The ecoScholarship Fund: It's Our First Big Eco-friendly Fundraiser

Our first big promotion is starting. One of our non-profit partners, Long Beach CA based Environmental Consumer Organization, or ECO for short, funds and administers a brand new scholarship fund - the ecoScholarship Fund. ECO's target of raising $100,000 dollars by June of 2008 will be attained by using our eco-friendly, zero-administration fundriaser - the myGreenspark Redemption Book Fundraiser. You can go to the myGreenSpark.com website right now to purchase the first ever green coupon book for Southern California and you'll be supporting a great cause.

Use this link to support the ecoScholarship Fund and then spread the word about it: http://www.mygreenspark.com/ECO

The ecoScholarship fund will be used to help High School seniors and undergrad College students who aspire to an Environmental career, get off to a good start. The first recipients of the scholarship will be from the Southern California area. Applications will be accepted starting in January until May of 2008. The first ecoScholarships will be given out in June of 2008.

From the ECO website: http://www.ecoscholarship.com/

ECO will be opening its scholarship application process in January, and soon to follow, they will be kicking off their "Green Teens" ecoScholarship contest. Teens and adults can play in an effort to raise the first $100,000 for the ecoScholarship Fund. Participants will promote the myGreenSpark fundraiser to family and friends while taking educational quizzes to earn points while learning about ways they can help the environment through their consumer habits. Participants that sell a lot of books and do good on the quizzes will have more chance to win prizes like an ecoScholarship, a new bike, the iPod Touch(TM) or extreme sports and camping equipment. And if ECO hits its goal of raising $100,000 for the fund by June of 2008, the top participant will win a Grand Prize of $10,000 to use for anything they want - hopefully to Go Green!

The Environmental Consumer Organization dedicated to creating Green Consumers through education and marketing. By providing resources for "Going Green" to consumers through special membership-based product discounts on Green and Healthy products and services that people need to start using to actually go green, ECO will create Green and Ethical Consumers in a fun and interesting way. We know that until a major shift towards "Green" happens at the consumers level, companies will keep doing what they do - market conspicuous consumption to the masses to increase their bottom line.

The ecoScholarship Fund is where most of the money goes that we collect from supporters. Our goal is to provide $100,000 in scholarships in 2008 and $1,000,000 by 2010! Besides creating Green Consumers to help in the fight for environment today, we are also heavily investing in our future by offering students an incentive to get on the path to a "Green" career.

myGreenSpark Redemption Book is almost here!

You haven't heard from us in a while and that's because we've been hard at work putting the finishing touches on our Green Coupon Book / Practical Guide to Greener Living for Southern California. We invite you to get a glimpse inside the book at www.myGreenSpark.com. Let us know what you think, email: info@myGreenSpark.com.

We are excited that we will be launching the first fundraisers on November 5th and working hard in OC, Long Beach and LA to meet our goal of gather 500 schools to do the myGreenSpark Redemption Book Fundraiser by May of 2008.

Our National Online Store Front Green Coupon Book Fundraiser will be ready in December and available for Schools and Non-profits all around the country to use to raise money for their cause.

We are currently working on local myGreenSpark Redemption Books in San Diego and the San Fernando Valley. They will be available this Spring with coupons good through Spring of '09.

We are very excited about our progress and look forward to serving the community while raising money for schools.

Peace,

The Fundraising Green Team

www.FundraisingGreen.com
www.myGreenSpark.com
www.BeCoolBeGreen.com

Fundraising Green's School Wellness Presentation

Today was truly amazing at the School Wellness Conference in Anaheim California. We presented to a packed house of people in the same boat as we were: looking for a new and better way to raise money for schools without using food and toys as as products for sale or incentives.

We thought you would enjoy our take on the Fundraising Industry and where we think it needs to change. We were also lucky enough to present our fundraising philosophy and our new product - myGreenSpark Redemption Book - it's an educational guide to Green living with hundreds of coupons to match and do what you are learning. Thanks Naomi!

Fundraising for Schools - A “Stuck” Industry:

· Today’s top fundraising companies are exploiting our children:

By playing on their naiveties, using the promise of candy and prizes to prey on their emotions, while training the kids to be a sales force. Pledges are taken by students in school assemblies that turn into pep rallies for candy and prizes.

· The lowest common denominator:

Connecting candy, toys, emotion. Rewarding children with junk food.

Industry conventions that are problems:
· Selling junk food and products that promote it
· Kids’ products that are heavily branded with corporate logos (free t-shirts with Coke logo)
· Buckets of gummy worms and chocolate
· Tubs of cookie dough
· Make it at home pizza kits
· Discount cards with fast food and ice cream places
· Tie-ins like McDonald’s coupons in soccer picture packages

· The overuse of raw paper products (Including Wrapping Paper)
· Wrapping paper / Gift bags
· Expensive glossy catalogs, order forms, flyers
· Coupon books that are distributed as samples and thrown away by company

· Selling disposable plastics-based products
· Items made in China, bought for pennies, sold at huge markup, lack of safety standards, supporting sweatshops, creates pollution by shipping items so far, poorly made gifts that last 1 year, end up in landfill, aren’t biodegradable
· Six times as much plastic per weight than zooplankton is in any given amount of sea water taken from the middle of the Pacific Ocean
· Plastics don't biodegrade, but in the ocean they do break down from exposure to sunlight and wave action into "micro-plastic debris"--what one scientist describes as "plastic powder
· There is a garbage patch the size of Texas floating in the North Pacific

· Marketing “Conspicuous Consumption” to kids
· A prize that is a Portable stereo with a Hummer grill front
· Using disposable plastics-based prizes (Happy Meal Toys)
· Idea that everyone who participates must get something
· Kids clamor for superballs , key chains, containers of slime, things that will end up in the trash in 2 weeks – the industry feeds off of this
· Junk food based prizes
· Coupons for McDonalds, Ice Cream, candy giveaways
· A Limo to Baskin Robbins? Yes!

Problems that Contribute to or Result In:
· Childhood Obesity and Diabetes
· The Plastics-plague, Deforestation and Toxic Landfill problems
· The wrong message for our children