Chase Community Giving - what other successful groups are doing

[ixchelkali]

Okay but how is that different from our Starbucks card lottery aside from the greater monetary value and more successful advertising?

What Starbucks card lottery?

 

[charityfundraiser]

I guess there might be a small difference if it was started by an individual and not by the organization itself. Cure Chronic Illness has a FaceBook Event with a Starbucks card lottery for people who voted for the WPI.

 

[ixchelkali]

I guess there might be a small difference if it was started by an individual and not by the organization itself. Cure Chronic Illness has a FaceBook Event with a Starbucks card lottery for people who voted for the WPI.

I'd put that in the same catagory as a school that offered a pizza party for the room that rounded up the most votes, or something. I think that's a little different from using vote-trading or vote-buying websites. It may not be cheating, but it's unsportsmanlike. I know, I know, when there's a half a million bucks on the line, there's no such thing as sportsmanship. And as I said, I haven't read the rules to know if it's prohibited. But I do know that when people violate the spirit of a competition, it can discourage those running it from doing it in the future, especially if policing becomes too onerous.

I guess whether it's cheating or not depends in part on your values system and how you define cheating.

 

[Dolphin]

Looks like American India Foundation got docked votes - they're down at 13th position on 7,242. That could be partly or wholly down to you, Helen.

ETA: It looks to me like the American India Foundation could get knocked out of the top 15 - not sure if they never had many voters or they have become despondent after their knock-back, but they're not picking up votes.

Update: they're no longer in the top 15 and seem to be going nowhere. I wonder whether it wasn't just that batch of votes that was a bit dodgy. Or maybe they shouldn't have lost so many. Who knows.

 

[Dolphin]

CHABAD OF ARGENTINA RELIEF APPEAL INC have got approximately 7,000 votes since the last leaderboard (less than four hours ago). I thought petfinder.com were doing well when I saw they got nearly 4,000 in that time. Those are serious amounts of votes.

 

[helen41]

I guess there might be a small difference if it was started by an individual and not by the organization itself. Cure Chronic Illness has a FaceBook Event with a Starbucks card lottery for people who voted for the WPI.

I had no idea that was happening. I wouldn't have been as vocal about others had I known. I guess we'll see if they consider that ok or not

 

[Dolphin]

CHABAD OF ARGENTINA RELIEF APPEAL INC have got approximately 7,000 votes since the last leaderboard (less than four hours ago). I thought petfinder.com were doing well when I saw they got nearly 4,000 in that time. Those are serious amounts of votes.

They just overtook them with around 40 minutes to go. Still Petfinder.com will get $400,000.

 

[Dolphin]

They just overtook them with around 40 minutes to go. Still Petfinder.com will get $400,000.

Petfinder.com took back first position. They are getting masses of votes each. V. close.

 

[justinreilly]

Here is the email I sent Chase in case anyone want to use it as a kind of template:

chasecommunitygiving@chase.com

Please forward this to Chase Community Giving on Facebook. Thank you.

Dear Chase Community Giving,

I am a Chase customer. I support Whittemore Peterson Institute in the CCG contest. I am writing you for two reasons. First, to let you know how great WPI is and urge you to award them some of the discretionary contest funds.

I have had ME/CFIDS for 8 years. It is a devastating neuro-immune disease.

17 million people worldwide have ME, with virtually no viable treatment options and little bona fide research.

That is, until the Whittemore Peterson Institute recently came along. One family, fighting for their daughter's life, footed the bill and opened a state of the art institute to research Neuroimmune disease. But, this single family can no longer cover all of these costs alone. WPI needs help raising money to perform the necessary research for a cure.

Thats where you can help! All funds will go to desperately needed research. Please award some discretionary funding to WPI! Thank you.

The second reason I am writing to you is that it seems quite clear that some of the leaders in the contest both have gotten many votes in an unsportsmanlike manner and are also ineligible for the contest because they are religious organizations.

