Congrats to the winners for the week ending January 31st! We’re very excited to grant a total of $1000 to our two naughty and nice recipients.

On the Nice side, A Husband in Need! asked for help in launching his wife’s singing career. When Katrina struck in 2005, they lost all they had worked for, including the master copies of her previous recordings. They had asked for a keyboard, a wireless microphone, headset microphone, portable recording studio, midi cable, blank cd, cd jewel cases, cd duplicator (ebay.com) and gloss paper (officedepot.com) to print flyers. Hopefully they let us know how far their $500 winnings went for them! Congratulations!

On the Naughty side, Save Karen’s Life! made her plea to replace her bike with a car! Navigating the streets of LA became slightly treacherous on her two wheeler, and she wanted to join the motorized set to avoid another accident. She contacted a ton of her friends, got on some blogs, and drove traffic to her wish. I’ve talked with her personally; she’s a fantastic person and we’re ecstatic to fund her wish for $500! Stay tuned, I have a feeling Karen’s story is far from over?

Thanks to everyone who entered last week’s pot, and get your wishes in for next week’s! Remember, all you have to do is ask…

Thanks,
ParkerTexasRanger

Starting Wednesday January 31st, the Robinhood Fund has changed the way you vote on wishes! Previously, your votes were cast as a wish view, so that anytime you clicked on a wish, it increased that wish’s chances of success. We’d received some feedback from the community, and have decided to make the voting process much more interactive.

We’ve created a new voting system based on ‘Wish Points’. You cast your votes through the 5-star rating menu seen on each wish. When you support a wish by giving a high star rating, you grant it Wish Points. If you do not support a wish, rating it poorly will take some of its Wish Points away. To grant your opinion worth even more weight, we multiply your star rating by your participation rank. Therefore, a community member with a full Participation meter has 100% more voting power of a member with no site participation (a member with 50% Participation has 50% more power than a member with 0%, etc). Whichever wish has the most Wish Points at the end of the voting period wins.

We wanted to put the power squarely back in the hands of our members and reflect the opinions they have more accurately. We appreciate any feedback. Email me directly at parker@robinhoodfund.com with your opinion!

Thanks,
ParkerTexasRanger

To enhance the prize offerings of Robinhood Fund, we’ve decided to offer specific Themed Challenges. These will offer specific prizes, and ask you to make a wish about why you deserve that prize. First up, is our Snowboard Challenge. We’ve partnered up with some of the most influential businesses in the Canadian Rockies to offer the snowboard experience of a lifetime.

Airfare for you and a friend to Banff, 3 nights accommodation at the Chateau Lake Louise, and lift passes to the Lake Louise Mountain Resort are just the start. You’ll get the chance to ride with a pro snowboarder for a day, and have the entire experience filmed and produced by a professional snowboard production studio! It’ll be an experience you’ll never forget. No matter your skill level, I guarantee you’ll have an awesome time…

Thanks,
ParkerTexasRanger

Robinhood Fund has gone Web 2.0! The layout and navigation of our site have been totally changed effective January 19th, 2007. You’ll notice the website changing as you interact with it. Just like that firebrand St. Nick, we know if you’re naughty or nice… and the site experience you have changes to reflect that! We’ve added a ton of features, and are adding more everyday to enhance your interactions with the site. If you have specific feedback on the site, I’d love to hear it personally at parker@robinhoodfund.com!

Thanks,
ParkerTexasRanger

After six long weeks of fierce competition the Robinhood Fund’s community has chosen the winning wishes in our $20,000 giveaway! Over the full span of the contest wishes rose and fell in the rankings, as wishers contacted their friends and family and worked hard to publicize their wish and earn more votes.

When the dust settled and the votes were counted, two wishes emerged triumphant:

Nice: Jeffrey Way’s wish for $10,000 to fund his participation in the construction of an orphanage and chicken farm in Mozambique.

Naughty: David Dineen-Porter’s wish for $10,000 to purchase a professional-quality camcorder and editing suite so that he can defeat Stephen Spielberg in film-to-film combat.

Want to see how the winners reacted when we handed over their giant novelty cheques? We’ll have video soon, stay tuned!

“Pursuing comedy was a huge gamble. The $10,000 is amazing, but the validation of the Robinhood Fund community choosing to award it to me is something you can’t put a price on.”
- David Dineen-Porter

We at Robinhood Fund want to thank everyone who entered a wish, and everyone who voted on them. Our community chose 2 winners, and has changed their lives. Stay tuned for some follow-up videos, as we stay in touch with the winners and keep you up to date!

Today’s the day! Voting is finished and we are tallying the results. Winners will be announced on January 18.

In the meantime, why not enter a wish for our current pot of $1,000, which will be awarded in less than 2 weeks. You will be excited to notice that Robinhood Fund no longer requires a $5 wish submission fee, now you wish for free!

GoodSearch.com is a new search engine, powered by Yahoo Search, that makes a donation to charity for every search that you do.

It doesn’t get much easier than that! Now you can help change people’s lives at Robinhood Fund and by using GoodSearch. Do you know about any other sites that should be listed here? Let me know by posting a comment.

Well actually, we’re less than 2 weeks away from announcing the winners of our $20,000 pot. Two lucky people will each be $10,000 richer, and able to fulfill their wishes!

If you’re not in the lead right now, don’t despair. Two weeks(ish) is a long time and if you promote your wish you may still come out on top. So start emailing all your friends, send them a link to your wish and encourage them to register and vote for you.

If you don’t have a video yet, make sure you get one added. We’ve noticed that wishes with videos are getting more views and tend to be getting more votes than those without videos. If you need help making a video, contact us and let us know. We have a tip sheet that will walk you through it, even if you don’t have a camera!