Another Contest Vivant - to WIN Reseach Money!!

[Dolphin]

Do you mean that if ME charities get in their top 20s and we stop supporting them in Phase 2 then we've succeeded in keeping out non-ME charities?)

Yes

But I think that we would only have kept out the ones that would have not been competitive (i.e. those in 19th & 20th places, which would be no-hopers).

You are probably right on average. Although potentially some might be late entrants.

BTW, when I have been talking about "no-hopers" generally in this thread, I mean groups that are don't have the potential to bring in big votes.

I also think that any ME charity that makes it through to Round 2 will have people supporting it - not everyone voting will be looking to us or anyone else for strategy - but if they only see the WPI in the contest they'll put their votes there.

Yes, that is a concern.

I don't fancy our chances in Canada. First place currently is a Prader-Willi syndrome charity with over 1200 votes and we're in fourth place with 149. Prader-Willi have several charities in the running across the regions (they're winning big in the Mountain Region with over 6,000 votes) and they look well-organised. In total, Prader-Willi charities have got over 9,000 votes to our 2,000 ME/CFS votes. Even more worryingly, there's a Prader-Willi charity in the Pacific Region in fourth place, only 700 votes behind WPI.

WPI will not be safe to win in the Pacific Region if Prader-Willi folks get behind their charity there. They will be formiddable opponents. I really don't think we can afford to split the ME/CFS vote and we can only hope that PW split theirs! I think we must back the WPI and the WPI only in Round 2.

Yes, whatever happens, it would be good for our sake if the Prader-Willi vote gets split.

It would be interesting to know when they registered. This has been running since April 25. 9,000 votes in that period might conceivably only be a few hundred voters and the 1257 in Canada could easily be less than 100 people. It would be interesting if anybody could look into it e.g. are there any Prader-Willi events? How big are the organisations? It seems a relatively rare disorder - 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 25,000.

But I'm very nervous about splitting the vote.

 

[helen41]

My heart belongs to Canada, but I must agree that our best chance for success in round 2 lies with WPI in the Pacific. I don't think we would be able to rally International support for the Canadian cause and we need to work together on this. Still, I do think we are pretty safe to be nominating more charities, at least so donations can be matched, especially in Canada, where it only would take 2 votes to get in the top 20 right now.

Apparently the Vivant Co was called APX last year. the winners were Prader-Willi overall, Canada - Alberta Association for Community Living, Pacific - Prader-Willi California Foundation , Mountain - Heart 2 Home Foundation, Central - Tapestries of Life, Eastern - CHERUBS. I didn't find vote counts- that would be so useful to know.

I am concerned that Pacific was won by Prader-Willi last year, but I looked at their FB page https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/PWCF1 and it doesn't look that active.

In preparation for voting, I also sent an email to Vivant to ask if holding contests for votes was allowed. Hopefully I'll get a quiet reply, and we can make plans to do so if needed.

 

[Dolphin]

My heart belongs to Canada, but I must agree that our best chance for success in round 2 lies with WPI in the Pacific. I don't think we would be able to rally International support for the Canadian cause and we need to work together on this. Still, I do think we are pretty safe to be nominating more charities, at least so donations can be matched, especially in Canada, where it only would take 2 votes to get in the top 20 right now.

Apparently the Vivant Co was called APX last year. the winners were Prader-Willi overall, Canada - Alberta Association for Community Living, Pacific - Prader-Willi California Foundation , Mountain - Heart 2 Home Foundation, Central - Tapestries of Life, Eastern - CHERUBS. I didn't find vote counts- that would be so useful to know.

I am concerned that Pacific was won by Prader-Willi last year, but I looked at their FB page https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/PWCF1 and it doesn't look that active.

In preparation for voting, I also sent an email to Vivant to ask if holding contests for votes was allowed. Hopefully I'll get a quiet reply, and we can make plans to do so if needed.

:Sign Good Job: Great work, Helen41. You're a very good "contester" (?).

