You may have heard of the viral campaign to raise awareness for Breast cancer from my earlier post "Other ways to help fight breast cancer than bra color status updates " or maybe friends pointed you yo blogs to read about the viral phenomenon. Along with raising awareness the campaign has given rise to several new campaigns with the common goal of rasing funds to fight cancer or raise awareness.
I came across a new Facebook campaign Cups4Cancer which is a donate-your-bra-size challenge with all funds benefiting breast cancer charities. One of the organizers of this campaign is Rabia Shirazi . Rabia is a career storyteller, closet geek, and self-proclaimed ink fiend. She carries a torch for social justice and left the newsroom after seven years as an investigative reporter and news writer to form Realize Ink, a boutique strategic communications shop that works exclusively with non-profits. Her campaigns and communications initiatives across the U.S., Africa, India, and Australia have been credited with raising millions of dollars, reforming international legislation, and enacting public policy.You can follow her on Twitter @realize_ink
She is appealing to her network to participate in Cups4Cancer in these ways:
1. Join on Facebook: http://bit.ly/cups4cancer
2. Go straight to the widget & share on your preferred platform: http://bit.ly/7inola
3. Donate directly to your favorite charity and post your (sizable) donation on our FB wall or using
Kira Marchenes wrote a very informative and actionable post Facebook Bra Campaign: 3 Lessons for Online Organizers on her blog which is a must read. She discusses missed opportunites in the bra color campaign and steps to get better results. Kira has been the director of online communications at Environmental Defense Fund since 2004. It's the first non-profit venture for the early Internet veteran. She started with degree in public policy from Duke University that included research on how the Internet can enable social change. She helped launch the Washington Post's Web site and politics section, then went to AOL, where she focused on community and Web search. A graduate degree from Harvard's Kennedy School brought her focus back to the policy world, and now it's all about keeping our planet cool enough to live on.
Here are some of their thoughts on blogs to follow in the non-profit space and the social media campaigns that have had good results.
1. What in your opinion is the best executed non-profit social media campaign?
Rabia Shirazi : Charity: water. The best executed non-profit social media campaign is one that reinforces the organization's brand and drives the action needed to help the charity realize its mission. In my opinion, charity: water has done this best. It's not just that they can boast having more than half a million followers on Twitter; they've brilliantly used that platform and their viral videos to raise the better chunk of $10 million from 50,000 individuals to provide clean water to nearly one million people in Africa and Asia. They've gone far beyond building awareness and the results speak for themselves.
Kira Marchenese : I don't know enough about all the campaigns out there to declare one the best. But the one that got me to do the most for a cause was the Artomatic facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?folder=[fb]messages&page=1&tid=1077596478057#/group.php?gid=21926024784&ref=ts It posted volunteer oppotunities right when I was looking for them and I got completely sucked in.
What makes their campaigns so successful is that they drive action via a simple, direct ask. Having a ton of Twitter followers or Facebook fans means nothing if those people aren't inspired to help the organization realize its mission through donations, volunteering, or direct action.
2. Your recommendations for 3 non-profit blogs to follow?
Rabia Shirazi : I always find Frogloop (www.frogloop.com), Beth's blog ( http://beth.typepad.com//beths_blog), and Spare Change (http://www.social-marketing.com/blog) very insightful. All offer up great case studies and take the time to explain why the efforts worked
Kira Marchenese :Just two green blog recommendations:
- http://www.grist.org/
- EDF's Chemicals and Nanomaterials blog: http://blogs.edf.org/nanotechnology/
We have a ton of bloggers at EDF, but I look forward to the posts on this one the most.
Have you come across any other campaigns as a result . Reader Lynne Ann Miller suggested that people educate themselves about the environmental causes of breast cancer.at www.breastcancerfund.org . What are your recommendations ?
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