This guest post is written by GoFundMe user and racing prodigy Dan Wells…

Hi GoFundMe users! My name is Dan Wells, and I am a 21 year old British racing driver living and racing in Asia. My first experience of the Gofundme site was in November 2011. I had just finished the Formula Renault UK Finals Series, a championship that Lewis Hamilton has competed in, and I had finished 2nd overall out of nearly 30 drivers. It was one of the most competitive junior racing categories in Europe, and our results should have been a springboard for sponsors and partners to support us the following year. However, with the economy as difficult as it was, this was not the case.

The ‘GoFundMe’ race car.

I don’t give up; when I set my mind to something I will always achieve it. I was 18 when I decided I wanted to be Formula One World Champion and I have pursued this goal wholeheartedly ever since. Funding is a major issue as motor racing is so expensive; however I needed to start from somewhere! I created the page in late November, and really started promoting myself on social media such as Twitter. I was overwhelmed by the response that we had – in little over 3 months we had raised over 8,500GBP from over 100 different sponsors worldwide! A lot of other drivers followed suit but weren’t as successful as us – I became what I called the ‘Twitter Powered Racing Driver’.

This funding wasn’t enough to pay for a full motor racing season, however I knew my constant networking and pushing for sponsors would pay off somehow – I just didn’t know how! After advice from my manager Dave Madgwick, I decided to continue my racing career in Asia – and am now based in Hong Kong to try and raise the funds necessary to reach my goal of Formula One.

The funding from Gofundme allowed me to make the move to Asia and test with my new team KCMG (www.kcmg.com.hk); where we were P1 on both days, and without this there is no way I would be racing at all. I have so much to be thankful for – and one day I will reward everyone who put their money on the line to support me in reaching my goal.

We are currently leading the Ferrari backed Formula Pilota China Championship having taken 2 victories and 4 podiums for 6 races so far. You can follow me on twitter @danwellsracing.

Find out more information at my website www.danwellsfans.wordpress.com and support me at www.gofundme.com/danwellsracing.

Happy Birthday to Us!

That’s right – GoFundMe is turning 2! These last couple of years have been really exciting, thanks to YOU! People like you are helping to make the World a better place – one donation at a time. You are literally changing the way the World gives – congratulations!

To celebrate our 2nd anniversary we’re releasing a nifty infographic. Check it out.

Your stories have been covered in nearly every major media outlet in the US – not to mention Canada, the UK and throughout Europe. At this point, you’re raising over two million dollars each month (that’s $2,000,000.00 USD) and generating between three and four million pageviews each month – that’s some serious giving!

We wouldn’t be here without you so please keep that feedback coming. There’s a handful of awesome updates in-the-works that will be sure to provide you with an even better experience on GoFundMe.

From all of us at GoFundMe,
THANK YOU!

This is a guest post from GoFundMe user and American Idol-to-be, Britnee Kellogg. Visit Britnee’s page here: http://www.gofundme.com/okz9k

I was three years old when I started singing, and I have never stopped. My career began at local fairs and talent shows—anything that gave me the chance to perform. “If it had a stage and a microphone, I was in!”

My love of country music started when I first heard Reba McEntire sing “Does He Love You.” Smitten from the first note, I knew that I had found my chosen career. Every day since then has brought me one step closer to my dream of singing for a living.

Today, you’ll find Me performing with Portland band, 5 Guys Named Moe, and opening for the likes of Jake Owen, Chris Young, Kip Moore, Tim Mcgraw, and Kelli Pickler. You also may have seen me on season 11 of American Idol. I am a divorced single mother of two boys, Caiden, 4 and Hudson, 2. Last season, I made it to the top 45, so now I am heading to San Antonio June 10th to audition for Season 12!! I could really use YOUR help. Auditions came out just 2 weeks prior to the audition, therefore airline tickets and hotel costs are extremely high. I plan to go ALL THE WAY this year, I would love your help getting there!!!

My experience with GoFundMe so far has been AMAZING… It was so easy to set up, I love the way the profiles look, and transferring money is so simple!! I am thankful for a site like this that makes it easy to set up a donation fund so effortlessly. THANK YOU!

A big thanks to all of you who participated in our most recent request for feedback. We were overwhelmed with responses and really wish we could have included you all! It was wonderful to hear your stories and learn more about your experience with GoFundMe. Every day you’re inspiring other people to make a difference in their own lives – and in the lives of others. You are amazing!

