Promoting your fundraiser with a widget can really help increase traffic to your page.  What is a widget and how is this magical creature supposed to help your fundraiser?  Good question.  A widget is a little box that you can paste in your blog or website that gives people a sneak peek at your fundraiser.

If you don’t have a blog, ask your friends to post the widget on their blogs or websites.  This is an easy way for them to show you support and help spread the word about your fundraiser.

Actually getting the widget into a blog or website may seem a little scary to those who aren’t very familiar with ‘code’ or the language that tells your computer what the widget should look like, but I promise it isn’t as bad as it seems.  Don’t worry, until I started working with GiveForward widgets and their code kinda scared me too.

So how does it work exactly?  Well first go to a fundraiser page and click on the link that says “Grab this fundraiser’s widget!”.  That link will lead to a window that looks like this:

Once this window opens, copy the code on the right.  Next, go to your blog or website and paste it into your main text entry box.  Once you’ve pasted this code, preview it to ensure it looks correct.

Not sure where your main text entry box is?  Check with your blogging service.  Here are a few links to some of the main blogging services and what they say about adding widgets:

• WordPress
• Blogger
• Tyepad
• Live Journal

GiveForward is starting a new feature every week, the Staff Pick Fundraiser.  Now this doesn’t mean we have a favorite fundraiser, we love all of our fundraisers equally, but at the GiveForward office we make an effort every day to reach out and ‘hug’ a person on our site.

Once a week we come together and share the stories about the people we’ve hugged.   It is a great way for everyone to get to know more about the people using our site and spread a little good cheer at the same time.  After we share the stories we all vote for our favorite story and feature it as the “Staff Pick” for the week.

This week we are kicking it off with a fundraiser that is new to our site: “Help Support Black Family Cancer Fund”.  Jake first came to

our site when he mentioned on Twitter that he was auctioning off action figures on ebay to pay for his medical bills.  GiveForwardreached out to him to offer our services and he signed up.

Jake, a comic author, was initially diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma in 2008.  Like one of his characters, Jake managed to battle the disease, coming out a survivor after rounds of chemo.

Unfortunately, fighting cancer doesn’t end with the physical.  Like most survivors Jake was left with mounting medical bills for the care he received.  Now the Black family is getting support from their loved ones as well as the comic community to help defray these medical expenses.

This week we want to give a big shout out to the “Help Support Black Family Cancer Fund” as our Staff Pick of the week.  Sending lots of virtual high fives your way!

An unexpected visit by a beneficiary brightened up the GiveForward office last week.

Ron Porche is battling Polycystic Kidney Disease and is in need of a kidney transplant.  Currently he is listed as a transplant candidate at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, GA.  His friends and family wanted him to know he wasn’t alone as he went through the transplant process so they set up a GiveForward page for others to donate and show their support.

Last week, Ron drove up to Chicago from Georgia in order to undergo some testing for his transplant.

While he was in Chicago, he decided to stop by the GiveForward office to pick up his fundraiser check and say ‘hello’ to the GiveForward team.

After helping with the fundraiser, it was so nice to get a chance to meet Ron in person and hear about his progress.  We are sending lots of well wishes and GiveForward hugs to Ron and the whole Porche family.  Thanks for coming by and making us smile, Ron!

This weekend, the Chicago Tribune took a closer look at crowdfunding, GiveForward, and some of our World Give Day partners.

The Trib spoke with GiveForward, 33needs, EduLender, and IndieGoGo to get an inside look at how crowdfunding is changing the face of philanthropy….

Funding from the masses: Startups try to harness social networks to raise money

At first blush, crowd-funding may sound like just another attempt to raise money online by getting as many visitors as possible to donate to a cause.

But a growing number of startups see the landscape differently. They see the potential that social networks have to raise money in ways that align with how younger generations practice philanthropy.

Click here for full article.

It’s that time of year, when everyone’s brains turn to brackets.  We aren’t immune here at GiveForward.  That is why we have been super sly and integrated two of our favorite things, brackets and fundraising.

This year we’re holding a March Madness fundraising contest on GiveForward.  It all begins on March 16th.  Between the 16th and March 20th the 16 fundraisers that raise the most money in their category will advance to the second round, or Sweet Sixteen round.

From there, teams will advance in the bracket to the Elite Eight, then the Final Four and the Championship until one champion is left in each category.  Winning will be determined by the fundraiser that raises the most money during the time they are battling it out in their bracket.

Here are the game days:

Everyone: March 17-20

Sweet Sixteen: March 21-24

Elite Eight: March 25-28

Final Four: March 29-April 1

Championship: April 2-April 4

Expect periodic updates as teams knock each other out and move up in the rankings.  Now get out there and play your hearts out!

One of the cool things about being a medical fundraising tool is that at GiveForward we get to see all of the creative and inspiring ways that friends and family fundraise on behalf of their loved ones.