Please see this excellent blogpost by Jocelyn, a pwME who offers proof of the unsportsmanlike conduct:
http://nopostergirl.com/2011/05/25/cheating-in-chase-community-giving/#comment-311
http://nopostergirl.com/2011/05/25/...i-vote-for-schools-and-promote-anti-bullying/

Please also note that two of the Jewish charities are running a sweepstakes awarding mini-camcorders, if people vote in the contest :
http://freeb4friends.wordpress.com/2011/05/19/

Also, per your rules, religious orgs are not eligible. The various (orthodox) Jewish (Chabad) organizations are obviously religious organizations::
http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/rules

A non-profit:
whose primary purpose is to advance a religious denomination, expand membership or encourage conversion, or whose programs and services are limited (in an exclusionary way) to serving those of a specific religious denomination or faith while excluding others solely because of their religious beliefs;
or
who participates in the Program, or otherwise conducts itself, in an unsportsmanlike or inappropriate manner;
is ineligible

Here is a quote from the New Haven Register article 'Facebook 'likes' could earn Southern Connecticut Hebrew Academy in Orange big bucks':
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2011/05/22/news/metro/doc4dd87ca9e8828477182515.txt

"The school has distributed cards with information on easy voting and even has a contest going for older students, with a chance to win Apple products as a perk."

Additionally, it looks, from this post on a patient forum like the American India Foundation has gotten many 'fake' votes:
"there are a number of false profiles voting for this entry. Of the 29 people who commented today between 0932 and 0956, only one appears to be real. The remainder have no friends, no email addresses, the 6 that have interests other than Chase just created those interests today, and none have a human profile picture. There are hundreds and hundreds more that I didn't look at, I only looked at one snippet of time. I do have a spreadsheet of their names if that would be helpful to you."

Thank you for your consideration!

Sincerely,
Justin Reilly, esq.

 

[Undisclosed]

I really don't know what is going on here. I had to set up a FB page just to vote so I guess my vote will be suspicious because I have no friends on this page, nothing at all. I am sure others have had to set up facebook pages to vote too. I have done a fair amount of fundraising for an organization that raises money for children in Africa with AIDS. It is possible, if you have a ton of contacts, to rally a ton of support in a very short time. Contacts get in touch with their contacts and things really roll. So we really don't know if the ramped up voting in the last few hours is a result of cheating or just good networking. People also sign up with fake names on facebook all the time -- I did just because I don't like facebook.

If any of these schools are involved in cheating, then shame on them for teaching their children a really bad lesson. I don't think the Chase Community can ban charities that have a religious basis because that's pretty discriminatory. The money is going to better their jewish community not push religion on people.

I am not sure if the camcorder giveaway is against the rules -- paying people to vote is against the rules.

I am sure the Chase Community will look into all the complaints and weed out the cheats. We will know soon who has cheated and go the boot from the contest.

 

[justinreilly]

I guess there might be a small difference if it was started by an individual and not by the organization itself. Cure Chronic Illness has a FaceBook Event with a Starbucks card lottery for people who voted for the WPI.

I hadn't heard about that. I think most would consider any kind of financial or benefit inducement like this to not be 'kosher' (sorry, couldn't help myself). I think votes induced by this lottery (I bet there weren't many and WPI I'm sure wasn't aware of this) should be voided too.

 

[justinreilly]

I really don't know what is going on here. I had to set up a FB page just to vote so I guess my vote will be suspicious because I have no friends on this page, nothing at all. I am sure others have had to set up facebook pages to vote too. I have done a fair amount of fundraising for an organization that raises money for children in Africa with AIDS. It is possible, if you have a ton of contacts, to rally a ton of support in a very short time. Contacts get in touch with their contacts and things really roll. So we really don't know if the ramped up voting in the last few hours is a result of cheating or just good networking. People also sign up with fake names on facebook all the time -- I did just because I don't like facebook.