Interested in learning more about GoFundMe? Take the tour, browse our categories or sign-up now!

GoFundMe user Desiree Sullivan recently got our attention with her fantastic video. Including a video on your GoFundMe page can be much more effective than a standard photo. Desiree was nice enough to share some video tips below. If you find the article useful, be sure to stop by Desiree’s GoFundMe page to say thanks!

Hello, my name is Desiree Sullivan.  I was accepted into my dream school, Biola University, but I don’t have enough money to pay tuition. So I made this video to help raise funds here , and I guess the people at GoFundMe liked it, since they asked me to write a post about it.  So here I am!

GoFundMe is a platform geared towards helping others raise money with tools to spread your message.  If you’re here on GoFundMe, it means you need other people to take notice of a cause. So how do you get help?  How do you communicate your message?

You can write about your cause, and stick it on a blog.  You can tell people about it through word of mouth.  You can tweet about it, and hope your tag trends.  All of these are effective tools, but sometimes people don’t have time to read a post, or forgot the title of your project and didn’t write it down, or maybe 180 characters doesn’t quite explain everything.  Videos are fast, they are both visual and audible, and maybe you can even get a song stuck in somebody’s head.

I need help for my cause and I’m trying to reach as many people as possible.  Pictures are worth a thousand words, right? A video has 60 frames, still images, per second. That’s a lot of potential for great impact!

Still, let’s face it: not everyone knows how to make a video or where to start. These are the steps I took, and maybe they’ll help you share your own message.  Hopefully, they’ll make the process go smoothly, because as I discovered, there’s quite a bit that goes into film-making.

Step 1: HAVE YOUR SCRIPT

I can’t emphasize this enough!  What you want to say should drive your project and the means with which you present it.

The whole point of making a video is to send a message to the person on the other end watching it.  So you need to know what you want to say before you even touch a camera.  The audience needs to know what they have to do to help you and how to do it. In short: introduce the cause, present the problem, give a solution, remind the audience of the personal aspect, and end with a call to action.

My own script was pretty simple.

I first introduced myself and told the audience a little about my dream.  Basically, my goal was to get viewers to care about my case, to trust me, and to like me.  So providing background information like that was important in making things personal, but I also wanted to provide the pertinent information in a fun way.

My case is this: I want to attend my dream school, but I don’t have enough money to pay for tuition.  I laid out the numbers, explained what was what, and I showed my solution.  My goal was to explain what I needed help with, but to keep people from scratching their heads, thinking, “Well what do you want me to do about it?”   I think the most important thing though is that I showed what I was going to do with the money.  I want people to rest assure that I’m trustworthy and that I’m not going to use their donations irresponsibly.

Step 2: Plan it out

There are infinite ways to present a cause!

I happened across a video that inspired me, and I drew inspiration from it. Don’t think that the way I did my video is the only one that works, or would even work for your particular cause.

If you don’t feel like you’re a natural visionary, do research.  Browse YouTube’s featured section, or check out other popular videos.  Take notes from those that impacted you the most. I can’t tell you how to make your project, because only you have the creativity and knowledge to present your cause!

Step 3: Equipment

You finally get to pick up a camera!  But… which camera?

There are many cameras available, but don’t worry; you don’t need to sell a kidney to make a video. There are tons of great camcorders that are reasonably priced! The camcorder that I used for my video was a Kodak Zi8 (you could even use a smart phone).
Other than that, I highly recommend investing in a tripod.  Even really relaxed people sway a little bit when standing still, and unless your camcorder has stabilization, camcorders and cameras are typically sensitive to the slightest of movements which can be kind of dizzying to watch.

Step 4: Shooting the Video

Shoot your video lots of times!

No, really. Even if you get it right once, do it again at another angle or in a different setting. You’ll find that the most interesting videos of people talking are the ones that change angles, show different perspectives, different expressions, etc. News networks, movies, and ads do it! Not only does it make things more interesting but you’ll find that sometimes that one shot that you thought went really well…didn’t.

Trust me on this.  It helps if you have a lot of video to work with so you don’t have to panic and reshoot.  So shoot lots of times, and don’t expect everything to go perfectly every shoot.

