If you had a long-term illness which made it difficult to get online, but you wanted an easy way to keep all your friends, family and healthcare providers updated on your wellbeing, what would you do? What about updating your social networks with the turn of a radio dial?

I like this. It’s called Buddy. This Dieter Rams inspired social media radio has been designed by UK-based social innovation company Sidekick Studios. It’s described on their website as a post-digital social care service which uses social networks to extend the  community of carers around an individual beyond healthcare professionals, to friends, families and peers. ” Buddy Software uses the data collected to co-ordinate the community response, increase staff productivity, and to deliver the ultimate goal, self-management”

From their development blog,

“Buddy starts with a simple, human question, ‘How are you feeling today?’ It’s the kind of question your GP might ask, and better still, your friend. In itself, it’s not a medical prognosis. And that’s precisely the point.”

They aim to see patients treated as people. It takes the whole notion of ambient intimacy to another level and raises an interesting question. Do you think the convergence of social networking and  healthcare will change the way patients and carers are provided with diagnosis and treatment? What are the implications of concepts like Buddy?

It reminds of  stencil art or sidewalk chalk. Something amongst the landscape of Twitter reminding us of the possibilities. Symbols. Poetry. Tanka. 140 character dreams. Urban memes. Who’s your favourite Twitter artist, poet or Twitter Disruptor?

Yes, Chipin was an interesting way to collect money. Especially for a mum like me who had only experienced fundraising through preschool raffle tickets, school chocolate boxes, mango trays and and yes, even apple slinkies. I had a goal of $10,000 to create a Trust Group and I needed something that would work online, so that my social network could make a difference

BUT

I’m not sure that I’ll use Chipin again.

*****

Why? In an attempt to explain, here are 5 things you should consider if you’re planning to use Chipin. (*note, this was my experience last year and some of this may have changed. I’d love to hear about your own experience)

1. You Can’t Extend The End Date of Your Chipin
I was counting heavily on the last 24 hours of fundraising, because of the Twitter ramp-up to the finish line. I was tweeting like crazy. Others were re-tweeting. People were donating. What a buzz. And then I get a note from someone telling me they can’t donate because the Chipin has expired. WHAT? I had one more day, surely? Unfortunately, Chipin’s timezone is different to my timezone. Once my Chipin expired I couldn’t extend the date. My Chipin had ENDED and I couldn’t reopen it. I lost at least one $50 donation, maybe more.

2. People Couldn’t Work Out How To Pay
Too many people told me they wanted to donate, but couldn’t figure out the conversion rate and left the site. Remember, you need to make it simple for people when asking themto donate online. In the end, I created a Paypal donation button for Australian donors in addition to the Chipin on my fundraiser blog. It would have been nice if Chipin could have done this too. The Paypal process was easy, the only drawback being the lack of social interaction (comments, sharing etc.)

Also some people couldn’t see how to pay by credit card (it’s not glaringly obvious if you don’t use Paypal) so I had some people request to donate directly into my bank account instead.

3. The Figures Didn’t Add Up (at least, not in the widget)

As you can see, this created a bit of a mess, as some donations were now being made in US dollars through Chipin, some in Australian dollars through Paypal, and some directly to me. The benefit was people could choose how they wanted to pay, so I didn’t miss out on donations. The drawback was that only the US dollar donations were being updated in the Chipin widget. It would have been nice to have some flexibility in the admin to manually enter cash donations into the status bar. For example “Chipin donations plus$X cash donations = $90% of total funds raised”.

4. Don’t Use Chipin During a Financial Crisis
Well, what I mean is this – because people donated using US Dollars and suddenly the Australian dollar went up, and the US dollar went down, down, down – some of the initial donations lost a few dollars in conversion rates. For this reason, it’s probably not so good for long term global fundraisers. It meant extra work for me in admin (keeping an eye on the conversion rates, withdrawing from paypal) and account keeping too. It might have worked for a 3 day fundraiser. But in my case I was raising funds over quite a few months from different parts of the world.

5. Chipin Doesn’t Offer Individual Admin Support
I had one particular, important issue I needed Chipin to fix on my Chipin fundraiser. Chipin is free to use, so there isn’t much admin support, just FAQs. In fact, there is no longer any individual support AT ALL. I used their form (now removed) and sent several urgent requests on the same topic. I didn’t receive a single reply. Not an email. Not a tweet. Nothing. This wouldn’t have been so bad if I had more admin functionality. I could have fixed the problem myself.

There were probably a few more things, like their blogging functionality is horrible and there were no alternatives to their Flash generated widget (so I couldn’t put it on this WordPress hosted site ….shhhh) but I think you get the picture. At least, I hope so.

*****

Next time I use a service like Chipin, I’ll probably pay a small fee per transaction for a service like Everyday Hero. This woman is using their service to raise funds for parent beds in a Children’s Hospital (I heard about it via MiscMum)

There are other fundraising sites like Give A Little and Greater Giving. And I have to say, despite it’s shortcomings and my own learnings, Chipin – along with the microfinance fundraiser blog and other social media -allowed me to reach people outside of my own local community. So I’m glad I did it!

What do you think – is Chipin easy to use or do you prefer other social fundraising sites? What’s your experience?

(Note, I’ve been meaning to write this post for aaaages, but @digitalkulcha prompted me in a Tweet today as @silkcharm mentioned it in her session at ConnectNow – see slide 37. This post is for you both!)

