Results of Recycling Drive

We did not get the amount of funds that we had hoped to get, and we only had two participants. I believe this was due to us being a new nonprofit organization without any history or following. First and second prizes were mailed to the winners, and we are awaiting pictures from them so we can post them on our website. Third prize was re-donated since we are not allowed to use it ourselves for the benefit of our organization.

Technorati

Submitted blog to Technorati to help get exposure to our cause. Here is the verification code C382STZHMDSE that Technorati needs to verify ownership. It's an interesting technique for verification.

Donation from GoodSearch.com

We received a check from GoodSearch.com for the amount of internet searches and purchases made through their site. The check was for only $8.78, however this could be much larger with more people helping us. For myself, I did most of my searches on their site, and bought a few items from Walgreens.com. I had to have the GoodSearch toolbar downloaded and running to make this work, but it is worth it for our cause.

ecycler.com

Just finished registering with ecycler.com. It's a very interesting concept where people can sign up to discard items, and others can sign up to pick them up. It's a neat idea, and I hope it has a lot of success.

First Recycling Bin Placed

Our organization has a national focus, however we do even more in our local area when possible. We received 25 cardboard recycling bins, with liners, from "The Aluminum Association" to help with our recycling drive. First Baptist Church in West Bend, Wisconsin, has graciously allowed us to place one of our bins in their church's multi-purpose room. We are very thankful for this opportunity.

South Post Oak Recycling

We are very pleased that South Post Oak Recycling in Houston, Texas, has volunteered to help with our Fall 2010 Recycling Drive. They have graciously offered to print and hand out flyers to their customers, and they have updated their website to help our cause. This is great news. A large portion of the donations received from the Houston area will be sent to homeless shelters or food pantries in their local area.

Powered Wheelchair

We recently were donated an Invacare Power Wheelchair. Our plans are to get it running and donate it to a Veteran's group. If anyone can help out with this, it would greatly be appreciated.

New Website Has Been Launched

Our new Wix site is now live. It still requires a few tweaks to some of the pages, and there are some technical issues that need to be worked out. However, this provides us with a very good looking site with the need to program it by hand. Click here to see our new site. Please leave some comments for us.

Recycling Drive

We have a recycling drive planned for November 1, 2010 - December 15, 2010. This is pretty exciting because the top recyclers/donators will receive great prizes.

First place - Two AirTran airline tickets that are good for anywhere in the continental United States worth $1,000.

Second place - Two LifeLock one-year subscriptions worth $220.

Third place - A selection of coffee from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters worth over $60.

Many thanks to these companies for their help with our mission.

More details about the recycling drive to follow soon.

Profile Listed on IdeaCafe.com

Posted my profile on IdeaCafe.com. Stop by if you would like to know more about myself and our organization.

Results of Pepsi Refresh Project

The sad news is that we did not rank in the top 10 for the $50,000 category. I believe we ended up ranked 256 out of 369. This is based on the last time I looked, and it could be different because the final results are not shown. While it is disappointing that we did not get the grant, there are many other opportunities we are looking into.

Website Redesign

We are currently working on a new website design. The look will be significantly different. Looking into some possibilities of using Wix.com. There are some very good looking features on the site, however it needs to flexible as well. We'll find out more as we continue to use it.

Veteran Certification Approved

We received notice that Recycling for Food is now a certified veteran owned business registered with the state of Wisconsin.

Vote for Us

Our application on the Pepsi Refresh Everything project has been approved. Please vote for us to help us in the $50,000 category. There are many ways to vote. One way is with the widget below.



Another way is on Facebook:

Click here

Or you can text your vote:
Text 102254 to
Pepsi (73774)

*Standard text messaging rates apply.

Consider helping us in our cause.

Veteran's Registry

I've been looking to get Recycling for Food registered as a Veteran owned business. The paperwork has been sent in to the State of Wisconsin, and we are now in the Department of Veterans Affairs VetBiz Registry. These are good resources for other U.S. veterans looking to get some more recognition for the work they are doing after they have left the military.

Blog Posts Showing on Main Website

On FeedWind, I found a cool widget for displaying posts on a web page. The posts from this blog will now show on our home page. While this feature is nice, I read that it may still be best to keep our news directly on the home page. With search engines, the posts from the blog might not be crawled through because of the way they are displayed.

Awareness Ideas

While looking up ways to help promote our mission, and to find nice items for rewarding donators for sending in substantial amounts of donations, I stumbled upon Awareness Ideas. They are a part of FLEXi Display Marketing, Inc. They have a lot of green promotional products including recycling, energy conservation, water conservation, etc...

Their business looks like it will be a great resource.

"Causes" on Facebook

Recently created a cause on Facebook to help expand the presence of our organization. The response has been successful so far, especially when contacting people who are in "causes" with similar goals.

Submitted application to Pepsi Refresh Everything project

We were able to successfully submit the application, and if it gets approved then it will be available to be voted on in September. Hopefully, everything works out and we can get the start up funds that we need.

