OCEF Fall Donation Drive, Success in Tough Time for Charities# mitOCEF - 海外中国教育基金会
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When our Congress is seeking to avert the potential fiscal cliff due to an
imminent tax hike and when our people are worrying about their ever tighter
budget, charities around the nation will face even bigger challenges from
this policy change, according to FoxNews and Giving USA last week. Overseas
China Education Foundation (OCEF), a Houston-based 501(c) (3) non-profit
charity shared its ways of combating the upcoming fiscal cliff, especially
for the grass-root organizations. On November 18, OCEF started its annual
fall donation drive by preparing fundraising materials to over 300 royal
donors. OCEF volunteers came up with creative promotions to stimulate
rapports among donors to participate in the event.
On a popular bulletin board, MITBBS, a fundraising event called “Points for
Dollars” gained tremendous momentum, signifying a new wave of donation
initiatives. Members of MITBBS were awarded virtual points from commenting
on posts, and they can use points to buy accessories for their webpages or
spice up profile pictures. In 2011, one OCEF member from Los Angeles
organized donation initiative to exchange virtual points for real dollars.
This innovative yet meaningful idea generated great interests among members
and received approximately 70,000 points (or ~$700) in donations. The money
exchanged was used to purchase athletic equipment for an elementary school
in a desperate need in Shanxi Province.
Leveraging last year’s success by utilizing social network such as Facebook
and Causes.com, OCEF’s New York Chapter volunteer Feilong re-launched the
“Points for Dollars” fundraising event and attracted even more passionate
members to participate. By December 5nd, the posts received nearly 500
comments from members and reaped over $7,185, surpassing original estimate
of $2,000, and more than ten times than last year. According to Mr. Chen,
the event provided significant publicity for the organization, and survey
across several promotion channels were overwhelmingly supportive for the
good cause. OCEF plans to use this donation for a library project and a desk
/chair improvement project for Sujiagou Elementary School in Anyuan Township
, Gansu Province.
To make OCEF’s fundraising even better, Houston Chapter volunteers made a
mini-video of Education in Rural China with English and Chinese subtitles to
put on Causes.com. Although only an amateur production, the impact of this
video along with four other videos cannot be underestimated. OCEF received
nearly $10,000 in donations within first few days and cumulatively, over $
200,000 was collected through causes.com online platform. It is yet another
indisputable evidence of the power of social network, even for non-profits.
OCEF also has different donation venues available for donors who wish to
make donations on regular basis. For example, a charitable credit card,
purchasing fundraising items on eBay, online cashback, or using charitable
search engines like Good Search. In addition to direct donations, volunteers
can apply for company donations through volunteering time matching or ever
popular gift matching programs. OCEF also accepts stock transfer, payroll
deduction, or membership dues as forms of donation. All donations to OCEF
are tax deductible.
According to Ms. Qinghong Wei, OCEF President, it is the financial
transparency and greater involvement among members and donors that built
trust for the healthy growth of the non-profit organization. As told in the
donation drive letter, “Our mission for education is closely tied to our
donor’s support. In the past 20 years, thousands of children from rural
China stayed in school because of our donor’s help and love. We are
obligated to carefully allocate donor’s money and maintain 100%
transparency in our financials.” OCEF has done a fabulous job in respecting
volunteers’ work, inviting the public to inspect its spending, and showing
appreciation to its donors.
According to its website, OCEF has donated more than $2 million to 40,000
poor students and teachers in the past 20 years. Its programs and projects
are varied. In addition to scholarship, sponsorship and training sessions,
OCEF has also built more than 500 libraries, donated over 370,000 books,
renovated dozens of dilapidated schools, and participated in many other
special projects. OCEF has numerous creative and exciting fundraising events
in Houston and seven other regional branches. In 2009, Facebook, Kellogg
Foundation, Parade Magazine and Case Foundation had the national America’s
Giving Challenge, one of the largest competitions for grass-root non-profit
organizations in the US. Among all 7,875 participating organizations, OCEF
received the final Champion crown, sweeping the Most Donations and the Most
Daily Champion Titles. Later the same year, OCEF was the only Houston-area
recipient in receiving the first round Chase Community Giving grant
presented by the Chase Foundation, the charitable arm of the Chase Bank. For
more detail to help OCEF tackle education inequality, please follow OCEF on
Facebook or visit its website at www.OCEF.org/donation.
imminent tax hike and when our people are worrying about their ever tighter
budget, charities around the nation will face even bigger challenges from
this policy change, according to FoxNews and Giving USA last week. Overseas
China Education Foundation (OCEF), a Houston-based 501(c) (3) non-profit
charity shared its ways of combating the upcoming fiscal cliff, especially
for the grass-root organizations. On November 18, OCEF started its annual
fall donation drive by preparing fundraising materials to over 300 royal
donors. OCEF volunteers came up with creative promotions to stimulate
rapports among donors to participate in the event.
