Last week OurChurch.Com launched the AIDS Clickathon. The Clickathon is like an online walkathon. You click… our sponsors donate to a ministry providing food, shelter, clothing, education, and love to children in Africa who have lost their parents to the AIDS epidemic.
I’m very excited about doing something that will make a huge difference in the lives of many children who are destitute and living on the streets in Kenya. I’m also very excited about providing a way for lots of other people to join us in helping these children. As a techie, however, there are also some things about the Clickathon that get me excited because of the way Internet technology is being used to take this ministry to a whole new level.
So, in this article I’m going to look at how the inherent benefits of the Internet are having a huge impact on the effectiveness of Clickathon and its ability to help children in Africa impacted by the HIV/AIDS crisis.
Easy Administration. Because the Clickathon is entirely online, it is very easy and efficient to administer. There are no paper forms, no pencils, no sign-up sheets.
Fast and Flexible. Another benefit of being online is that as we receive feedback we can change the pages and add features almost immediately to improve the Clickathon. In the first few days after the launch, we corrected a spelling mistake, added a link to Springs of Hope, and added the “Tell a Friend” feature. I’m sure more changes and adjustments will be made as the Clicathon progresses.
Multimedia Impact. If a picture is worth a thousand words, video is worth a million. Being able to show and share images and video really helps tell the story of these children and what Joseph and Molly are doing to help them in a way that just cannot be conveyed offline.
Global Participation. Almost all offline fundraisers are local in nature. Whether it’s a car wash, an auction, a walkathon, or something else, people have to be within a fairly limited geographical area to participate. The Internet makes it possible for anyone anywhere in the world to participate, whether they choose to click, donate, or become a sponsor. We’ve already had people participate from as far away as Finland, India, South Korea, and of course Kenya.
Rapid Expansion. Perhaps the most dramatic impact the online nature of the Clickathon has is in the ability for word of the Clickathon to spread rapidly online. People are telling their friends about the AIDS Clickathon using email, MySpace, YouTube, blogs, forums, and many other social networking sites or social media. You can read our article about viral marketing strategy for more details on what’s been done to help spread the word about the Clickathon.
That just covers the impact the Internet is having on the fundraising. It doesn’t even touch on the ways the Internet is enhancing actual ministry operations. In what ways are you seeing the Internet multiply ministry around the globe?
If you blog, please consider blogging about the AIDS Clickathon. It only takes a few minutes and will make a big difference in the lives these children who need your help. If you let me know about it, I’ll mention your blog in my next article. Thanks!
Co-founder & CEO, OurChurch.Com
Paul has been the CEO of OurChurch.Com since its founding in 1996, combining his passion for faith and technology to lead the organization.
An accomplished writer, Paul has authored over 2,000 articles on faith and technology, featured on platforms like ChurchLeaders.com, The JoyFM, and his personal blog, LiveIntentionally.org.
Beyond his professional achievements, Paul serves as an elder at Journey Community Church and is deeply engaged in his community through his involvement with the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranch and the Safety Harbor Chamber of Commerce. He is a contributing author of the book Outspoken! Conversations on Church Communication.
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Amen keep up the ‘GOOD WORK’.
This is the best ministry the the world is ever going to do to touch young souls in Africa devasted by the AIDS scourge. Thank you to the family which was touched by this. It took Dr. Krapf and Livingstone to come to Africa to know how much Africa needs spiritual intervention.
I am a Kenyan following this very keenly.
It reminds me of the rich man Jesus told to go ‘sell everything and follow Him’ and the dissapointment that made him ‘walk away’. Great that David (above) mentions Dr. Krapf.
After six years in Kenya, the missionary society that sent him were outraged that he had only made six (baptised) converts. Krapf had seen the ‘destitute nature of African life’ and had opted to first opening up the ‘communication’ bind that even as the gospel were preached easier in the dialects of the native, the holistic ‘social civilisation’ be made a humanitarian obligation of any missionary trying to tame and serve Africa.
Krapf had it rough with his benefactors. When he wrote back of a mountain (17,058ft) on the equator with ‘snow’, some mission sponsors wanted him recalled on account of ‘mental sickness’. Few even considered that Mt. Kenya was(is) 700 Km away from Krapfs coastal camp. The man of God had evangelised that far inland.
“Snow on the Equator?” they screemed……
This initiative on AIDS orphans is just part of the ‘snow’ people in the stable and opulent Western World will find difficult to believe until realities are brought home by those who have sacrificed ‘all’ to re-work the Krapf legacy in Kenya.
If it is not against the blog rules – I beg to be edited – the Wikipedia version of the Krapf story is told at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Ludwig_Krapf .
God Bless.
This is something that touches the heart of many. I am a missionary in the Congo, and especially on the eastern part of the DR Congo working with Congo Mission in Action as an agency established to help Orphans who are under the impact of HIV-AIDS by showing them the love of God through food, shelters and medical care. Only from the Areas of Uvira going down to Fizi, Congo Mission in Action is looking after 317 kids who deeply need your help in one of the areas mentioned above. We are working in the DR Congo under the open umbrella of Simple Life Ministries.
This kind of pain that these kids are facing can only be alleviated by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and through actions of love that every believer is asked to share from God’s Word. Luke 12:35, James 2:12-13.
God bless you as you read his Word.