The Point Blog
G-Team Campaign for Girls on The Run Chicago
Patty Huber
September 29th, 2010
429 Comments »
Today’s G-Team campaign launched on Groupon to benefit Girls On The Run Chicago (GOTRC). GOTRC empowers girls through participation in a 12-week afterschool program to train for a 5k run. The confidence building program joins girls ages 8-13 with mentors who teach them team building, fitness, and lessons on positive self-image.
This is an excellent opportunity for Groupon users to help improve the self-esteem of young girls from low-income communities, as well as promote healthy lifestyle choices.
The campaign already hit its tipping point to fund at least one girl and for every additional $250 raised another girl will be enrolled in the training program. Donations can be made in $5, $10, and $25 increments. Donors who make a $25 donation will also receive free admission to the New Balance Girls On the Run 5k presented by the Chicago Fire on November 13th to run along with the Girls On The Run.
The G-Team campaign for Girls On The Run Chicago is featured today on Groupon and will run until midnight tomorrow, September 30th. Look for the campaign in the side bar of the Groupon Chicago page.
Posted by Patty, Written by Community Relations Intern Lisa Donaldson
-Filed in Uncategorized
Supporting Causing and Causing a Scene with G-Team
Patty Huber
July 14th, 2010
232 Comments »
We’re excited to announce the launch of G-Team, a new way to leverage the collective power of Groupon’s subscribers and customers to benefit our local communities. Each week we’ll identify a genuine community need and one simple thing you can do to get involved. Through G-Team, we’ll bring you the best causes in your community and only ask you to donate or act if enough people team up, ensuring your efforts will actually make a difference.
What types of community partnerships will G-Team feature? G-Team campaigns will typically aid specific projects to benefit the local communities of our subscribers. Through philanthropic fundraisers, volunteer events, and opportunities for civic engagement we hope to help you address the causes you care about.
Each G-Team campaign will be set up on The Point and featured on Groupon the day of its launch. You can learn about campaigns by checking Groupon.com, reading your daily Groupon e-mail, or by browsing G-Team tagged campaigns on The Point.
We’re launching our pilot G-Team in Chicago, and hope to come to your city soon. Today we’re highlighting a G-Team campaign to benefit Chicago Public School teachers. In partnership with today’s featured Groupon business, the Chicago Photography Academy ,we hope you’ll help us fund a study group through the Chicago Foundation for Education where teachers can build skills to inspire the children in our community. Check out today’s G-Team campaign on The Point.
We’ll have a dedicated submission page soon; in the meantime, we hope you’ll leave ideas for campaigns to support in the comments below.
-Filed in Uncategorized
The Point is Hiring a Community Manager / Groupon Liaison
Joe Harrow
April 8th, 2010
292 Comments »
Since Groupon’s launch, we’ve expanded to over 50 cities and 3 million subscribers, presenting us with an unprecedented opportunity to tap into even more collective power. We are looking for a full-time, in-house Community Manager to organize Groupon customers to extend their collective consumer power beyond the daily deal to achieve something either good or hilarious. Campaigns may include anything from hilariously-themed flashmob meetups emphasizing Groupon’s creative social potential, to project-specific fundraisers helping local communities.
The Community Manager will be tasked with organizing new campaigns on The Point and integrating them with Groupon in a seamless way that provides value to customers.
This position will entail building relationships with community groups in multiple cities. Most of this can be done from our office in Chicago’s River North neighborhood, but some travel may be necessary.
Duties:
Coordinate project-specific fundraisers with local community groups
- Matching grants fundraisers (vendor and/or Groupon will match customer donations)
- Fundraisers to fund new community resources/events related to deal
- EXAMPLE: If we raise $2,000, today’s featured restaurant will offer free cooking classes focusing on nutrition to underprivileged young adults in the neighborhood
Tap into the whimsical, playful potential of collective behavior by creating social campaigns that enhance specific deals and connect the Groupon community
- Local meetups
- Create ways Groupon customers can collectively experience the deal together
- EXAMPLE: We’ll all wear capes to the ballgame if 300 people join
Administrative Duties
- Respond to organizer questions
- Handle all The Point checks
- Monitor discussions
- Manage Twitter & Facebook accounts
Requirements Experience in either Community Organizing or non-profit fundraising. Must have excellent writing skills. Social capacity to savvily navigate both the non-profit and corporate worlds. Firm understanding of social media platforms. Some knowledge/experience in marketing would be a plus, not required.
Compensation $40,000 annual salary and participation in our benefits program
Click here to apply.
-Filed in Groupon, The Point
New Blog for Groupon
Andrew Mason
June 9th, 2009
320 Comments »
As we are anticipating more regular Groupon-related blog content, we decided split up the blogs for The Point and Groupon. Groupon’s Blog (“Groublogpon”) is here. If you’re an RSS subscriber, make sure you grab the feed for your city, or you’ll end up with all kinds of stuff that will be completely boring to you.