On a popular bulletin board, MITBBS, a fundraising event called “Points for
Dollars” gained tremendous momentum, signifying a new wave of donation
initiatives. Members of MITBBS were awarded virtual points from commenting
on posts, and they can use points to buy accessories for their webpages or
spice up profile pictures. In 2011, one OCEF member from Los Angeles
organized donation initiative to exchange virtual points for real dollars.
This innovative yet meaningful idea generated great interests among members
and received approximately 70,000 points (or ~$700) in donations. The money
exchanged was used to purchase athletic equipment for an elementary school
in a desperate need in Shanxi Province.
Leveraging last year’s success by utilizing social network such as Facebook
and Causes.com, OCEF’s New York Chapter volunteer Feilong re-launched the
“Points for Dollars” fundraising event and attracted even more passionate
members to participate. By December 5nd, the posts received nearly 500
comments from members and reaped over $7,185, surpassing original estimate
of $2,000, and more than ten times than last year. According to Mr. Chen,
the event provided significant publicity for the organization, and survey
across several promotion channels were overwhelmingly supportive for the
good cause. OCEF plans to use this donation for a library project and a desk
/chair improvement project for Sujiagou Elementary School in Anyuan Township
, Gansu Province.
To make OCEF’s fundraising even better, Houston Chapter volunteers made a
mini-video of Education in Rural China with English and Chinese subtitles to
put on Causes.com. Although only an amateur production, the impact of this
video along with four other videos cannot be underestimated. OCEF received
nearly $10,000 in donations within first few days and cumulatively, over $
200,000 was collected through causes.com online platform. It is yet another
indisputable evidence of the power of social network, even for non-profits.
OCEF also has different donation venues available for donors who wish to
make donations on regular basis. For example, a charitable credit card,
purchasing fundraising items on eBay, online cashback, or using charitable
search engines like Good Search. In addition to direct donations, volunteers
can apply for company donations through volunteering time matching or ever
popular gift matching programs. OCEF also accepts stock transfer, payroll
deduction, or membership dues as forms of donation. All donations to OCEF
are tax deductible.
According to Ms. Qinghong Wei, OCEF President, it is the financial
transparency and greater involvement among members and donors that built
trust for the healthy growth of the non-profit organization. As told in the
donation drive letter, “Our mission for education is closely tied to our
donor’s support. In the past 20 years, thousands of children from rural
China stayed in school because of our donor’s help and love. We are
obligated to carefully allocate donor’s money and maintain 100%
transparency in our financials.” OCEF has done a fabulous job in respecting
volunteers’ work, inviting the public to inspect its spending, and showing
appreciation to its donors.
According to its website, OCEF has donated more than $2 million to 40,000
poor students and teachers in the past 20 years. Its programs and projects
are varied. In addition to scholarship, sponsorship and training sessions,
OCEF has also built more than 500 libraries, donated over 370,000 books,
renovated dozens of dilapidated schools, and participated in many other
special projects. OCEF has numerous creative and exciting fundraising events
in Houston and seven other regional branches. In 2009, Facebook, Kellogg
Foundation, Parade Magazine and Case Foundation had the national America’s
Giving Challenge, one of the largest competitions for grass-root non-profit
organizations in the US. Among all 7,875 participating organizations, OCEF
received the final Champion crown, sweeping the Most Donations and the Most
Daily Champion Titles. Later the same year, OCEF was the only Houston-area
recipient in receiving the first round Chase Community Giving grant
presented by the Chase Foundation, the charitable arm of the Chase Bank. For
more detail to help OCEF tackle education inequality, please follow OCEF on
Facebook or visit its website at www.OCEF.org/donation.