Social Media Changes Lives Directly
Understanding where to give donations is always tricky. There’s overhead to consider. There are worries about where the best good can be done. And we often don’t realize the impact we make in other people’s lives.
Last October, we helped send a Cambodian woman to college. Superstar nonprofit cause driver Beth Kanter raised half the money in a day, so I asked Twitter to raise the other half in two hours.
Beth has a similar goal in mind here. Read that article and come back, if you want. Essentially, Beth is asking YOU (and I mean you) for $10 (USD) to help another great cause. If you’re sold already, donate here. If not, consider this:
$10 is two latte drinks at Starbucks.
$10 is an appetizer at a restaurant.
$10 is six or seven sodas out of an office vending machine.
$10 is part of someone’s future in your hands today.
Ready to feel good? Donate here.
Why I Support Social Causes
Besides the obvious “it’s the right thing to do” type of answer, my other reasons are as follows: It’s something way more interesting thank talking about Twitter and Facebook (meaning it’s using the tools instead of talking about them). It’s a way to prove that we have power beyond what we tend to believe about ourselves. It’s a way to demonstrate to other parts of the world that those of us with the privilege of technology can do something meaningful elsewhere.
No fuss. No hullabaloo. Let’s just give $10 and go from there. Cool?
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Comments
Chris,
Thanks so much .. it has helped. We need to be in the top four in the race. Right now we’re number 5 by only 30 donors. We have until Jan. 31st 3:00 PM EST …. I would be really disappointed to loose the prize for those Cambodian children. So, if you haven’t made a donation - it’s only $10 that’s needed. Thank you
Hey chris. This is a bit of a strange request for help really but as you know every time i have some spare cash i donate. I did for the first one we did. i think there is definate value in social crowd sourcing for funding projects - collectively we can give a bit and create great things.
I’m be straight up, i’m having a hard month in jan like a lot of people i am sure are and it was made harder in november when my mac pro cpu-b died - i thought the machine was DEAD. full scale panic. Luckily because i’m a geek i saw the flashing diag for the cpu and after sourcing a t15 torx screwdriver that was long enough to get the cpu out (not easy trust me) i removed it and it booted.
I’m running on duel and not quad thou and it is effecting the time i can encode and work on videos (HD) - i bought the machine to work on my stuff and community based HD video too.
I’m only looking for $600 to get the cpus replace (i need to install in pairs) to get it fixed. Now, i dont expect that money for free, oooohh no.. I’ve been building little apps - like http://egowhore.com (strange name, but one you will not forget) that is a seesmic based mashup done in ajax/rss with a nice slick design. I’ve put a chip on there and 3/4 people have “chipped” in already.
So, i guess i’m not expecting a handout more of what can i do for you to value you/me and “help a brother out” - i know next month or the month after will be cool and i can probably go and sort it myself (hopefully) but right now i have a lot of HD content i could be producing/editing/sharing and serving up if the encoding did not take so long.
I think if we start little project to help each other out in the community (we have times when i have cash, you have times when you have cash) i think that would be incredible to start. a chain reaction of helping people out. From the SOCIAL aspect, knowing each others background. I’ve been totally transparent about this.
the $600 (£300) would buy twin cpu (have to be matched pairs) and i could fix my quad to be eight core (which of course would be much faster than the original) and i can record the process for mac fans of how to upgrade a quad to a eight core also for reference (in hd of course)
So, yes it is not a life changing event - more of a testbed that we can as a collective fund things. I’m totally prepared to do the same for someone else. If we all gave $10 to save 4-5 projects a month would that not be AWESOME?
Anyway. .. my 10 pence to the convo.
http://notverywell.com if ya can help :)
oh and i’ll be giving to beths cause. np. i can afford small payments. and THAT is where the power of this is.
I’ve tried my best to help Beth’s effort - and it looks like the Cambodian kids will WIN!
btw, my guest post just got published on Problogger - it’s about 10 reasons bloggers should get involved with non-profits!
All success
Dr.Mani
Dr Mani congrats on the problogger publication! You rock! Let me know what you need for your upcoming fundraiser.
Phil, that’s a cool idea. How would this work I wonder?
Jan: For more about the America’s Giving Challenge, see this link
http://www.parade.com/givingchallenge
[…] [chrisbrogan.com] wrote an interesting post today on Social Media Changes Lives DirectlyHere’s a quick excerpt Understanding where to give donations is always tricky. There’s overhead to consider. There are worries about where the best good can be done. And we often don’t realize the impact we make in other people’s lives. Last October, we helped send a Cambodian woman to college. Superstar nonprofit cause driver Beth Kanter raised half the money in a day, so I asked Twitter to raise the other half in two hours. Beth has a similar goal in mind here. Read that article and come back, if you want. Esse […]