Everyone at GiveCheerfully appreciates you visiting and hopes you’ll read more at our new location!

We are very proud to bring you the first GiveCheerfully Fundraising event. Please go to www.Givecheerfully.com to register for this event, just click on the Cheerful Charity Event link. Here are all the details:

The event is Nov. 22^nd from 6pm-10pm.

If you order your ticket before Nov. 8^th on the website the cost is $30.

After Nov. 8^th the cost is $35.

If you do not order on the website and pay at the door instead, the cost is $40.

This event will have wine-tasting and feature Steinway Artist Lonnie Shipman playing on one of Encore Piano’s beautiful instruments. There will also be a silent auction to raise funds for the GiveCheerfully website. This event is part of Encore Piano’s Opening Season Series.

Encore Piano is located at the Shops at Willow Bend, Plano TX. 6121 W. Park Blvd Suite B216

We hope you will come out and join us at this Cheerful event and lend your support to our cause. This is the first step toward creating a social media presence that will help charities and nonprofits around the world connect in a powerful and meaningful way to donors.

We’re still in the planning phase. You can help us out by answering the poll below. Remember, all this money will go to supporting GiveCheerfully so we can create a social media website that will help all 501(c)3 organizations gain exposure online. We appreciate your input!

This event will have wine samples, a silent auction, raffle prizes, light hors d’oeuvres, a performance by concert pianist and also tables where you can sample products from vendors who support charity.

Today, on the 15th, thousands of blogs will be helping spread awareness about the horrors of poverty.At GiveCheerfully we want to focus more on how charities and other causes help stop this vicious cycle. Today we will be spotlighting Central Dallas Ministries.

Central Dallas Ministries is one of the largest charities who deal with poverty.

Founded in the spring of 1988 by a group of Christian business men, Central Dallas Ministrie began as a small storefront food pantry for the poor. The organization’s founders quickly revealed that hunger was a symptom of deeper issues associated with poverty, and began thinking about how they could attack the problems of poverty in a more comprehensive and systemic way. — CDM website

Central Dallas Ministries focuses on four areas of poverty: health, hunger, housing and hope. Development Manager Lisa Goolsby told me there has been a 34% increase of people needing food in the last year. As the economy becomes unstable, businesses suffer and cut back pay and jobs. Most of the families that CDM helps have at least one person working, but still can’t make ends meet.

90% of CDM’s revenues go directly to their programs which include community health services, children’s education, affordable housing, and food pantries. They have more information on their website at www.centraldallasministries.org where you can donate and learn about their efforts.

Central Dallas Ministries offers so many programs to help those in the Dallas area who are struggling. Here at GiveCheerfully, we would like to give back in support of Blog Action Day. So any donations given in the next 24 hours (from 6pm central time Wed. to 6pm central Thurs.) we will give straight to CDM.

Please Donate to help stop poverty.

So support

and

October 13th: If you are in the Denton, TX area and have the munchies go check out Jason’s Deli off the highway. 10% of all their proceeds for the day are going to United Way.

October 15th: Blog Action Day!! GiveCheerfully is excited about participating in this event. We will be writing a post on poverty and any donations received that day will go to stopping poverty in the Dallas area. The specific charity we will be working with is Central Dallas Ministries. Even if you don’t donate, be sure to support Blog Action Day any way you can. We will be posting links to other awesome articles on this day as well.

October 17th: This is an awesome event to participate in if you’re from the Dallas area. Big D Cats have catamarans that sail across Lake Lewisville. From 7:30 to 11:30 they will be doing a cruise for Crossroad Family Services, specifically for children who witness violence. Its $35 to go, find out more here.

Do you know of a worthwhile event going on? Let us know and we’ll put it on the GiveCheerfully calendar!

I’ll be interviewing Donald Smith of the Generations Center. This center offers support and research about family violence. Their website says:

Generations Center is a non profit organization that promotes the positive growth and development of children and families through research, training and education. The Center uses a multidisciplinary approach to identification, early intervention and prevention of domestic violence, with a focus on the broad range of effects of exposure to violence on children.

