Doing Good with Influencer Outreach
Last week on Media Bullseye, Connie Reece wrote about the overnight success of the Frozen Pea Fund, a charity that sprang to life in response to the cancer diagnosis of fellow blogger and Twitter community member Susan Reynolds. If you haven't done so, please take a look at Connie's article, to get the full story - I couldn't possibly do it justice here.She concluded her post by alluding to ooVoo (a client of my employer, crayon) and the promotion that we called My ooVoo Day With... In short, we asked two dozen bloggers, podcasters and authors to use ooVoo to connect with their respective communities to talk about anything they wanted to. And as a way to thank them for their valuable time, ooVoo generously agreed to give $1,500 in their names primarily to the Frozen Pea Fund (or to any charity they felt passionate about).
The event was a major success, with over 450 seats filled over the course of 10 days, resulting in some 187 blog posts about the program in the month of February, as well as 1,600 mentions of ooVoo on Twitter. Many of the posts and mentions were from participants on the chats, so our idea of using the technology to influence other influencers was borne out.
More importantly, we helped out some other great charities in the process, thanks to these hosts: Scott Sigler -$1,500 to the Disabled American Veterans; Irina Slutsky - $1,500 to Pie Ranch; C.C. Chapman - $750 to Whitney Hoffman's Ma Chen Autism School fund; David Meerman Scott - $1,500 to the Massachusetts Air & Space Museum; Karen Putz - $750 to Hands & Voices.
But the biggest news is for the Frozen Pea Fund. On Saturday night in New York City, at the famed Blogger Social, I had the honor of presenting a check from ooVoo to the Fund in the amount of $30,000 in honor of: Mitch Joel, Steve Hall, Bob Garfield, Joseph Jaffe, John Wall, iJustine, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Connie Reece, Chris Thilk, Erin Kotecki Vest, Dave Delaney, Geoff Livingston, Allan Cox, George Parker, Chris Brogan, Susan Reynolds, Laura "Pistachio" Fitton, Drew McLellan & Gavin Heaton, Robin Good, C.C. Chapman, and Karen Putz.
Susan Reynolds' husband Bill and daughter Kate were on hand to accept the check, as well as Connie Reece and Cathleen Rittereiser, two of the board members of the Fund, which now officially a 501(c)3 corporation. To say that this money has made a difference in the future of the Frozen Pea Fund is an understatement. I join ooVoo and crayon in taking great pride knowing that this gift will make a difference in the lives of many people suffering from cancer.
One final note. In his absence from the dinner (he was under the weather), Joseph Jaffe had been lampooned all night on Twitter by the attendees. I decided that, rather than be taken in vain, Joe's name should be used for good, so directly after the check presentation, I held an impromptu auction of his name badge. After some pretty aggressive bidding, Geoff Livingston went home as Joseph Jaffe for the sum of $500, payable to the Frozen Pea Fund.
Labels: client, crayon, Frozen Pea Fund, news, ooVoo
Posted by Scott Monty at 11:05 PM
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Utterz
So wonderful, congrats to all!
/kff
What a night. Lots of fun! We have more in store on the name tag, but I can't spoil the fun!
Hi Scott-
I will update you all with the news from Ma Chen as well- in addition to the generous donation courtesy of CC Chapman and ooVoo, plus donations from 63 other donors, we were able to wire $1,500 to Ma Chen and her Carnation Children's Rehabilitation Foundation, that runs two schools for autistic children in China. That represents 100% of the money collected went directly to Ma Chen.
Here's the reply we got back after Ma Chen received the donation:
"Dear Ms. Zhu [Ellen Zhu from the Wall Street Journal, who helped us act as intermediary]
Today I checked that the remittance has arrived. Thank you very much, Whitney and Helen!
As I am not able to write in English, please help me to translate the following text and send our most sincere gratitude on behalf of all teachers and children from our organization.
First of all, I'd like to introduce our organization briefly. We have two divisions for elder children and little kids. There are 14 children, between 6 and 14 years old, in the high age class, and 15 children in the little age class, between 2 and 7 years old. We have 21 teachers now. My daughter is attending the high age class.
I'm wondering if I can spend the donations from Whitney for the use below. Please let me know any thoughts of yours.
Now we charge each student an annual tuition of RMB20,000 yuan (equivalent to US$2,778). Although we offer some free or discounted chances, there are still many children who can't afford it. Your donations are converted into a total of RMB11,000 yuan. We plan to enroll two more students and give each of them 5,000 yuan subsidies from the donation. We will also exempt 5,000 yuan tuition for each of them. Therefore, they only need to pay 10,000 yuan each to receive one-year education and rehabilitation at our organization.
If you agree, I can send you the names, photos and brief information about the two kids later. The rest 10,000 yuan I would like to purchase some teaching aids. Please let me know if you agree upon my plan and free free to let me know your thoughts.
Thank all of you again for all the concern and help.
Ma Chen"
I agreed- giving tow additional children schooling, and their families the skills they need to help them at home, will change the life of these children, as well as help provide instructional materials for the school.
Thank you again to everyone who helped- it felt great to make a difference through social media.
Whitney Hoffman
The LD Podcast
Glad to have helped and would do it again in a heart beat. All the best. Thanks for the recap.
Cheers,
Dave
Glad it worked out so well! :)
Big thanks to ooVoo for their generous donation and a fun event!