We wanted to share one such story about Jason Noble, who was diagnosed with cancer.   Friends came together to help raise money for Jason and his wife, Kristin, to cover the cost of everyday expenses that exist outside of insurance coverage.

The unique thing about their fundraiser was the way the organizers encouraged donors to get involved.  In exchange for a standardized donation amount, donors received a collection of 12 art prints that were donated by artists from all around the United States.

The organizers assumed it would take at least six weeks to reach their goal of $15,000.  Instead, during the first day donors from the U.S., Australia, Sweden, Belgium, Germany and Canada had donated.  Within 12 hours of its launch, their fundraiser met and surpassed its goal, raising over $16,000!

Now, over a year later, Jason is on the road to recovery thanks to the support of his amazing group of friends.  We were inspired by not only the work Jason’s loved ones put into this fundraiser but the creativity they showed in their efforts.  A big GiveForward high-five to everyone involved in this exceptional fundraiser.

GiveForward co-founder Ethan Austin sat down with Robbie Abed of The Startup Foundry to talk a little about GiveForward’s mission and how far we’ve come in a short amount of time.

From 1 visitor a day to raising $4m for charity, Give Forward’s feel good story
by Robbie Abed on Feb 17, 2011 • 3:45 pm View Comments

I had the great opportunity to speak with Ethan Austin, co-founder of GiveForward (http://www.giveforward.org). Give Forward is a Chicago based startup that helps people raise money for their medical expenses. Ethan speaks about how they once had only 1 visitor on new years day, to being able to get funding a year later. The excerpt of the interview is below:

In one or two sentences, explain what GiveForward does.
GiveForward is a crowdfunding platform for medical expenses. In a nutshell, we make it incredibly easy for friends and family raise money for things like chemotherepy treatments or organ transplants when their loved one gets sick.

How long has Give Forward been around?
We launched in 2008.

Was Give Forward bootstrapped or funded?
We bootstrapped for the first two-and-a-half years but recently got funding.

Explain what the first 0-6 months were like for Give Forward. How did you get it off the ground?
Wow! To say the first six months were rough would be a massive understatment. We launched the site in August of 2008 and on January 1st, 2009 we had one visitor on GiveForward that day — literally ONE visitor! For the most part, our attempts at gaining traction involved coercing our friends and family to start fundraising pages. I enlisted about 25 of my college buddies and their girlfriends to run 5 miles through Central Park for the cause of their choice in in an event we dubbed “run for a reason” . I think we helped raise about $13,000 from the event, which probably accounted for like half of the donations on the site the first six months. It was kind of ridiculous back then.

We really didn’t start to see any traction on the site until about nine months in when two Chicago sisters from Depaul used GiveForward to raise $30,000 for a kidney transplant. After that, we received some media coverage and things started to pick up a bit.

[Editors note:] Give Forward has already raised $3,527,462 for medical expenses and other important causes. Talk about a startup making an impact on the world![/Editors note:]

How did you acquire funding. Was a prototype built before funding?
Last summer, we got accepted into a Chicago startup accelerator called Excelerate Labs, which turned out to be a game changer for us. Through Excelerate, we were able to demo at the House of Blues in front of 500 investors from around the county. My partner, Desiree, gave a pretty awesome presentation which really opened the doors for us. From there, Tim Krauskopf, one of the mentors at Excelerate helped us round up some investors. We also used Angel List, which I highly recommend, to secure the final part of our round.

How big is the team?
We have a team of seven right now plus a few really awesome interns.

Being a Chicago startup, do you find it harder to succeed then if you were in silicon valley as an example
Not at all. I know it’s a cliche, but the Chicago startup community is really coming into its own right now. Groupon has obviously helped to bring a ton of attention to Chicago, but things like Excelerate Labs, MidVentures Tech Week, and Social Dev Camp are changing the landscape in Chicago and helping to build a strong community here. Granted, funding is always going to be an issue and there is no Sand Hill Road in Chicago, but with tools like Angel List democratizing the VC industry, the need to be in Silicon Valley isn’t nearly as great as it used to be.

What is your biggest challenge now?
Educating people and getting the word out. That’s always been the hardest part. When a loved one is going through a serious health issue like cancer, their friends and family usually feel pretty helpless and don’t know what they can do to help. Our goal is make sure they are aware of our service. Once people find out about GiveForward, they always love it. We just need to let more people know about it.

Thanks to Ethan for the interview. All the best to GiveForward. For more startup news, follow us on twitter @startupfoundry.

You can also follow the author on twitter @robbieab.

We are very excited to announce GiveForward has raised $500,000 in its first round of funding.

After meeting some fantastic people during our participation in Excelerate, we were able to do some creative fundraising and are now ready to expand on the services we currently provide.  With this backing we will now be able to grow our team and bring on additional fundraising coaches so we can continue to provide the best service possible to our fundraisers.

