learn about our criteria and apply here.

I get newsletters from a good portion of Squidoo’s sponsored charities, so I get to hear about their upcoming fundraisers, office renovations, and grant awards. But rarely do I see those updates reflected on their websites or lenses.

A lens isn’t meant to be static. It’s somewhere between a website and blog that way; it isn’t meant to get stale, but doesn’t need to be updated every single day. However, when you have exciting news, your lens is a great place to post it.

Updating a lens is often easier than updating a website. There’s no FTP login to lose, control panel to navigate, or CSS code to master. You, or a volunteer, simply log in to Squidoo and edit the lens. You choose from a variety of pre-formatted modules, type up your content, and click Publish. Voila! All done, in about 60 seconds. In less than another 60 seconds, you can tweet the update and post a story to your Facebook account. In two quick minutes - just 1/10% of your day - you’ve made your vital announcements easier for donors to find.

(And to get more readers, don’t forget to include a sign-up link in a prominent spot on your lens!)

Need help editing your lens? Our Charity Mentors are at your service!

In November, Squidoo donated $1000 to charity every day through Thanksgiving! Plus, on Thanksgiving Day, one previous winner won the $5000 grand prize.

Who were the winners?

11/02/09 Pumpkin Spice Coffee by horseandpony, benefiting Operation Gratitude
11/03/09 Cheese Salsa Crustless Quiche by Stargazer00, benefiting Soldiers’ Angels
11/04/09 Five Kernels by ComfortDoc, benefiting KIVA
11/05/09 Thanksgiving in Canada by Treasures-by-Brenda, benefiting Diabetes Research Institute
11/06/09 Anti-Pie Thanksgiving Desserts by jkvkdailey, benefiting CAER Food Shelf
11/09/09 Homemade Healthy Cranberry Sauce by happynutritionist, benefiting Soldiers’ Angels
11/10/09 Stone Soup by starly, benefiting Share Our Strength
11/11/09 Feed the Homeless by LeanneChesser, benefiting Covenant House
11/12/09 How to Roast a Wild Turkey by conservationist, benefiting Wildlife Forever
11/13/09 Garden Fresh Pumpkin Pie by PJWuebker, benefiting Wildlife Forever
11/14/09 Food Coloring Pages by gonnafly, benefiting The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
11/15/09 Thanksgiving Movies by eccles1, benefiting TLC Animal Shelter
11/16/09 Spice Tea by sylvestermouse, benefiting National Wildlife Federation’s ARC
11/17/09 Pumpkin Parfait by kimmanleyort, benefiting Earthjustice
11/18/09 Savory Sweet Potatoes by Christene, benefiting Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
11/19/09 Beauty Treatments with Thanksgiving Leftovers by Ener-G, benefiting Madison Valley Aquatic Center
11/20/09 Turkey and Cranberry Dog Food Recipe by azpoppy, benefiting Humane Society of the US
11/21/09 Top Chef Guest Judges by karatekatgraphics, benefiting Save the Children
11/22/09 Pita Bread Appetizers by JenOfChicago, benefiting Grameen Foundation
11/23/09 20+ Ways to have a Tasty, Eco-friendly Thanksgiving meal by ecolicious, benefiting Food for Everyone
11/24/09 Thanksgiving Dinner with our Troops by boutiqueshops, benefiting Soldiers’ Angels
11/25/09 Top 10 Holiday Side Dish Recipes by BrandyT, benefiting A Day of Hope

And the grand prize winner of $5000 for the big vote-off was Wildlife Forever.

Congratulations, charities!

If you’ve been paying attention, and you have, you know we’ve been donating $1000 a day to charity through Thanksgiving.

Every winning lens from the Squidoo Thanksgiving Cookoff for Charity won $1000 for the charity it supports, along with Lens of the Day fame.

Of those, only one could snag the $5000 Grand Prize that we offered in a Thanksgiving Day vote-off. PJWuebker’s lens ‘From the Garden Pumpkin Pie’ ran way with the popular majority, scoring $5000 for Wildlife Forever. Congratulations!

Voting is closed (new votes don’t count toward anything but fun) but you can see how well your favorite charity did in the poll.

The real win here is this: Contests aside, every single day, lensmasters are making great lenses (about everything and anything) that are raising money for charity. It’s free. It works. It’s simple. It’s fundamentally game-changing for nonprofit organizations.

If there’s a charity you care about, send them this link now, today, and make sure they know that. Make sure they know how many people out there are ready, willing, and enthusiastic about making free online recommendation pages that will raise money for their organization for free, forever. More people than are willing to dig into their own pockets and write a check, for sure.

We’re grateful to the people who get it. That means you.

And congratulations again to Wildlife Forever.

Squidoo is donating $1000 to charity every day through Thanksgiving.

With a $5000 grand prize on Thanksgiving Day.

