American Red Cross asks social networkers to support disaster fund
Howard Lake | 19 September 2008 | News
Faced with funding shortages for its Disaster Relief Fund, the American Red Cross is today asking social network and online community members to help promote the Fund. In exploiting social networks, the nonprofit will be attempting to reach large numbers of people very quickly and at very low cost.
The Red Cross is currently supporting thousands of evacuees across the Gulf States affected by Hurricanes Ike and Gustav, as well as responding to many other incidents across the country.
The organisation is asking “everyone who has a blog, Twitter account, Facebook profile, and other online presence” to display support for the victims of the recent hurricanes and help raise funds.
In addition, the National Association of Broadcasters has asked radio stations across the country to broadcast a Red Cross Public Service Announcement.
The American Red Cross lists ways in which social networkers can help. They can:
* “Change their profile pictures to a Red Cross Avatar for the day (or longer)
* Place a Red Cross Banner on their sites and share on social networks
* Embed Red Cross PSAs
* Embed Red Cross Relief Videos from Disaster Sites
* Embed Red Cross widgets
* Embed Red Cross audio clips from the field
* Promote the Text 2Help campaign
* Share Red Cross news items on social networks
* Be creative! Show support and encourage donations in their own way.”
www.redcross.org
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.