If your school is one of the five award winners in the Microgiving.com Baltimore area school page traffic challenge, it will receive its choice of $1,000 in athletic apparel and/or equipment. The winnings can be used to purchase championship jackets or awards, new uniforms, training equipment or anything else the athletic program needs or desires. All you need to do, to help your school win, is to visit your DigitalSports school pages to read articles, view schedules and results and watch video. Every page you view, puts your school one step closer to the prize. Also, use the "email this article" link above to tell your friends and family and seek their support for your school.
Everyone can help - parents, friends, coaches, teachers and more. The more help you get, the better your chances to win.
We are exactly one month into the three month challenge issued to Baltimore area high schools by Microgiving.com and the early returns are in.
The contest described in full below (our original announcement article) is a challenge to see which schools generate the most traffic (page views) for their DigitalSports school page. When the contest concludes on Dec. 22, 2008, the five schools with the highest rankings will receive $1,000 in athletic apparel and/or equipment of their choosing.
The rankings are based on a formula which factors school page views against the school's enrollment. With two months to go, there is still plenty of time to change your school's ranking, even if you are not in this initial Top 25. The contest literally remains wide open.
Alert your classmates, teachers, family and friends to visit your school's team page to read athletic stories about your high school.
Now, here is our initial Top 25. Look for another update soon.
1. Dunbar High School
2. Towson Catholic
3. Our Lady of Mount Carmel
4. Archbishop Curley
5. Mount St. Joseph
6. Loyola Blakefield
7. Franklin High School
8. St. Pauls School
9. Mount de Sales Academy
10. Hereford High School
11. Archbishop Spalding
12. John Carroll School
13. St. Frances Academy
14. Hammond High School
15. Meade High School
16. Eastern Tech High School
17. Cardinal Gibbons School
18. Calvert Hall College
19. Loch Raven High School
20. Gilman School
21. Fallston High School
22. St. Marys High School
23. Havre De Grace High School
24. River Hill High School
25. Key School
(Read below for our original announcement on this special campaign)High school athletic programs do many things to raise funds, but there may never be an easier source of precious support than a new program, announced for the first time right here, from
Microgiving.com and DigitalSports.
Here is how it works.
Every high school in the DigitalSports Baltimore Metro area (Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Carroll County, Cecil County, Harford County and Howard County, as well as all of the private high schools of the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association and the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland) is part of the DigitalSports network and has its own DigitalSports athletic page. This page is your key to victory.
From September 22, 2008 through December 22, 2008 we will be measuring traffic (page views) on all of the Baltimore area DigitalSports high school pages, and the five schools with the highest school page traffic, based on a weighted average determined by the student population, will receive $1,000 each in athletic apparel and/or equipment, of their choosing.
School page traffic consists of all page views recorded for the athletic home page, each team page and all schedule and statistical pages on those sites.
How do you find your school page?
Easy! Just CLICK HERE to open a new window containing a search tool which can take you right there. Simply select Maryland in the top drop down filter, select School on the second level and select Your School Name in the third drop down box. Finally, hit Go and you will be transported directly to your school page, where you can visit separate pages for every team in your school, review all of the schedules, stats and scores, watch video and much, much more. Consume as many pages as possible, as everyone you visit, improves your school's chances of winning.MicroGiving.com has presented this opportunity as a way of introducing itself, and its incredible new venture to this region.
MicroGiving.com is a philanthropic marketplace, which matches people in much the same way as eBay, but instead of bringing together buyers and sellers, it connects donors and recipients. It's mission is to provide, facilitate and empower individual charitable donations. They do this by giving their members the ability to pick, choose and give directly to anyone in need; no matter how much money one has to give.
The site was founded by Baltimore native John Ferber, who also founded Baltimore based Advertising.com, along with his brother Scott. That firm was aquired by AOL in 2004 for $495 million and it now has a book value of approximately $10 billion.
This was not his only success.
Ferber also co-developed the world's first internet-based multiple player video game. This ultimately led to his formation of Instant Access Communications and a software product called ClickTrack -- a measurement tool that enbled the tracking and measurement of sales on the internet. ClickTrack laid the foundation for the formation of Advertising.com in early 1998.
"I created
MicroGiving.com based on the belief that there are millions of other like-minded individuals who want to help others and expect no repayment for their assistance," said Ferber. “It is a great thrill to be able to bring what I have envisioned to fruition and to help so many people nationwide."
The principle of Microgiving.com is simple. Individuals with verifiable need can create a profile where they explain what they need and why. Donors can then browse these listings and give, as much or as little as they desire, directly to those causes. Recipients and donors can see the progress of the funds raised for each individual and 100% of the donations are paid directly to the recipients through the site.
Maybe you need help or would like to lend a hand to someone else. If so,
MicroGiving.com is here to assist you. In the interim, however, you can help your school's athletic program simply by logging onto your DigitalSports school athletic pages and racking up page views, as you follow your sports teams.
At the end of each month, we will list the Top 10 page view performers in Baltimore on this page, and at the end of the contest the winners will be announced.