CHS Giving Snowball 2008

CHS is an experiment in collaboration. When you leave a comment here, you are working with the group to expand the conversation. Users post stories, pictures and videos. More and more, we're finding ways to work together in significant ways -- I'm looking forward to seeing what Cheesecake and EmilyP cook up with his next video episode and her design skills.

In that spirit, we'd like to try another new thing -- CHS Giving Snowball 2008, an experiment in holiday giving. At the center of any community collaboration, there needs to be a driver. For Snowball 2008, it's neighbor pffft who wrote in looking for a way to expand his plans for holiday giving. Pffft will help get the Snowball rolling by throwing $100 in the group pot (see below) and pledging $400 to Northwest Harvest if we meet our $700 giving goal. Thanks pffft! CHS is also throwing $50 in the community pot to get things rolling. And there is no time like the present to get things rolling -- I'm hearing all sorts of anecdotes about challenges faced by local nonprofits right now.

UPDATE -- Despite ChipIn's lameness, we have exceeded goal with $725 raised. If you'd still like to give, here's an update pot to drop a few dollars in.

Here is how the Snowball works:

1. You should see a Chip In widget above. Please consider adding a few dollars to the pot to help meet our goal and kick in pffft's gift. Giving won't cost you anything but the dollar amount you give. Small fees are taken on each pledge from our end of things. So, if you give $5, the Chip In/PayPal solution will give us about $4.60 (30 cent base fee + around 2%, so around 40 cents in fees).
2. CHS will collect the funds and give the pot to the nonprofit with the most comments on this post by midnight5 p.m. on Dec. 19th. (UPDATE: New time due to several factors including our fun snow)
3. One nonprofit per comment.
4. One comment per person. We will be analyzing the comments and reserve the right to reject anything bogus.
5. Nonprofits must be active in Seattle area. This means there is office or representative working within the city limits.
6. If we hit group goal of $700, pffft will give an additional $400 to Northwest Harvest. That's very nice of him.

Typical of any experiment, it's a little complicated. The goal is give as a group, learn about some worthy nonprofits and have a little fun doing it. Hope you'll join the Snowball.