Give Forward

GiveForward to Participate in midVentures25 Event

GiveForward is excited to be participating in midVentures25 competition– an event that brings together 25 tech start-ups, all competing for the chance to win valuable prizes.  We will be among the “best investor-ready early-stage start-ups” Chicago has to offer.  Win or lose, the event is a great opportunity for GiveForward and the other start-ups to pitch our businesses to over 400 investors and attendees.

Judging the competition are online innovators such as Andrew Mason, CEO for Groupon, and Chuck Templeton, the founder of OpenTable.  The top 5 finalists will get the opportunity to do a 3 minute pitch for the audience and judges before the ultimate winner is chosen. 

Grand Prize includes hosting from SingleHop, software development consulting from Pathfinder Develoment, tech consulting from midVentures Group, legal services from Pasky IP, online advertising TheNextWeb,  an HP Business Netbook from ChicagoMicro, and $1,000 cash from Inventables.

midVenture25 was founded by Geoff Domoracki, CEO of midVentures, a technology based consulting firm and Jonathan Pasky, a patent attorney and founder of boutique Intellectual Property firm, Pasky IP.

The Demo Day and Conference takes place today, March 11th from 5:00 to 10:00pm at 200 S. Wacker Drive.  The event is open to the public, (with an admission fee of $10), and we encourage you to come out and support GiveFoward! 

For additional information on the event and midVenture, please click here.  For tickets, click here.

GiveForward hits $1 million in donations!

Dear GiveForward Users, Fans, and Friends,

Today GiveForward hit $1million in donations when Ariela A. donated to Team Nicole’s fundraiser.

Words cannot describe how happy we are to have gotten to this point.  In a little over a year and a half, GiveForward has helped people raise $1million for lifesaving things like chemotherapy and organ transplants.  We’ve helped people travel to get the care they need and covered living expenses while undergoing treatment.  But most importantly, we’ve helped build communities around people who are sick, helping them know that they are not alone.

We couldn’t have gotten to this point without you, our friends, users, and supporters.  So, thank you.

This moment is particularly poignant for me because we hit $1million on my late Grandfather’s birthday.  He was my first investor in GiveForward and the one who encouraged me to follow this dream.  He was fortunate enough to be able to afford treatment for his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but during his battle he reflected on how expensive the process was and how lucky he was to be able to focus just on getting well unlike his companions in treatment.

Ethan, too, has lost loved ones to cancer.   He knows first-hand how important it is to create a sense of community around someone who is sick.

We could not be prouder of the direction GiveForward has gone in since we hung our virtual shingle in August of 2008.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you who have made this dream a reality.

With deepest appreciation,

Desiree & Ethan

Co-Founder Desiree Vargas interviewed for Om Times Magazine

Last week, Christopher Buck from Om Times asked me to tell him the full story of how GiveForward got started.  Read the story here in the section called “Lighthouse Calling.”