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The human spirit is often most inspiring in the middle of terrible events. The earthquake in Haiti was certainly on everyone’s minds this past week. I was personally quite proud of the role that internet marketing and in particular social media played in not only raising awareness but fundraising around this tragedy. Here are a few ways that the internet moved efforts along:

Social media resulted in pressure to give.
I think we can all agree that sometimes, peer pressure can be good. In the case of the Haiti earthquake, on Friday afternoon, I felt like the only person on Twitter who hadn’t donated to the cause. And I felt guilty, which made me finally make my own donation.

In addition to regular media coverage, social media was able to bring up-to-date and user-generated information about the latest news in Haiti.

Websites began offering products and proceeds to help with the relief efforts and let their customers know about it.

The internet helped organize and get the word out about both internet and live events.

My friend Jen knew on Wednesday that she was going to a benefit in Cape Cod this past weekend. Would word have got out so fast without Facebook event notices or, even thinking lower tech but still online, email forwards? Certainly not!

Facebook pages and Twitter conversation threads allowed concerned individuals to not only find information about the disaster but to collaborate about ways they could help. Also, these sites provided much needed information about legitimate versus non-legitimate fundraising efforts.

Mobile communications provided much needed donations.

Wyclef Jean, founder of the Yéle Haiti, sent out the following message to his nearly 1.4 million Twitter followers:

“Please text ‘Yéle’ to 501501 to donate $5 to Yéle Haiti. Your money will help with relief efforts. They need our help.”



Millions of dollars have been raised via Yele, the Red Cross, and the Clinton Foundation in what has become the largest text-based fundraising campaign for disaster relief in history.

I gave my donation via text to try it out. I did have to confirm the donation (which is just safe) and was also told I could text up to five times to keep donating. The amount will be charged to my phone bill.

Here’s how you can give a donation via text message:

Text “Yele” to 501501 to donate $5 Yéle Foundation, founded by Wyclef Jean
Text “Haiti” to 20222 to donate $10 on behalf of The Clinton Foundation
Text “Haiti” to 90999 to donate $10 on behalf of the Red Cross

Overall, I was impressed with how people online stepped up to this crisis. I do hope these efforts help to somewhat relieve the devistation, and I hope we all realize through these efforts that we collectively have the power to do it a lot, and do it more often.

Have a great cause you need help online fundraising for? Need help getting the word out? Breaking Even Communications can help, just contact Nicole!

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