The answer to that question depends on your goals. Do you want to:

1. Raise money for an existing charity.
2. Start your own organization.

If you want to raise money for an existing charitable organization, you do not need your own 501c3. If you just want to encourage your readers to donate to a specific charity, it’s easy to link to the charities website or to provide donation information. If you’d like to get more involved, contact the charity and ask if you can volunteer or organize a fundraiser on its behalf.

If you want to start your own organization, determine if the organization will have fundraising needs. If you want to ask others to donate or apply for most grants, you will need either a 501c3 status for your organization or a fiscal sponsor.

If your organization/cause  has no expenses (for example: it consists of you organizing a monthly blog carnival or regular Twitter discussion using a specific hashtag), you may not need either a 501c3 status or a fiscal sponsor.

You might be wondering what a “fiscal sponsor” is.  A fiscal sponsor is a 501c3 that lends their legal status to your project. Obtaining and maintaining a 501c3 status is a lot of work. It requires a board and often an accountant, and it can be expensive to get started.

If you have a great idea but lack the funds to pay start-up costs, a “fiscal sponsor” may be the best option. There are different kinds of fiscal sponsorship: “projects” and separate entities. If you are incorporated/registered, you could qualify as a separate entity. Otherwise, a “project” may be a good option for you. You will want to define a formal agreement with your fiscal sponsor regardless. To learn more about “fiscal sponsorship,” check out the Fiscal Sponsorship Directory.

When our co-founder Debbie Bookstaber returned from her role as Cause Marketing panelist at BlogHer 2011, she had the non-profit Share Our Strength on the brain. This non-profit was a donor recipient of session sponsor Jimmy Dean Sausage.

Not long after returning home, Debbie started working with Little Miss Muffin, a company who ran television ads www.mylittlemissmuffin.com about their “muffin”dolls which made her think of all the kids who are hungry and need food (and would surely enjoy a muffin!)

After suggesting the connection, manufacturer Jay at Play International decided to support Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale® by donating 1% (up to $75,000) of all Little Miss Muffin Pop N Flip™ dolls sold in 2012.  Thank you, Jay at Play!

“Jay at Play wanted to give back to the millions of children who already love the brand Little Miss Muffin, so we decided to share our success with Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale,” said Joseph Sutton, Jay at Play managing director. “We are truly honored to show our support and help with the Great American Bake Sale’s mission.”

Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale^®, presented by Domino^® Sugar and C&H^® Sugar, and Duncan Hines^®, is a national effort that encourages Americans to host bake sales in their communities to support the No Kid Hungry^® Campaign, Share Our Strength’s^® national effort to end childhood hunger in America by 2015. Since 2003, more than 1.7 million people have participated in Great American Bake Sale, raising more than $6 million to make sure there is no kid hungry in America. Great American Bake Sale is supported by official bakeware partner Chicago Metallic, national television partner Food Network, national magazine partner Family Circle, and official baking ingredient partner Solo. Visit GreatAmericanBakeSale.org.

Little Miss Muffin arrives to you peeking out of her magical muffin cup. Pop her muffin top, flip the muffin cup inside out, and Little Miss Muffin becomes a soft adorable doll. With sweet expressive faces and bright smiles, there are ten Little Miss Muffin Dolls each with their own flavor to delight kids of all ages. They are available this holiday season exclusively at Toys”R”Us stores and ToysRus.com.

Shop and GIVE! It’s a win-win!

Partnering with visionaries and luminaries across the not-for-profit, business and entertainment worlds, Gina’s Ink, Incorporated has created a platform called the Change My World Now Initiative, which engages, educates and empowers American children, facilitating their ability to reach out and in turn, empower children in countries around the world to move beyond their present circumstances and to find the independence and dignity that education can provide. The Change My World Now Initiative transforms the conversation that children are having with themselves, their peers, their parents and their community. Instilling the ideas of self-reliance, self-worth, tolerance, and self-acceptance early in life will have a radical effect on children, their future, and their circles of influence, creating a cadre of young leaders, truly…Changing the World One Bright Light at a Time.

Follow the bus tour to find out when Gina and her musical crew come to a town near you! This is one act you don’t want miss! You WILL be inspired to change your world. And, buy the book. Kids of all ages can relate!

