CNN Tech (January 14, 2010)
"A 48-hour-old fundraising campaign to help Haiti earthquake victims, done solely through text messages, was already stunning Red Cross officials on Thursday when it hit $3 million. By Friday morning, the tally had more than doubled.
"The campaign, made viral on networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, had raised $8 million by Friday, according to a Twitter message from the White House that was reposted on the Red Cross account.
"The campaign leads a spate of online efforts that have allowed people to help victims of the devastating quake.
"The Red Cross campaign's tally would be double the $4 million that was donated to all charities by mobile texts in all of 2009, a spokeswoman said.
"Abi Weaver, spokeswoman for the Red Cross, confirmed that the mobile giving campaign hit the $7 million mark about 11 p.m. Thursday.
" 'It's shattered any record that we've seen with mobile giving before,' Wendy Harman, social media manager for the Red Cross, said Thursday...."
"...'It feels like every person who has a Twitter account has tweeted about it, which is a pretty amazing thing to see,' she said."
I've long suspected that there were a lot of good people out there. Nice to see that suspicion verified.
I'm on Twitter - my handle is Aluwir there - and, although I haven't 'Tweeted' specifically about this Red Cross fundraiser, I've posted quite a lot about Haiti relief this week. So, obviously, have quite a few other folks.
In case you missed it, I've put a link toward the top of this blog: "Haiti: About the Earthquake, Relief, and Related Topics" - that'll get you to a link list of high-profile charity and relief organizations, and a link list of Haiti-related posts in this blog.
That CNN Tech article shows, I think, that the rules are changing - fast - when it comes to how communities are formed, how they work, and what they can do. Exciting!
One related post:
- "Twitter, Haiti and a Global Community"
(January 14, 2010)
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