One online community of women is giving back this holiday season with a donations-based charity raffle benefiting one lucky charity. But it’s not the raffle that caught our attention.
It can be hard to pursue a passionate project — like starting a nonprofit organization — without the support of a community. Side Hustle provides an online community of women pursuing their dreams in creative ways.
In this article, we’ll share what Side Hustle is all about and how you can enter their raffle to benefit the charity of your choice. While you’re at it, you will be entered to win a prize for yourself.
What is Side Hustle?
How many nonprofits started out as side projects that blossomed into fully functioning 501(c)(3) organizations? Or how many WordPress designers and developers started out freelancing in their spare time? Maybe you still are in your Side Hustle phase.
One International Women’s Day, Virginia Kinnier had the idea to create a community of women who could celebrate each other’s multifaceted lives. She was surrounded by so many women who “use their time and talents to make the world a much brighter, beautiful, kinder place,” and she wanted a way for all of them to connect. So she created Side Hustle, a website dedicated to women who chase their dreams.
“Side Hustle is an online platform for women to promote their passions and encourage the pursuits of others.”
– Virginia Kinnier, Founder of Side Hustle
Do you have a Side Hustle? Do you know someone who does?
The Side Hustle Community
The community is about encouragement and comradery. It’s hard to pursue passion projects because often you’re alone in your effort. Side Hustle is one way of ensuring you have support for your passion.
On the Side Hustle site, you can share your Side Hustle, nominate someone, or let them know you’re a Side Hustle Heroine by submitting your story about turning a Side Hustle into a career.
- Share Your Side Hustle: Women with passionate projects can submit their Side Hustle to share what it is, the challenges they face, and how they get through it.
- Nominate a Hustler: Do you know an awesome woman who deserves to be honored for her Hustle? You can nominate them by sharing their story.
- Be a Side Hustle Heroine: Inspire other Hustlers by sharing how you took your Side Hustle to the next level. How did you turn your passion into a career?
There are numerous profiles already on Side Hustle for more inspiration. On it, you will find women like Hilary and Hillary who started the Morph Project, a grassroots charity for women. Or Shelby, who started a nonprofit called Project Apoyo based in Antigua.
Side Hustle Holidays
This holiday season is their first annual holiday event: Side Hustle Holidays! Anyone can go to the Side Hustle Website and nominate a charity to win all of the money donated. You must donate to nominate a charity, with a minimum donation of a dollar.
When you donate, you’re also entered to win one of five awesome prize packages with items donated by 35 Hustlers featured on the site. Prizes include original artwork, signed books, handmade jewelry, original photography, online courses, coaching sessions, and more. The prizes are separated into five categories:
- Business & Career
- Fitness, Health & Wellness
- Beauty & Fashion
- Art, Gifts & Home Decor
- Mama, Kids & Family
Each dollar donated is another entry into the raffle for you and your chosen organization. At the end, five donors will win one of the five prizes and one lucky charity will receive all the money raised. So the more you give, the more likely you AND the charity of your choice will be winners.
How Was Give Used?
Virginia used Give to set up a donation form that would respond with links for people to submit their charity nominations and choose which raffles to enter. While not illiterate with WordPress, Virginia doesn’t call herself an expert. She said,
“My ultimate goal was to provide a quick, easy, and, most importantly, safe way for participants to enter the raffle contests by making a donation on the site. Give allowed me to execute this flawlessly. The setup and installation were quick and comprehensible, and the interface is extremely easy to navigate. My favorite feature is the Submissions archive, which does all of the hard work of recording entries for me and also stores this information in an easily accessible space within the plug-in interface.
At the end of the day, I just wanted to use my platform to create a simple way for people to give to others this holiday season. Give has allowed me to do just that, and I will 100% be using it again and again in the future!”
At the end of the day, give acts as more than a donation button for Virginia. It allows her to keep track of her submissions for her contest as well as collect donations.
Nominate Your Favorite Charity
Whether or not you’re a woman with a Side Hustle, you can enter the raffle and nominate a charity of your choice! The campaign ends on December 23, 2018.
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