Feel free to check out the story featured in the Chicago Tribune, TechCrunch and FastCompany:

Chicago startup GiveForward raises $500K

By Wailin Wong
Posted today at 8:45 a.m.

GiveForward, a Chicago-based startup that helps people raise money for out-of-pocket medical expenses, has raised $500,000 in its first round of funding.

Desiree Vargas Wrigley and Ethan Austin started GiveForward in 2008 and had looked for some funding at that time, but “what we kept hearing from investors is: ‘You should be a non-profit,’” Vargas Wrigley said. She and Austin funded the company themselves, with Vargas Wrigley waiting tables at Cafe Ba Ba Reeba in Lincoln Park in the meantime.

The GiveForward platform allows people to create personalized fundraising pages and share their cause through social media such as Facebook and Twitter. GiveForward collects the donations, which can be done through credit or debit cards, and passes them along to the beneficiary after deducting 7 percent for processing fees. The company said its users have raised $3.5 million since the company’s inception and about 10,000 users have joined the site, with almost half of them signing up in the last six months.

In 2010, GiveForward was one of 10 companies chosen for the inaugural class of Excelerate, a Chicago-based program that awards funding to startups and provides mentorship from experienced investors and entrepreneurs. Through the Excelerate program, Vargas Wrigley and Austin connected with Tim Krauskopf, a serial entrepreneur and former Motorola Inc. executive who had co-founded Spyglass Inc., the software firm that developed the basis for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser.

Krauskopf gave the GiveForward team advice and cultivated a group of investors behind the scenes. He became the lead investor for the company’s fundraising round, which also includes several angel investors and New World Ventures, the Chicago venture capital firm that invests on behalf of the Pritzker family.

“There are a lot of fantastic new tech ventures coming out of Chicago right now and GiveForward is one of the best,” Krauskopf said in a statement. “It is a truly viral service that leverages social networking for a real, productive purpose.”

The $500,000 will allow GiveForward to expand its staff. Austin and Vargas Wrigley drew their first paychecks in January and recently hired a marketing employee and an in-house developer. Vargas Wrigley said the startup plans to hire another five to seven people this year, with most of them serving as fundraising coaches that work one-on-one with the site’s users.

GiveForward also plans to work more closely with hospitals and private clinics so doctors and nurses can recommend GiveForward to the families of patients that might be struggling financially or could benefit from the support of an online community, Vargas Wrigley said.

Vargas Wrigley said her startup’s success in getting funding speaks to how “the funding climate is changing in Chicago.”

“Companies really can be mission-driven or social ventures and still produce return,” she said.

GiveForward Raises $500K To Be The Kickstarter For Medical Expenses

By Leena Rao
Posted today at 2:40 p.m.

GiveForward, an online fundraising tool for medical expenses, has raised $500,000 in funding from Tim Krauskopf, New World Ventures, David Cohen, Ed Chandler, Social Leverage and Excelerate Labs.

GiveForward, which was incubated in Chicago’s Excelerate Labs, wants to become the Kickstarter for medical expenses. The platform allows anyone to create customizable fundraising pages where friends and family from across the world can donate online.

To make money, GiveForward deducts 7 percent of all donations. Since 2008, 10,000 users have joined GiveForward with the startup helping families raise nearly $3.5 million for their loved ones’ out-of-pocket medical expenses. GiveForward also gives users tips on fundraising, allows them to socialize their pages on Facebook and Twitter and more.

We’re excited to announce that we’ve got two new team members, Chris McKeever, Director of IT and Cate Conroy, Director of Marketing.

Chris hails from New York and went to school in Massachusetts, but he’s been doing his thing in Chicago for quite some time now. Prior to GiveForward, Chris spent 10 years doing various forms of IT for the real estate industry. This chapter of his life really began with a stint as the Director of Technology for Prudential Real Estate – Chicago. From there, Chris moved on to eventually become the Managing Director for the Center for Real Estate Technology (CRT) before joining GiveForward.  When Chris saw that GiveForward was looking for a new team member he was excited by the possibility of joining a start-up and helping define GiveForward’s online presence; plus free burritos never hurt. Aside from burritos and computer code, Chris enjoys Einstein Bagels, “two-for-one movies on miserable weekend afternoons,” DOTS, and spending time with his dog, Karma.

A fifth generation Chicago-an, Cate is excited to join the GiveForward team and have a positive impact on the community she knows and loves. A news nerd at heart, Cate worked as a local news producer for ABC News for a few years before moving into marketing.  After spending a few years working for a Chicago-based tech company, Cate was introduced to GiveForward and jumped at the chance to join the team.  Now, when she’s not tweeting, blogging or marketing on behalf of GiveForward, she can be found training for her next marathon with her dog, Teddy, or attempting to bake a new gluten free treat (which she then forces everyone in the GF offices to taste-test).