Cangles

Our new friends at Cangles make creative, and innovative jewelry from aluminum cans. This is a very creative way to use recyclable material directly for a new product. Feel free to stop by their website. They are very friendly and their site also contains good links to other earth-friendly organizations.

Cell phones, iPods, PDA's, laptops, and cameras

Recycling for Charities will be processing the donation of cell phones, iPods, PDA's, laptops, and cameras for us. This is another great way to help support our mission. Click here to contribute.

Website Changes

Some changes have been made to our main website. I decided to move the buttons to the left hand side, add a couple more pages, and take advantage of the extra space available for people who run higher resolutions on their displays.

This won't be the last update since there will be further changes once we have our new logo and color scheme, but this will do for now.

Created Wishlist on Amazon.com

There are a few items we need (other than a pickup truck) that will be used in our operations. We created a wishlist on Amazon.com to let people know what some of our needs are.

Registered with Volunteer Center of Greater Milwaukee

Recycling For Food, Inc. NOW LISTED WITH Volunteer Center of Greater
Milwaukee

Volunteer Center of Greater Milwaukee: This volunteering website
allows volunteers to quickly find the perfect volunteer
opportunity through a unique search engine. Use by volunteers
is free of charge. Please visit Volunteer Center of Greater Milwaukee today
at
http://volunteer.truist.com/vcgw to find out more.

First Batch of Recyclables Redeemed

Many thanks to a couple of generous donors, we were able to take in some scrap metal, copper wiring, an electric motor, an aluminum tv antenna, lead ventilation pipe, and some cast iron pipes. All of these items have been safely turned over to a recycler, and will not take up space in a land fill.

The Giving Effect

To help promote our mission, I registered and set up a "cause" with The Giving Effect's website. I like their site and their setup. It was easy and right to the point.

Business Cards

Currently, we are planning on changing our logo, but we still need to have some business cards. I was planning on waiting until we had our new logo finished, but it might take a bit longer. Jim Gottfried has graciously offered to work on this during his spare time.

In the mean time, I ordered some cards from Vistaprint with the American flag on them. They have an offer to generate 250 business cards for only the price of shipping and handling. For a small extra fee, I increased this to 500. The card was a bit limited because I could not put our tag line "Preserving Tomorrow, Feeding Today" on it without overlapping my name. I'm looking forward to how these cards will look.

Dealing with Grants

We have come across some unexpected issues recently. We have our 501(c)(3) status, but it has not been updated in the IRS's database yet. Some companies and foundations have automatic verfication checking built into their websites, and we can't get past this without the database being updated. This has proven to be a bit frustrating, but it is just one more challenge we need to deal with.

Volunteering Websites

I found a couple of websites that will advertise the need for volunteers for free. I finished registering with Christian Volunteering and Volunteer Match. Please go to the websites to see the opportunities that are available.

However, volunteers do not need to reply to those ads. Feel free to contact me directly to see ways of how you can help.

501(c)(3) Status Granted

We have been granted 501(c)(3) status! All donations to Recycling for Food are tax deductible. Please tell any foundation, business, school, or organization you are involved with about our mission, and the benefits of using recyclables as a way to feed people in need.

Thank you for your support.

Blog Changes

Currently experimenting with different looks and backgrounds for the blog. There are a lot of new features available to try.

Website Changes

The fonts have been changed to make the site easier to read, and we added a picture that my wife Alexandra put together. It shows that recycling can equal food. Three cans with a cash return value of 10 cents (in Michigan), really can buy an apple.

Helping Using GoodSearch

I did not write the following below, but it is a great idea. Please be sure to designate "Recycling for Food" as the charity to benefit.

"Here's a new easy way to raise money for your favorite cause. Just start using Yahoo! powered GoodSearch.com as your search engine and they'll donate about a penny to your favorite cause every time you do a search!

In addition, do all of your shopping through their online shopping mall, GoodShop.com, where you can shop at more than 900 top online retailers and a percentage of your purchases will go to the charity or school of your choice. You pay the same price as you normally would, but a donation goes to your cause!

Here's the web site — GoodSearch.com. You can also read about GoodSearch in the NY Times, Oprah Magazine, CNN, ABC News and the Wall Street Journal."

Update on Pepsi Refresh Everything

I just looked over the eligibility requirements, and we should wait to submit the application until after the 501(c)(3) application has been approved. The application was submitted in April 2009. It will be best to wait instead of putting in the request as an individual because of the amount of taxes that will be taken out of the grant. This is sad, but it's just the way the rules are.

Pepsi Refresh Everything

I filled out an application with Pepsi's Refresh Everything project. Hopefully, I'll have it submitted for June. The entry was made for the $50,000 dollar category. If it is successfully submitted then I'll post another entry about it. We will need your votes!