If any of these schools are involved in cheating, then shame on them for teaching their children a really bad lesson. I don't think the Chase Community can ban charities that have a religious basis because that's pretty discriminatory. The money is going to better their jewish community not push religion on people.

I am not sure if the camcorder giveaway is against the rules -- paying people to vote is against the rules.

I am sure the Chase Community will look into all the complaints and weed out the cheats. We will know soon who has cheated and go the boot from the contest.

I've got to disagree. The camcorder lottery is very like paying people.

Chase can set up the rules however it wants, including excluding religious orgs. just like if a corporation wanted to donate money to a homeless shelter, it could, it isn't legally required to then donate the same amount to a religious org. It's their money; they can give it to whomever they please. Apart from the rules, I don't think religious orgs should be allowed in these contests anyway.

Getting thousands of votes an hour for local community based orthodox hebrew schools seems very suspicious to me especially when some of the votes are coming from people in the middle east with FB pages in arabic for example.

FB used to not allow fake names and was very serious (way too serious imo) about it. Someone said they thought FB had changed that rule at some point. I don't know. It does seem reasonable, though, that for a contest votes from fake accounts should not be allowed, even if the fake accounts were allowed on FB otherwise.

 

[LazyLizard]

Jewish (especially orthodox) which these charities seem to be, are very close knit. They each probably have a huge list of members they can reach by e-mail. There is also an authority figure involved like a Rabbi or principle. If a member receives an e-mail coming from that authority figure, they will act upon it. In addition, they are a healthy group and active. They might even reach out to other Jewish communities to help them out. For example the organization of Chabad is HUGE. They are all over the country and abroad. If they sent out a mailing to many Chabad organizations, they will get responses.

I was thinking the same. Jewish families (esp. orthodox) are huge. I also thought these communities
would actively support each other or a cause. So they have something we don't have.
They might simply be better at grabbing these funds and it is up to Chase to decide if they
want to give that money to religious schools next time.

That's just my view. I am personalty very hurt by some of my "friends". I sent out e-mails and pms on Facebook. I got some responses that they took care of it but when I go to check on the Chase website, I don't see that they voted. What do I do?
Go back to them and say "hey I just checked the Chase website and don't see your name there?"

I feel like I am working sooo hard to get maybe all together 15 votes! It's frustrating.

Same here. I didn't call or repeat-message my contacts to vote for Chase but not to get
a vote or a question in reply is hurting.
I suppose that's what Facebook friends in general are rEALLY WORTH. It's a virtual friend that
you can switch off, "unfriend" and the like. My general excitement with Facebook is going down,
down, down.

 

[justinreilly]

[Edit:] In light of the fact that the email from Chase, below, said it has already approved eligibility of the Jewish school charities and the fact that we should focus on letting Chase know how amazing and deserving WPI is for the $500K in discretionary spending, the research I suggested in this post, below, isn't worth it now, imo.

ie There is a silver lining in winning less than $100K in that we are eligible for the $200K discretionary spending prize. (There is also an additional $300K in discretionary spending for which I believe all the charities in round 2 are eligible).

So, lets focus on letting Chase know how deserving WPI is!!
chasecommunitygiving@chase.com
And if you have any spare time after that, send a separate email, ideally from a different email account, not mentioning WPI, but pointing out the voting 'irregularities.'

http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/rules

(Charities awarded a Round 2 grant of $100,000 or more in the current program are not eligible to receive the $200,000 Advisory Board grant)

Posted by Jane Clout on
http://www.mecfsforums.com/index.php/topic,7504.54.html

Thank you for reporting your concerns. Organizations that receive votes in the program are reviewed for eligibility to help ensure compliance with the Official Rules. The winning schools were among many educational institutions we reviewed and determined met our eligibility requirements.

We value your views and thank you for writing to us.

[End Edit]

____________________________________________

It is probably a good idea for someone to look into Lubavitch Chabad, which is the org to which the Jewish charities belong. It is Hasidic ie extreme/fundamental/orthodox Judaism. Someone could look into how their general approach (and that of the individual 'charities') is inconsistent with Chase's 'ban' on religious orgs.

