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Joyce McMahon, McMahon Communications
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FIRSTGIVING ADDS YOUTUBE AND FLICKR CAPABILITY TO ITS WEB PAGES
Additions enable fundraisers to more creatively personalize their appeals
SOMERVILLE, MA – MARCH 12, 2008 -- Firstgiving, a leader in providing Web-based
fundraising services for individuals and charities, today announced the ability for its users to
add YouTube™ video and Flickr photos to their personal Web pages. Mark Sutton, Chief
Executive Officer of Firstgiving stated, “Experience shows us that the more personal the appeal,
the more successful the fundraiser. Therefore, we made it easy for people raising money on
Firstgiving to add their personal videos and photos to their fundraising pages.” The end result
he says is more people raising more money for their favorite charitable causes.
Firstgiving fundraisers can choose from among hundreds of thousands of U.S. certified 501(c)(3)
nonprofit organizations for which to raise money. Many individuals use the pages for eventbased
fundraising such as marathons or polar plunges. Others set up pages to raise money in
lieu of birthday or wedding gifts or in memory of a loved one. Charities themselves can also
use Firstgiving’s fundraising pages for events, special appeals or general donations. At any
given point, there are 15,000 – 18,000 active pages on the Firstgiving Web site. Since 2003, they
have helped over 100,000 people raise more than $50 million for more than 12,000 charities.
Sutton noted that there is no “right” tone for the videos or photos that people post, but rather
that it’s more important that they reflect the personality of the individual making the appeal.“Some are funny, others are serious and then there are those that are so inspiring they knock
your socks off,” he said.
Sutton added, “Firstgiving’s goal is to make raising money for non-profits as easy and simple as
possible for our users. By putting the right tools in their hands, we can help them make a
positive difference for the charities they support.” For more information on how to set up your
own Firstgiving fundraising page visit www.firstgiving.com.
About
Firstgiving
Firstgiving of Somerville, MA is the US office of Giving, Ltd. of London, England. Established in 2003,
Firstgiving provides user-friendly online fundraising tools for fundraisers and organizations that help
thousands of individuals raise millions of dollars for certified 501(c)(3) US nonprofit organizations. The
company works with over 2,000 charity clients and tens of thousands of individual fundraisers who have
raised more than $50 million online. For more information please visit www.firstgiving.com or call (617)
591-2121.