 

[frenchtulip]

I do think the WPI has the best chance of winning $100,000. Great if they could win $250,000. But I'm afraid some big organizations may hop in--or the well-organized, like we saw in CCG. The WPI is in the Pacific region along with LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, and Las Vegas (I think) nonprofits. So it seems to me it would be a good idea to get some other strong ME/CFS nonprofits into the top 20 of their respective regions. The CFIDS Assn. has gained some votes today, but is moving up slowly. I'm not sure why they haven't officially announced their participation. I think it would be hard for them to win $100,000 as there are so many big cities in the east with lots of nonprofits. (Is there a limit on the size of the nonprofits? I need to read the rules.) I'm not sure whether the Canadian ME/FM funds some research, but they might have the best shot of winning their region--if WPI should fall way behind and ME/CFS voters would support Canada. I think there needs to be a plan B in case bigger organizations start out-distancing the WPI. And the qualifying ME/CFS nonprofits can perhaps heavily promote donation drives during phase two to help get as much as possible in matching funds from Vivint.
I do think it is in WPI's favor that the voting is daily for a long period of time. They have great momentum and their voters will vote daily.
I saw that P.A.N.D.O.R.A. is in the running, but they don't have many votes yet. Too bad they are in the Eastern region.

Okay, I checked the rules. You probably know this, but the nonprofits must have an operating budget of less than $50 million. So the nonprofits in this contest can be huge!

 

[Dolphin]

I fear that this contest is going to be quite divisive.

 

[helen41]

I fear that this contest is going to be quite divisive.

I think there will be some unhappy charities, given that WPI was the clear leader in the Chase contest as well, and people may disagree about the best approach in the nomination round, but I suspect most would agree we all need to rally round WPI when it comes time to vote. It is the strongest candidate, and is situated in what appears to be one of the weaker regions.

 

[helen41]

I found my answer. Last year cherubs, who was one of the winners, posted this "You can enter a raffle ticket every time you vote for CHERUBS in the Eastern Division!
Win $1000 cash just for voting for CHERUBS in a FB contest to help raise money for critically ill babies born with CDH. CHERUBS is trying to win $100,000 for CDH research and family support."
I'm still hunting to find vote numbers

 

[frenchtulip]

From Helen:
Last year cherubs, who was one of the winners, posted this "You can enter a raffle ticket every time you vote for CHERUBS in the Eastern Division!
Win $1000 cash just for voting for CHERUBS in a FB contest to help raise money for critically ill babies born with CDH. CHERUBS is trying to win $100,000 for CDH research and family support."

So maybe raffles are acceptable. Hmmm! But Vivint may not have known. I think someone here has written Vivint for clarification about this kind of incentive.

The goal in the contest is to get money. I think most CFIDS Assn. members supported WPI in the CCG contest. I really think that everyone can relate to (and take hope from) the idea that the WPI will provide research and clinical services. Everyone knows that costs a lot of money. This contest could be divisive, but I think most patients and organizations will support the WPI in the end.

 

[Dolphin]

I found my answer. Last year cherubs, who was one of the winners, posted this "You can enter a raffle ticket every time you vote for CHERUBS in the Eastern Division!
Win $1000 cash just for voting for CHERUBS in a FB contest to help raise money for critically ill babies born with CDH. CHERUBS is trying to win $100,000 for CDH research and family support."
I'm still hunting to find vote numbers

:Sign Good Job: Interesting. That's quite a substantial prize that could influence voters. There could even be an argument that there is a difference between that sort of prize and a small prize. Anyway, useful precedent that could be quoted if the ME/CFS movement go down that route.

 

[helen41]

the big winner last year also gave a gift card weekly for votes. I would like to wait until we get a real answer from Vivant, and maybe we could set up a sweepstake thru Wildfire (a facebook contest app), and access people who are mainly interested in contests. If we gave an iPad2, or even 2, we could win big. It would require the involvement of WPI, but if we do this right, it would be a small investment for the potential of a big prize.
People who support us will do so anyway, they can enter through the contest or not, people who otherwise wouldn't vote, will enter and vote in the hope of winning. The other positive is that we have the opportunity to spread the word a bit on the contest page

 

[Dolphin]

I haven't been checking to see how many votes they are both getting per day, but that is the real question.

Good idea i.e. we can get an idea of the number of supporters from the daily increase.

 

[Sasha]

the big winner last year also gave a gift card weekly for votes. I would like to wait until we get a real answer from Vivant, and maybe we could set up a sweepstake thru Wildfire (a facebook contest app), and access people who are mainly interested in contests. If we gave an iPad2, or even 2, we could win big. It would require the involvement of WPI, but if we do this right, it would be a small investment for the potential of a big prize.
People who support us will do so anyway, they can enter through the contest or not, people who otherwise wouldn't vote, will enter and vote in the hope of winning. The other positive is that we have the opportunity to spread the word a bit on the contest page

I agree we should wait for a definitive answer from Vivint. I'd be amazed if they would support this kind of thing - I consider it cheating. The idea of the contest is surely to give money to the charity that has the biggest level of community support for its goals, not the charity that dangles the biggest cash prizes in front of everybody on Facebook. I really do think that it is corrupt.

