Easter Seals Central Alabama launches online ticket sales for 1st Annual Jewels and Jeans Western Gala

Easter Seals of Central Alabama (ESCA) has two important fundraising events coming up in April and June. This week we set up our online event ordering module for them. They can now sell tickets, sponsorships and take add-on donations online for each event. Our event sales module can run multiple events at the same time, can sell multiple ticket and sponsorship levels and handle the inventory of each. ESCA can even print rosters or name tags right from our system and take golf handicap information for their golf event.

Visit the Easter Seals web site (that we built in 2008) to learn more about or register for their 1st Annual Jewels and Jeans Western Gala and 11th Annual Golf Tournament.

Office closed on Tuesday, March 2nd

Our office will be closed on Tuesday, March 2nd due to some electrical work being done that will cause the power to be out. Our main phone number will be down on that day but clients can reach me on our emergency cell number should they need to reach us. This electrical work has no impact on client web sites.

Santa Barbara Soccer Club using 4aGoodCause for its Field of Champions campaign

We'd like to welcome the Santa Barbara Soccer Club to our family of good causes. They are using an online donation system from 4aGoodCause to help raise money for their Field of Champions camapign. The Field of Champions – the Turf Capital Campaign — is a collaborative fundraising effort between Santa Barbara Soccer Club and the San Marcos High School community and its Athletics Booster Club to improve the quality of the playing field used by young athletes and community groups in the area. 

The San Marcos High School Puailoa Field is in urgent need of attention. For the past 34 years each year the turf undergoes its annual downward spiral cycle from a decent grass field in September to a beat up, hazardous dust or mud bowl - depending on the rains in the spring. The goal is to raise $850,000 to replace this costly-to-maintain and treacherous playing surface with a synthetic turf, a safe and more environmentally sound playing surface. To learn more about The Field of Champions or to make a donation please visit http://www.thefieldofchampions.com/.

4aGoodCause supports public education through Cobb Schools Foundation

Everyone of our clients gets a donation from me when we launch an online donation form for them. It's my way of saying thank you for their business and is a great way to kick-start their online fundraising. There are a few causes, however, we're supporting further and actually providing our e-commerce services to at a significant discount. One of those groups is the Cobb Schools Foundation. We built and host an online donation system for them. They use that system to raise money for the schools, staff and students of Cobb County School District here in Georgia. My wife is a public school teacher. I am witness to the struggles school districts have in funding public education. We discounted our services to Cobb Schools Foundation to support those doing the good work to educate the kids in our local community.

We're proud to report the Cobb Schools Foundation has had good success raising money online. This success includes raising $80,000 online in two days to send the South Cobb High School band to the Obama inauguration parade in January 2009.  We're hopeful for their continued success.

We're open to discounting our services to other public school foundations. If you think you qualify get in touch with me.

Visit the Cobb Schools Foundation to learn more about them or to make a donation.  

Recommended Reading - Online Donations and Charitable Solicitation Laws

I was asked today by one of the good causes we work for whether accepting online donations creates the need to register as a fundraiser in states other than the charity's home state. This is a question I've gotten many times in our years of helping nonprofits raise money online. The answer is not always simple and can be different for each charity depending on how and where they solicit donations. I recently came across a fantastic article on the subject by an Arizona lawyer (with a great blog) that specializes in nonprofit law. She has written a short, practical guide on charitable solitation law and what triggers the requirements to register. If you are a charity seeking to answer the question of what states you need to register in, check out the article below.

The Long Arm of Charitable Solicitation Law

Nonprofit Resource Center of Alabama now the Alabama Association of Nonprofits

The Nonprofit Resource Center of Alabama is one of our older and most cherished clients. We've been providing e-commerce, web design and webmaster services to them since 2002. We've built numerous e-commerce systems for them and built two major editions of their web site, incuding the one they use now. They have been very good to us over the years, recommending our services to the nonprofits they work with in Alabama. We thank them for that.

I wanted to pass along some news from them. They have a new name and some exciting new partnerships with Samford University and the Brock School of Business. The Nonprofit Resource Center of Alabama is now called the Alabama Association of Nonprofits. We recently worked with them to update their web site with their new name and new logo. I like the new name. It shows a committment to bringing nonprofits in the state together to strengthen the work each nonprofit does in the community. They have also moved their office inside Samford University in Birmingham, AL and will be partnering with them to bring new educational opportunties to their members.

The Alabama Association of Nonprofits is having its annual confererence, or Summit as they call it, on March 2nd and 3rd. If you are a nonprofit in Alabama I encourage you to attend the summit and check out the Alabama Association of Nonprofits. They are great people, working hard to help nonprofits in Alabama. We are proud to have them as one of our good causes.

To learn more about  the Alabama Association of Nonprofits please visit http://www.alabamanonprofits.org/.

St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park using 4aGoodCause for online camp registration

We'd like to welcome the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park to our family of good causes.  Founded in 1893, the St. Augustine Alligator Farm is one of Florida’s oldest zoological attractions. For over a century, it has entertained millions of visitors, lured by the awesome presence of captive reptiles, long regarded in the popular imagination as at once mysterious, dangerous and frightening. 

The Alligator Farm is using 4aGoodCause to accept online payments for online camp registrations. This camp payment system is a good example of the customized payment systems we can create. The camp system allows the Alligator Farm to manage all its camps, the prices for each and how many slots each camp has open. When camp registrations sell, inventories are automatically adjusted and only camps with open slots are available for registration. We'll be rolling out online membership payment for them soon.

To learn more about St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park please visit http://www.alligatorfarm.us/.