by Will Robinson
Category: Digital Influence, Events
Leave it to social media to alter the time tested traditions of football, family and food comas on Thanksgiving. Epic Change, a non-profit that helps amplify the stories of changemakers and social entrepreneurs to help them raise needed funds, is in the midst of their second annual “Tweetsgiving”. TweetsGiving is a global celebration that seeks to change the world through the power of gratitude by encouraging participants to express their thanks using online tools and at live events.
The Twitterverse has been abuzz these past few days as people share their humble thanks with the #tweetsgiving hashtag. At the moment, they’ve managed to raise over $26,000 for this year’s beneficiary, Epic Change fellow “Mama Lucy” Kamptoni, a woman who once sold chickens and used her income to build a school that now serves over 300 children near her home in Arusha, Tanzania. The money will go to improvements for the school. Thanksgiving will never be the same.
So before you sit down to eat tonight or subsequently pass out from all that turkey and stuffing, do take a moment to let others know what you’re thankful for this Thanksgiving. Have a happy one.
Interview with Twitter Fail Whale Designer
December 1st, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Hi Will, just came across this post as I was looking to see what has been written about tweetsgiving. I met the founders of epicchange.org last week and it was astounding to see what they were able to achieve on twitter through this campaign. I’m really looking forward to seeing more and more of these creative uses of twitter for great causes. I was wondering if you knew of any aside from tweetsgiving.
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:13 am
Hi Ed,
Thanks for your comment. Stacey Monk from Epic Change is a pretty dynamic person. Here are my Top 5 personal favorite, cause-related twitter campaigns off the top of my head (in addition to Tweetsgiving).
1. The @Livestrong campaign http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23livestrong
2. The @joinred campaign as part of World AIDS Day.
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23joinred
3. The @Movember campaign changing the face of men’s cancer.
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23movember
4. Twitter Autism Day
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23asd
5. Blame Drew’s Cancer
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23blamedrewscancer
Some of my favorite smaller non-profits on twitter are @lend4health @atlascorps @thegenproject.
Best,
Will