 

[Sasha]

Here's why I wouldn't worry about the last part. Given that we're at the moment having so much trouble trying to get people to vote for other charities to be eligible for the $2500 match in Round 2 even while WPI currently has no benefit from any more votes... I think it's safe to say there is not going to be any vote splitting in Round 2 except from people who would not vote for the WPI anyway.

When I checked the figures yesterday, WPI had 1,660 and the other ME/CFS charities had 520, so about 25% of people were supporting these other charities. I don't think we can afford to lose 25% of the vote to other charities. I don't think that it's necessarily us who are currently directing that 25% either - there's a worldwide community of PWC and many of them will probably support their local charity if they see it up there.

Maybe I am just pessimistic...

 

[helen41]

I agree we should wait for a definitive answer from Vivint. I'd be amazed if they would support this kind of thing - I consider it cheating. The idea of the contest is surely to give money to the charity that has the biggest level of community support for its goals, not the charity that dangles the biggest cash prizes in front of everybody on Facebook. I really do think that it is corrupt.

I agree that it doesn't seem in the spirit of supporting a charity, but if the sponsor thinks it's ok, and 2 out of the 2 groups I looked at did it last year, we will miss out if we don't join in. I'm willing to hold my nose if it helps our cause!

 

[Sasha]

I agree that it doesn't seem in the spirit of supporting a charity, but if the sponsor thinks it's ok, and 2 out of the 2 groups I looked at did it last year, we will miss out if we don't join in. I'm willing to hold my nose if it helps our cause!

I agree - I'd be willing to hold my nose alongside you if Vivint approve it! :innocent1:

 

[Dolphin]

Apologies if the link was posted before (I don't always follow links):

http://blog.vivint.com/2010/08/apx-gives-back-results/

vivint gives back results

25 August 2010

Vivint Gives Back and Awards $250,000 to Charity

The mission of Vivint is simple: to protect families and Vivint is dedicated to doing so in any way they can.

At the beginning of the summer Vivint announced the Vivint Gives Back project, which would award a total of $250,000 spread out among six worthwhile charities, to help accomplish the vision of Vivint Gives Back and restore hope to families in need. Charities across the United States and Canada were nominated and participated in an online voting competition on Facebook to determine a grand-prize winner of $100,000 and five runners-up one from each of the five participating regions winning $30,000 each. On Monday Aug. 23 the winners of the Vivint Gives Back competition were announced.

The Utah Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) Association received more votes than any other charity winning the grand-prize. PWS is a genetic disorder and life-long condition that affects the brain causing a chronic feeling of hunger that can ultimately lead to excessive eating and morbid obesity. PWS is often complicated by developmental delays, low muscle tone, mental retardation and behavioral issues. The PWS Association is dedicated to providing a network of support for families and professionals as well as raise funds to directly benefit those with PWS in Utah.

The Pacific region winner is the Prader-Willi California Foundation dedicated to helping those affected by PWS in California. In the Mountain Region the Heart 2 Home Foundation won the much needed funding. Heart 2 Home is a 100% non-profit group with no paid staff that organizes and carries out home improvement/renovation projects for families in need. The winner in the Central region is The Tapestries of Life, a mercy ministry that provides aid to the poor in sister cities in Mexico and is currently constructing an orphanage in Guadalupe, Mexico. CHERUBS The Association of Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH) Research, Awareness and Support is the winning charity in the Eastern Region. CDH is a condition that occurs when the diaphragm of a baby fails to fully form allowing abdominal organs into the chest cavity thus preventing growth of the lungs. CHERUBS is dedicated to making sure affected families have the support and information they need. In Canada the Alberta Association for Community Living helps children and adults with developmental disabilities have access to education, work opportunities and anything else they need to have a good life in their community.

Vivint is proud to have been able to help so many worthwhile charities and is happy to announce that the Vivint Gives Back project will be back in 2011 allowing even more charities to get needed funding for their important causes.

