‘Motley Fool’: Serious Fund Raising
January 29, 1998 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Share Our Strength is thankful to be associated with a group of on-line Fools.
The Washington antipoverty organization is $120,000 wealthier after an on-line fund-raising drive conducted in its behalf by The Motley Fool, an Internet investment publication that reaches about 750,000 people each month.
From mid-November to the end of 1997, Motley Fool readers were encouraged through e-mail alerts and Web site notices to give to the charity. About 75 per cent of donations were made or pledged on line, although donors could also choose more traditional mediums such as phone or fax.
“It really opened our eyes to the potential to bring in revenue through the on-line world,” says Bill Shore, executive director of Share Our Strength, which did not have to put up any funds for the drive.
The contributions will support “Community Kitchens,” a program that provides job training and food to the needy. It is run by Foodchain, a charity in Kansas City, Mo., that distributes perishable food to the hungry.
The drive attracted more than 800 contributions, including seven gifts of stock. Each donor was rewarded with a spot on the Motley Fool‘s “Ring of Honor” and allowed to post a comment. Wrote one contributor: “Thanks for calling my attention to an investment whose return is incalculable.”
Before starting the drive, the Motley Fool conducted a poll to see which of five charities the Fools — as its readers are known — wished to support. Share Our Strength was the top choice, garnering 35 per cent of the votes, compared with the American Red Cross (21 per cent), Toys for Tots (20 per cent), Habitat for Humanity International (17 per cent), and Amnesty International (5 per cent.) The Motley Fool expects to hold a fund-raising drive again this year.
Noah Davis, director of market research at The Motley Fool, says he believes that the publication’s readers were attracted to Share Our Strength’s emphasis on programs that “not only attack the symptoms of hunger, but also the root causes.”
To get there: Using World-Wide Web software, type http://www.fool.com/foolcharityfund/index.htm.