To enter and raise money (for free) for your favorite charity on our list, just make a foody lens. Great apple pie recipes, best locally grown squashes, tried and true baking secrets, best coffeemaker recommendations, your family’s Thanksgiving menu — anything and everything food or kitchen, it all goes.

Read up on the rules, then get started building.

Happy autumn! In September we had two new charity partners join us.

Golden Friends Rescue
We work as a go-between to help move Golden Retrievers and Golden Retriever mixes out of kill shelters and into reputable, established rescue organizations. We assist shelters and the larger established rescue organizations with their adoption processes.
 

Horses for Healing of NWA
The Horses for Healing is a nonprofit, therapeutic riding center that helps special needs children across Northwest Arkansas grow mentally, physically, and emotionally.
 

It’s easy to make a lens and set your royalties to a deserving charity, or two or ten. Learn how to edit your payment settings for charities.

Visit these and our other partner charities listed at Charity Central.

Congratulations, and welcome!
~Kimberly Dawn Wells
YOUR Charity Organizer on Squidoo

PS - not yet a partner charity? Learn about our criteria and apply here.

We love to hear how partner charities are putting donations to good use. Here are a few updates from partner charities who share their newsletters with us:

“Thanks to you Squids for your generosity to many causes, including our own small one to help upgrade combat troops, especially in the troops now fighting in Afghanistan.”
~Operation Helmet

“Your donation will help us provide educational opportunity to millions of children in the developing world. Since 2000, we have published 333 local language children’s titles, established over 7,100 libraries, partnered with local villages to build 765 schools, funded 179 computer and language labs, and provided 7,132 girls with long-term scholarships through secondary school. At Room to Read, we believe that there is no more valuable investment than the gift of education and the life change it can provide.”
~Room to Read

“Caring individuals like you help us continue our relentless efforts to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.”
~The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

Aw…thanks for the warm fuzzies. You can easily make these fuzzies even warmer. Won’t you spend just 5 minutes to make a lens for one of our charity partners?

Do you have an official newsletter for your charity? Add us to the list! Use charitynewsletters at squidoo.com, or send us the sign-up link. We love to know what you’re up to. (Please don’t use payteam at squidoo.com, thanks!)

Hi charities! Time to dust off those bios and avatars of yours and see where you could use an update.

Your avatar and biography are important components of your lens, especially as a charity. The face you present needs to be polished, and a missing image or bio can be devastating to your reputation!

Does your bio look like this? Ick. Chances are slim a reader will donate. Time for an update. The best part is it will only take 5 minutes!

Once you’ve logged into your account, you’ll find all the info you need to update your bio on the My Profile tab of your dashboard. In that top Personal Info section you’ll see Default Photo and Default Bio. Let’s update the bio first. This will update your global biography, meaning it will show on all your lenses. You can also edit the biography on each lens individually, in the workshop.

Writing a biography.
Your biography doesn’t need to be long or extensive. In fact, you probably have the perfect elevator speech for your organization on your own website, or neatly tucked in a mission statement. Here are some of my favorite short biographies from our partner charities:

Paws Animal Kingdom is a Non profit charity dedicated to helping animals all over the world. We are dedicated to building a NO KILL animal sanctuary on 100+ acres of land in the Maryland area. You can help by visiting http://www.pawsanimalkingdom.org and clicking the donate button!
~Paws Animal Kingdom
 

Wildlife Forever is a 22 year old multi-species conservation organization. Our mission is to conserve America’s wildlife heritage through conservation education, preservation of habitat, and management of fish and wildlife. Become a member and support wildlife in America.
~Wildlife Forever
 

The Freeplay Foundation has helped more than 8 million poor and vulnerable people improve the quality of their daily lives through the distribution of sustainable, self-powered and environmentally friendly technologies. We strive to provide the poorest of the poor with access to education, information and energy.
~Freeplay Foundation
 

See how easy it is? From these bios, it’s easy to tell what each charity does and how they do it. If you’re having a hard time writing your bio, ask yourself, “What problem do we solve?” Keep it simple, so anyone can easily understand it.

Go ahead and enter yours, and be sure to click “save.”

Next, upload a photo.
The easiest way to add an image quickly and build brand recognition is to use your logo. The best logos are simple, have few colors, and aren’t intricate. If your logo is a combination of text and graphics, for instance, consider removing the text and using just the graphic. If you don’t have access to a good graphic designer, ask for help on our peer-driven forum. We bet a tech savvy lensmaster would be happy to lend a hand.

Remember to use a small image (2″x2″ on your monitor is good), and .gif or .jpg files are best.

That’s it! Now your bio is beautiful.

Bonus: after you’ve updated your bio, send an email to kimberly at squidoo.com with a link to your official charity Squidoo lens. You’ll get credit for updating your lens!