November 22, 2016

Make Your Date joins Crowdrise on #GivingTuesday to help build virtual reality tower made entirely of donations#

Help Make Your Date win $25,000 on #GivingTuesday by donating to its campaign on CrowdRise

Make Your Date announced today that it will join CrowdRise, the largest crowdfunding platform for good, to participate in the CrowdRise Giving Tower, its #GivingTuesday campaign.

The CrowdRise Giving Tower is a virtual tower made of bricks, each of which represents a donation made to charity on #GivingTuesday (Nov. 29), giving thousands of charities a prebuilt, zero-cost, innovative and engaging way to raise funding. As donations are made, users can watch the tower grow brick-by-brick via a free virtual reality app available in the iTunes store and Google Play. The organization that raises the most on #GivingTuesday will win an additional $25,000 donation.

Make Your Date is asking the community to help with #GivingTuesday fundraising efforts. Preterm birth is the leading cause of infant mortality worldwide. In Detroit, a staggering number of babies are born premature – higher than the national average and rivaling some third-world countries. Make Your Date is Detroit’s plan to reduce preterm birth by implementing evidence-based strategies through the execution of education, collaboration and partnerships with health care systems, universities and other established programs in the area. With the support of the mayor’s office, major medical institutions, universities, foundations and insurance companies, the organization has built a caring and supportive team dedicated to turning the tide against the problem of preterm birth. Research shows that targeted interventions, discovered by researchers at the Wayne State University School of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health’s Perinatology Research Branch at WSU, can radically reduce the risks.

This year, during Prematurity Awareness Month, Make Your Date is joining CrowdRise on #GivingTuesday to raise much-needed funds to provide expectant mothers with the tools they need to have a healthy, happy, full-term delivery.

The Giving Tower campaign kicks off the CrowdRise Holiday Charity Challenge, a fundraising campaign on CrowdRise for charitable organizations of any size to leverage their traditional holiday giving in an innovative and fun competition. The top-raising charities win grand prize donations for their causes. Participating organizations will compete for $250,000 in donations from challenge sponsors, including the Craig Newmark Foundation and The Charity Network.

The CrowdRise Holiday Charity Challenge launched Nov. 22 at noon and runs through 1:59 p.m. Jan. 5. The team that raises the most on #GivingTuesday wins $25,000. The team that raises the most throughout the challenge wins a $100,000 donation; second place gets $50,000; third gets $25,000; fourth gets $10,000 and fifth gets $5,000. Weekly bonus challenges enable charities to win up to another $60,000.

To help Make Your Date on #GivingTuesday and throughout the CrowdRise Holiday Charity Challenge visit https://www.crowdrise.com/MakeYourDateDetroit.

Make Your Date is a free program that provides mothers-to-be with the support and medical interventions they need to make their due date. Its mission is to reduce preterm birth by implementing evidence-based strategies through the execution of education, collaboration and partnerships with health care systems, universities and other established programs.

CrowdRise is the world’s largest and fastest growing online platform dedicated exclusively to charitable fundraising. CrowdRise is used by millions of individuals, tens of thousands of charities, hundreds of companies and many of the most famous artists and athletes in the world to creatively leverage their resources and networks to unlock the power of the crowd and raise hundreds of millions of dollars to support positive social missions. Founded by actor Edward Norton, film producer Shauna Robertson, and Robert and Jeffrey Wolfe, CrowdRise has conceived, implemented and powered campaigns that have raised more than $300 million to date. For more information, visit https://www.crowdrise.com/.

Contact

Phil Van Hulle, Wayne State University School of Medicine
Phone: 586-206-8130
Email: pvanhulle@med.wayne.edu

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