With so many people out of work and struggling, it is more important than ever for low-income families to be able to access childcare–and diapers are part of that equation.

Help a Mother Out is asking us to support the Diaper Act. This act does not make additional appropriations–that means there is no added cost. This only allows funds that are already allotted fir Child Care Development Funds to be used for diapers to improve child care quality and access.

Will you help a mother out? You can blog, tweet, take photos, and sign this petition!

During the event, P&G Chairman of the Board, President and CEO Bob McDonald shared three aggressive commitments that flow from P&G’s Purpose-inspired Growth Strategy of touching and improving more lives, in more parts of the world, more completely:

• Pampers: P&G’s Pampers and UNICEF are partnering in a new commitment to eliminate Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus (MNT) by 2015 through the 1 pack = 1 vaccine campaign.
• Tide Coldwater: P&G’s Tide Coldwater is working with the Alliance to Save Energy through Future Friendly to educate 100 million people over two years on the importance of cold water washing in order to save energy and therefore reduce CO2 emissions.
• P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program: Inspired by the CGI Action Network on the Horn of Africa Crisis, the P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program and our partners will provide more than 300 million liters of clean drinking water to 2 million people affected by the famine in East Africa, preventing 10 million days of illness.

P&G also took time at CGI to recognize the accomplishments of some of its key partners in global sustainability efforts, giving the following awards:

P&G Distinguished Sustainability Partner Awards:

• The Carrefour Group: For supporting Pampers and UNICEF 1 pack = 1 vaccine campaign in over 20 countries worldwide and helping to protect to date 6 million mums and their babies from Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus
• UNICEF Uganda: For being a strategic partner to Government of Uganda in eliminating Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus in the country with support from the Pampers 1 pack = 1 vaccine campaign

P&G Sustainability Partner Awards:

• Target: For providing more than 1 million days of clean drinking water through partnership on the June 2011 P&G brandSAVER
• National Geographic: For partnering with P&G Future Friendly to create consumer education programs that promote household and lifestyle conservation habits
• USAID: For providing clean drinking water to more than 2 million flood victims in Pakistan and to 1 million people living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa

Spokespersons Lisa Ling and Mandy Moore were also on hand to share their own experiences in their related P&G partnerships.

Did you know that early detection of breast cancer helps save thousands of lives every year? In fact, the five-year survival rate of a stage-one diagnosis is 98%. That’s why P&G and the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) are teaming up for their fourth year of GIVE Hope – a program designed to increase awareness about the important of early detection, provide tools for women to create their own plans, and help all consumers get involved through simple actions and every day purchases.

We hope you’ll join P&G and spokesperson Lisa Ling to help “Do it for the Girls.”

What can you and your readers do to help? It’s simple!

1)     Raise awareness: Use the images and details on this blogger toolkit to create posts about the program and get your readers involved! There’s a special blogger badge you can use, too! http://media.synapticdigital.com/PG/GiveHope/

2)     Show your support: Visit GIVE Hope on Facebook and show your support for breast cancer awareness month by creating badge in honor of the fabulous women in your life! For each badge created, P&G donates an additional $.25 to NBCF (up to $10K). And, in early October, you (and your readers) will have the chance to win a spa day – so stay tuned!

3)     Save and give: Alert your readers to P&G brandSAVER coupons available in newspapers on October 2 and October 16 – for each coupon redeemed, P&G donates $.02 to NBCF to help provide mammograms to women in need.

Congratulations to Sarah Peppel, the winner of the iPad 2. We will be announcing our $1000 Blogger of the Month Winner today as well!

On July 31, P&G will distribute its brandSAVER coupon booklet in newspapers across and country and for each coupon redeemed, P&G will donate $.02 to Communities In Schools, the nation’s leading dropout prevention organization. The donation is uncapped – so the more you save, the more you give.

We hope you’ll join P&G and John Legend in helping to “School the Nation” and keep more than 1 million kids in school. Here’s how you and your readers can help!

• Use the tools in this digital toolkit to create posts about the program and encourage your readers to get involved.

• Join GIVE Education at www.facebook.com/pgmygive for simple, shareable tools you can use to help the cause.

• One blogger who writes about GIVE Education by August 12, 2011 and includes the link to their post in the comments on this post or in our BlogFrog discussion board will be chosen at random by Bloganthropy.org to win an iPad 2! (Note: you must be 18 to enter. Open to US Residents only.)

