You see, he’s about to take off on his motorbike with around 70 other riders traveling 6000km to Alice Springs for a fundraiser called the Black Dog Ride.

Sure, an open road, a nice gig, you might say. He admits it himself, “I love motorcycles – there’s something about them. The freedom, the sound, the fresh air, the countryside you tour through. Here is an opportunity to pursue a dream and see much of our outback, for a good cause.”

Still, he’s sacrificing time with his family @MrsH5 and their three young daughters for two weeks as well as an income – he’s self employed with no paid holidays – to raise funds for The Black Dog Institute.

“Depression is serious. 20% are affected. It has affected my family and friends. I think talking about it will help others who may not be so comfortable talking about it, or feel alone. If we can get others talking, we may save lives. I am putting resources and facts together on my blog to share. I hope to help others and even save lives.”

The other great thing is that he’s sharing this all using Social Media.

“Social Media (or connected media as I prefer to call it now) is my passion: it allows me to connect, share and build relationships with people (my other passion: people!) After participating in The Perfect Gift for a Man in July 2009 I realised that connected media could be used for social good. Social good to me means using what skills and knowledge we have to help other people and our world, be more successful. It’s something I believe I am good at, and think I will be doing this for the rest of my life. “

You can read more about Tony’s Black Dog ride on Posterous: http://bit.ly/TonyBlackDogRideIntro and Twitter @hollingsworth Hashtag: #TonyBlackDogRide. His friends are also raising awareness. The ride is organised by another bloke on Twitter called Steve Andrews @blackdogride.

To donate visit Tony’s Black Dog Fundraising Page

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?

Eventually I was left with a couple of hours last night. I was going through some files on my computer when I saw some photos from the Shout Out Social exhibition, and thought to myself ‘I really ought to do something with those’. Voila! Instant story.

Please vote for these slides in the Fuze Tell a Story Contest, because if I win the prize money will be donated to women in poverty through Opportunity International (Grand Prize is $5,000.) I hope you like this short story ‘about love, beginning with you’. It might not be the story I had hoped to write, but I think you’ll enjoy it nonetheless.

Gavin Heaton in Australia and Drew McLellan in the US published this book with all proceeds going to  Variety, the children’s charity. Thanks to Gavin Heaton, The Age of Conversation 2 – Why Don’t They Get It? is now on Amazon. It was originally for sale on lulu.com (along with the original, which is also worth a read.)

Chapters include:

Manifestos – Declarations, up front, on the Age of Conversation. Why don’t people get it? What about companies? Where are things going? What can you help clarify?

Keeping Secrets in the Age of Conversation – With everyone talking so much, why do we need secrets? What is the role of privacy? What about different personas and identities? Why don’t consumers understand that their online conversations are tracked and can come back to haunt them?

Moving from Conversation to Action – Talk is cheap, or so they say. What are the practical steps that businesses and brands can take to move from conversation to something more valuable to their business? And if it is so easy, why don’t they just do it?

The Accidental Marketer – People “fall into” marketing. They may study and qualify in a different discipline but somehow find themselves in marketing and advertising. What is the attraction? Or…have you known a company or brand who just seemed to naturally fall into marketing success? How do you think that happened?

A New Brand of Creative – With the changes in the way that people communicate and collaborate online, marketing and advertising companies are needing to reach out and work with a new type of creative team. What do these “creatives” look like. What are their skills? Why do they evangelize digital and new media? And what are the challenges that they face?

My Marketing Tragedy – A topic only for the brave … Do you know a project that failed? Was it yours? What prevented success? What worked? And most importantly, what did you learn? Who didn’t “get it” — was it your client, your boss, the board, or (dare we ask) you?

Business Model Evolution – Just as the markets and people are changing, so too are the business models around both clients and agencies. What is your take on this? What is working and what is not? Where will things go? What happens if an agency doesn’t “get it”. How do you measure “it” … and where will things go?

Life in the Conversation Lane — Bringing it all back to the individual – how is life in a digitally connected, social world impacting our lives? What is the personal cost and what is the attraction? Is there a balance or are we just kidding ourselves?

I’m so grateful that Gavin and Drew made the effort to create this book, and that I participated in the creation of this book. Have you been involved in a collaborative project? What were the results?

So far three amazing people have joined in the challenge by writing ‘Tribute” posts – that’s $300 raised by these bloggers  in 3 days for women in poverty! Wonderful.

Matthew Johnson wrote about steps for  success, Gavin Heaton shared his experience as a microfinance ‘micro-investor’ and Des Walsh wrote a tribute to people with entrepreneurial spirit. Thank you!

Incentive House are willing to donate $700 more dollars but I’m looking for seven more Aussie bloggers to unite for women living in poverty over the next two days – simply  write a post before midnight Tuesday (31st March) and Incentive House will donate $100 towards this special project.  Will you join in?

