Chip In Grid
Posted in Request for Comments on April 26th, 2007I’m using a Chip In control to gather some money to incorporate Think New Orleans. It quickly raised $250.00. Then it scrolled off the page and people cannot see it. I’m impressed with how quickly it gathered as much as it gathered, but I am not suprised. This is a great way to raise money.
Last night at the Bayou Boogaloo meeting, I showed the control to the Bayou Boogalooers, the Mid City and Faubourg St John folks. We talked about how to use Chip In to raise funds for the Bayou Boogaloo.
At first, upon seeing it, we talked about raising a large sum. Keep the Bayou Boogaloo free. We can’t do it without your support.
Then I made the point that creating a Chip In control is free. You can create as many as you like. The idea switched to having different neighborhoods create a control to sponsor a band.
From there, I noted that rather than try to get the neighborhood to raise the money within the neighborhood, why not set a larger goal, and challenge the neighborhood to raise the money by asking anyone. They take on the task of nudging their friends in Lakeview and Gentilly, or nudging their Jazz Fest guests.
My final thought is this: Send out a $600.00, $1,200 or $2,400 challenge. Help raise money for the Mid City Bayou Boogaloo. How much do you think you can cajole out of the people you love to support the festival you love in the city you love?
When a group takes on the challenge, you create a Chip In control for them on in a post on The Bayou Boogaloo website. You choose their name and a band they will fund. They go to work nudging and cajoling.
On a separate post, you create a grid of the controls, and you can see who’s winning their races.
Update: One of my concerns is how do I get this started. Do I have to assign a band to each neighborhood first? I was pretty sure I had to, because I’d need to create the Chip In control, and I’d want to have the band name be the title, and the neighborhood or organization doing the cajoling would be described in the copy that you enter for the information part of the widget.
A quick peek at Chip In, and it turns out that you can adjust almost every aspect of the widget. You can change the title and the information copy.
Perfect! Now I can get this project rolling by creating the Chip In controls, laying them out in the grid, and then start cajoling myself, to find people that will take a band and run with it.
You can also change the deadline and the PayPal account. Cool. I can give myself some more time to raise funds to incorporate Think New Orleans.
