Pixel Article: Fundraising with Pixel Advertising Raises Money and Awareness for Nonprofit Organizations

By Amy Passmore

Pixel advertising is a form of internet advertising that is increasing in popularity. Publicity surrounding a pixel advertising website created by a British college student who needed to raise money to pay for his education has created great interest in this type of advertising.

The website, called the milliondollarhomepage.com, has earned its creator, Alex Tew, hundreds of thousands of dollars since he launched it in August, 2005. Tew's website homepage is a grid that is divided into one million pixel blocks. The pixels are sold to advertisers in blocks of 100 pixels, each measuring 10 x 10 pixels. Each pixel block becomes part of a colorful mosaic of advertising on the website. At $1.00 a pixel, when the page is sold out,Tew will have raised one million dollars for his education with this creative advertising technique.

Could your nonprofit organization, club, or group raise one million dollars by selling micro advertising pixel blocks? It is possible. Anyone can set up a pixel advertising website and The Million Dollar Homepage has inspired many businesses and organizations to create their own pixel advertising campaigns. Your organization may already be selling advertising space in your programs or other printed materials. Selling pixel advertising is just like selling any other form of advertising except that the advertisement appears on the world wide web for as long as you keep your website up. The potential of millions of people seeing their advertisement, for a year or longer, is a great selling point to advertisers and donors.

What do you need to get started with pixel advertising fundraising? If your organization already has a website you can set up pixel advertising on a page of your existing site. Or, you can buy a new domain name and set up a website soley for your pixel fundraising. You will need a web hosting account for your site and a pixel advertising software program. You can buy a software program online and install it yourself or have it professionally installed. Your organization will also need to set up an online payment processor,such as PayPal. When your website is set up you will need a person in your organization to administer and monitor the program. You'll be able to sell all the advertising online through the software program as well as process the payments online.

Does trying to raise one million dollars sound a bit unrealistic for your organization? When you set up your software program you will be able to set your own selling price for the pixels. So, your organization must decide how much money you need to raise and what the theme of your advertising website will be. If you want to raise fifty thousand dollars, then you would sell your pixels for five cents a pixel. This would make a one hundred pixel block cost only five dollars. You can also change the minimum number of required ad block purchases. If your minimum required ad blocks are one thousand, then your minimum ad block would cost a very reasonable fifty dollars per ad space. You would also only have to sell one thousand ad spaces in order to earn fifty thousand dollars. Even if you sold your pixels for a penny a pixel, you could still earn ten thousand dollars from one pixel ad page.

How can nonprofit organizations use pixel advertising? You could sell pixels and donate the money to a charitable organization such as The American Red Cross. Or, set up a pixel page to raise money for a specific project such as building a playground, or a spring school class trip. Pixels don't have to be sold to only businesses. A school group could sell pixels to alumni or parents of a graduating class. A graduating class could set up a pixel page and raise money for their graduation night party.

The possibilities for fundraising with pixel advertising are limitless. A well-designed and promoted pixel advertising campaign has the potential to raise money and awareness for your organization. This form of advertising fundraising is well worth considering as a part of your organization's fundraising strategy.

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