Creative Online Fundraising

I was chatting with a friend of mine about the role of social responsibility in fueling consumer spending. She heads up strategy and research in the leading ad agency in Turkey. No wonder she is in charge of research; the next day she sent me a link saying 'This is the model you were talking about.'

Her link lead me to Gercekten.com, a Turkish portal that offers customized gifts to your loved ones, signed by the celebrities joining the portal's cause to raise funds for charities. Money raised by these purchases go towards non-profits that help the sick and the poor. All listed non-profits are highly credible and carefully vetted.

As a user, all you have to do is choose your celebrity, pick a gift (this can be a poster or a t-shirt from the celebrity) and write a short message you'd like the celebrity to say in a video. Once you pay for the gift, the proceeds go towards your choice of non-profit, the gift goes to your friend and you and your friend get a unique video message from the celebrity, saying what you wanted him/her to say. You can then forward the celebrity's message, post it on Facebook or YouTube. So, the celebrities also increase their popularity and get media attention.

All involved parties win. The celebrity gains new fans, the consumer gets a unique gift, the non-profits and the portal get their share. Nice formula!

Putting the Social in Social

Social Good, organized by Mashable, took place in New York this week. Beth Kanter, a social media guru who focuses on non-profits and civic action, was among the speakers. I'm sharing her presentation. (Or rather she's sharing and I'm passing it along in absolute WOM style.) Here's how to "Be A Generous Geek" I wasn't fortunate enough to listen to Beth's presentation, but two of her slides stood out to me: "modest amounts of money and small amounts of time add up" to create noteworthy change.

So, let's do our share to support the "Summer of Social Good" promoted by Mashable. You can donate, retweet, watch a video or take a survey and your actions will be matched in donations by corporate sponsors.

Be Good, Join Social Vibe

Just as I had been thinking about how we can create movements online using social media, I got the daily Online Spin newsletter from MediaPost. Incidentally, Joe Marchese's article was about leveraging utility and reach of social media to do good. The article is a great source of social networks set up by charities and celebrities to raise awareness and funds for worthy causes. 

I agree with Joe wholeheartedly as he writes, "The greatest potential of social media lies in its ability to enable and encourage people to do good." Who wouldn't want to change the world with a click? Ok, maybe it takes more than a few clicks. But if we want to make a contribution to a charity, we no longer have to take out our checkbooks and empty out our coin jars.  We can sign up for a cause and get a brand to make a donation on our behalf. 

That's the premise of Joe's socially conscientious network, Social Vibe. I recently signed up for it. My initial goal was to check it out for this blog post, but I must admit I really got into it. I just entered a username, created a password and started sifting through the charities that were in Social Vibe's catalogue. I could pick from a broad variety, ranging from education, environment and health to arts and culture -- some categories are thinner than others, but that's understandable since they are in beta.  I was asked to pick a charity and then endorse a brand to help pay for the cause. 

The process made me think of my values, what I wanted to stand for and how I wanted to present myself to the Social Vibe community and beyond. Fist I chose One Laptop Per Child, because I believe in education opening doors for disadvantaged children around the world. Laptops and Internet access can be the cohesive force in this process. Next, I looked through a bunch of brands and worried if they would cramp my style. I chose Powerbar to be the sponsor of my cause, not because I eat it regularly, but because I felt the brand had a clean reputation and offered a helpful product. Have I bought Powerbar in the past several years? No. Will I notice Powerbar in the grocery story and think of my cause? Yes. Will I think highly of the brand and recommend it to a friend looking for a snack before or after a rigorous work out? Yes. Because now, Powerbar and I are involved. 

I couldn't leave the site without picking Disaster Relief cause to help people affected by the recent natural disasters. I chose a brand that offered more dollars to match than others. I clipped it thinking I needed to start spreading word of mouth fast, while making as big of a contribution I could through the site. 

You should give this a try...