First Flyer Created

Finished creating a flyer for posting on bulletin boards in stores and organizations. To download the flyer please go to http://www.recyclingforfood.org/flyers/FullsizeFlyer1.pdf. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Creating a Flyer

I'm looking into creating a flyer for the organization, but I'm not the most artistic person around to do this. I'm more functional than artsy. If anyone has some creative ideas, I'll be glad to hear them. Please send me an e-mail at michael.marks@recyclingforfood.org. Thanks.

Grants

I've been going through the process applying for a federal government grant to see if they can provide us with start-up costs. The process is taking a lot longer than I expected, and it is far from complete. However, it is very nice that the government has a website for handling the applications. The site sends the user to a few other sites to handle parts of the process, but it's fine since the order or procedures is all in one place.

Post Office Box

Recycling for Food now has a new address for receiving donations:

Recycling for Food, Inc,
PO Box 45
West Bend, WI 53095-0045

The box I rented costs $22 for 6 months. We'll start out with the smaller box first before going to anything larger.

"Drive" Created at Gazelle.com

Gazelle has a neat program called "Gazelle for Good", where they will support non-profit causes by accepting recyclable gadgets and giving the money to the non-profit. I set up a website for us at http://recyclingforfood.gazelle.com. Please pass the word that this site is available.

The Environment Site

I was looking around for some forums in order to get more information and to spread the word about Recycling for Food. I found a place called "The Environment Site". It looks very promising, and I like it because I enjoy ideas about alternative energy production as well.

Issues with PayPal

I got a surprise from PayPal today. I had no idea that they needed extra verification of whether or not Recycling for Food really exists as a organization, and whether or not it is a tax-exmpt non-profit. Since the 501(c)(3) application has been sent, but has not yet been reviewed, I could only send them the information I had. They also wanted a copy of a bank statement for the organization, but we don't have one yet because the account was only opened this past Monday.

Hopefully the information and paperwork I did have will be good enough evidence for their needs. If not then there will be some restrictions placed on the account, but I am not sure what those restrictions are.

Donations

The ability to donate online has been added. It works pretty well. The donations get processed through PayPal, and the receipts generated from it are well designed. Donators may print the receipts for their records to show how much they have given for tax purposes.

I tested the online donations by charging $1.00 to my Discover card. The donation was taken successfully, and $0.67 was deposited into the organization's checking account. The processing fee seems pretty high, but this is normal with such small amounts. It won't be so bad with larger amounts donated.

Tweaked the Website

The website still needs more work, but I made some changes to help it look better. I added the Home, Mission, How to Help, Donate, and Links buttons. The background color is now a nice shade of blue as well. Now I just need to fill in the pages.

PayPal

I decided to use PayPal for processing online donations. It seems like it will work just fine for this. PayPal has a cool feature where it generates the html code for a "Donate" button. I copied the code, but it is not on the website yet. I might wait until the pretty version of the website is finished.

Bank Account Created

Stopped by M&I Bank today to set up a bank account. Everything went pretty well, and for non-profits there is no fee as long as there is a balance of $100 in the account. Pretty soon we'll be able to accept donations.

Facebook

Created a group called Recycling for Food on Facebook. Hopefully this will help with exposure of the organization, and the great part is that it's free.

Feel free to join up to show your support.

Advertisements

I decided to add Google AdSense to my blog. The advertisements will not be added to the Recycling for Food website because they are not related to our mission. I felt it was ok to include advertisements on the blog because it will potentially be a way to earn a little bit of money for myself, and hopefully help pay for my time blogging.

If it works out good then I'll let you know.

Website

Instead of having the web page showing that the domain name is reserved for Recycling for Food, I put up a simple page to replace it. The site is under construction, but feel free to visit www.RecyclingForFood.org periodically to see the progress. The logo displayed is my initial attempt at trying to create one for the organization.

Logos and Website

My artistic skills are not very good, so I contacted Jim Gottfried to see if he has some free time to make the logos better, or if he has better ideas. He's a graphic arts designer, so I'm sure the results will be great. Hopefully we will have new and improved logos and letter head after a few weeks.

I decided to create a very basic homepage to be put in place of the "this site is reserved..." page. It will not be anything fancy, but it will have some information on it.

Designing a database

I couldn't wait to start working. My original plan was to take around a month off to relax before working again, but that has changed. The quicker I start the better off the organization will be.

I've been creating a Microsoft SQL Express database. It will be used for keeping tract of foundations, businesses, and individuals so we know who we have contacted, and who has replied. It still requires more work, but it's a good start.

Welcome

Hello to everyone and welcome to this blog. I've recently left my Software Developer job at API Healthcare, and decided to pursue my dream of starting a non-profit organization. I'm already behind on updates since Recycling for Food, Inc. has already been incorporated, and the 501(c)(3) paperwork has been submitted, but I'll do my best to catch up.

Subscribe or check back for more updates. I'm always willing to listen to advice, and I hope my experiences can help you as well.