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Menu for Hope 4: Call for Entries

Posted by Adam Kuban, November 30, 2007 at 10:30 AM

It's that time of year again. As many of you who publish or read food blogs know, each year Pim Techamuanvivit of Chez Pim organizes her Menu for Hope campaign, in which food bloggers from around the globe come together to help those who are less fortunate.

For those unfamiliar, Menu for Hope is an online charity event in which bloggers donate a prize that goes into a virtual raffle. Readers and others may then buy virtual raffle tickets for one or (hopefully) more prizes. Tickets are priced at $10 each, and bidders may buy multiple tickets per prize to increase chances of winning—hint, hint! ;)

Dozens of great food-related prizes are offered each year, with proceeds going to the U.N. World Food Programme, which seeks to fight hunger worldwide. Last year's Menu for Hope raised a staggering $62,925.

As she did last year, Pim has enlisted the help of "regional hosts" to share some of the work that goes into making MfH run smoothly. This year, Serious Eats will be helping out in the East Coast USA region. (A list of other regions appears after the jump.)

I've already contacted last year's East Coast participants (those I had contact addresses for, anyway), but I'd like to call on any other East Coast–based food bloggers who would like to help the cause.

If you're located on the U.S. East Coast and would like to participate this year, instructions follow after the jump. You must contact the regional host for your area to get a prize code before you can post your Menu for Hope prize on your blog. But hurry with your prize proposals, as we only have slots for 99 East Coast USA entries!

Preparation: Before December 5

1. Come up with a gift, or a set of gifts, to offer as a raffle prize. You could offer books, foods (your specialty or those of your part of the world), or solicit gift certificates from restaurants or food producers in your area. Remember that you will also be responsible for shipping the prize to the raffle winner, no matter where they live. So, please make sure you'll be able to afford the shipping cost as well.

Basically, the prize should be valuable enough to generate a good interest, let's say 20 bidders, on its own. And the prize should also appeal to your readers—something that would inspire a good number of them to donate for it. Need inspiration? Here's a list of prizes donated last year: Menu for Hope III Prize List

2. Email your prize proposal to your regional host for approval.

3. Upon approval, provide two images of your gifts, one at 100x100-pixel thumbnail and another a bit larger at 250x250 pixels. Please remember to optimize the images for the web as well.

4. Provide a description of your gifts. You're trying to sell the gifts to our donors, so be persuasive, be very persuasive!

5. Email all of the above—BY DECEMBER 5—to the corresponding regional host, as follows:

• East Coast USA: Adam Kuban of Serious Eats: menuforhope@seriouseats.com
• Central USA: Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen
• West Coast USA: Bee of Rasa Malaysia
• Canada: Jennifer of The Domestic Goddess
• UK: Johanna of The Passionate Cook and Jeanne of Cook Sister
• Europe: Fanny of Foodbeam
• Asia Pacific, Australia, New Zealand: Helen of Grab Your Fork
• Wine Blog Host: Alder of Vinography

What Happens Next

Draft a blog post for your site that describes the Menu for Hope event and that lists your prize—with image(s) and a detailed, persuasive description of your prize. Your host will provide you with the link to the Firstgiving web page where your readers can buy a ticket. But, hold up there, tiger—don't post this entry until December 10!

Your regional host will use your images and descriptions to create a blog entry that lists all the prizes in your region, with a link back to your own post about your prize.

To be clear: You will create an entry on your own site that gives your readers info on Menu for Hope as well as a detailed, persuasive description of your prize. Your regional host's roundup of prizes serves as a sort of "index" or "table of contents" page for the region—one single page that makes it easier to browse all the prizes available in that region.

A sample of what your prize will look like on the East Coast USA regional roundup here on Serious Eats follows, below.

During the Live Campaign: Dec. 10 to 21

1. On December 10, publish your blog post about the campaign and your raffle prize and ask—no, beg—your readers to donate money to buy virtual raffle tickets to support the World Food Programme. Each $10 will give the donor one virtual raffle ticket for a prize of his/her choice. (S/he can specify desired prize in the comment area of the donation form.)

2. Be active during the time our campaign is live. Monitor how your raffle prize is doing on the fundraising page, and encourage more of your readers to donate. You may also write about other prizes that your readers might be interested in.

About the Money Collection

Who collects the funds? Certainly not us nor any of the other bloggers participating on the campaign. Menu for Hope uses a very good online fundraising company called Firstgiving, which has worked with MfH from the start.

Donors can make an online donation with a credit card. Firstgiving collects and processes the payments and, at the end of the campaign, transfers the donations in one lump sum to the WFP. This is a win-win situation for all parties involved. The bloggers never touch the money. The WFP doesn't waste overhead on processing mini-donations, the majority of which are between $10 and $50. Firstgiving does all the work and collects a small fee, which includes the credit card processing charges.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Sample Prize Item

Below are sample entries showing what your item will look like when linked to on Day 1 from Serious Eats:

A Fully Loaded Shelf of Cookbooks (Minus the Shelf)

From: Serious Eats
Prize code: UE18
Read about this prize at Serious Eats »
How to enter »
Buy raffle tickets now »
More prizes from around the world, at Chez Pim »

NYC Guided Pizza Tour for 4

From: Slice
Prize code: UE19
Read about this prize at Slice »
How to enter »
Buy raffle tickets now »
More prizes from around the world, at Chez Pim »

TO ENTER
If you're interested in buying into the raffle, here's what you need to do:

1. Choose a prize or prizes of your choice from our Menu for Hope at http://www.chezpim.com/blogs/2007/12/menu-for-hope-4.html

2. Go to the donation site at http://www.firstgiving.com/menuforhope4 and make a donation.

3. Please specify which prize you'd like in the 'Personal Message' section in the donation form when confirming your donation. You must write-in how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code:

Above: Here's an example for a basic order for 1 ticket for prize "EU01." IMPORTANT: Check the box marked at bottom "I am happy for the page owner to see my email address ..."! This will allow the organizers to contact winners.

Each $10 you donate will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. For example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for EU01 and 3 tickets for EU02. Please write 2xEU01, 3xEU02. Example:

Above: An order for 5 tickets ($50) applied to two prizes would look like this. If your company matches your donation, be sure to note it like so.

4. If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.

5. Please check the box to allow us to see your email address so that we can contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

Check back on Chez Pim on Wednesday, January 9 for the results of the raffle.

Thanks for your participation, and good luck in the raffle!

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