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Virtual Fundraising Event Ideas To Take And Tweak Today

Virtual Fundraising Event Ideas To Take And Tweak Today

Virtual fundraising has always been prominent, however, it has picked up more pace over the last two years. Ever since nonprofit organizations have begun taking the virtual path of hosting events for raising funds, at the same time, they find it quite challenging to host a successful fundraising event. 

Even though the audience and potential donors enjoy the event without stepping out of their homes, it can be quite tedious to keep them engaged throughout the fundraising event. 

As a virtual event marketer, you need to make sure that to host a successful event, you should include a mix of all elements to keep the event balanced and running smoothly. 

Your virtual fundraising event ideas should not only be about serious sessions, but it should also comprise entertaining elements to keep the audience engaged throughout the session. 

Make your way through the post to get an insight into a few fundraising ideas that can help you run a successful event and raise funds for your nonprofit organization. 

Without any further ado, let’s get started with these innovative ideas! 

Best Practices To Host A Super Successful Virtual Fundraising Event 

Online Auction 

Auctions are a classic way of generating funds for your cause. If you were hoping to host a regular auction, then don’t lose heart as it can happen virtually too. 

You can display all the items online and ask your attendees to bid on them one by one. Make sure that you define all the rules to your audience much before the event in the form of a mail or verbally. 

Another thing to keep in mind is to promote your items and make the starting bid clear to your audience. Since the event will be virtual and your audience will not be able to see the displayed products in real, make sure that you leverage high-quality pictures. Lastly, it is not necessary to host a one-day event, make it a multi-day auction to generate maximum donations. 

Virtual Concert 

If there is one thing that people would not mind spending on is to see their favorite band or performer play live. Since times are not the same, you might as well adopt the ‘new normal’ and host a virtual concert instead! 

Collaborate with a famous artist, band, or performer who enjoys a good following and generate funds by selling tickets. Moreover, watching a concert from the homes will be a good change from the same old boring routine of your attendees and they would look forward to it. 

Include A Social Media Wall 

Engagement is crucial especially when it comes to virtual events and including a social wall can be a game-changer. If you are new to the concept of a social media wall, it comprises live and aggregated social media feeds from various platforms. 

Just like a regular audience, a virtual audience also likes posting content on their social media handles in the form of photos, videos, selfies, etc. They use the event hashtag for posting the content. Further aggregating the content and posting it during the virtual event is a great way to engage your audience the most. Moreover, everyone loves getting featured during the event and this would lead to more participation from your audience. 

Host A Virtual Dinner Party 

Sometimes, all that the attendees want is to have a good silent time, having conversations over a glass of wine. Make the most of it by hosting a virtual dinner party for your guests. You can make them indulge in a conversation related to the noble cause that you are supporting and how their donations would tremendously benefit your organization. 

There is a high chance that they may feel the need to donate right after the night gets over. You can leave a link in their mailbox after dinner. If your budget permits, you can send a few munchies to your attendees for them to enjoy during the event. 

Include Games 

Speaking of entertainment, make sure that you lighten the environment of the event and nothing can be as result-driven as games! If your event includes sessions, make sure that you give a break to your attendees and include games. 

You can include a few rounds of housie or virtual UNO. Include a few multiplayer games like Call of duty to ensure more interaction between the attendees. 

Promote The Event 

Lastly, always make sure that all your potential attendees are aware of your upcoming virtual fundraising event. You can leverage various methods of marketing including social media marketing to target your audience. Run ads and create posts comprising details about your event. 

Moreover, make it a point to inform your previous attendees and also push them to spread the word and inform their knowns about the cause that you are supporting! 

Final Thoughts 

We are at the end of this post and you are now aware of a few tried and tested virtual fundraising event ideas that can help you host a successful event and also achieve your desired donation numbers! 

Go on now, include these strategies into your upcoming fundraising event and you will for sure notice positive results! 

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Oracle Fusion Apps Data Integration with OAC Data Replication

Oracle Fusion Apps Data Integration with OAC Data Replication

Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC) Fusion Business Intelligence Cloud Connector (BICC) Data Replication is one of the simplest and least-maintenance methods for feeding Fusion Cloud Apps data into a data warehouse. OAC Enterprise edition includes Data Replication for Fusion Apps as a standard feature. If you’re converting an on-premises application to Oracle SaaS, such as E-Business Suite, you’re presumably aware that the ability to directly connect to the Oracle SaaS transaction database for data extraction isn’t normally available, except for limited use with BI Publisher type reporting. Fusion BICC, on the other hand, provides a robust technique to enabling data extraction from Fusion Apps.

BICC pulls data from Fusion App view objects and saves it to Oracle Cloud files (OCI). OAC’s BICC data replication simplifies the process of configuring, scheduling, and monitoring the entire process of extracting data from BICC into Cloud storage and subsequently importing the same data into a data warehouse. While this does not provide ETL-like capability, it does streamline the end-to-end process of extracting data from Fusion apps and storing it in relational table structures in an Oracle database. These target relational tables can then be reported on directly or modified for more advanced analytics.

