The Official Squidoo Thanksgiving Cookoff (for Charity)

We've invented a completely new way to raise money (for free) for charity online. It's called Squidoo.

Yes, Squidoo's been running for a few years, and yes, we've already given away hundreds of thousands of dollars to incredible organizations like The Acumen Fund, Room to Read and JDRF. But that's not enough.

Not enough organizations are ready and eager and fearless enough to empower their volunteers and let them each make a page about something (anything) they care about. A page that raises money for that charity, for free, every month, forever.

So for the month of November, we're making it even easier for smart charities to get on board.

Starting November 2nd 2009, Squidoo will be giving away $1000 to charity every day through Thanksgiving. With a $5000 grand prize vote-off on Thanksgiving Day.

If you want to:

* Win $1000 for your favorite charity on our list of over 100 charities
* And get featured as the Lens of the Day (with exposure to over 100,000 people)
* And have fun sharing your best food and kitchen tips and recommendations.
*And even get a cute exclusive Thanksgiving theme on your lens....

Then enter the virtual Cookoff here!

All you do is create a great 'foody' lens on Squidoo as part of the contest. That's it. Lenses are free and easy webpages to make. Could be about your grandmother's pumpkin pie recipe, your family's thanksgiving dinner menu, tried and true baking secrets, top 5 holiday coffee flavors -- anything and everything food, it all goes. Every day we (that's us at Squidoo HQ) will pick 1 lens we like best, post the winner on our Lens of the Day blog, and award the charity you selected $1000.

It's that simple. Real people raising money for charity, just by making free lenses about the stuff they love most.

Pie photo courtesy caitlinator on Flickr.

1. Your Thanksgiving Cookoff lens must be created as part of this project. Existing, earlier lenses don't count.

2. When you make your lens, change the royalty setting (in your lens Workshop) to give 100% to the charity on our list that you like the most. That's how we'll know which organization to donate the money to.

3. If you steal or cheat or fake anyone out, we'll disqualify you and delete your lenses. If you enter with a bunch of empty, spammy lenses, we'll do the same.

4. Yes you can make as many lenses for the Cookoff as you'd like! The more great food lenses you make, the better your chances of getting picked. Maybe. Maybe all it takes is one tremendous one. Your call.

5. We'll post every day (weekends too) on the very popular Lens of the Day blog, starting November 2nd, with the daily winning Cookoff lens.

6. Participating nonprofits: Yes, absolutely, you should invite as many donors and volunteers and friends to enter. It's free. And the real win is that you get donations, for free, every month, for every lens, long after this contest is over. It really adds up.

7. The Grand Prize: On Thanksgiving Day 2009, we'll take all 25 winning lenses from earlier in the month and put them into a big vote-off. The lens with the most votes by November 30th 2009 wins $5,000 for the charity it supports.

Make as good a lens as you know how.

Make it genuine and tasty and useful and full of recommendations and howtos and photos and comments.

You can even nominate yourself, to be sure your lens gets noticed, at squidoocookoff@squidoo.com. But we'll be picking whatever catches our eye, whether you nominate or not.

Have fun. If you need help, stop by SquidU and ask the veterans for some hints!

Cupcake photo via kristinausk on Flickr.