TBG Coaching Session Part 5, Presentation

Welcome to part five of TBG Coaching Sessions. We're looking at the final step, and how you should bear this in mind throughout your give. Take a look at some of the points worth remembering for presentation.

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There's one point left for consideration. Maybe you've initiated world peace, made your mom cry tears of happiness, and single handedly saved baby pandas from extinction. We're impressed. Or, we should be. You still have to convince us of this.

How are you going to present your Big Give for judging? You are limited, in one sense, in that it must be presented through a medium that can be sent online. But let's consider this, you want to do a skit? Film it. You have a series of interviews? Record them. Take photos of your art... There's not much that can't be captured within writing, film, and photos. Bear these points in mind.

1.) Think about presentation throughout your project. A photo journal won't do much good if you've failed to document your give in any way. Remember to keep note from the planning stages throughout the outcomes. We want to see how your give grows.

2.) Be creative and visual. Think about this, we recieve one e-mail. It says "I raised $200 through selling my cooking and donated it to charity." In the other recieve an interactive video with colour and dialouge. It introduces us to yourself, and we get to see you selling your jam at a farmer's market. We get to see your smile, and the excitement as you present $200 to your local food bank. A clear choice, I think.

Also, remember, our judges are talented bloggers. They're passionate, artistic, young, musical, and positive. They know the power of writing. I can guarantee you they will appreciate a strong imagination and a presentation that sufficiently appeals to their senses.

3.) Show us all sides of your give. Get excited and show us your passion. If your watching somebody's kids tell us about how the kids had a great time as well as the parents. Take those kids around collecting bottles, and you can tell us about how you also helped save the environment and donated the recycling money to filling a shoebox to mail off at Christmas. Whatever it is, if you're willing to get involved you clearly clear about the cause.

There you have it. We're not asking for a Tony winning documentary, or art gallary photography. We just want a clear, concise, and contageous idea of what you're about. Communicate this to our judges and your chances improve. Give like you mean it, but nothing wrong with lusting over the prize pack just a little bit.

TBG Coaching Sessions part 4, selling the vision.

Welcome to part four of TBG Coaching Sessions, a series designed to equip you to go above and beyond in your Big Give. Check out the previous coaching sessions here.

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“You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.” - Walt Disney

So you have the dream, you even have the beginnings of a plan, you're vision is growing at an alarming rate and you couldn't be more excited. You're buzzing with creative energy, which is great, but with your grand schemes capped by a USD20 budget, there's a good chance you're going to need some help. And getting the people you need on board can be the trickiest part.

So the question is, how?

I want to go right ahead and say the key to getting people on board is to learn how to sell your vision. It's great that you're through the ceiling excited about your project, but it's one thing to have a vision, it's another thing to be able to communicate it in a way that gets everyone else as excited about it as you are. So how do you do that? There are a lot of possible answers to that question, but a good starting point is:

Communicate clearly your vision - if you can clearly share three things you'll be well on your way to getting people sold on your vision:

1) what are you doing?

2) how are you going to do it? People like to know that there's a tangible, realistic plan in place. Basically, they want to know this is more than just a pie in the sky dream. Make it clear that you're serious about making it happen!

3) Why are you doing it? Share your heart for the subject of your Give. Let them know what this means to you, and why you've chosen the person you're giving to.

Start there and let me know how you go. xoxo

TBG Coaching Sessions Part 3, How Far Can You Make $20 Stretch?

So you've read parts one and two.  You know how to choose your inspiration and you know how to work with your abilities.  Now there's that little issue of the budget.  In part three I'll help you out with that.

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What can you buy with twenty dollars?  You could take someone out for dinner, maybe.  At least if they're interested in McDonalds.  Not something we recommend to up your global-awareness cred.  Here's how to think above and beyond in three simple steps.

1.)  Fundraising.  This is an option we don't want you to overlook.  It could be as simple as buying bulk candy and reselling it in the staff room.  But think a bit farther.  What about hand making some of your famous cookies and offering them for sale?  Here you're investing your skills in exchange for saving some of your budget and still expanding it.  You could see that twenty dollars double, triple, or beyond.  Just remember, for the challenge, to fund raise with ethics.  Find a way to take people's cold hard cash from them without making them bitter about it.  In short, offer them something in exchange.

