The FastDay Forum

[Moogie]

This has come up in a number of topics and I thought it was about time I put up some news to get the ball rolling!

Many of us are saving money through 5:2 - eating less for 2 days a week I've had people offering to send money to help fund the site, but I've always asked them to give it to charity instead - the ads on this site cover our running costs, so why should you have to part with your hard earned cash to pay for this place when big companies are happy to do so?

Anyway, to the matter at hand. I'd like to set up a JustGiving page where we can raise funds for good causes - in particular I was thinking of the FoodBank charity. We're choosing to go hungry a couple of days a week, but there are families out there who can't afford a decent meal and FoodBank is there to help them.

Kate Harrison did something similar with the 'Donate Your Dinner' campaign, although I'm not sure what charities they donated to I don't think FoodBank was one of them.

So, let's do something helpful and kind as a community!

First, we need a name for the campaign - and a nice logo we can put on the site & on the JustGiving page. So, anyone got any ideas? Any graphic designers here want to put a logo together once we've got a name?

Some suggestions:

'Lose weight, give hope'
'Lose, Save, Give'
'Piggy Bank'
'lbs for £s'
'Fasting for Food'

Get your thinking caps on and let's hear those ideas!

i like lbs for £'s it seems the snappiest

and good idea Moogie

i like lbs for £'s it seems the snappiest

and good idea Moogie

Me too - great name and great ides

I like lbs for £ too.

[carorees]

Yes, lbs for £ has a good ring

I presume this is just for UK members? I'm not sure what the Aussie and US equivalent would be! kilos for $ or lbs for $ doesn't have the same ring, so perhaps each region would like to develop their own version?

[Moogie]

I'm not sure if JustGiving takes donations from other countries (or has any international charities), but if there are international equivalents we could use for charities in some of the other countries we have a lot of members from we could look at some campaigns for them.

[Tracieknits]

This is a charity I have been working with for the past year:
http://feedingamerica.org/how-we-fight- ... ogram.aspx

Our small town has a backpack program. There were 28 children signed up. Every Wednesday, one of us volunteers would drive to the local food bank to pick up the order, and then we'd bring it to the school and four of us would pack it in to the backpacks, which were discretely placed in the children's lockers on Friday. The children would take them home and have food for the weekend, usually 2 breakfasts (cereal, oatmeal packets, etc), 3 main courses (soup, or canned tuna or chicken, or stew or peanut butter), some fresh fruit, a canned veg, a loaf of bread, a dessert, a small milk, a small chocolate milk and two small fruit drinks.

Anyway, it's a fantastic program for American contributions

Sounds a good plan for us in UK anyway, Moogie. Does FoodBank use VirginMoneyGiving because unlike JustGiving they are not-for-profit so their fees are lower? (Fees are always charged to the charity not to the giver but it comes to the same thing in the end...)

[Moogie]

Will look into the VMG option thanks Dom, didn't know JG weren't a non profit org!

[Moogie]

Doesn't look like the Virgin one has the overall foodbank charity on it, only some of the local branches - and I'd prefer that since we're all from different areas we just give to the overall charity. Guess it'll be JustGiving then!

So, lbs for £s seems to be the most popular name, anyone want to design a logo?

I'm a graphic designer and would be happy to help out if you need me!

I have another one that is good. Kiva.org. They lend out money to people who needs for various things. Amongs them are people who needs money for farming equiptments etc. They have groups that you can make and individuals can join the groups and lend out money and the group gets 'accumulated' amount lent out. That we anyone in the world who is in this group can join!

My 2 cents on topic

[Moogie]

I'm a graphic designer and would be happy to help out if you need me!

That would be wonderful, thanks @Sioux101! If you've got time to make a simple lbs for £s logo representing the idea behind the campaign I'd be so grateful!

[Moogie]

Appeal started:
http://www.justgiving.com/52fastdietforum

I'll add the logo to the page & also somewhere prominent on the forums once we have one!

I've added a donation. Hope to do it once or month or so.