(oh and meanwhile, my laptop appears to be no more, so expect me to be quiet on the interwebs  for a little bit….I will be watching you from afar, probably on my iPod somehow, somewhere!!)

Update 31 March: You did it! Together we raised $1300 in funds towards this project. And another US$200 was donated in the last 24 hours on my Chipin. You are amazing people!!

You can also listen to a podcast of me mumbling late at night, trying to explain the purpose of Women’s Opportunity – courtesy of Des Walsh on the Social Media Show

EASY! Age of Conversation 2 (AoC2) goes on sale at 8:00AM, Wednesday, October 29 and will be available from Lulu.
If you buy a copy (of course you will!) you can read a chapter by yours truly, and some very talented contributors. Chapters include Manifestos, Keeping Secrets in the Age of Conversation, Moving from Conversation to Action, The Accidental Marketer, A New Brand of Creative, My Marketing Tragedy, Business Model Evolution and Life in the Conversation Lane- I can’t wait to read what others have written!

All proceeds go to the Variety Children’s Charity (last year they raised $15,000!)  Hint – if you download the eBook, more money will go to the charity.

Here’s the list of contributors to AoC2:

Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

Last week I had the pleasure of attending a women’s breakfast where Anita Pahor, Marketing and Donor Services Director at Opportunity International and Women’s Opportunity National Director, spoke about her passion to help those living in poverty. I think her stories and enthusiasm made an impact on every person in the room. It’s difficult to leave a breakfast like that without giving some thought to your own capacity to make a difference. Sometimes it’s a matter of just stepping out and using what skills you have – one step at a time.

Anita’s speech reminded me of some innovative social projects I discovered in the last year. Blogging introduced me to the Age of Conversation project which I have previously mentioned. Proceeds for every book you purchase goes to Variety, the children’s charity.

At work I discovered projects like the World Community Grid where your PC idle time is used to assist projects that benefit humanity. I also found a group of people around the world working on the World Development Initiative and local team members from IBM, World Vision and RMIT Masters students working on mobile solutions.

I discovered quite a few social media for non-profit bloggers including Beth Kanter. There is lots to look at over at the Carnival of Non-Profit Consultants. Chris Brogan also put together a post this week on solving some real world problems with some good links and comments including feedback that some social networks tend to focus on their own growth – and that when social media takes innovation to the streets, we should consider long term, sustainable impact.

So where does that leave you and me? I know I can do more. It doesn’t have to take hours of my week or huge financial commitments, but it starts by making time, investigation, connecting with people and causes that I want to support, sharing ideas and thinking of ways to bring social media community and marketing gold to see social good. As I said…one step at a time

What has inspired you lately? Do you have a desire to make a difference?

1. The meeting of minds. Over the last year I have met up with some great folks through Twitter including Stephen Collins, Matt Moore, Brad Kasell, Michael Specht and Shane Goldberg (note to self..must meet with some great women Tweeple too!). I don’t spend all my time on Twitter, I don’t read every Tweet and some days I don’t read it at all. I use it sometimes at whim, sometimes strategically by dipping in on the web, my iPod or phone. But somehow through this seemingly odd interaction of shared status updates – and in some cases through blogging, we were able to have relaxed, conversation rich meetings when we met up in person. We have also been able to help each other to make sense of emerging technology trends.

2. Personal development. I’ve mentioned before how much I appreciate my mentors. Although none of them live in Australia, we know each other well through our blogs (also behind the firewall) and through other networks like Twitter, Facebook, etc. We use social media to communicate and they have all given me some great opportunities to develop my skills. I doubt I would ever have made the connection with them if it wasn’t for blogging.

3. Opportunities to make a difference. Blogging here on Wonderwebby has also helped me develop confidence in writing and practice my writing style. It meant that when Gavin Heaton (another person I follow on Twitter) announced the new Age of Conversation collaborative book on his blog, I didn’t hesitate in raising my hand to contribute. The best part – all the proceeds to go the Variety Childrens’ Charity.

The Age of Conversation 2 book cover

Those three things are important to me at work – connecting, developing and contributing. How has social media helped you in your career?

MADaboutART’s HIV and empowerment programme for children and young people uses art-based and narrative therapy interventions and experiential learning to build knowledge, skills and confidence. We have established a purpose-built arts and education centre at our base in Nekkies, a township outside Knysna in the Western Cape of South Africa where we run after-schools MAD clubs where children aged 10 upwards can learn about HIV and AIDS and how to protect themselves in a fun and safe environment. We also undertake outreach work with affected and vulnerable populations, both directly and by training teachers and youth workers. We collaborate with libraries and art galleries to create HIV art competitions and community awareness exhibitions. We have just begun our first programme with pre-school children.

You can download Joanna’s Powerful Writing PDF (featuring a quote by yours truly) and make a donation to MadAbout Art on her blog post.

Storytelling is so powerful, isn’t it? So I wonder if blogging, tweeting and putting photos on Flickr counts as therapy?