craigslist Founder Craig Newmark and The Rahr Foundation Launch the "Veterans Charity Challenge" on CrowdRise to Raise Funds for Veterans, Military Family Groups

SAN FRANCISCO, May 23, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- In honor of Memorial Day, craigslist founder Craig Newmark and The Rahr Foundation launched the "Veterans Charity Challenge" to raise funds for nonprofit organizations benefiting veterans and their military families. The Challenge will run from May 23 at 12 p.m. EDT through July 3 at 12 p.m. EDT on Edward Norton's CrowdRise and will award $100,000 in donation prizes.

Using the CrowdRise platform, fundraising teams participating in the Veterans Charity Challenge will raise and keep funds, plus compete with each other to win additional cash prizes based on how much they raise for their charity. The nonprofit that raises the most money by the end of the Challenge will receive a $35,000 donation from Craig Newmark and The Rahr Foundation on behalf of the Veterans Charity Challenge. Second place will receive a $25,000 donation. Third place will receive a $15,000 donation. An additional $25,000 will be given to charities throughout the campaign in Bonus Challenges.

"I think if someone's willing to serve and even risk his or her life for me, I should give back," said Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist and craigconnects. "And it's not only those who serve, it's also family members who give up a lot for all of us."

"It couldn't be cooler that all these organizations are raising money for their causes in such a modern way and embracing crowd-funding," said Robert Wolfe of CrowdRise. "We're so excited that Craig and The Rahr Foundation are digging in to help our veterans and the organizations that serve them."

The Challenge begins on May 23 at 12 p.m. EDT and ends on July 3 at 12 p.m. EDT. Any nonprofit organization benefiting veterans and their military families can join the 44 confirmed nonprofits participating in the Challenge.

CrowdRise has hosted other challenges supporting various organizations, including the Mozilla Firefox Challenge, which raised over $1 million for more than 100 charities. And a few weeks ago, the JobRaising Challenge, sponsored by The Huffington Post and The Skoll Foundation, raised over $1.2 million for job creation charities.

For further information visit www.crowdrise.com/veteranschallenge or Email.

About craigconnects
Launched in March 2011, craigconnects is Craig Newmark's personal, Web-based initiative to support philanthropy and public service. The initiative spotlights individuals, organizations, and agencies working for veterans and military families, open government, public diplomacy, back-to-basics journalism, consumer protection, and technology for the common good. craigconnects is a fiscally sponsored project of Community Initiatives. 

About CrowdRise
CrowdRise is a crowd-funding platform for people and organizations to raise support for charitable causes.

CrowdRise's core principles are that people have unprecedented power to use the power of networks to leverage their personal capacity and that raising money for charity and giving back should be fun. CrowdRise's custom-built platform and game theory, as well as the company's proven record of designing innovative crowdfunding strategies, provide individual fundraisers, charities, and events with powerful tools to raise the most money for their causes and share compelling philanthropic stories with their personal networks. The site lets anyone turn their friends into an active base of donors for any cause and lets any organization, company, or event unlock untapped leverage out of their existing platform.

CrowdRise topped Mashable's list of "Most Innovative Crowdfunding Platforms" and was named a "Top 25 Best Global Philanthropist" by Barron's. CrowdRise was founded by actor and activist Edward Norton, producer Shauna Robertson, and the founders of Moosejaw, Robert and Jeffrey Wolfe. Thousands of charitable organizations, events, celebrities, and everyday donors have made CrowdRise their philanthropic base for giving back.

Contacts
Aaron Gannon
CrowdRise PR
Email 
212-691-2800

Bruce Bonafede
craigconnects.org
Email 
760-831-5080

SOURCE craigconnects