Second, don’t have your subject centered in your video all the time.  Instead have them to the side of the video. There are two concepts that I am referring to that you can Wikipedia in your spare time: the rule of thirds, and asymmetry. Without going into too much detail, by placing your subjects to the side and having them be the focal point (the dominant thing) in the shot it makes your subject more interesting to look at. If you watch closely, especially in photography, the really interesting images and videos have the focal point to the side typically.  This also works well when you splice up your footage (which I’ll be getting to later), because it provides variety from scene to scene.

Finally, keep your video short as possible.  People start to get antsy after watching a video for longer than five minutes. My personal recommendation is to shoot for the 2-5 minute range. Your video should tell the most important facts, and everything else can be listed on your GoFundMe page.

Step 5: Editing the Video

No, you’re not done yet.  Actually, this is perhaps the most important step.  Sometimes, it’s the most time-consuming one.   How you edit the video is up to you, but if you choose to include music, use the music’s own tempo as a guide to editing your own video.

So how do you even edit a video?  I used Adobe Premiere to edit mine. I realize not everyone has that program or can afford it but there are several options out there. Several that are easily available and affordable are:

• Vegas Movie Studio HD 11 (MAC and PC, only $44.95)
• Windows Live Movie Maker (free, PCs only, formerly known as Microsoft Movie Maker)
• iMovie (free, MACs only)

As I was editing my video, I selected the shots based on a basic criteria:

• Is the subject clearly visible? In my case, was I able to read the signs clearly?
• Is the lighting bright enough? In my case, I was shooting my video as the sun was setting so a lot of my shots were too dark.
• Is the shot interesting to watch? Since I had various angles and settings of the same material, I chose the best angles and shots for each scene.

The signs that I used the video I made in Adobe InDesign. Again, I know not everyone has that program or can afford it so here are some alternatives:

1. Use the Adobe Indesign Free 30-day trial.
2. GIMP (free alternative to Photoshop that you can find through online search)
3. Adobe Photoshop Express (Adobe’s free Photoshop alternative)
4. Microsoft Publisher
5. Microsoft Word
6. Google Docs (Free alternative to Microsoft Suite)
7. OpenOffice (free alternative to the Microsoft Suite)

The thing with all the software I just mentioned is that there can be a bit of a learning curve.  These programs generally come with intro guides, and there are so many helpful tutorials out there that Google can put you in touch with, so I’ll leave the technical advice to the experts.

A couple things I noted when making my own video though: music helps the viewer engage with the video. Music is optional, but it helps make a more impactful video.

Just remember that different types of music incite different moods and feelings that the audience will have towards the video. Movies are a perfect example of this! For instance you can tell the difference between an Epic movie and a Horror flick just by listening to the music. Therefore, choose your music wisely so that it complements your cause, your video and your message. If you use a voiceover take care that the music doesn’t overpower it

Don’t be afraid to take risks, and save your work frequently!

Hopefully, my video will inspire other projects, and inspire other people.  I’m just a student with access to a camera and the internet, and what I’ve learned is mostly stuff that I’ve picked up through the trial-and error process (with a few classes bundled in).

Still, I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished, and GoFundMe liked my video enough to ask me to write this post for you guys,  if that’s saying anything (thank you!!! You guys rock!).  My experience with GoFundMe has been just incredible. My campaign is still young and I may not be as close to my goal as I would like at this moment, but my video has granted me an audience beyond just a webpage.   I am ever more a firm believer in the power of mixed media!  Social media is crazy powerful. Lack of experience isn’t really a good enough reason to not try every avenue in getting your message across.

And don’t be shy. Your cause needs you to step out of your comfort zone. Good luck!
-Desiree

A big thanks to our friends over at ExplanationVideos.com for helping us with our latest video below. Let us know what you think in the comments below…

Did you notice those new buttons at the top of your GoFundMe Dashboard today? Have a look below to learn more about each button:

From left to right…

Orange Check Button:
Sharing frequent, interesting Update Messages with your supporters is one of the best ways to attract additional donations. Now you can post an update from just about anywhere by clicking the orange button.

Green Dollar Button:
The Withdraw button is available for US users only who choose to receive payments using WePay. Clicking this button allows you to review your balance and view the status of your prior withdrawals! International users can still visit their PayPal accounts to access their money.

Question Mark Button:
Clicking this button will take you to our Frequently Asked Questions page where you’ll also have access to our Contact form and community Help Center.

Silhouette Button:
Access your Account Settings and Sign Out link by clicking this button. The Account Settings area allows you to manage your email, password and social media accounts like Facebook & Twitter.