I can trace the idea for the Tie-Dye Cupcake Bake-Off back to April 11th, 2011, when I had the chance to meet one of my Twitter role models, @amanda, for coffee at Starbucks. Amanda Rose is the founder of the biggest social media fundraiser, Twestival, and in one conversation she got me thinking about scale, something She’s the First had yet to truly achieve. We hadn’t broken ground on a big national campaign yet.
Exactly a year ago, Lindsay Brown, Maddie Fox, and friends had a tie-dye cupcake bake sale in their University of Notre Dame dorms that raised $900 to sponsor three girls at the Kopila Valley Children’s School in Nepal. The blog coverage on shesthefirst.org inspired copy cats, and I noticed several other tie-dye cupcake sales pop up at random times to fundraise for girls’ sponsorships. What if, I started to dream aloud with Amanda, we got student bakers across the US to sign up to host tie-dye cupcake bake sales during the same week? She said, yes, do it!! And we did. Cupcake teams, YOU did.
All that's left of the Tie-Dye Cupcakes...
100 teams signed up, across 32 states, plus Australia and DC, and your checks are now on their way to She’s the First — every penny goes to sponsor girls inthese schools. By the end of this week, we’ll be able to announce a grand fundraising total, and in December, you’ll meet the sponsored girls on shesthefirst.org!
I’m a little sad to see our first-ever Tie-Dye Cupcake Week end, but I know we’ll be back even bigger next year! More importantly, I know this is just the beginning of our journey together. She’s the First made so many new friends — and we haven’t even met the girls we sponsored yet. (That will happen in December!) Together, we proved cupcakes can really change the world, and every single person who purchased a cupcake now understands why girls’ education equality worldwide is worth standing up for.
Popcorn Factory prizes for the Cupcake Award winners!
In the meantime, we’re going to celebrate your success with daily Cupcake Awards, from November 9th-15th! The winners will be announced on Facebook and receive these prizes pictured from The Popcorn Factory. You can have a little celebratory party with your team!
Check out the photos that the Tie-Dye Cupcake Teams have been uploading to Flickr below!
