Beth Kanter's Birthday Campaign: How Beth Leveraged Her Online Network to Raise Thousands of Dollars

added by Tivix Team

Getting kids involved with social causes helps them to shape lifelong values - and using tools like Facebook and Twitter is a great way for kids to have fun while "doing good".

Consider the case of 12-year old Beth Kanter. For her birthday, Beth decided to wanted to support The Sharing Foundation, an organization devtoed to disadvantaged children in Cambodia. With help from Facebook, Twitter and other online networks, Beth managed to raise $6,225 from 161 donors. Pretty impressive, for a 12 year old.

The tool that Beth started out with was relatively simple: a Facebook application called Facebook Birthday Causes. This tool allows individual users to pick a cause they support, ask friends to donate an amount equivalent to your age and to set goals. Getting started with Facebook Birthday Causes is merely a matter of having a Facebook account.

Beth made a key discovery through her requests for donations to The Sharing Foundation. She had to make sure that her network -- made up of people from all over the world -- had equal opportunities to help. Beth found quickly that friends in countries such as Romania couldn't easily donate even through an international site like Facebook, because their credit cards aren't on the list of accepted options. Beth was able to provide an alternative through Network for Good.

Beth's story is a great example of how kids can do their part to bring about positive change in the world, using tools that they already enjoy using.

For more information on how Tivix can bring the power of social media to your organization, check out the Tivix Social Media Success Package