Tag Archives: non-profit

3Banana has selected five charities to share in $10,000 in its Share to Win contest. Over 50 non-profits were nominated to the challenge.
Each cause created a note on 3banana describing why people should care about their mission and then shared a link to their note through Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and email. 3banana selected the winners based on the number of unique users who wrote an online comment endorsing the cause.

The winning charities are

• The SENS Foundation Grand prize: $5,000 – Develops and promotes widespread access to regenerative medicine solutions to the disabilities and diseases of aging.
• Los Angeles Habilitation House Second Prize: $2,000 – Helps create and maintain jobs for persons with disabilities and veterans with PTSD or traumatic brain injury.
• Disaster Accountability Project Third Prize, Environment: $1,000 – Improves disaster management systems through public accountability, citizen oversight and empowerment, whistle-blower engagement, and policy research and advocacy.
• Art in All of Us Third Prize, Education: $1,000 – Promotes tolerance and cultural exchanges by creative and art activities in schools around the world.
• Institute of HeartMath Third Prize, Health: $1,000 – Researches stress, emotional physiology, and the heart-brain interaction to improve health, well being and quality of life.

“We are very honored to accept this prize. This contest has really opened our eyes to the possibilities of furthering our cause using social networks,” said Dr. Aubrey de Grey, Chief Science Officer for the SENS Foundation. “Thousands of our supporters shared their words of encouragement for our mission, and this effort has created more dialog between our organization and our supporters.”

As someone who teaches social media to non-profits on a regular basis, I’m pretty happy that 3 Banana so easily taught non-profits about new ways to distribute their message and increase awareness. More detailed information on all of the participating non-profits can be found at on the 3 Banana Results page.

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Cheers!
Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.

I’m a sucker for a non-profit. In fact, I’m spending all of today teaching an introductory class on Social Media to a room full of non-profit folks. I know these folks, in general, have very little money, time, and tech skills. That’s why I was so excited to stumble upon Grassroots.org.

Grassroots.org is there to help non-profits with some of the hard stuff. They offer free (yes, free!) services to registered 501(c)3 organizations. The Toolbox includes graphic design, domain name registration, web hosting, a web site builder tool, web design services, SEO consultation, virtual phone services, and an online marketplace, among other items.

The Grassroots web site boasts that they “currently serve 1,959 charitable organizations in the US and Canada and have provided them with a total savings $2,299,044 since 2003.” That’s pretty fantastic.

How do they do it? As far as I can tell, they match up willing volunteers (web designers, graphic designers, SEO consultants, and so on) with a non-profit. Additionally, Grassroots.org is itself a non-profit, so they’ll happily take either your offered talent or cash donation.

It’s too late for me to add this wonderful site to my Social Media for Non-Profits presentation, but you can bet I’m going to tell them about it.

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Cheers!
Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.

by Michelle Lentz

I love it when my city hits the national news for something other than race riots or boycotting Robert Mapplethorpe. In fact, I can proudly say we’ve come a long, long way since those days.

The latest national news out of Cincinnati is what’s being billed as The World’s Largest Tweet-Up. I’m not sure if that’s accurate on a number of levels, but it doesn’t matter. It’s good marketing for a good cause, and a great example of a non-profit using social media to raise awareness.

Last July, musician Katie Reider passed away at age 30 from a rare form of cancer that attacked the left side of her face. It left her blind in one eye and unable to do what she did best – sing. Katie was a local musician for us, but she’d been on the national scene as well, and was one of those artists spotlighted on WB shows like Dawson’s Creek.

500Kin365.org, was created in May of 2008 with the help of Katie Reider’s loyal fanbase to reconnect and introduce 500,000 people to Katie Reider, her music and her story over the next year, as she continued to undergo treatment. The site took off, and the goal is to introduce 500,000 people to her music. Two sets of Katie’s songs can be downloaded for only $1 each on the site and 100% of the proceeds to go help pay off the family’s exorbitant medical bills.

Now for the Tweet-up. About 500,000 people attend our annual Taste of Cincinnati event on Memorial Day weekend. Until last year, the Katie Reider Band had entertained at the food festival for almost 10 years. This year, Taste of Cincinnati will spotlight the Katie Reider Stage, presented by Avalon and Metromix.com Cincinnati at P&G Gardens, as the first stage in the history of Cincinnati named for a pioneer of gay and lesbian rights and as the first stage in the annals of Taste of Cincinnati named for a performer. I told you we’d come a long way.

The goal is for everyone to tweet awareness of the whole deal. 500,000 attendees might equal 500,000 downloads of Katie’s music. Called 3 Tweets 4 Katie, the campaign uses the shorthand Katie used in her everyday life.

Tens of thousands of tweets are expected to fill the Twitterverse over the Memorial Day weekend in honor Reider’s life and music. The Friends of Katie Reider encourage peeps around the world to adopt new Twitterminology and embrace a Reider family tradition: “3″ means “I love you” and “4″ means “I love you, too.” With tweets limited to 140 characters on Twitter, organizers believe the Reider family tradition of “3″ and “4″ may likely gain a global following as new Twitter shorthand.

Remember, you don’t have to be at Taste of Cincinnati to participate. You can tweet directly from the 3 Tweets 4 Katie site and show your love for the cause. Your tweet will help expose other people to Katie’s music and help achieve those 500,000 downloads. Or you can just spend $1 and download a set of her songs.

Here’s a a YouTube clip from Katie Reider’s last show:

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Contact Michelle with news, stories, events, and more.
Email: michelle[at]writetech[dot]net
Twitter: @writetechnology, Friendfeed: michellel
Sites: Write Technology, Wine-Girl.net

Post and video by Miiko Mentz

On Friday, we posted our highlight reel of the Bubby Award winners and every day this week we’ll be posting one interview from each of the five winners. Bubblicious Reporter Alison McNeill recently presented the Bubby awards to each winner at Twiistup 5, which was held at Hangar:8 at the Santa Monica airport. First up is Causecast, winner of the “Favorite Do-Gooder” Bubby award.

In our interview with Mateo Gutierrez and Kate Stahnke, director of product development at Causecast, Stahnke explains how Causecast is a platform where non-profit organizations and individuals join together to further their philanthropic goals. In addition to connecting non-profits with people who want to make a difference, it also provides them with the tools and information needed to support and further the cause they care about.

Causecast also has leaders that are dedicated and passionate about facilitating and finding ways “to help, donate, organize, promote and inspire others to make a powerful and positive impact on this world – together,” according to the Causecast site.

For example, Aaron Cohen is a human rights activist and Causecast leader who has dedicated himself to stopping human trafficking. At Causecast, people can learn more about human trafficking on Cohen’s Causecast profile page where he has a blog, videos, photos, and a place for supporters to leave comments and support the fight to end human trafficking.

Causecast also has many celebrities participating such as Matthew Modine and Jenny McCarthy, but it’s not about being a celebrity. It’s about coming together as a community to make the world better. As Stahnke says, “celebrity or non-celebrity, if you’re doing amazing things in the world, you’re a leader in our eyes and we want to give you a platform.”

If you care about a particular cause and want to lend your support by giving a donation, volunteering, attending an event or becoming a Causecast leader, join Causecast and do your part to make a difference in the lives of others.

Come back tomorrow and watch our interview with Laurent Gill, president and COO of Viewdle, winner of “Favorite Showoff” Bubby award.