-Filed in Uncategorized
Crain’s “Entrepreneurs in Action” on Groupon
Andrew Mason
May 15th, 2009
239 Comments »
If you’re interested in Groupon’s origins and how it evolved out of The Point, Crain’s Business explains it all (and more) in the following piece from their excellent Entrepreneurs in Action series. Past segments have featured our friends at EveryBlock and CrowdSPRING. Our thanks to Brandon Copple of Crain’s for the excellent work!
-Filed in Groupon, The Point
The Point Moves Offices
Andrew Mason
May 15th, 2009
146 Comments »
The Point has outgrown our office space! Yesterday, we moved down a floor of our building into a larger space. Here are a few photos I took of the move.
Ken and the tech team packing up
Alex grabbing some last things
Nick setting up the new phone system
Unpacking in the new space
Aaron and Ben in their writing sanctuary
Our new conference room
-Filed in Groupon, The Point
The Point Presentation – The Rational Pursuit of Change
Andrew Mason
May 9th, 2009
96 Comments »
From last year’s Chicago New Media Summit (now the Chicago Convergence). I tried to fit a ton of content in 14 minutes, so its a bit fast – enjoy!
Watch Andrew Mason, The Point, Online Collective Activism in Game Videos | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
-Filed in The Point
Groupon Hiring in NYC
Andrew Mason
April 12th, 2009
275 Comments »
After successful launches in Chicago and Boston, Groupon is coming to NYC, and we need some talented locals to help us make it happen.
In general, we’re looking for people who know and love New York City. Groupon is a fast-paced and fluid startup – you should be able to think on your feet. You have to be hardworking, self-motivated, blah blah blah, all that stuff that everyone says. Read on for available positions.
Outside Sales Executive
We’re looking for a full-time sales executive to help us get the coolest New York businesses featured on Groupon. Each day, you’ll call (and occasionally visit) restaurants, theaters, spas, dentists, and everything in between, negotiating unbeatable deals on behalf of Groupon’s customers.
You should have experience in outside advertising sales. You should be skilled at negotiation and relationship building. You should have existing relationships with bars, restaurants, and other local businesses.
Compensation is competitive. To apply, send your resume to jobs@thepoint.com.
Freelance Writers
We need freelance writers to compose positive, funny descriptions for the daily deal. Good write-ups seamlessly entertain the reader and communicate the value of the deal. Also, since Groupon is a community site, it should be written by someone who knows the community and can bring that perspective to their writing.
The tricky part here is that we’re looking for “funny” writing, where funny is defined as, “what makes our managing editor laugh.” The best I can do to elaborate is to offer a few examples of past Groupon write-ups: Kafka Wine; Lincoln Park Massage Chicago Chamber Music Ineeka Tea. A few things we think are funny: The Onion; Adult Swim (in particular, Xavier: Renegade Angel and Tim and Eric).
Compensation is competitive. To apply, email us a Groupon-style write-up for a restaurant in New York City that you’ve never patronized with a Yelp rating between 3.5 and 4 stars. We won’t consider applications without a sample write-up.
-Filed in Groupon
Company to Donate to Charity if Patent Litigation is Dropped
Andrew Mason
April 2nd, 2009
94 Comments »
Check this out – Desire2Learn will donate $1,000,000 to charity if Blackboard drops a patent lawsuit.
I like this “you wouldn’t hurt a puppy, would you?” style of building support for a cause. But what if you don’t have a million dollars? You can raise a pot of money on The Point, which are only released if the offending organization does as you please.
This has already been tried on The Point in an attempt to get Bono to retire from public life by donating a lot of money to fight AIDS if he does. Hasn’t worked – yet.
-Filed in The Point
Groupon Is Hiring Summer Sales Interns
Lauri Apple
April 2nd, 2009
164 Comments »
Develop useful job skills! Make new friends and networking contacts! Drink delicious sparkling waters! That’s just a few things you can expect as a Sales Intern at Groupon. As an intern, you will be able to develop and apply a mix of creativity, hard work and sales skills to find cool and useful things to do at super-low prices. Each day you’ll call restaurants, theaters, gyms, and even dentists in a particular geographic area and negotiating massive discounts on behalf of Groupon users. We need driven, hard-working and intelligent individuals. Experience or interest with online sales, inside sales, and the Internet is preferred.
General Responsibilities
- Actively engage in cold calling businesses and negotiating deeply discounted prices on “things to do”
- Brainstorm new and creative businesses and activities to be featured
- Follow up on warm inbound leads and land contracts
- Miscellaneous tasks to help promote Groupon
Experience
- Interest or past experience in a sales capacity; inside sales is a plus
- Ability to focus in a fluid, changing, and quickly growing business
- Working on or completed a college degree
Characteristics
- Strong negotiating and people skills
- Ownership and accountability
- Driven and hard-working
- Enjoys and thrives in fast-paced, fluid work environment
- Can think on your feet
Compensation/Benefits
- Incentive-based stipends
Interested? Just send your information to Nick Cioffi at nick@thepoint.com. Good luck!
-Filed in Groupon