Thanks for your support of programs that give back!

P&G sponsored the June 24 Bloganthropy Awards and the July Blogger of the Month to help support bloggers who are making strides for important causes. Bloganthropy would like to thank P&G for supporting Bloganthropy members by helping to spread the word about their cause efforts and how you can get involved. The Bloganthropy.org founders are not compensated by P&G for supporting GIVE Education, but P&G is providing the iPad 2 to the winner of this contest. We genuinely support the mission of P&G GIVE Education and hope you’ll participate.

Education is fundamental to providing equal opportunity and keeping the United States competitive in the global economy. Yet, too many of our children fall through the cracks. Every nine seconds, another student will drop out of school. And 2,000 schools are responsible for 50% of the nation’s dropouts.

With the help of P&G Give, we have been able to support and recognize the grass-roots, charitable efforts of the blogging community. So, we were happy to join with several Bloganthropy Advisory Board members and other Bloganthropy members to find out how P&G Give Education is partnering with Communities in Schools to make a difference in the lives of our most at-risk students. We were joined by the spokesman, the famous recording artist and philanthropist, John Legend. John Legend was on hand to sing his song, “Shine”, with the Sports and Arts in Schools Foundation choir from M.S. 390 in University Heights, Bronx.

During a blogger round table, John Legend, shared his passion for, and commitment to, education reform.

Some of the bloggers who spoke with John Legend have posted about their experiences:

Kimberly Coleman, of Foodie City Mom, writes: “On, the parent note, he mentioned something that really stood out…that parents (in poorer communities) need to have higher expectations for what their kids deserve education-wise. [...] Unfortunately, many parents in distressed communities are so consumed with just surviving – especially in this economy – that their kids’ education falls to the wayside.  That is where the “it takes a village” mentality comes in.  There needs to be people in the schools and community who care about all kids – not just their own.  John shared that in addition to his parent, it was the school officials – his guidance counselor, music teacher and gym teachers – who had the greatest impact on him. ” (Read the full post.)

Candace Lindemann: At my education blog, Naturally Educational, I posted:”The issue is a convoluted and messy one that does not have a simple answer. Wrapped up in issues of student performance are problems of health, pollution, race, economic inequality, urban planning, and much, much more. However, there are solutions. We know there are proven methods that can have a dramatic impact on drop out rates. As complex as the issue is, the answer may still be summed up in a word: community.” (Read the full post.)

Sarah Peppel of  also has photo and video of John Legend singing with the kids..

You can help raise a significant donation for Communities in Schools in two ways:

• On Sunday, July 31, the GIVE Education brandSAVER, featuring a note from John Legend, will be distributed in newspapers across the country, with discounts on trusted P&G products. For each GIVE Education brandSAVER coupon redeemed, P&G will donate two cents to CIS – allowing consumers to give back, while saving money. The P&G uncapped donation will be based on the number of coupons redeemed beginning July 31 – the more consumers save, the more they give.
• Watch a video featuring John Legend and CIS students on the P&G myGive Facebook page. When you watch, P&G will make an additional 25¢ donation to CIS (up to $10,000).

Disclosure: P&G Give Education reimbursed travel expenses for the area bloggers who attended the event. Bloganthropy is a non-profit (501-3c pending). The co-foudners of Bloganthropy do not take a salary or other compensation for Bloganthropy projects. All donations go directly to funding Bloganthropy awards and projects.

The Co-founders of The Motherhood, Cooper and Emily, are getting involved with an exciting opportunity through The ONE campaign to promote awareness of the issues that women, especially mothers, experience in Africa. Cooper and Emily, along with 8 other mom-bloggers, will travel to Kenya July 25-30 to spend time with local women and gain insight about their daily struggles. They will meet with experts and see firsthand just how different raising a child is in an underdeveloped country. They will continue to blog about their experiences and utilize social media to help convey the extremity of the situation that moms in Africa face today.

If you are interested in learning more about how you can become involved in their efforts towards raising awareness, you can become a ONEMom team member. Signing up is free and easy and you will receive updates about their journey through Kenya and the issues that they are learning about. You can also help promote their cause by posting on facebook or tweeting with the hashtag #ONEMoms. It only takes one person to make a difference, and you could be her!