Social Media benefiting Social Change

This weeks blog post was inspires by an article link http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-change_b27162 posted by @actionsforgood.

Surprisingly, almost 75% of adults in the U.S. feel that social change is important. With the increasing advancement of technology and the willingness to help, there are several sites popping up that are driven to aid in social change via social networking. Since social networking has taken on a life of its own I feel that this could be a huge step forward in impacting social change.

The article was a huge surprise to me, especially after having the conversations about our education system in class the other day. This article gave several examples of charities that are directly giving back to our school systems without government assistance. I had not heard about any of the charities listed in the article so I did my research and they are all very real, very useful charities.

            I really liked the Donors Choose site. I conducted a simple zip code search and I was given several schools, from low poverty to high poverty, that are asking for funds for specific school items. The website is very detailed on the location of the school and what the money is for. If the project is fully funded, the organization ships the materials requested to the school and the donors get a letter, accompanied with pictures, showing how the monetary donation was put to good use. I actually wanted to donate to a local project right then and there since I could actually see where the money was going. I suddenly felt connected to the teacher and students that posted the request. It was even more moving because it was local.

            I actually reposted the tweet and I hope others do the same. I think if we could get the word out more people would respond. I am on Facebook and Twitter all the time and this was the first time I had seen any of these sites. If we could get them more attention thru Facebook and Twitter I think it would catch on in our community, possibly changing the lives of local students. Check them out!

http://www.donorschoose.org

http://www.kickstarter.com/

http://www.pencilsofpromise.org/

http://www.crowdrise.com/give