1. People want their lives to matter. I found this interesting, because while I’m a big believer in taking small steps to make a difference – wherever you are, however you can -  I also believe in dreaming big. This post was written by Dan Pallotta and tweeted by zOzyfounder Steve Jennings.

” We ask people to do the least they can do, and we make it insultingly easy. That’s not what people want”…”People want their lives to matter. They want to make a difference — a big difference. We must rid ourselves of the patriarchal idea that the wealthy are the only ones who can change the world, and launch a new age of citizen philanthropy.”

2. I discovered a couple of local peeps I follow on Twitter are riding their bikes to raise money for kids charities. Nick Hortovanyi is riding for the Smith Family to help disadvantaged children (donate here) and Craig Wilson (@MediaHunter) is riding with Colliers Tour de Kids for charities focusing on the health and well-being of kids (donate here)

3. 5 Unorthodox Ways to Fix Social Media by Justin Kownacki

“The tools we could be using to revolutionize communication are instead being used to complain about bad hair and shoddy customer service. People blog, podcast, tweet and Flickr because they feel obliged to, or because they’re aching to be noticed and validated by others, desperate for a rewteet to prove they’re still alive. Find a purpose. Set a goal. Decide what “social media success” would mean to you, personally. Then make choices that support your pursuit of that goal.”

4. Chris Brogan also wrote a post last week “When This All Gets Cool”, pointed out to me by colleague Luis Suarez in one of his posts. I’ts about turning something shiny into something that makes a significant change

5. Three Stages in the Journey of a Volunteer on Realized Worth. Chris Jarvis writes about the creation of an engaging volunteer experience.
“Tourist – Traveler – Guide. This is the journey of the volunteer. The great failure of the Non-Profit lies in expecting tourists to act like guides, treating guides like tourists, and ignoring the traveler all-together.”

Image by Crash:Candy

Makes me want to undertake a new journey of my own this year! But you know what? It’s not a new journey that’s needed, is it?  It’s about taking your experience,  skills, passion – your journey right now – and sharing it. Give. And give some more. Have fun. Do good.

What motivates you to give?

It takes me back to a childhood memory of fame and the less fortunate. Every year when the annual Christmas Children’s Hosptal Appeal was on TV, my father would ring up and donate a small amount of money in our names. And every year we would eat lolly gobble bliss bombs and sit through the bad variety acts, watching the fundraising tally rise higher and higher.

Image originally uploaded by Hellebardius

We watched that screen very, very closely because at some point, one of our names would be read out or displayed on telly “Thanks Jasmin for donating 50 cents” (hey, that was a lot of money to a kid in the 70′s!)  To us it may have been three seconds of fame, but we also realised we had made a difference to sick children, along with thousands of others. It all added up.

Recently Darren Rowse aka Problogger shared a dilemma on Twitter about the issue of public vs private giving . He stated that bloggers are in a position to help others in situations,  like the current devastating situation in Haiti.  However this could create an appearance of “being seen” to be helping. He shared on this occasion, he would be following his heart. A sentiment echoed by many others in response.

I’m not sure there is any right or wrong in using your influence to blog about a good cause. So how do you wear your heart on your sleeve, without shoving your avatar around in the faces of ….well, anyone and everyone.

Here are some of my thoughts. I’d love to hear yours.

1. Relax – It’s OK when I know where you’re coming from.
   After all, it’s for a good cause, isn’t it? If I feel like I know you, if I trust you and believe you have integrity and credibility, it won’t bother me when you blog about a cause. Not one bit. I might even donate more to you than the guy who just knocked on my door (seriously, somebody just came around doorknocking for Epilepsy.)
2. Respect Your Community.
   Sure, use your influence to help somebody else get attention for a good cause. Just be respectful with your choice of words and the amount of resources  (time, skills, creativity, money etc) you may demand. T’aint what you do...
   
3. Know Thyself.
   “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”– Dr. Seuss. What is your definition of success? If you ended up raising funds but losing “followers” would it really matter to you? Why do you want to help out? What do you have to lose? What do you hope to gain?
4. Be Part of Something. Contribute to a greater project. You don’t have to start your own fundraiser or creative challenge. Do a Twitter search or blog search. Find out what others are doing about the things that matter to you, and join them.
5. Thank Someone. Thank Everyone.
   It should go without saying, but it’s very, very important. Remember to thank the people who help you out. Make a list if you have to, so you don’t forget.

What do you think? Have you had any positive or negative experiences using your blog to raise funds?

Update: some points from @JoannaYoung in the comments below included:

6) think about how you’re adding value (helping to raise awareness / spread the word as well as fundraise / donate)
7) keep the focus on easy ways other people can get involved and contribute… if they want to
bear in mind if it’s a major catastrophe your readers don’t need awareness raising… they might want to know simple ways to give

Image by Jonah G.S.

I had some difficulty naming this theme. I was going to call it Give, or Connect,  or Activate, and even…wait for it…Shine.
But I finally settled with Create, because creation is such an important part of social media – creating content and creating connections through that content. What do you think?

Create is about using social media make a difference. It’s not just about “how to use Twitter”.  It’s more to do with developing your unique online presence so that you can create positive change.  How can you build up your online brand? How can you raise funds through social media events? Who is using social media to change the world? How can you introduce social media into your organisation? How can you create compelling content to connect people?  I’d love to know what you are interested in for this particular theme.

So there you go. Three themes for 2010. And this is where I’d really like to hear from you. Do any of these themes resonate with you? What would you like to explore further?