Join the largest NCAA pool for social change
Posted Mar 14, 2011 by Sarah Koch
Guest Post: Dan Morrison is Founder and CEO of Citizen Effect, a nonprofit that provides everyday citizens the tools and networks they need to work directly with communities in need around the world. We have two things in common – we’re obsessed with college basketball and we believe in the power of social philanthropy. Dan has brought those two things together in Citizen Effect’s Brackets with Benefits!
The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tourney starts Thursday – are you ready? Did you tune into CBS Selection Sunday last night? What’s your bracket strategy? Hoping for upsets? Are you the one that picks all the favorites? Or are you a homer like me and taking your alma mater to the Finals? (Go Irish!)
I admit it. I’m a tourney junkie. I don’t watch a minute of college basketball all season long, but Selection Sunday marked the beginning of my productivity plummeting. Lunch meetings at Buffalo Billiards won’t just seem appropriate over the next three weeks, but will be downright mission critical.
Knowing this, I needed some way to save face and make the tourney… good. Something that warranted a lot more of my time. So we created Citizen Effect’s Brackets with Benefits (BWB) and are making it the largest NCAA tournament pool for social change on the planet. Our bracket-happy friends at Edelman are sponsoring it and getting the word out. The bracketologists at The CASE Foundation are incentivizing all offices to sign up. CrowdFlower co-hosted our BwB Launch party at SXSW in Austin last night. And Fathead printed out giant 4′×4′ wall brackets for participating offices (while supplies last).
Brackets with Benefits works like any other tourney. You donate $10. Fill out a bracket and sit back and pray your champion makes it out of the first round. But here is the great twist – the Brackets with Benefits champion gets to choose which of Citizen Effect’s philanthropy projects to fund with all the donations. Sure, they will also win an iPad, FlipVideo camera, and TOMS Shoes Gift Packs, but what other pool allows you the change lives?!
Visit Citizen Effect on Causes and donate your $10 tournament entry through our “Do Some GOOD with your NCAA Brackets!” fundraising project. Right after you make a donation, you’ll get an exclusive link to join the Causes group pool on Brackets with Benefits. That way, you can compete with both the Causes community AND the rest of the BWB field. Finally, get your friends together (yes, even the ones that win every year when they choose based on uniform colors) and spread the word on Facebook via Causes. The more people join, the greater our impact! Good luck in the tourney! And Go Irish!