I have only a passing familiarity with Chabad, basically just from growing up in NYC. Their practices and attitudes, I think, strike most people as fairly (though not totally) extreme. They don't stone women who commit infractions and the like. They are just really strict- people can't use electricity on the shabbot (sabbeth). Males, including little boys have to wear black three piece suits and black hats even when it's 100 degrees out. The hats must be worn to seperate oneself from God, etc.

This is only my understanding and is not nuanced enough and may be, at least partly, inaccurate. I don't want to 'spread falsehoods' about a religion or sect so pls correct me if I am inaccurate.

If someone has the time, please look into this and compare to the Chase rules.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chabad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chabad_outreach
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chabad_messianism

http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/rules

A non-profit:
whose primary purpose is to advance a religious denomination, expand membership or encourage conversion, or whose programs and services are limited (in an exclusionary way) to serving those of a specific religious denomination or faith while excluding others solely because of their religious beliefs;
is ineligible

 

[Nielk]

I don't think they try to recruit non-jews, just more liberal jews. I think they don't recruit non-jews because they view the jewish people as a 'chosen' ethnicity/race so people who are not of the jewish 'race' are incapable of becoming real jews.

Hi Justin,

I just wanted to clear up this misunderstanding about Chabad or any Jewish organization.
We are taught not to recruit people from other religions NOT because we feel we are "chosen ethnicity/race". That is very far from the truth. We are taught that everyone is entitled to their chosen religion. There is no reason for conversion to Judaism as long as a person is ethical and moral. As a matter of fact a non-Jew who is moral and ethical is considered on the same plane as a Jew who has to keep 613 commandments.
It is for this reason that conversion to Judaism is not advanced - because it is so hard to be a commited Jew.
You will find in history that the Jews are the only religion that never had crusades or massacres against other religions. To us, a righteous non-Jew is on a very high level.
In addition, there are converts to Judaism but, only at the bequest of the individual.
If an individual who is knowledgeable about Judaism and seeks to convert, he has to go through a whole process of learning the commandments and if then he/she still wants to do it, The Rabbis perform a ritual of conversion.

I only wanted to contend with this aspect of your post.
As far as why they were accepted into the Chase program, I have no idea. I would think that it would be pretty naive of chase not to realize that these are religious organizations, yet they allowed them to enter and pass the first stage of the contest.

If there was any illegality about their existence in the contest, I would fully agree that something should be done about it.

Nielk

 

[justinreilly]

Nielk, Thanks for educating me. I obviously wasn't aware of all that and it is good to hear! I have edited my posts to try to incorporate what you said.

In any event, in light of the fact that the email from Chase, below, said it has already approved eligibility of the Jewish school charities and the fact that we should focus on letting Chase know how amazing and deserving WPI is for the $500K in discretionary spending, the research I suggested in my previous post isn't worth it now, imo.

i.e. There is a silver lining in winning less than $100K in that we are eligible for the $200K discretionary spending prize. (There is also an additional $300K in discretionary spending for which I believe all the charities in round 2 are eligible).

So, lets focus on letting Chase know how deserving WPI is!!
chasecommunitygiving@chase.com
And if you have any spare time after that, send a separate email, ideally from a different email account, not mentioning WPI, but pointing out the voting 'irregularities.'

http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/rules

(Charities awarded a Round 2 grant of $100,000 or more in the current program are not eligible to receive the $200,000 Advisory Board grant)

Posted by Jane Clout on
http://www.mecfsforums.com/index.php/topic,7504.54.html

Thank you for reporting your concerns. Organizations that receive votes in the program are reviewed for eligibility to help ensure compliance with the Official Rules. The winning schools were among many educational institutions we reviewed and determined met our eligibility requirements.

We value your views and thank you for writing to us.

