Raise for Future Adds Three Counties

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We have now added three counties and all of the elementary, middle and high schools in each:

  • Fairfax County, VA
  • Loudoun County, VA
  • Ada County, ID

We proactively added these entire school districts. However, you can still use the site and send us a note to add your child’s school as well.

Here is some background information on Raise for Future. Raise for Future is a fund raising tool for your child’s school. There is no cost to you, as you shop online, at name brand stores, your child’s school earns money.

Raise for Future does not sell anything, we merely provide links to top stores such as OfficeDepot, Disney, Macy’s, Starbucks, and currently over 400 other online stores.

To participate, simply:

  • 1. register once (it is free) – Register at Raise for Future here
  • 2. choose your Childs school from the list (all Fairfax and Loudoun County schools are listed)
  • 3. choose, or search, for the store online you are going to visit, such as Macys.com and click through

Before you click through you will see the % of your purchase that will go to your school. After your purchase you will see in your account how much you have earned for your school. You pay the same prices you always pay, the store provides a percent back from the purchase.

It is available to use 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

You can read more about why it was started here.


New Launch of Fundraising site Raise for Future

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Last year I wrote about my boys, twins, participating in a fund raiser for their school. It was interesting to me to learn two things.

First, their elementary school was brand new and did not have a playground which I found odd.

Second, that they were raising funds for the school in many ways, such as a bingo night and selling catalog items before Christmas.

I took this opportunity to try and help both the school raise funds and my boys learn about online e-commerce, blogs, twitter, marketing and more. The company that was providing the catalog items had an online website, it was cumbersome at best, and the items were not the greatest.

Tracking the Fundraiser
We created a blog for the boys, a twitter account, and a unique landing page for those shopping online to use the boys identification codes when shopping so they would receive credit. The first article to kick it off is found here entitled “Teaching my Boys Blogging, eCommerce and Twitter. The final article was posted here entitled Teaching my Twins Online Commerce through Fundraising.

Fundraiser Experience
Long story short, the boys won a ride to a pizza lunch in a Hummer limousine, however the fundraising experience, items they sold and difficult online shopping experience led my business partner Chris and I to believe their had to be a better way.

Created Raise for Future
We decided to create a site that makes fund raising for organizations, such as schools, easy. Users, such as parents, can shop at any of the partner stores, and a percentage of the sale is provided to the organization. Partner stores in the directory are some of the top online merchants. Users shop at the same online stores they shop at today, pay the same prices every one else pays, and their organization receives a percentage of the final purchase from the merchant through Raise for Future. We consult and accelerate our own start-ups through Phase One Accelerators.

About Phase One Accelerators
Phase One Accelerators is an “accelerator” providing launch phase consulting and online marketing services, as well as incubating and accelerating new startups. Founders are serial entrepreneurs with extensive start-up, online marketing, and venture capital experience. Phase One Accelerators is based in Northern Virginia an Boise Idaho. Raise for Future is a wholly owned and operated by Phase One Accelerators.

See the press release here on the launch of Raise for Future.

Teaching my Twins Online Commerce through Fundraising

My twins fundraiser is over and they raised enough to win a limousine ride. They are very excited and I am obviously very proud of them.

There are many lessons learned, I originally posted on September 28th, 2008 the article that I wanted to teach my boys blogging, e-commerce and twitter. That was one of the goals, to introduce them to online commerce, communications tools such as twitter and blogging tools such as WordPress.

We had a fundraiser update on October 7th, 2008, and the fundraiser ended on October 8th, 2008.

Thanks to everyone that sent them messages of encouragement and purchased online to assist their fundraising. The totals of their fundraiser are finally in. The twins each sold enough that they both get to participate in a special prize – a Hummer Limousine ride to a local pizza place with the principal at lunch time.

They are obviously very excited and it reinforces the lesson that hard work pays off. I say “reinforces” because they already understood that their hard work (going door to door and selling online), and working hard allowed them to obtain a large number of sales.

Another great lesson was the fact that they do not keep the profit – it is for a good cause, to raise money for their school system. Not only do they benefit, but everyone presently at the school and those to follow will benefit as well. Helping their community is a great lesson.

Now they have their own twitter, @longestbrothers, and their own blog LongestBrothers.com.

I am happy to say this experience has more than peaked their interest and jump started their curiousity.

Also, this was a great experiment of those who want are thinking about creating their own blog, twitter account, following etc. We were able to obtain a domain name, create a new WordPress site, create a twitter account and following, then create the proper messaging to drive supporters to the fundraising website to purchase items, all within a week. If my 6 year old twins and I can do it, so can you ;-)

Teaching my Boys Blogging, eCommerce and Twitter

Help me educate my boys about the power of online communication.

I am working with my three boys and the catalyst is a fund raiser for their elementary school. Actually it is just my twins right now, they just turned 6 and are in first grade. My third is 3. If they can navigate to NickJr.com, HotWheels.com and other sites, they can certainly grasp the ability to program, create and communicate.

My desire is that they learn to create and not just consume.

I am attempting to teach my boys to be entrepreneurs through social media, the power of relationships and applying using the most powerful online tools to achieve their goals. My desire is that they learn to create and not just consume. Learning to use the proper tools and how to innovate and create new tools is my ultimate goal.

Our Experiment
The lesson is to use Twitter (Longest Brothers Twitter) and this Blog (Longest Brothers Blog) to update regularly. For now we have created their own Twitter account where they will send daily messages and send out the results as soon as the fundraiser is over, October 8th, 2008.

How you fit in
The goal is to achieve as many sales as possible for their fundraiser, the proceeds go to their Elementary school named Liberty Elementary in South Riding, VA. They get a point for each sale regardless of the price of the item, they have items under $10. To assist them please make a purchase and associate it to one of the boys, or two separate purchases and associate one purchase to each of the boys.

Step 1

Go to Lavenders Online Here, the instructions for checkout so the the twins receive credit is on the right, the screen is framed. They accept PayPal. This site does not use typical affiliate links so you must enter the following at checkout:

  • School name: Liberty Elementary
  • City: South Riding, VA
  • Student Name: Dylan Longest/Nicholas Longest
  • ID: 082416700

To Purchase Click Here

Step 2

Follow them on Twitter, add them by going to the Longest Brothers Twitter here to follow their daily updates. They will let you know what prize they won if they achieved enough sales, the more sales – the more points – and the better prize they get. Any prize, no matter what it is will show them the power of online communications and relationships. This will also make an interesting case study.


Please complete the above before October 8th when their competition ends