Each year LinkedIn promotes employee philanthropy through a two-week fundraising challenge at it’s Chicago office. Employees are encouraged to join one of ten fundraising teams supporting a charity of the team’s choosing. The team that raises the most by the end of the contest wind an additional $1,000 donation for their charity! Wendy Kosmak and 15 LinkedIn employees embraced this year’s fundraising challenge with vigor and teamed up to support FPWR and Wendy’s 4.5 year old daughter, Natalie, who has PWS.
The team used One SMALL Step’s Virtual walk to create an online fundraising page for the competition. The first day of the competition Wendy excitedly shared, “this website is perfect!!! I’m excited to share we have raised over $700 in the first morning after sharing the fundraising page!” Through the online platform, Wendy and her team were easily able to reach out to their network and quickly took the lead by nearly $1,300 over the next supported charity! Wendy did not get complacent, however, and continued to share her cause. By the end of the two week challenge, the LinkedIn for PWS Team was solidly in the lead earning them the additional $1,000 gift from LinkedIn. LinkedIn will also match all employee contributions bringing the teams final total to just over $8,000! 
Thank you Wendy and the LinkedIn for PWS Team for your enthusiasm and dedication to our cause!
Topics: Research
Susan Hedstrom
Susan Hedstrom is the Executive Director for the Foundation for Prader-Willi Research. Passionate about finding treatments for PWS, Susan joined FPWR in 2009 shortly after her son, Jayden, was diagnosed with Prader-Willi Syndrome. Rather than accepting PWS as it has been defined, Susan has chosen to work with a team of pro-active and tireless individuals to accelerate PWS research in order to change the future of PWS. Inspired by her first FPWR conference and the team of researchers that were working to find answers for the syndrome, she joined the FPWR team in 2010 and led the development of the One SMALL Step walk program. Under Susan’s leadership, over $15 million has been raised for PWS related research.
