by Robyn Stegman
(Originally posted on Narrations on the Life and Times of Robyn Stegman and cross-posted here with the author’s permission.)

Okay I’m hooked on Crowdrise. Yesterday at the Mashable Media Summit Edward Norton spoke about his new project: . Initially I was skeptical. Do we really need a new online fundraising site? What makes this project so special?

Then Edward Norton said this:

We’re actually getting a lot of phone calls from organizations that we haven’t even engaged with saying ‘Who are you and why are we getting checks through ‘ And we’re saying it just means that somebody out there who supports you has gone and set up a fundraiser and started raising funds for you.

Wait a sec, bud! You mean that people will fundraise for nonprofits and you don’t even have to ask them to do it? They don’t even have to register on the site? I’ve got to try this out!

So I started a profile, and like claimed in his talk it was really simple. It took me about twenty minutes to get a complete profile and I’ve got to say it looks pretty cool!

That’s when I began to notice the difference between Crowdrise and other sites. For starters it has some of the best copywriting I’ve seen. The beginning of their How it Works section reads:

Please only read all this if you’re super bored or you’re writing a paper on ways to give back and you’re looking for something to plagiarize..

This perhaps is my favorite text from the site which you get while uploading a photo:

You’re going to see this message every time you post a new pic. So, we’re making the text really long so that it’ll take you at least five picture uploads to read it all. Here’s what we’re thinking…While you’re first picture is uploading think about someone you want to kiss. When you upload your second pic think about one friend who you can beat in a race. On your third photo upload think about your favorite food that begins with the letter H. While your fourth picture is uploading think about how great it would be if you were a world class breakdancer. While your fifth picture is uploading try to think of the best candy to eat if you were a mime spending a month in New Zealand. If you upload a sixth and seventh picture please just read all of this again.

And for those of you who can’t get enough of rock, paper, scissors you can actually choose your preference on your profile. Every once in a while a player on Crowdrise will throw rock, paper, or scissors and if whatever you have on your profile beats it you get 1,000 points.

That’s right points. Every time you raise money or someone votes for you on Crowdrise you get points. What do they do?

Points mean potential prizes, lots of respect and hopefully one day, a trip to the White House or at least a trip to Vegas.

For all of you in the volunteer and service field Crowdrise can help you turn your dedicated volunteers into fundraising machines! It has volunteer pages where volunteers can ask their friends and families to help support their volunteer efforts and they can also show them exactly how many hours they’ve given to your organization.

So I admit it, I’m hooked. For those who still aren’t sure here are a couple of other gems of Crowdrise;

• Ease of Use: Crowdrise nearly all US 501(c)3 charities already in its database so you don’t even have to register to allow people to fundraise for you. However if you do want to spruce up your site you can go ahead and claim it and simply update your profile.
• Celebrities: Edward Norton isn’t the only celebrity using this system. Already Seth Rogan and Will Farrel have signed up. In fact if you donate to Will Farrel’s cause you get a with semi-nude pictures of him on them.
• Personalized Fundraising: The profiles and projects profiles give you tons of space to post pictures, a place to post a video, and places to tell your story. Since each project has to be supported by a person  not an organization it really allows the fundraising to be about you and your story.  I think that is the best part about this site and what gives it potential to change the fundraising game.
• Picture of Napkin: ‘Nuff said.

Last note for AmeriCorps members, program directors, alums, etc.: Let me just say this has some great potential to allow members to fundraise and give back to their sites. In fact a City Year member (which is a national AmeriCorps program) is featured on the front page of their website. City Year LA is already using it by encouraging members to sign up and share their City Year stories on their profiles and challenging them to raise money for their projects and for City Year. I’m excited to see how this project evolves and see how other people in national service can use this to build their programs.

So now that I’ve signed up who should I fundraise for? Any suggestions?

What do you think about Crowdrise? Are you using it? How? Are you hooked? Are you unsure? Let me know! I’m always listening .

Robyn Stegman is an AmeriCorps VISTA,  social media nerd, and founder of Geeks for Good. Follow her year of service on Twitter