Chasing the Money: Chase Community Giving Contest to Start Soon

Posted by Cort Johnson

 

The Chase Community Giving Contest for non-profits will run from Sept 6th-19th.  In the past two years Phoenix Rising has poured time and resources into helping other ME/CFS orgs win over $170,000 and now, for the first time, we’re in ‘the chase’ (:)) and we’re excited to be there. The annual Chase contest provides a rare opportunity for ME/CFS organizations to pick up some easy money. 

Some History

2011 – Three ME/CFS non-profits; the IACFS/ME,  the ME/CFS KnowledgeCenter,  and the Mass CFIDS Association won 20k  in a contest that matched smaller non-profits against each other.

The CFIDS Association of America won 25k and the Whittemore Peterson Institute won over 50K in a contest that matched larger non-profits against each other

2010 – PANDORA wins 25K in the first Chase contest in which all the non-profits, small and large, were lumped together…the top 50 win and PANDORA just squeaks it out in the last week.

ME/CFS Organizations in Chase 2012

In 2012 we know of at least five ME/CFS organizations that are ready to go and we’ll update that number as we go along. We will feature each of these in future blogs.

• Phoenix Rising An NEID Corporation
• Rocky Mountain CFS Association
• New Jersey Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Association
•  Neuroimmune Disease Alliance (NIDA)
•  Wisconsin Chronic Fatigue Association

Each ME/CFS non-profit in this contest realistically has  the opportunity to win  ten thousand dollars. That’s alot of money to a ME/CFS non-profit with low overhead and it can go a long, long way. Phoenix Rising, for instance, has several projects, each of which would cost less than that, which could make a difference.  Some of them include a

Potential Winnings 

• @$500 – Simply by accepting the nomination and providing Chase with suitable documents –  each non-profit will win maybe $500 ($2.5 million/# of charities in the contest).
• $10,000 – bottom 100 charities – based on past history this is where ME/CFS organizations will probably place.
• $20,000 – next 50
• $50, 000 – next 35
• $100,000 – next 10
• $250,000 – top vote getter

Once an organization enters and wins the contest it cannot enter again; if it enters and loses it can enter the contest next year (provided there is a contest).

Two Different Types of Voters..

• Chase Customers – This year Chase customers without a Facebook account can vote on www.Chasegiving.com……for two organizations…

• Facebook – anyone on Facebook who ‘allows access’ to the Chase Giving Application will get two votes for two organizations..plus Facebook users can earn a bonus vote

• Chase Customers and Facebook Users – can vote a maximum of five times; three for one organization….

Strategy!  Request For Volunteers

With hundreds of non-profits expected to be in the contest strategy is going to be important.   We need help to organize the vote  and to devise a strategy for getting the all important “Bonus Votes”.  If you’d like to volunteer to help Phoenix Rising and other organizations win money please send me an email at cort@phoenixrising.me  (or message me in the Forums).

For the most part the contest is simple and we’ll go over it in more detail in future posts. For now

1. Facebook  – If you have a Facebook account you can vote at least twice…
2. Chase customers – if you bank with Chase you can vote twice.
3. Bonus Vote – The Bonus Vote will very likely be the key to ME/CFS non-profits winning because getting one is fairly complicated – which means that most groups probably won’t do it well – which means that if we master the Bonus vote  our chances of winning go up dramatically. The Bonus vote potentially is a third of the entire vote.

Bonus Vote Strategy

We’re looking for ideas on how best to get as many Bonus Votes as we can.  We’d like to coordinate Bonus Votes for all the ME/CFS orgs on Phoenix Rising…its going to take some work to puzzle out best to do this…

In order to get a Bonus vote someone must allow ‘access’ to the Chase contest and share content from the Chase site (ie an organizations profile) on their newsfeed/Timeline. Then when a Facebook Friend uses that link to go to Chase Community and vote a bonus vote is given to the person who posted the link.

More simply it appears that if you put a Chase Profile for Phoenix Rising or another group on your Timeline or Newsfeed and then have a friend vote for them on Facebook you’ll get a bonus vote to use on any organization.

Here are the Official Bonus Vote Rules

A Facebook user can earn one (1) bonus vote by allowing “Access” and sharing any content from the Chase Community Giving application to his/her Facebook newsfeed or timeline.

If one of the Facebook users’ Facebook Friends links back to the Chase Community Giving Application and casts a vote, the original Facebook user will earn one (1) bonus vote.

The bonus vote earned by the original Facebook user can only be cast once he/she has cast his/her two (2) Standard Facebook Votes.

The bonus vote may be cast for any Eligible Nominated Charity, including an Eligible Nominated Charity for which the Facebook user has already cast a Standard Facebook Vote.

Eligible Voters must return to his/her Facebook page to find out whether he/she has earned a bonus vote as it will be displayed both in the header as well as in the “apps and games” link.

There is a limit of one (1) bonus vote earned per Eligible Voter.

This is really complicated but it appears that voting in steps would work. We need as many eyes on this as possible. One idea is below.

One idea 

(1) First we  concentrate on getting the Chase Profiles from ME/CFS organizations onto the timelines/newsfeeds of ME/CFS supporters

(2) Then we have friends of that person (or people who are willing to friend them on Facebook) to click on that profile and  vote…

(3) Above all we don’t want people to go out and use their two votes without first going to another persons Facebook and clicking on their Timeline or Newsfeed ad…because that is how we get the Bonus Votes..so

We want to get as many people as possible to post Chase profiles on their Timelines first and THEN start voting for organizations….

Since each person only gets one bonus vote we want to make sure that each Timeline or Newsfeed ‘ad’ on each person’s Facebook site gets voted on only once.  Therefore…

We probably want to ask everyone who’s going to vote to contact us if a) they are going to vote and b) when they post a profile on their Timeline/Newsfeed…..Then we will team them up with another person….ensuring that each profile gets voted on only once.

But…..there is this issue….

 The bonus vote earned by the original Facebook user can only be cast once he/she has cast his/her two (2) Standard Facebook Votes.”