r/Philanthropy

Ben Affleck won $1 million for charity on ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’. The actor’s winnings will be donated to his nonprofit organization, the . 

prize winnings will be donated to the Eastern Congo Initiative, a nonprofit co-founded by Affleck in 2010 to support Congolese communities.

Affleck spoke on the game show about how he has spent the last 15 years working with the organization.

“And right now, of course, as I’m sure most people know, there’s an Ebola crisis there,” Affleck said. “And so this is in large part designed to try to relieve that, contain the spread of Ebola.”

Affleck’s win was aired a year after his best friend, Matt Damon, appeared on the show. Damon won $1 million for his own charity, .

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Keywords: Philanthropy, celebrity, celebrities

The post at the top of has, among other resources, a list of web sites to learn the basics of fundraising, grants research, etc.

I've posted that list below. What would you add?

RESOURCES TO LEARN THE BASICS OF FUNDRAISING, GRANTS RESEARCH, ETC.

Fundraising in general:

. A fundraising blog from someone who has been a VERY successful fundraiser for small and medium nonprofits in the USA. Focus is on building support for your organization using resources you already have, like how to leverage client stories.

 A list of ways to cultivate financial support for your organization, often without ever asking for money.

. From the American Public Health Association. PDF. USA-specific and focused especially on nonprofits focused on public health, but some good, basic info here.

. Very basic guide to fundraising, focused on nonprofits in North America. It's from a software company that is trying to sell you its software package, but this advice is all generic. Uses a lot of jargon, but still decent in explaining the basics of creating a fundraising plan.

Specific to NGOs in the developing world:

. This is a free guide, in PDF form, that goes through the basics of how to fundraise, written especially for small NGOs in countries where the United Nations or richer countries are focusing their efforts on development. Note that this has not been updated in years, and many of its links are expired. But the advice is still valid.

 publishes a list on its web site of funding opportunities for African NGOs.

Each morning, I open the mod que of this subreddit and see at least one person who tried to post to this subreddit since the last time I checked yesterday, and not only has their post been removed, the user has been suspended.

First, please know the mods have NOTHING to do with this. When a mod removes a post from this subreddit, the person will usually get this message:

Your post in has been removed because it breaks one of our group rules. Please review our group rules before posting. The pinned post at the top of the subreddit lists where you can ask for money (as we do NOT allow donation requests on this subreddit).

When the Reddit algorithm does it, I have no idea what the user gets in terms of notification. But below is an example of what I see. I'm sharing this because I want to be absolutely transparent about decision-making on this subreddit. I know most people whose accounts are suspended on Reddit just go and create another account and try again.

Ways to prevent yourself from being banned by Reddit algorithms:

• Post some friendly, helpful posts and comments to some subreddits, like the subreddit for your local community, or a subreddit focused on your favorite band, or your favorite book, or your favorite movie, etc.

• Thank someone for a post and say why you think it was a good post.

• Ask a question on a subreddit - not as an attack, not to be sarcastic, but from a place of wanting to understand something or someone better.

• Go post to one of the more than 25 places online about volunteering and talk about some volunteering you've done recently, or something you learned in volunteering. Do NOT post to all 25 - pick one, maybe two. These are all listed or linked from the post pinned at the top of this thread.

• The first time you post to this or another subreddit, don't make it self-promotion or an attack. Self promotion is allowed (see our rules) and respectful criticism is allowed, but don't make it your first post.

• Post ONCE to a subreddit, on ONE day, and then don't post again until you see if your post makes it through both the Reddit algorithms and some of the filters set on this subreddit that sometimes hold posts for review. If you don't see your post, and don't get a "remove" notice, wait 24 hours and then contact the mods and ask what's up.

• 100 karma on BOTH posts and comments are magic numbers: when you reach this, it reduces the chance of your post being automatically removed and your being banned. It takes time to acquire this. The first three bullets are your key to this.

If you do all of the above for two or three weeks, you reduce the chances you will get banned on this subreddit and get suspended on Reddit, like the person below.