Here are, in my opinion, the key advantages of using OAC Data Replication from Fusion Apps:

  • Oracle Managed: It is a built-in feature of OAC and therefore requires no software install or maintenance. Data Replication jobs are configured, scheduled, and monitored entirely from within an internet browser, within the OAC portal.
  • Supports Extracts of Custom Fusion BICC Offerings and Custom PVOs: If your Oracle SaaS implementation team has setup custom data sets in Fusion, and therefore ended up with custom View Objects, these may also be exported with OAC Data Replication.
  • Filter the Data Extraction: The configuration screens of OAC Data Replication allow for setting up filters that are enforced while the Fusion data is extracted. These filters may be useful to avoid pulling in older data, or to segregate organization-specific information into dedicated target databases.
  • Support for Incremental Loads: The process of setting up an incremental data extract strategy from all the different Fusion data source views is a time-consuming task. However, this is all easy to setup with the configuration screens available in OAC Data Replication.
  • Handles Deletes: While BICC natively doesn’t automatically take care of identifying which records in a source view got deleted, it has a mechanism to identify the primary keys of the views in their current state. But these keys will then have to be compared to the keys in the data warehouse target table, in order to identify any deleted records and therefore process the deletes. This whole process is automatically performed by OAC data replication by checking a box on the OAC configuration screen for a view object.
  • Track Historical Changes: Some Fusion PVOs keep track of changes as certain attributes are updated over time. OAC Data Replication offers an option to maintain these changes in the data warehouse as well. This option enables linking fact data to dimensions that behave in a similar manner to traditional slowly changing dimensions (SCDs).
  • Scheduling of Data Loads: OAC Data Replication allows for scheduling the data extracts and loads from Fusion Apps at various intervals. This may be once a day, but also multiple times throughout the day. In fact, more essential data extracts can be configured to run as frequent as on an hourly basis to offer near real-time reporting, when required on smaller data sets.

While OAC Data Replication for Fusion Apps does offer some great functionality, there are restrictions that may render it unsuitable, depending on how you envision the holistic view of your future state data warehouse. Here are some of the reasons why it may not be adequate:

  • Lack of Data Transformation: Like the name infers, OAC Data Replication, solely offers an easy way to replicate Fusion SaaS data into a data warehouse. It doesn’t really allow for data transformation prior to the data load. Think of it this way: the result of the replication is a populated staging area of a data warehouse. If you need to apply transformation, another technique needs to be used after the Fusion data is replicated over. For instance, OAC Data Replication itself won’t be able to merge and transform the Fusion sourced data based on information sourced from outside Fusion. To do this, first replicate the Fusion data and then integrate with the non-Fusion data as a separate downstream process.
  • Restriction to Load into Oracle Databases: OAC data replication from Fusion Apps only loads data into an Oracle Database or an Oracle Autonomous Database. So, if for example, you have a need to get Fusion data into Azure or another non-Oracle database, you will have to follow a two-step process to first replicate into an Oracle DB and then into your final destination. As a result, if your main destination is non-Oracle, you may want to consider one of the other approaches to extracting data from Fusion Apps, as described in my other blog post.
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What exactly is Bitcoin mining? Everything You Need to Know

What exactly is Bitcoin mining

Since its introduction in 2009, Bitcoin has been fairly popular among modern investors. Given that bitcoin has a straightforward operating method and that investors do not need to be gizmos or tech fanatics to grasp how it works, bitcoin attracts a varied range of buyers, including technical specialists, high-end investors, and everyday people. By creating an account on the Bitcoin network, one can simply transfer bitcoins to someone in any part of the world.

What exactly are Bitcoins?

Bitcoin is a decentralized digital money that is created, circulated, traded, and stacked using a record system known as a blockchain. Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonymous individual, launched the cryptocurrency in January 2009. Bitcoin was the first virtual currency to make a splash and become extremely popular due to its low transaction fees when compared to other online payment methods.

What exactly is Bitcoin mining?

Bitcoin mining is a method that allows new bitcoins to enter the market by solving exceedingly challenging computational math problems with high-end and sophisticated computers. The procedure is painful and costly, but it has attracted many investors because they are rewarded with crypto tokens with enormous value.

  • Mining generates bitcoin without requiring any investment on the part of the miners.
  • Miners are compensated with bitcoins for finishing large blocks of validated transactions. These bitcoins are added to the blockchain.
  • Miners that come up with answers to complex issues are rewarded.
  • A graphics processing unit (GPU) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) will be necessary to set up a mining rig.

How can I get Bitcoins?

The key motivation for people to mine is the payoff in the form of Bitcoins. However, mining is not a one-stop-shop for acquiring bitcoin tokens.

Bitcoins can be purchased by exchanging traditional currency.

