Today’s Good News: Youth Re-Invents Activism, Philanthropy
Social networking sites aren’t just for party photos anymore. Young people are using - and creating - them to raise awareness and funds for a range of good causes. Rachel Ella Silverman writes in the Wall St. Journal about the new trend. (The Journal has extensively covered the issue of youth and philanthropy in their series, “Young Money.”) For example, a site called sixdegrees.org allows users to create “charity badges” to forward to friends about their causes. The badge keeps a running tally of donors and funds. The site has raised some three-quarters of a million dollars for 6,000 causes. One young woman created a badge in support of the House of Justice, a legal aid program in Los Angeles. She raised more than $15,000 from 406 donors. Many donations were just $10.
There’s a whole group of these sites. A couple of the coolest are:
- DonorsChoose.org: Â Teachers and students in urban public school post their needs for specific items or projects, and donors can hook them up directly. Â I read a story about one woman, an attorney, who found herself spending her whole bonus on the site and loving it.
- Kiva.org is similar, except donors get to choose among individual entrepreneurs in developing countries.
- Change.org: Visitors can join “virtual foundations” of peers dedicated to specific causes.
Facebook also now has an area where users can advocate their causes or candidates.
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