Sunday, November 8, 2009

Our Purpose

We all realize that cancer is a killer and has impacted way too many lives. This site is designed to bring together individuals who want to do their part to help find a cure for this disease. We've created this "platform" to let anyone sponsor our @abolishcancer twitter site, and in return, agree to donate $1 for every new follower that day.

We have had 4 sponsors in the two weeks since we started this campaign raising a total of $131 that the sponsor agrees to pay to the American Cancer Society. Think about what might happen if this takes off. Each day we get 50 or so new followers, which not only means $50 more dollars to the ACS, but also means our followers grow. As our followership grows, our voice will spread and more people will get involved. In addition to getting more followers, whoever sponsors for that day will get more "press" as we spread the word about their contribution.

What would be our ultimate goal? 1,000,000 followers? How about a concerted effort from the "power of the crowd" to win the battle against this disease and abolishcancer.

This is a grassroots movement that will only thrive on the viral spread of our followers and sponsors. Lets make this viral spread a positive one. Any efforts, on your behalf, to spread the word are greatly appreciated.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Debbie Gannon Helps Raise $27

Special thanks to Debbie Gannon (@debbiegannon on Twitter) for sponsoring us for today on @AbolishCancer. We started the day with 114 followers and end it with 141. That's 27 new followers and $27 that Debbie agrees to donate to the American Cancer Society.


This twitter account (and idea) has been up now for just over a week and our results so far are:
Sponsor Amount
Darah Bonham (me) $25
@irishchari $65
@michalescher $14
@debbiegannon $27
For grand total of $131.

Nothing earthshatering but its a start. Think what we can do if we get sponsors every day. Please pass on the word and have anyone interested tweet me @Abolishcancer or email at helpabolishcancer@gmail.com

Let's use the power of the crowd to sponsor this site and help abolishcancer

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

New Sponsor For Wednesday November 4th

Please pass the word to get more followers for @AbolishCancer. For each follower on Wednesday, November 4th, @debbiegannon will donate $1 to the American Cancer Society. We need to use the power of the crowd (and Twitter) to get more money and awareness to tackle this disease with the goal of abolishing cancer. We start the day with 114 followers.

Debbie Gannon is an educator at the Charlottesville Albemarle Technical Education Center who is trying to help a good cause. Debbie has lost a few family members to cancer and hopes that more people will do things like this, so we can make it better for our children and grandchildren. Debbie is a great instructional technology administrator who truly helps kids find their way in an ever-changing environment.

This twitter account (and idea) has been up now for just over a week and our results so far are:
Sponsor Amount
Darah Bonham (me) $25
@irishchari $65
@michalescher $14
@debbiegannon ?

$104 in a week and continuing to grow. Thanks for spreading the word to support the fight to abolishcancer

$104 raised in 1st week. Who's Next?

Thanks to Michael Scher (@michaelscher) for sponsoring our feed on Nov 2. We received 14 new followers and for every new follower for that day, Michael agreed to write a check to the American Cancer Society for $14.

This twitter account (and idea) has been up now for just over a week and our results so far are:

Sponsor Amount
Darah Bonham (me) $25
@irishchari $65
@michalescher $14

For grand total of $104. Nothing earthshatering but its a start. Think what we can do if we get sponsors every day.

please pass on the word and have anyone interested tweet me @Abolishcancer or emial at helpabolishcancer@gmail.com

keep up the fight to cure cancer

Sunday, November 1, 2009

So, what’s the deal with this Twitter account?

Someone asked me why I created a Twitter account called @AbolishCancer , and my response was simple. Why not? Nobody wants to hear from their doctor those terrible words, “you’ve got cancer”. Not that I have experienced that personally, I know of many people who have heard those numbing words. Since I can’t name a single person who hasn’t been affected by cancer in some manner, I felt this was a worthy cause that we could all rally around…….the search for a cure.

You see, I’m an educator who has a passion for technology and for the idea of “crowdsourcing”, getting unlike people together to solve problems. This has been enhanced with social media tools that allow such ease of sharing- ideas, businesses, problems, etc. So I figured, why not let the “power of the crowd” pull together to fight cancer. I have to admit that I give Jeff Jarvis a great deal of credit for the idea. In his book, “What Would Google Do”, Jeff talks about developing platforms that make a difference.

Some may think I have an ulterior motive. Not really. Sure I would like to see the site grow and to gain critical mass for personal reasons, but more importantly, I would like to see that the power of the people can come together for a common cause to help win this war vs cancer.

Here’s the basic premise. I have a Twitter site called @AbolishCancer . I ask for people to “sponsor” the site for a day, meaning they agree to pay $1 for every new follower that day to the American Cancer Society. I, in turn, tweet about the person or business on my blog to give them “some love” and PR at the same time. At the end of the day, the sponsor agrees to pay ACS the amount for the new followers that came on board. This is an honor system. I’m not collecting any money, just asking whoever sponsors to follow through with their payment. Obviously, the greater the number of followers to my twitter feed, the more press the sponsor will get when they sign up.

Pretty simple huh? What could come of this in the end? Just think if we got a sponsor for 300 days out of the year with an average # of new followers at 50. We would collect $15,000 by the end of the year.

What happens if we run out of followers some day? Then I will say that we have made a dent towards providing monies towards cancer research, and perhaps found the ultimate goal, a cure.

Please pass along so we can get the power of the people rolling………