You can exchange them for another cryptocurrency, like Ethereum or NEO, on an exchange platform like BitStamp.

Some online platforms and shopping portals reward users with bitcoins in exchange for blog entries and purchases.

Users compensate bloggers with a proprietary cryptocurrency known as STEEM, which can be sold for Bitcoins, on crypto blog platforms such as Steemit.

What Rules Apply to Bitcoin Transactions?

Regulating and examining Bitcoins is a difficult undertaking because the money is decentralised and cannot be managed by a government or a central bank. As a result, miners are generously compensated in order to motivate them to execute the twin function of mining and administration. They also serve as auditors, analysing Bitcoin transactions and putting an end to the double-spending problem.

What exactly is double-spending?

It is a one-of-a-kind concern that is solely tied to digital currencies, with blockchain knowledgeable persons simply duping digital information. As a result, the owner uses the same Bitcoin twice.

Bitcoin miners examine each transaction to determine if any Bitcoin has been used twice. Miners are reimbursed with Bitcoins when they complete the verification of 1 MB worth of transactions, often known as a Block. Depending on the extent of the data utilised by the transaction, these 1 MB transactions can be single or many.

Satoshi Nakamoto set the 1 MB restriction, which has been a source of contention ever since. Why? Miners believe that the block size is too small, given the time and work required to validate the complicated transactions.

Not every person who verifies transactions will be paid. This is determined by two factors:

  • The fundamental need for completing 1MB worth of Bitcoin transactions.
  • Only the first miner to find a solution to a complex problem will be rewarded. This is known as proof of work.

Proof of Work (PoW) is a method that requires a significant amount of effort to investigate malicious computer activity, such as sending spam emails or providing false services. Hal Finney expanded the approach to digital money in 2004. Bitcoin is the first sophisticated implementation of Finney’s PoW principle.

Bitcoin mining and circulation

Mining not only enriches miners’ pockets, but it also promotes the introduction of new cryptocurrencies into circulation. Mining is the sole way for new Bitcoins to be created. According to coinmarketcap.com, there were around 18.5 million bitcoins in circulation in November 2020.

The first Bitcoins were mined from the mother block (genesis block), which was the first block created by the founder. Miners helped to circulate every single Bitcoin mined from the genesis block. Without these miners, the first Bitcoins would have merely been a working network with no way of bringing in new ones for transactions. Furthermore, analysts think that mining Bitcoins will eventually cease due to the decline in the rates of mined currency, and that there may be no Bitcoin in circulation until 2140.

However, miners will continue to scrutinise transactions in order to pay miners and keep the Bitcoin network running.

Miners are also granted the ability to vote anytime a proposal is submitted in the Bitcoin Network, in addition to the compensation. Miners have the ability to sway any modification to the Bitcoin software protocol. This is referred to as forking.

Bitcoin Mining Requirements

Previously, one could mine bitcoins on an ordinary home computer. Unfortunately, due to the increasing complexity of Bitcoin mining, this is no longer practical.

  • The network proposes that a block be generated every 10 minutes to enable smooth blockchain operation and transaction verification.
  • Bitcoin has a one-of-a-kind design that evaluates and fine-tunes mining difficulty every two weeks or after creating 2016 blocks. This is done to allow many mining rigs to compete for a single hash problem, resulting in substantially faster results.
  • When more rigs compete for Bitcoin mining in order to stabilise block output, the difficulty level of mining rises.
  • To have a greater mining probability, miners should have a powerful and complex computer unit, such as a GPU or an ASIC, which can range in price from $500 to $10,000. As a result, some miners undertake mining operations using individual graphic cards.

Is Bitcoin Mining Profitable?

Before diving into Bitcoin mining, miners must examine a number of variables. While mining equipment and electricity use are costly, the returns are enormous. This is what attracts so many miners to the Bitcoin network. The likelihood of a miner solving a hash puzzle first is directly related to the network’s mining strength. Miners with a higher mining power percentage have a better probability of solving a block independently.

What exactly is a Mining Pool?

Miners with limited mining strength may be unable to solve a block on their own, resulting in a loss. Mining pools may be able to fix this problem.

Third companies operate and maintain mining pools. The pool is made up of a collection of miners who are coordinated by third parties. Miners split the costs and earnings amongst themselves. A pool has a better chance of solving a block than an individual miner. The flow of bitcoins in a mining pool is consistent and begins when the miners are turned on.

The Dangers of Bitcoin Mining

The biggest challenges encountered when mining Bitcoin are financial and legal dangers. As previously stated, the equipment employed is pricey, resulting in a significant financial loss if not compensated.

Certain governments have outlawed the use of bitcoins. Miners should think about their region and its legal stance on Bitcoin before diving in.

The mining process has an environmental impact because the equipment consumes a lot of electricity and leaves carbon footprints.

For the time being, mining bitcoin is all we have.

If you want to learn more about blockchain technology, we recommend consulting with Winklix as your Blockchain Technology experts.

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