I spent the day brainstorming some ideas for a fundraising event this summer. I raised about $4,500 last year for a wonderful Malawi orphan centre (Friends of Mulanje Orphans) by running the Ottawa marathon. We visited them during our three-month Africa journey and the kids absolutely captured our hearts.

So this year I want to increase the amount raised, and perhaps get a little news media attention. But the marathon isn’t going to cut it for the later objective. Maybe once upon a time, the media rewarded people who ran a marathon for a charity. But the pain of hitting the pavement for 42km isn’t enough anymore. Terry Fox taught that lesson.

Here are some folks who will get the media spotlight this year for torturing their feet and minds for a cause:

• Richard Dunwoody from England is going to walk a mile each hour for 42 days (a total of 1000 miles) for four charities including the Alzheimer’s Society. He won’t sleep for more than 80 minutes at one time for a month and a half.
• Linda Theron from Toronto will walk from coast to coast, performing concerts along the way for worthy causes — for the second time.
• Natasha Peters from Ottawa is running a marathon on seven continents in seven weeks for AIDS orphans. The Ottawa Citizen just gave her some love.

Kudos to them. I’m not that crazy. So running is out as a tactic to get media attention for my fundraising efforts. Other ideas are percolating….including refocusing on social media instead. Stay tuned.

Using social media to fundraise for a wonderful Malawi orphanage proved to be a very smart move. 

My wife and I launched the campaign (called Project 42) last month using email, a Facebook group, this blog and an online service called Givemeaning.com. The latter allowed us to use social bookmarking, Flickr pictures and other social media tools to bring attention to our cause.

The response from family and friends was outstanding and we raised $4,458 — surpassing our target of $4,200. I’m doubtful we would have had the same success using the traditional approach of canvassing our offices and calling friends on the phone. 

I had ‘Facebook friends’ (who I accepted last year but honestly haven’t communicated with for 10+ years) make donations.  Many of our donors added comments and well wishes to our fundraising website. 

We also had several donations from people we don’t know – perhaps friends of friends or people who stumbled across our websites.  Our fundraising webpage ranks second only behind the orphanage’s page when you google ‘Mulanje orphans’ and this blog comes up first when you google ‘Malawi orphan fundraising.’

Many people commented that they liked the online appeal approach. Compared to in-person or telephone canvassing, they said there was less pressure to decide immediately, it was easier to donate online and there was a community feel with the list of donors and dozens of comments posted on our fundraising website and Facebook group page.

So this turned out to be an excellent experiment that we may build on in the future.

I’ve turned to the power of social media to help support a wonderful Malawi orphanage. We’ll be volunteering with the Friends of Mulanje Orphans this summer during our three month journey through Africa. But more important, we want to raise funds so they can afford the food, medication and clean drinking water the kids need to survive and thrive.

To donate to my Malawi orphanage campaign, visit http://www.givemeaning.com/project/project42

The campaign is called Project 42. Before I run 42km in the Ottawa marathon (May 25), we’re searching for 100 people to donate $42. That adds up to $4,200. My wife and I will also be volunteering at least 42 hours of labour at the orphanage. To add a strange twist, I just discovered that ‘42′ is the meaning of life according to Douglas Adams.

The first online tool I selected was www.givemeaning.com. It allows you to set up a webpage, covers all credit card charges (so 100 percent of donations go to the charity) and helps you ’spread the word’ and bookmarks/tag. The founder is Canadian Tom Williams, a teenage computer genius who became a philanthropic millionaire. Check out his interview with Strombo on the CBC’s The Hour.

Second, I started a Facebook group. In only 48 hours, we have 25 members already.

Third, I’m posting about my charity drive on my blog (obviously cause you are reading this).

Fourth, I’m not sure. I’m not yet up and running on Twitter. Any suggestions out there??

Web 2.0 hasn’t been the only route to raising awareness and funds. Emails have proven to be critical to reaching many friends and family who are still living in Web 1.0 land. And certainly talking it up with coworkers and friends has helped.

Thanks to Dave Fleet, a fellow runner and blogger, who planted the seed for this idea in a similar campaign he did to support cancer research.

UPDATE: We’ve raised our first $1,000 within a week. A good start.