Image via Wikipedia
Social media for social good has been theme at lot of conferences I’ve attended and I totally understand why.
Social media is such an amazing tool for non-profits and charities. Once they have a grasp on how to use social media themselves the power to spread their messages at low cost can be incredible!
My contribution
I’ve decided that once a month I am going to pick a cause and promote it for that month. Whatever the cause is, it will require a minor contribution (under $10, I’m aiming for ~$5) to take part. Why? Because realistically it’s hard for me to invest a lot right now (as I’m sure it is for others) but more importantly a small donation isn’t as hard to commit to. I can donate $5 without having to think about it. We want immediate action.
October’s cause
This past week I was at a conference called She’s Connected where they challenged us to buy a stove.
In Sri Lanka many women have no stoves and have to cook over a fire. They have to search for fire wood daily, often taking them out into dangerous areas that still have unactivated landmines in the fields.
For $5 donated to the World Food Programme they will give a woman a stove. These stoves will also be produced within the country, creating more jobs. I donated $5 buying one stove. ($5 - that’s a latte?)
You can pay using paypal (link on the left) meaning the process is pretty easy and painless (having to stop and find my wallet and credit card and proceed has stopped me from donating to charities in the past. I know it’s lazy, but it’s true).
What you can do
- donate. You can buy more than one stove if you want :)
- I need an official name for this series and a blog button. If you want to help me with either I will credit you in all subsequent posts
- spread the word. Tweet, Facebook, google+, linked in, blog and email it out. Wouldn’t it be great if we could get 50-100 stoves donated??
- let me know if you donated. It’s not a requirement, but I’d love to know!
