Do a Mitzvah: Mitzfunder!

The awesome social starter, Leah Jones, sent me an email before Shabbos that I want to share with y'all, because I think it's an amazing project that needs our funding, even in the smallest amount ($10 gets you a button even!). Can you spare $10? This is a great project. Read on!

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I'm working with Aryeh Goldsmith and a few others to create a peer to peer fundraising platform for Jewish projects called Mitzfunder. Too many buzzwords this late in the week? Think Kickstarter, but for Jewish projects.

And the first project on Mitzfunder is Mitzfunder.

We want to build the tool, but won't build it unless there is financial support. The world doesn't need another digital tool without an audience, so we are relying on the Jewish community to vote with dollars to tell us if we should keep building. We're talking to people and racing to try and get 70 percent of our goal pledged in the next 27 days - that's $10,500 of our $15,000 total. I've written a blog post answering as many questions as I could come up with that Aryeh hadn't already answered on the FAQ on the site.

Mitzfunder: Peer to Peer Fundraising and You 

Take a gander at the site for Mitzfunder and the blog post. Send us your ideas and questions. If you are interested, I hope that you'll make a pledge, write a blog post or send a tweet. Aryeh and I are both available to answer questions you may have.

Jewish Agencies and Viral Videos

There have been a lot of Jewish organizations and agencies putting out videos lately in attempts to fundraise and connect Jews. Many of them have been downright embarrassing and excessively inappropriate (think: Jewish Portland "Do you do it?" video and its porno music) and others have garnered mixed reactions (think: AJWS video featuring lots of non-Jews talking about the good works of AJWS).

This all makes me wonder: Why are Jewish organizations rolling out these videos? Are they resulting in $$ returns? Are they effective? Is the backlash worth it? And, most importantly, did they show it to anyone before releasing it to the wolves?

Thus, I give you a representation of an Jewish agency that has put out a hilarious, short, concise, and what I think is effective video. Hats off to JTA for getting it right.

Help a Biker (in the bicycle sense) Out!

I know you're all dying to read my catfish post (which I'm working on), but more important right now is that I have a friend in need of some sponsorship help. He's a wonderful and genuine spirit that I came in contact with at my Hebrew bootcamp this summer, and he's a bike-riding maniac. So he's taking part in the 2009 New York Jewish Environmental Bike Ride and here's Getzel's spiel:

Over Labor Day weekend, I’m planning to be one of over 200 riders in Hazon’s 2009 Jewish Environmental Bike Ride! We will ride 100 miles into Manhattan over two days. I have taken on this challenge to help raise environmental awareness, and to add the Jewish community's voice to calls for environmental responsibility. The money raised from this Ride will be used to support Hazon’s year-round work with food in the Jewish community. The funds are also distributed to support innovative environmental projects here and in Israel. You can read more information about where the money will go at www.hazon.org.

How can you help? Visit his page and donate a little bit of cash. Make it something memorable, maybe $18 to symbolize life (חי)! Or maybe a multiple? Either way, I know the economy is tough, but sometimes the warm fuzzies are worth it if you can put a few bucks toward something outstanding.