Grand Prize Winner Utah Prader-Willi Syndrome Association

Pacific Runner up Prader-Willi California Foundation

Mountain Runner up Heart 2 Home Foundation

Central Runner up Tapestries of Life

Eastern Runner up CHERUBS

Canada Runner up Alberta Association for Community Living

 

[helen41]

I've been hunting, trying to find vote numbers from last year. I can't find any numbers for Pacific, but the winner of Central was averaging 290 votes/day, and the overall winner had 30,000 votes a couple of days before the end, for an average of 500 votes a day.
That's a lot of votes, but certainly not an impossible number of votes

 

[Dolphin]

I've hunting, trying to find vote numbers from last year. I can't find any numbers for Pacific, but the winner of Cenral was averaging 290 votes/day, and the overall winner had 30,000 votes a couple of days before the end, for an average of 500 votes a day.
That's a lot of votes, but certainly not an impossible number of votes

As has maybe been said, I think the trick here is to get people signed up to an "event" on Facebook where they get a daily reminder E-mailed out. Of course other votes would be useful too but it would be good to get a core chunk that way. 263 people signed up to the event already: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=121179681298558 and there hasn't been really a push to sign people up (which I think is a good strategy - I don't think that should be done until the nominations are closed).

ETA: the events still exist for CCG so the people who signed up for them could be contacted (I would hope - not sure how the system works - I know individuals can't always contact other individuals on Facebook).

 

[SpecialK82]

I think these groups that won last year have a leg up on us strategy wise. Prader-Willi looks as if it could dominate. I wonder if they all voted for one PW region until it was clearly in the lead and then started on a second region?

I know this is risky, but I'd like to see us all vote for WPI until it's way in the lead and then shift to the second most likely to win it's region. However, in the very first 24 hours of the contest, we will know what we are up against. At some point we may have to shift from the pacific region to another if it looks like we can't overcome the competition.

I've ask Cort if there might be a way to have a place on the home page that just outlines our current strategy, so that it can be updated throughout the contest, and people don't have to read through long threads. I sure hope that feelings don't get hurt and we can all just use our votes to maximize our chances of winning money for CFS rather than for our personal favorites.

Maybe in order to minimize hurt feelings, we can take a poll with a couple strategies and we can vote on it and then all agree to stick with the winner?

 

[Sasha]

I think these groups that won last year have a leg up on us strategy wise. Prader-Willi looks as if it could dominate. I wonder if they all voted for one PW region until it was clearly in the lead and then started on a second region?

I know this is risky, but I'd like to see us all vote for WPI until it's way in the lead and then shift to the second most likely to win it's region. However, in the very first 24 hours of the contest, we will know what we are up against. At some point we may have to shift from the pacific region to another if it looks like we can't overcome the competition.

I've ask Cort if there might be a way to have a place on the home page that just outlines our current strategy, so that it can be updated throughout the contest, and people don't have to read through long threads. I sure hope that feelings don't get hurt and we can all just use our votes to maximize our chances of winning money for CFS rather than for our personal favorites.

Maybe in order to minimize hurt feelings, we can take a poll with a couple strategies and we can vote on it and then all agree to stick with the winner?

I'd be extremely worried about voting WPI until it's a long way in the lead and then switching - in such a long voting period (11 weeks), another group could easily come out of nowhere. It just needs one person with a big, organised network or some sort of event in a mall with a laptop and there could be thousands of extra votes for our opponent.

If WPI is getting thrashed in the early stages, the same is also true of what we could do - we might be able to pick up support along the way and get back into play. I can't see any other ME/CFS organisation getting the same level of support as WPI.

Again, I don't think that Phoenix Rising can control voting on this - I've started a poll asking who is voting and about six people have responded! I hope a lot more are voting than are doing the poll but I think that most of the voting activity is going to be beyond our control.

I think it's good to talk this through, though - speaking for myself I am not at all hurt by hearing about yours and other people's ideas and suggestions on this and we've have a really useful exchange of information that is helping us think through the possibilities. I think it is wise, not hurtful, to have the kind of constructive discussion that you're taking part in and encouraging, SpecialK.

I have the sense that most people would want to back WPI in Phase 2, at least until they appear safe or appear doomed (I'd back any research group, personally, it's just that I think WPI have the most potential to win the whole contest for us and hence maximise our money). I wonder if it would be best to postpone discussion until we are maybe a week into voting so that we can see how things are going so that we at least have some sort of ballpark notion of where things are headed?

If we do see the need to change strategies I agree it would be a good idea to have an updatable home page.

If it wasn't regional it would be so much simpler!