Happy National Punctuation Day!

It's National Punctuation Day, the day that we all take a moment to enjoy all that the world of punctuation has to offer. Why not celebrate today by picking up a great book to refresh your memory on everything that our friends, punctuation marks, have to offer. (And give some celebratory cash to your school's cause in the process!)

Head to Amazon.com and pick up an AP Stylebook for all your grammatical needs.
Hit up Borders.com and go on The Great Typo Hunt with Jeff Deck.
Brush up on all the basics at BarnesandNoble.com with Strunk and White.

Celebrate National Punctuation Day by brushing up on your grammar love, and raise some money for your great cause in the process. Stop by 2Clickfundraising, pick your group, and start your shopping, period.

(Also, the punctuation seen above is The Interrobang. It's pretty solid punctuation--a mix of an exclamation point and a question mark. Can't beat the efficiency of that.)

Facebook and Your Cause

This morning I wanted to offer a bit of insight from the American Express Open Forum, which the good people at Mashable regularly contribute to. I stumbled upon an interesting breakdown of how and why people "like" brands on Facebook.

While this post on the Open Forum was directed toward companies and larger businesses, causes and organizations can learn a lot from the information that they're presenting here. ExactTarget studied 1,500 Facebook users to find out exactly what people expect once they "like" a company or brand on Facebook.

For those of you who don't have time to read the whole post, here's a quick glance at why people say they've "liked" a brand or company on Facebook:

40 percent to receive discounts and promotions
39 percent to show my support for the company to others
36 percent to get a "freebie"
34 percent to stay informed about the activities of the company
33 percent to get updates on future products
30 percent to get updates on upcoming sales
29 percent for fun or entertainment
25 percent to get access to exclusive content
22 percent someone recommended it to me
21 percent to learn more about the company
13 percent for education about company topics
13 percent to interact

I'd suggest checking out the whole post, because it gives good insight on how to keep your "likers" happy once they've already clicked that magic button. Keep your fans in the know about what your group has going on. They support you and are interested, so use this opportunity to let them know about the events and fundraisers you've got going on. Keep your "likers" liking you.

Labor Day Sales Galore!

Once again, we've got a whole load of great sales going on with our merchants. If you're planning on going Labor Day shopping this weekend, why not go online and raise some money for your favorite group in the process? Let your friends know that they can avoid the whole mess of the mall, and get all their sales right from their computer so that they can send a few bucks to their favorite causes in the process.

Kmart.com
Online Only Labor Day Sale EXTRA 5-20% off Thousands of Items + FREE Shipping on orders $60
Good through 09/06/2010

Priceline.com
Hotel Freebies - Discounts, Free nights, Upgrades, Extras & more!
Good through 09/06/2010

Colorful Images
25% Off Your 4+ Item Order.
Good through 09/30/2010

NBAStore.com
$10 Off $75 or more at NBAStore.com.
Good through 09/30/2010

GuitarCenter.com
Free Shipping to any Guitar Center Store When You Order at GuitarCenter.com!
Good through 09/30/2010

SierraTradingPost.com
20% off $100, 25% off $150 at Sierra Trading Post. Use Code: ALSEPT2KX
Good through 10/06/2010

Borders.com
2 Days Only! 33% Off Any 1 Item at Borders.com with code BPH8208J.
Good through 09/02/2010

Shoes.com
Save an additional 25% on Sale and Clearance at Shoes.com's Labor Day Sale with promo code 25SALE! Plus Free Shipping.
Good through 09/07/2010

A to Z Buzz Words

It's easy to remind people to remember 2Clickfundraising when they shop. To raise a ton of money for your group, it just takes adjusting the way that you and your supporters shop online. I've put together a list of buzz words to help you remind your friends and families to adjust the way that they shop as well.

Anytime you hear one of the words below, think about the way that you can gently remind your supporters to change the way they shop. When you hear someone at the coffee shop or the Friday night football game mention Amazon.com, remind them that if they stop at 2Click first, they can raise money for their favorite group... You get the idea.

So, here's the list of A-Z Buzz Words to help remind you and your supporters how to spread the word about 2Clickfundraising. Happy shopping!


A Amazon.com
Can't say enough good things about Amazon--Spread the word

B Books
Amazon, Borders, Barnes, Ebooks, Regular books, cookbooks

C Computer everything
Anti Virus software, Register.com, Tiger Direct

D Dick's Sporting Goods
15% off one single item about once or twice a month

E Electronics
Is someone buying electronics--Ask them to price check with Amazon

F Flowers
1-800-FLOWERS, 1-800-BASKETS and FTD all offer great flowers

G Gap
Nice Deals, couple times a month

H Help
Helping your favorite group is as easy as ever! Just go shopping online.

