Two years ago, the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti made shockwaves well beyond the small Caribbean country. Hundreds of millions of dollars were poured into the country by foreign governments and traditional charitable organizations. But what was most unique was that a substantial portion of international donations—$43 million to be exact—came from text messaging. The […]
There is no doubt that this year’s Academy Award nominees are talented … but are they charitable? The infographic below examines just how Oscar night could look like if these nominees were judged based on their committment to social good and charitable causes.
Last night I was fortunate to attend a small event benefiting the Global Health Corps – an innovative, millennial-driven global health organization developed by former first-daughter Barbara Pierce Bush. The concept is unique: find passionate young professionals with no background in public health (but with exceptional backgrounds in areas of supply chain, engineering, communications and […]
What is the return on investment for charities to invest in advocacy, community organizing and civic engagement initiatives? A recent study by the National Committee for Responsible Philanthropy poses this question. And the results are pretty remarkable. The answer: billions of dollars to communities. The study looked at 110 charities across 13 (U.S.) states. It found […]
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) recently took on new terrain: social media for social good. As the agency’s first social media-driven cause marketing campaign targeted to the American public, USAID launched the FWD initiative last fall to highlight the burden of “Famine, War and Drought” in the Horn of Africa. The campaign reflects a […]
As you have probably seen plastered all over the news this past week, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure received significant amounts of political pressure and – more impressively – immense amounts of social media backlash in reaction to their decision to defund their grants to Planned Parenthood. Regardless of your take on their decision, […]
Slacktivism:: (noun) describes “feel-good” measures, in support of an issue or social cause, that have little or no practical effect other than to make the person doing it feel satisfaction. In today’s digital age, we are in no shortage of e-advocacy campaigns soliciting users to sign online petitions to advocate for a cause. This trend […]
Welcome to Armchair Advocates – a first attempt at a blog that covers the nexus of social media and social good. Here I plan to post and discuss new innovative ways nonprofits, companies and governments are using social media platforms to generate buzz and call people to action on a range of global issues. We’ll […]
