Keep an eye out for this Thursday for an article “Three Questions With Wicked Philanthropy” on page two of The Concord Journal (December 3rd, 2009).  The article will also be available online on the Homepage or Lifestyles page.  (Direct URL to follow)

In the article Matt Solar (WP) talks with The Concord Journal’s Patrick Ball about our route, our history, and how people can get involved in helping.

We’re excited to bring the additional awareness to our ride and would love to hear your thoughts on the article.

The .com to .org conversion is complete (content-wise, anyway).  I’m going to have WickedPhilanthropy.com redirect to this blog so now it’s time to coerce some web-friends to help spruce it up a bit.  I’m open to ideas – what would be helpful, valuable, or interesting to see here?

I’m planning on posting;

• Fundraising goals & accomplishments
• Progress on the routes/rides
• Logistics milestones
• Occasional training summaries
• Sponsor updates

I’m especially looking forward to breaking the $20k mark.  Feedback is always welcome to please don’t hesitate to email.

Thanks,
Matt

One thing we’re asking every single one of our friends to do is to become a fan of Wicked Philanthropy on Facebook.  Here are a few reasons why we don’t want any talking back when you get our invitations;

• It’s completely free.
• It’s easy – just click the “Become a Fan” link.
• It helps us out.
• We post very infrequently but if you still think it’s too much you can hide us from your update feed.

Most people under estimate how much it helps.  Aside from hoping that you’ll want to hear more about our efforts and milestones it does help us develop credibility with potential sponsors.  We may be small, but we’re loud.

Social media is a buzz word these days but with good reason.  Having a fan base shows sponsors not only that we’re dedicated but that we have the potential to engage potential customers in conversation and spread the word of their generosity in hopes that we will further support them.

Our goal is to exceed 1,000 fans.

Please help us out by taking a few moments to become a “fan” of us and to invite your friends as well.  To invite your friends, please view the three step process below.

Step 1: When in the WP Fan page, click on "Suggest to Friends" link in the upper left corner under our logo.

Step 2: Select the friends you wish to invite by clicking on their thumbnails.

Step 3: Close the window verifying success.

Yes, it’s that simple.

What the process does is send the following email to the friends you’ve selected;

“Matt became a fan of Wicked Philanthropy on Facebook and suggested you become a fan too.

To see more details and confirm this invitation, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?pages/Boston-MA/Wicked-Philanthropy/7073776970

Thanks,
The Facebook Team”

That’s it – perhaps the easiest way to support a non-profit philanthropy group.

I’m in the middle of a much needed overhaul of the website.

It’s been a few years and my attention to it has been wanning.  This year, however, is a turning point.  I’ve decided that I just need to suck it up and do it – turn Wicked Philanthropy into a proper non-profit.  The book keeping will become more difficult, the expectations will become more difficult, and I’ll need to set my goals higher. These days it seems that too many people are uncommitted, lazy ,or simply don’t care and I don’t want to be one of them.

Using Yvon Chouinard’s book for inspiration, and, hopefully, without sounding too self-righteous, I’m going to do my best to put my money where my mouth is and try to do something about it.  Filing for 501(c) non-profit status for Wicked Philanthropy and a site overhaul are a start.  Next steps are recruiting people to help; riders, corporate sponsors, individual donors, web developers… everyone can help in some form, please contact me if you are interested in helping.

“Be the change you want to see in the world.“  – Mahatma Ghandi