2.)  Be sure to use what you have.  Yes, I mean your mad skills.  However, I'm also all about utilizing your physical resources.  Maybe you want to advertise those staff room cookies in a catchy way.  You could, of course, spend five bucks on glossy construction paper, glitter and rhinestones.  Or you could dig into the depths of your art supplies and find some excellent and useful leftover from your third grade art project.  Feel free to use what you have around the house.  Reduce Reuse and Recycle.  

3.)  Use that imagination.  Even if you don't grow your twenty dollars there are lots of ways you can focus it in your give.  Watch your neighbor's kids.  Take your little brother and his friends hiking.  Then turn that bigger.  Give the parents a movie night, or the mothers afternoon tea.  Both of these are tiny cheap little ideas with big payoffs I guarantee our judges will love.

So, maybe twenty dollars won't buy a lot.  But it can create a great deal.

TBG Coaching Sessions, part 2: Use What You've Got

Here it is. Part deux of the coaching series written especially for those who are planning on competing in TBG. You can check out part one of the series over here.

And if you haven't already, don't forget to register for TBG. We all love to do nice things for the people in our lives, but how often do we get the chance to win prizes for it?

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You've chosen the recipient of your Give and now it's time to start planning. You have big dreams of going all out to make your Givee's day, but there's one thing standing in your way...

The budget.

When planning your Give, remember that although your starting budget is US$20, we never said the value of your Give needed to be limited to that. With just US$20 to work with, it's time to start thinking outside the square. And remember, resourcefulness and creativity will both be considered in your entry.

With this in mind, it might help to ask yourself three questions when planning your Give:

1. What do you have? Look around you. What do you already have at hand which could be used? Remember, every dollar you don't spend is a dollar you have to spend on something else. Er... yeah.. you know what I mean.

2. What can you do? That philanthropic knitting-spree you've been dreaming up is sure to melt some hearts in theory, but the fact that you've never picked up a set of knitting needles in your life may be a problem.

Make the most of your skills and talents, whether you feel most at home in the kitchen, on the sporting field or under the hood of a car, there's bound to be a million ways you can use your passion to make someone's day.

3. Who do you know? Making the most of what you have is one thing, but if you can get the right people on board, you could potentially have a whole world of resources and talents open up to you. Think about the people in your life. Is there anyone who might feel as appreciative of your givee as you are? Perhaps the best use of your $20 could be taking someone out for coffee and sharing your vision with them.

Happy Giving!

TBG Coaching Sessions, part 1: Find Your Inspiration

We thought it would be a great idea to give you an advantage some inspiring examples. Watch this blog over the next couple weeks for a five post series touching on all the different topics related to your Big Give. Today...

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Who Inspires You?

When you first thought of giving, who popped into your mind? We tell you to "choose someone who you appreciate." Hard to narrow it down, isn't it? Let me give you some examples.

Think about the people in your personal life. It might be someone obvious who may have given so much to you. Your Mom, say. Or maybe it's the quiet co-worker who probably thinks that no-one notices that she always has the coffee going in the morning. What about someone you haven't connected with in too long? How about looking up your high school sidekick on Facebook and finally finding a way to thank her for the times she stood up for you?

Another option is the aspiring folks in your community. There are total strangers who probably have a deep impact on your life, or the lives of others. By this I mean volunteers and public service employees. Maybe your Grandma is in a nursing home, and the staff there do an amazing job of keeping her comfortable, and going out of their way to do their job. Think outside the box. Did you have a high school teacher who taught you to love her subject? What about fire fighters, soup kitchen staff, ect?

My final example isn't quite so personal, but maybe it's something that's close to your heart. We're going to look a little bigger here. What about an organization that means a lot to you? Possibly you want to focus your efforts into a cause you really believe in. This means throwing your give at an issue that inspires you. Ending world hunger through sending a food package to a charity you care about. Or raising awareness for the aids epidemic in Africa. And, you know what, maybe it can be personal too. Let's say you have a friend struggling with cancer, and you want to raise funds to help obliterate the disease all together.

Everything you do counts. This is your chance to ask who really calls your attention, and give it your all. Mostly I just want you to take a minute to ask yourself, "Who do I really want to give to?" Begin by answering that question and I can guarentee your give give will be a benefit, not only to them, but to you.