July 6, 2009 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Mashable, the popular blog about online social networking tools, has become the latest player to harness such networks in behalf of charities.
On June 1, the media company kicked off its Summer of Social Good, a three-month fund-raising campaign that is reaching out to people through Facebook, Twitter, and other sites and encouraging them to donate to a fund that will go to four charities.
Adam Hirsch, Mashable’s chief operating officer, says the campaign is in part a fund-raising experiment that he hopes can prove useful to charities interested in trying to solicit donations through online media.
Each week, the campaign introduces a new theme to engage users. In mid-June, Mashable ran a contest called “Stories4Good,” in which donors were encouraged to blog about an experience using social media to do good.
Another week’s theme — “FindingtheGood” — asked people to share stories of how charities they were familiar with were using social media effectively. Last week, Mashable created a page that acknowledged donors who had given more than $20, and made a special mention of those who had given more than $100.
The “Summer of Social Good” campaign has so far raised more than $6,000, a third of which was contributed last week.
The fund is being managed by the nonprofit Global Giving, which will receive 10 percent of the money raised. The Humane Society, Livestrong Foundation, World Wildlife Fund, and Oxfam will split the remaining 90 percent.
Mr. Hirsch said his company chose to raise money for multiple charities because he felt the diversity of their work would appeal to the site’s global audience and attract more support.
“I wanted to make sure it wasn’t a specific ask,” he said. “I didn’t want these charities competing.”
The media company has participated in online fund-raising efforts in the past, “Twestival” and “Tweetsgiving” among them. But Mr. Hirsch said the potential of Mashable to raise money hit home last fall, when the site’s founder, Pete Cashmore, helped bring in $10,000 by asking his friends to donate money to the nonprofit group Charity:Water in lieu of sending him birthday gifts.
Have you contributed to the “Summer of Social Good” campaign? What is your opinion of the effort?