I iTunes
Calling all music lovers

J Jerseys
MC Sports, Dick's Sporting Goods, ESPN Shop

K Kindle
Anyone buying a Kindle? Nice commission to your group.

L Last-minute Gifts
You can email or print an Amazon gift card--And, they're commissionable.

M Mutt
PetCo has a breed Test called Biopet. We found out the breeds of our mutt, and had a great time with it. Big fun for $60.

N New
New Shoes? New coat? New speakers? New wardrobe? New anything.

O Office Supplies
Office Depot Free, NEXT Day shipping orders over $25

P Present Ideas
Don't know what to get? Shutterfly and Kodak Gallery. Great present ideas.

Q Questions about 2click?
Have 2Click questions? Email me, jeff@2clickfundraising.com

R Razors
Amazon has big brands cheaper than Target. Cheaper even than Costco, and you have to buy a membership there!

S Sales
Sign up for merchant alerts and hear about sales at your favorite merchant

T Travel
Flight, Hotel, Rental Car, Priceline

U Underwear
Hanes.com

V Venti
Starbucks.com gives a great percentage back--get your Venti coffees at home.

W Wine
Penny shipping days twice a month makes this a great idea to stock up.

X Xylophones
From colorful toys to $1,700 instruments, Amazon has them.

Y Youtube
Does anyone want to know more about 2click? Check out the YouTube videos.

Z Zucchini
Order fresh produce and all groceries from Peapod, give money to your group.

Give your Group a Boost--Have 2ClickGuy Stop By!

Since we started 2Clickfundraising.com, I've had the opportunity to meet with many of our groups. This week I stopped by the Sundling Junior High Music Department to talk about ways to promote 2Clickfundraising to their supporters.

Through the years, I've talked to Sundling the most out of all of our groups; and through the years, they've consistently raised the most money by shopping online. Over the next few months, I'm hoping to visit as many groups as possible throughout the Chicagoland area. I'd like to talk about ways to remind your group's supporters to use 2Click to raise money for your cause. I will answer any questions that you have, and give you ideas to use 2Click to its fullest potential.

Please email me if you'd like to have me come to talk. As I said, I'd love to give a talk for any Chicagoland group.

Insider Deals to your Inbox

We try to make it as easy as possible for you to use 2clickfundraising as a shopping tool to save money for your family. You can follow us on Twitter to find out what sort of deals our merchants are offering on the spot, you can look at our list of merchants and check for the "Deal!" in green that highlights the merchants that are offering deals, or you can check out our deals on Facebook. But, you can also sign up for email updates for specific merchants. For example, if you really dig wine, you can sign up for updates on specials and deals from Wine.com. Any time we find out that Wine.com is running a special, you'll get an update right to your inbox.

Simply go to the list of merchants, click your favorite merchant, and then enter your email address to receive updates on specials from your favorite merchant. Or, if you prefer to sign up for updates in categories, head to the "join newsletter" page and click any category that you'd like to receive updates on specials. We won't spam you, we'll just send you the best deals that you ask for. So when you get the heads up on a great deal, you'll be one click away from raising money for your organization and saving money in the process.

Back to School Savings

Everyone's winding down from the summer and amping up for another school year--so we're going to tell you about some of the great deals running to help you with back to school shopping. Take a look at some of these deals before you trudge to the mall, and you can give a percentage to your favorite school group while saving some cash. Can't go wrong there!


Shoes.com
Shoes.com gives a great percentage back to your group (13% on all purchases) so it's a great way for you to get the kids the new kicks for the school year. Through the end of September you can save 15% on back to school faves like Converse and New Balance with the coupon code BTSHOES10.

Amazon.com
Amazon.com offers you pretty much anything you could possibly need to get the kids back to school. All the way from kindergarten to college, Amazon's got you covered. Right now you can save additional cash on textbooks (30% on new, up to 90% on used) as well as all kinds of deals from the back-to-school savings page. And, Amazon gives your group anywhere from 4-7% on all sales.

Office Depot
If you buy $150 right now at Office Depot's online store, you'll automatically get $30 off. Buy any school supplies, computer accessories, anything, and you get $30 off. And Office Depot gives your organization up to 6% back from purchases.

We'll keep you posted of more back-to-school sales as they come in. Just head to 2clickfundraising.com , choose your organization and start shopping.