Kris Allen, in case you didn’t know, will be 25 on Monday. We at Heifer were surprised to find out that several Kris Allen fans are honoring him by purchasing heifers in his honor. These fans have set up a team fundraising page called Alright With Moo and are spreading the word through Twitter (#AlrightWithMoo).
The fans have also put together a YouTube video explaining that they were inspired by Kris’s desire to give back, so they decided to give back in his honor:
At Heifer we usually offer cards for people who want to give an animal in someone’s honor, so we are going to send Kris Allen a special Heifer birthday card with the names of everyone who contributes to the Alright With Moo page by Wednesday.
Thanks Kris Allen for the inspiration and thank you Kris Allen fans for joining Heifer’s work to end hunger and poverty.
Update: 6/21/10, 10:00 a.m.
The Alright With Moo fundraiser has now raised more than $25,000 to further Heifer’s work to fight hunger and poverty. From all of us here — Thank You!
Given this overwhelming support, we’ve decided to wait until 5:00 p.m. Wednesday (Central time) to make the cutoff for names to be added to the card. Anyone who donates to the page by that point will have their names in the card. We hope this will allow even more fans to make a belated birthday contribution in Kris’s honor.
We’re going to work to deliver the card to Kris by the end of this week.
That's amazing! Kris really does inspire us and we hope that this will help many people.
Kris fans rock!
Kudos to however organized this in the beginning. I'm so happy to have participated and contributed! It's so awesome to see how generous everyone is, even now. And a thank you to Heifer for putting together the special birthday card! Happy 25th Birthday, Kris! You're truly an inspiration!
Heifer International is an amazing organisation. Thank YOU ALL for the important work that you do and thank you to the Kris fans that thought of this and brought us all together to do something meaningful in Kris's honor.
That is so awesome, thank you for sending him a special card
Your organization does some really amazing work; it's comforting to know that there are organizations out there that devote their resources to really helping people who need help get on their feet and tries to make it so that they can stand on their own! Please keep doing it!
This charity is awe-inspiring, fantastic, & much-needed (as is Kris).
This is so nice to hear. Such a great guy and artist, and it's so fitting to honor him this way.
That's so awesome!!! Thank you! One question: I donated but didn't join the team. Will my name still appear on the Birthday card?
Hello — i work at Heifer International and I'm part of the team that manages the online fundraising site and this blog.
Yes, so long as you donate to the Alright With Moo team, you will be in our records. Even if you don't see your name listed on that team's site, we will have a record of your donation and will include you when we run the report of names to put with Kris's card.
Thanks for your generous support of Heifer's mission.
Thanks for putting together the Birthday Card for Kris! What a great organisation. I'm happy to donate to such a great cause and wish Kris a Happy Birthday at the same time.
So proud of Kris Allen fans honoring him in a way that is sure to be truly meaningful. Thank you Heifer for the special birthday card from all of us to Kris!
Thank you Casey for your prompt response and thank you and Heifer for the amazing things you guys do for the world!
Thanks to Heifer and to the fans who started this campaign. Can I just say Awwwww?!
Di
wow he's awesome .. the fans are great !!
Are you going to just send it to his official fan mail address? I would love to see how the birthday card looks like
Thanks to Heifer and to all the fans who started this compaign
Thanks for sending a Birthday Card out for Kris .I was so happy to give to such a wonderful cause.And am so honored to be a Kris fan he deserves to have a wonderful Birthday and am sure he well now.
Hello, it's Casey again (I work for Heifer International)…
To answer the question about the card — We hope to make an arrangement to have the card delivered to Kris in person. We'll update you when we know more about how that will work. Since we're waiting until Monday to put together the list of names, this will be a belated card. I'm sure he will still be thrilled to see the long list of fans who are doing so much good in his honor.
We'll be sure to take a couple of photos of the card and share them here and via Twitter.
Thanks again to you all for supporting Heifer's mission.
Kick-Awesome. I donated once anonymously and once with my name. Hope we can get more cows. This is a wonderful way to celebrate Kris' birthday, an amazing person who continues to inspire all his fans every single day.
Hi Casey, thanks for taking the time to answer everybody's questions. We're so excited to be raising this money in honor of Kris and in support of Heifer's great work.
This is such an amazing organization. Thank you for everything you do!
this is priceless
Hi, when does Alright With Moo officially end? Does it end 6/21 midnight (6/20 leading into it), or 6/22 midnight (with 6/21 leading into it)? I see the amount still increased after 6/21 midnight. Thanks.
Hello, it's Casey from Heifer International…
As far as the names in the card, we've decided to wait until 5:00 p.m. Wednesday (Central time) to make the cutoff. Anyone who donates to the page by that point will have their names in the card. We hope this will allow some belated birthday wishes. I'll update the blog post in a moment to reflect this change.
Since the Alright With Moo fundraising page was created by Kris Allen fans (not Heifer staff), it will be up to them how long the online fundraiser stays open. Given the overwhelming outpouring of support, I hope they might consider keeping the page open beyond Kris's birthday to allow fans to give in his honor throughout the year. This means that fans could continue to donate in his honor, but they won't be included in the card if those donations are made after Wednesday.
Thanks, everybody, for your generous support.
Hi Casey -
Just to clarify -
Will the names on the card be anyone who donated to the team via the team page, or only those who "joined" the team?
Thanks for asking. Yes, all team members and donors will be included, assuming that the user donates to the Alright With Moo Team. It's possible that newer team members won't see their names listed on the team page. That's because the system sets a cap for the number of names that display there. At this point, we seem to have exceeded that cap (a good problem to have). Even if you don't see your name on the page, we still have you in our database.
Thanks!
Hello Again!
Team Alright With Moo has no intentions of taking the page down anytime soon. Donations continue to trickle in, and we want to be able to generate as much money for Heifer as possible.
Thanks for everybody's support!
I donated to this team but didn't join the team. How can I retrieve my donor number?
Thank you for everything you do?
Hi Casey – I have another question. I made a donation toward the team before registering as a team member, then made another donation after registering as a team member. I used the same CC and name/address for both donations. Currently only the 2nd donation is showing up on the team page (but thankfully I made the list before it got max'd out!). Will you include the grand total of contributions on the card? Or are just names being included on the card without amounts? Thanks!
To answer the question immediately preceding, we plan to just print the first and last name of each donor. Neither the amount you gave nor any other information about you will be printed in the card. We will print the grand total for the whole fundraiser, as it stands as of 5 p.m, Central Wednesday.
To the other question about retrieving your donor number, please send a your request in an e-mail to info@heifer.org and reference "Team Alright With Moo" in the subject line.
Thanks,
Casey
i would like to donate money to specific gifts (i.e., a cow, a llama, a water buffalo) will my money actually go to that or does it go to fund raising, salaries, overhead, etc. how much actually goes to the direct cause?
Donations made through the Alright With Moo online fund-raising page are applied to our general fund. Donations applied toward the general fund will be designated where they are most needed throughout all of our projects. They could be used to provide animals, training, transportation of animals, or whatever is needed to ensure that the needs of our project partners are being met. Based on our 2009 annual report, the comprehensive total of all donations received may be applied as follows:
76% Programs
63.3% International Development
12.7% Education
24% Support Services
17.8% Fundraising
6.2% Management and General Support
Please find the following direct link (you might need to copy and paste it into your browser) to our annual report, our alliance with the Better Business Bureau as a Wise Giving Alliance seal holder, and other financial information on our website: http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.201468/?msource=TH1E100007
To donate by purchasing an animal, please use this link: http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.204586/?msource=TH1E100005