Justgiving's blog

Welcome to Oxfam

We've hanging out the bunting this week and extending a warm Justgiving welcome to our newest charity partner - Oxfam.

Oxfam is a development, relief, and campaigning organisation that works with others to find lasting solutions to poverty and suffering around the world. It was formed in 1942 as he Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, and has grown to become one of the most influentional and admired charities in the world.

Here at Justgiving we've been huge fans of Oxfam's innovative approach to fundraising and particularly its early adoption of new media technologies, so we're seriously excited to be working with them.

Check out Oxfam's website for some uber hip online offerings, including its Generation Why micro-site and a range of top notch blogs: the main Oxfam blog, the Summer Festivals blog and the Coldplay tour blog. Download choones from Oxfam Music and look no further than Oxfam Unwrapped for your Christmas shopping.

And of course, here on Justgiving you can donate to Oxfam or create a fundraising page to raise funds for any event or occasion.

Oxfam supporters have been wasting no time getting started, with two pages online already. Matt Roles is getting sponsored to shave his prodigious ginger beard, and then grow a new one. Ed Lyons, meanwhile, has created a page to collect donations instead of house-warming gifts for his friend Mark.

- James G

Favourite Films

Following last week's favourite book poll, this week we've asked the JG team...what's your favourite film?

Frame: Withnail & I
Jason: Dark City
James: The Graduate
Tom: The Party "Blake Edwards directing, Peter Sellers at his comic best as Hrundi V Bakshi the bungling Indian actor and Claudine Longet just sublimely beautiful. Hilarious from start to finish, as groovily 1960s as it gets and I never tire of watching it. Hell, worth watching just to see a three-wheeler Morgan."
Ben: Twelve Angry Men
Molly: The Rock
Jules: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Zarine: Casablanca "Only one answer surely"
Simon: Top Gun
Robbie: Gladiator
Elizabeth: Casablanca "It’s a bit of a cliché but it is so damn good I keep going back to it. I think I’ve seen it about 10 times!"
Derrick: Lord of the Rings
Paul: Silence of the Lambs
Neil: Gladiator "Nothing to do with men in skirts, just awesome soundtrack and sets."
Jonathan: Escape to Victory
Will: Deuce Bigalow : Male Gigolo
Sonal: Grease

What do you make of our choices? Let us know your own favourite film by posting a comment here.

- James G

Ride on!

Talking of creative fundraising ideas (see yesterday's post about bouncing boobies), how about this one...

Jeanette Carney and her friends at Software AG are getting sponsored to ride rollercoasters!

"We are hoping to raise £1000 for the Donna Louise Trust by going on the six big rides at Drayton Manor," says Jeanette on her fundraising page. The team hit their target by completing the stomach churning challenge last month.

Any more for any more? Leave a comment here and tell us about your wacky fundraising ideas, or post in our forum. There's Amazon vouchers for the best.

- James G

Breast foot forward

We've seen some creative fundraising ideas in our time. Oh yes.

There was the guy who changed his name by deed poll for charity; the guy who's sleeping in a ditch for a year for charity; the employees who all grew moustaches for charity etc. etc.

But now we've seen it all (literally, parp parp!). Tania and Laura, known collectively as The Booby Sisters, have been flashing their ample assets in exchange for donations.

"We walked from The London Eye to Parliment Square whilst bouncing our boobies to raise money for Cancer Research," explained the girls. "It was a really good day."

Don't fret chaps. If you didn't see the girls in the flesh (honk!), they've posted photos on their website*. And you can get an eyeful of their fundraising page here.

- James G

* Not terribly work safe, it has to be said.

Welcome to Children in Need

A big welcome to our newest charity partner - Children in Need.

As everyone knows, tonight is the big night. You can help make this year's appeal the biggest ever by creating a fundraising page here or making a donation here.

Last year, the BBC Children in Need appeal raised more than £34 million to improve the lives of children and young people throughout the UK.

- James G

DJ Darren is November's Fundraiser of the Month

Our Fundraiser of the Month for November is DJ Darren Hartland.

Darren aims to raise £10,000 to send sick and disabled children on the holiday of a lifetime by DJ-ing for 96 hours non-stop, and breaking the World Record in the process.

Read Darren's story here. Visit his page and sponsor him here.

If you want to nominate someone as a future Fundraiser of the Month, please drop me an email at james@justgiving.com or post details in our forum.

Good luck Darren, from everyone here at JG Towers!

- James G 

100 up for the JG forum!

Wahey! The champagne corks were popping here at JG Towers over the weekend as we  welcomed our 100th forum member.

gingando from Glasgow bagged the coveted 100th registered user crown by signing up on Sunday. We love handing out prizes for spurious reasons, and we're in an extraordinarily good mood today, so we've sent her an Amazon voucher to say thanks!

Our forum has been live for three weeks now and has attracted 189 posts to 147 threads on everything from skydiving to head-shaving to getting married at mile 13 of the London Marathon.

If you haven't already, register now and chat to other fundraisers, share hints and tips to raise more money online, regale us with your fundraising stories and post pictures to win prizes.

Go on, join our gang.

- James G

Seaman's pony gets the chop for charity

Former Arsenal and England goalkeeper David Seaman is finally chopping off his famous ponytail. Phew!

The notorious appendage will be lopped by celebrity coiffeur Charles Worthington live on ITV's This Morning programme next Wednesday.

David hopes he can raise £10,000 for The Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK through his Justgiving page by granting the wish of millions and consigning the infamous tail to history.

He said: "I have been a dedicated supporter of The Bobby Moore Fund for two years, along with my wife Debbie. The fund is very close to my heart as my mother in-law sadly died of bowel cancer, which is why I have chosen to get my famous ponytail cut off in aid of the Bobby Moore Fund's bowel cancer research."

Well done Dave. It's a fabulous gesture, and in any case, it's about time that pony got the chop!

You can visit David's page and sponsor him here.

Confusion: a public apology

To the very nice lady I spoke to last week, I now understand that the Microwave Word document you insisted you were going to send me was not in fact the instruction manual for your Panasonic Cook & Defrost Deluxe, but a Microsoft Word document containing information pertaining to your selected charity.

The confusion which arose from this exchange clearly left us both a little shaken; we had what can only be described as a 'reheated conversation', and  I would like to apologise for not having made the connection sooner. Please feel free to send me the document - my address is tom@justgiving.com.

Best regards,

- Tom

Bob's Online Retirement

Seriously amazing online fundraising stuff, and my first blog post; James is speaking at a conference today (and no doubt trying to avoid defining what a podcast is) so I have been granted esteemed access to the blog. I can almost feel the power.

This week we've been presented with another first. Bob Avery has created a fundraising page for Harris Hospiscare, a specialist care hospice in the Orpington and Bromley area. What makes Bob's page special is he's raising funds to celebrate his retirement from HSBC, which is something we've not seen someone do on Justgiving before. Bob has raised almost £1000 in under two weeks which is an outstanding achievement. Top marks to Bob for coming up with such an innovative use for our fundraising pages and making it a big success.

You can visit Bob's page here

I hope James remembered to iron his shirt.

- Simon