My name is Mark Goodfield. Welcome to The Blunt Bean Counter ™, a blog that shares my thoughts on income taxes, finance and the psychology of money. I am a Chartered Professional Accountant. This blog is meant for everyone, but in particular for high net worth individuals and owners of private corporations. My posts are blunt, opinionated and even have a twist of humour/sarcasm. You've been warned. Please note the blog posts are time sensitive and subject to changes in legislation or law.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Bloggers for Charity

Bensimon Byrne one of my firm’s clients and a very successful advertising agency, deserves recognition for raising almost $100,000 for the United Way over the last four years. Every November they have a variety of events to fund raise on behalf of the United Way. One of the events includes an auction where friends, clients and suppliers of the firm donate services or goods that are then auctioned off.

Our firm having no goods to offer donates services; last year bidders could win a free tax planning and wealth meeting with yours truly, one of the most prized auction items :). This year, I considered auctioning off a free Guest Blogger spot on my blog, which got me thinking, why not have other bloggers do the same thing Canada wide, to raise money for charity?

I have thus enlisted the help of five of the best known financial bloggers in Canada; Boomer & Echo, Canadian Capitalist, Michael James On Money, Canadian Finance Blog and the Retire Happy Blog. Each of them have agreed to participate in Bloggers for Charity (see downloadable badge below) and tomorrow will nominate five other bloggers to join the Blogger for a Day effort. All bloggers, should feel free to join the effort (this initiative is not limited to financial bloggers) whether nominated or not and encourage their blogger contacts to join the Bloggers for Charity initiative.

For my readers, I know many of you have latent writing aspirations, so please feel free to bid and let the writer in you free. Please send your bid to my email at bluntbeancounter@gmail.com.

Here are the so-called rules:

1. Each blogger will auction off the opportunity to write a guest post on their blog.

2. All bids will be made in confidence to the blogger’s email account. The blogger at their discretion can email back bidders the current top bid or note the amount of the leading bid on their blog to encourage bidding.

3. The auction will close on December 16, 2011. The blogger will notify the winning bidder by email.

4. The winning bidder will be required to send the blogger a copy of a donation receipt, dated between December 17th and December 31st (personal information can be blacked-out) to confirm the donation has been made. (This donation will be tax deductible to the winning bidder as long as the donation is made to a registered charity).

5. For unanimity amongst bloggers, it is suggested that January 17, 2012 be the date all the Blogger for a Day posts are posted.

6. The winner can write a post on any topic (subject to censorship by the particular blogger), although in the spirit of the contest, it would be great if the winning bidder wrote about a charity or charitable experience, but that is not a requirement. The only rule is that the guest post cannot be a marketing piece. However, at the bottom of their post, the guest blogger can provide their name, name of their company and a brief description of their company and its products. Alternatively, the guest blogger can remain anonymous.

7. All bloggers who participate are asked to email my assistant Lynda at Lynda@cunninghamca.com to note their participation and then to email Lynda with their winning bid so I can tally the donations received. All individual donation totals will be kept confidential.

8. Bloggers participating in the Bloggers for Charity initiative can download a badge (see below) to denote their participation.

9. All participating bloggers will be noted below as they join the initiative.

LIST OF BLOGGERS


Boomer & Echo                           Canadian Capitalist

Michael James On Money            Canadian Finance Blog

Retire Happy Blog                        Financial Highway

Canadian Financial DIY                Where Does All My Money Go

Young and Thrifty                         Canadian Personal Finance Blog

The Blunt Bean Counter

GET BUTTONS


Cut and paste the following script, starting with <a  and ending with </a> into a custom html widget on your sidebar, or into the html editor of of your blog CMS.
 
300 x 150  Bloggers For Charity

<a href="http://www.thebluntbeancounter.com/2011/11/bloggers-for-charity.html"><img class="alignleft" src="http://bit.ly/vu9Ffd" alt="Bloggers For Charity" width="300" height="150" /></a>


180 x 150  Bloggers For Charity

<a href="http://www.thebluntbeancounter.com/2011/11/bloggers-for-charity.html"><img class="alignleft" src="http://bit.ly/txyJuT" alt="Bloggers For Charity" width="180" height="150" /></a>


120 x 90   Bloggers For Charity

<a href="http://www.thebluntbeancounter.com/2011/11/bloggers-for-charity.html"><img class="alignleft" src="http://bit.ly/sZ7m3k" alt="Bloggers For Charity" width="120" height="90" /></a>


More Bloggers For Charity buttons in different sizes coming soon.

The blogs posted on The Blunt Bean Counter provide information of a general nature. These posts should not be considered specific advice; as each reader's personal financial situation is unique and fact specific. Please contact a professional advisor prior to implementing or acting upon any of the information contained in one of the blogs.

8 comments:

  1. Really brilliant idea for charity! A great twist from the ordinary. I will absolutely take part in this venture. Well done Mark!

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  2. Sustainable PF, I hope you will join the initative.

    Ray, thanks you have been added

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  3. Excellent idea and good initiative, Sign up CanadianFinancialDIY too.

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  4. Thx Canadian Financial DIY, you have been added

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  5. I'm in. Michael James on Money tagged me. :)

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  6. Thanks Preet, Michael is the Colton Orr of our group, once he tags you, you are it :)

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