 

[helen41]

I really don't know what is going on here. I had to set up a FB page just to vote so I guess my vote will be suspicious because I have no friends on this page, nothing at all. I am sure others have had to set up facebook pages to vote too. I have done a fair amount of fundraising for an organization that raises money for children in Africa with AIDS. It is possible, if you have a ton of contacts, to rally a ton of support in a very short time. Contacts get in touch with their contacts and things really roll. So we really don't know if the ramped up voting in the last few hours is a result of cheating or just good networking. People also sign up with fake names on facebook all the time -- I did just because I don't like facebook.
.

I think the difference is the pattern. Anyone who joins Facebook started at some point, but when hundreds of people seem to join Facebook within minutes or seconds of each other just to vote in the exact same contest, it begins to look pretty shady.

 

[Nielk]

Nielk, Thanks for educating me. I obviously wasn't aware of all that and it is good to hear! I have edited my posts to try to incorporate what you said.

In any event, in light of the fact that the email from Chase, below, said it has already approved eligibility of the Jewish school charities and the fact that we should focus on letting Chase know how amazing and deserving WPI is for the $500K in discretionary spending, the research I suggested in my previous post isn't worth it now, imo.

i.e. There is a silver lining in winning less than $100K in that we are eligible for the $200K discretionary spending prize. (There is also an additional $300K in discretionary spending for which I believe all the charities in round 2 are eligible).

So, lets focus on letting Chase know how deserving WPI is!!
chasecommunitygiving@chase.com
And if you have any spare time after that, send a separate email, ideally from a different email account, not mentioning WPI, but pointing out the voting 'irregularities.'

http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/rules


Posted by Jane Clout on
http://www.mecfsforums.com/index.php/topic,7504.54.html

I agree with you Justin.
Lets work together to get WPI the most money possible!
Thank you for editing your post!

Nielk

 

[Dolphin]

(off-topic)

(off-topic)

They are just really strict- if I remember, women are not allowed outside of 'enclosed' spaces and people can't touch or use electricity on the shabbot (sabbeth).

I don't know much about Judaism - there are few Jewish people in Ireland - can anyone give me a link to information on what is being referred to with regard to women or describe it briefly? I had a quick look at this wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chabad but nothing much showed up for women/female. I don't want to have wade through masses of stuff but my curiosity has been piqued. PM me if you prefer although I don't make any promises I'll enter into a lot of correspondence as I would prefer not to (busy).

 

[Nielk]

(off-topic)
I don't know much about Judaism - there are few Jewish people in Ireland - can anyone give me a link to information on what is being referred to with regard to women or describe it briefly? I had a quick look at this wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chabad but nothing much showed up for women/female. I don't want to have wade through masses of stuff but my curiosity has been piqued. PM me if you prefer although I don't make any promises I'll enter into a lot of correspondence as I would prefer not to (busy).

I can give you a quick short version.
One of the most important element for Orthodox or Hassidic women is to be modest. Modest within and modest with dress.
Women, in order to be modest and not attract attention from men dress in a way where they cover their elbows and knees.
Once they are married they take on the obligation to cover their hair. It does not have to be a wig. It could be a hat, scarf or whatever one wishes.
It's not true that women have to be hidden. tending the children. It's their choice,They are an integral part of society. They go out to work or stay home. Just like any women, it's their choice. Some are teachers, lawyers, doctors, occupational therapist...etc. They are normal people.
What Justin was alluding to about not using electricity on Saturday - the Sabbath is not just an obligation for the women. It's for men, women and children. It's the day of rest that is devoted to family time. They are not allowed to do any type of work.
The Talmudic Rabbis have declared that turning on or off electricity falls in the category of work and therefore not allowed.
There is not driving of cars, cooking, shopping, watching TV on the Sabbath. In the morning there are services in the synagogue and then the family sits down to have a festive meal together. The rest of the day can be used for reading, visiting friends (walking distance) taking a nap etc.. It's a means for the family to spend time together without any interruptions and it's rejuvenating.

I hope I have given you a glimpse in the life of....