Find out more about the Generations Center at GenerationsCenter.org.

You are welcome to ask any questions in the comments if you’d like to have them answered on the air. Listen to us tomorrow, Friday October 3rd, at 3pm CST. You can also join us on a live chat and ask questions there!

Things are starting to come together here at GiveCheerfully, and let me tell you, we are excited!

First off, our landing page at GiveCheerfully.com has launched! Be expecting some design changes on the blog so that it reflects that page.

We’ve also added some new things under our resources category to your right. We have an informative PDF going into more depth on our mission, vision and plans for this venture. We’ve added an offline donation form as well if you’d rather send your donation as a mailed check, and finally we are proud to add our Charity submission form. Expect to see a few more charities added to our Charity page as we have already start to recieve filled out forms! Please take time to look through the charities we’ve linked to, our goal at GiveCheerfully is to help those organizations fulfill their needs.

And finally, what might the MOST exciting this is that the awesome guys, Ron, Michael & John (see their blog), at KBZZ radio are giving us our own one hour radio show! That’s right, you can listen to us live at www.kbzzradio.net on Fridays at 3 pm CST! We plan to use this hour to interview charities and charity resources to give our partners one more opportunity to get the word out about their mission. KBZZ has a live chat available on their site and we’re excited to hear your comments and questions as we proceed with this new outreach. We will post our guest list on this blog so you can know in advance who we will be speaking with. John also promises to do some live recordings so we get in on some YouTube goodness. We’ll keep everyone updated!

This coming Friday, Sept. 26th, we will be doing our first show. We don’t have a guest, instead we want to do a Q&A type session. If you have any question for GiveCheerfully, feel free to leave a message on this blog and we will be sure to answer your question on the air, live. Or if you’d rather you can email me directly.

We are very thankful for the opportunities that keep appearing for us, even in a “downward” economy, people still want to reach out and help one another. Thank you for all your support. Those of you who have shared about us online, mentioned us to your friends, or sent charities to contact us, thank you. The only thing we’d ask is that you consider giving to our cause. We want to keep GiveCheerfully a service that is free to charities and without outside advertisement. Every dollar helps us reach our goal so please consider helping us help more people around the world and revolutionize the way people give.

Check out the new tabs on our blog!

• Charities: All charities who want to get involved with GiveCheerfully and show their support will also get supported by us! We will link to your site as well as posting a picture and a few sentences about your nonprofit. Please email info@givecheerfully.com to request a form.

• Sponsors: Any individual or company who donates $500 or more will get a banner ad and link from our blog.

As you give to us, we want to give back because that’s what giving cheerfully is all about! We want to start now and set a precedent for all our work to come.

If you are involved in a charity, church, nonprofit, or mission project and you would like to be featured please send us an email (info@givecheerfully.com). We will add you to the list! We will also provide a link (if you have a website) and a short explanation of what you do.

Again, thank you for all your support and if we have appealed to your social conscience please consider donating!

Or mail us a donation with this form.

The most awesome part of this project has been the privilege to hear what moves people. Even in the few short days we’ve gone public, I have gotten to meet people who feel very strongly about the charity or nonprofit they support. These people’s passion know no bounds. They give of their time, their money and their self to support what they believe in. It humbles me.

The more I talk to these people, the more I am sure we are doing the right thing and that there is a need for our service. With so much positive response from people working for their cause, I am even more motivated. I envision GiveCheerfully not only connecting people to charities but connecting charities with much needed resources so they can continue the awesome work that they do so willingly.

What moves you? Is it people in need? Spreading hope? How does it make you feel when you are able to share part of your passion with someone else? And of course if you have a cause that really touches you, please leave us your contact information so we can bring you onboard: info@givecheerfully.com

Remember, whenever you give; Give Cheerfully.