Yahoo has come up with a way to mix social networking with charities and
non-profits. Called Yahoo!
For Good, it has partnered with 'charity aggregator' Network
for Good and launched a personalized Charity Badge - for people to put on
their websites, social networks or email. To promote the initiative, Yahoo! will
match the amount raised by the user who generates the largest number of
individual donations from their personal social network (up to $50,000).
The Charity Badge works by allowing website owners or social network users to create and publish a personalized badge (essentially a widget). You can even put it on your email signature. With the badge you can set up a link to your favorite charity, so that family, friends and others in your social network can donate as well. Or you can simply copy the code for an existing badge, that someone else set up for a charity. Check out the top 10 badges to get an idea of how this works.
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There are even some stats to back up the campaign:
"According to recent studies, consumers value the personal advice of friends, family and acquaintances 1.5 more times today than in the 1970s and twice as much as traditional media (1). A staggering 61 percent of people surveyed report giving to a charity because a personal connection has asked them to make a contribution (2)."
(1) Source: The Influentials
(2) Source: Harris Interactive
Rather than set up my own badge, I chose an existing badge for a worthy cause: Global Exchange. Here it is below and I've also added it to R/WW's sidebar. If you feel like donating, click the orange 'Donate' button in the badge.
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