Join us for the San Francisco Net Tuesday on September 9 featuring
Involver: How Nonprofits Can Create Video Campaigns for Social Networks. Looking forward to seeing you there!
NetSquared is an initiative of TechSoup
NetSquared enables social benefit organizations to leverage the tools of the social web.
- Home
- SixDegrees.org
SixDegrees.org
Voting Summary (Elevator Pitch):
SixDegrees.org taps into the small world phenomenon made popular by Kevin Bacon that we are all connected. The vision is for www.SixDegrees.org to be more than a game or a gimmick; it's social networking with a social conscience.
Supporting organization:
Network for Good
URL:
www.sixdegrees.org
City:
Bethesda
State/Region:
MD
Country:
USA
Project Vision Statement & Potential Social Impact:
www.SixDegrees.org taps into the small world phenomenon made popular by Kevin Bacon that we are all connected. The vision is for SixDegrees.org to be more than a game or a gimmick; it will also be a force for good. It's social networking with a social conscience.
Through this web site, people can learn about and support the charities of celebrities. They can also be a celebrity for their cause by creating a charity badge and/or AIM Page to raise money for their issue. By extension – via the top badges - it will also be a platform to learn best practices in online fundraising.
Sustainability (financial) model:
Network for Good didn't incur upfront costs to launch this program because of celebrity underwriting of the project as well as partnership involvement:
• We worked with AOL to create a branded version of their AIM Pages social networking platform where users can talk about their favorite causes and invite friends via email to make donations. They also did online promotion of the celebrity pages and email outreach to their AIM users.
• We worked with Entertainment Weekly to secure media exposure and help with logistics of an on-site launch at Sundance.
• We worked with eBay and Auction Cause to orchestrate a auction. eBay helped to promote the auction from eBay.com and Auction Cause facilitated the auction management piece.
www.SixDegrees.org has a highly sustainable model for a few reasons:
• We used existing backend functionality which is scalable; online donations processing and a skinned version of our beta charity badges
• We are planning to package corporate sponsorships on a quarterly basis for continued momentum on fundraising and increased exposure to new audiences
• We are planning to work with additional celebrities for challenge grants
• We are targeting new partners for functionality enhancements
Potential obstacles:
Launch related obstacles included:
• Getting celebrities and partners on board for a new idea in untread territory
• Orchestrating approvals (especially legal) from various parties; all with their own priorities
• Creating messaging that balances the celebrity involvement with the desired grassroots activity
• Knowledge of cutting edge web 2.0 tools
Resource Needs:
• Education and training for people on how to build successful charity badges and how to do outreach for their cause
• Partner to ensure badges work in all places online
• Functionality to connect / display users based on their charities, geography etc.
• Additional matching grants and/or celebrity ambassadors
• Open technical environment to encourage viral spread
Key Milestones:
January 18th
Launch SixDegrees.org at Sundance
Spread the word about the website
Encourage people to take action
After 3 months
500,000 visitors to the site
$555,000 in donations to charity
4,500 people fundraising for their cause and using our tips/suggestions
1,400 AIM Pages created
50 celebrities on board
Strong media coverage (USA Today, CNN, Access Hollywood, US Weekly, In Touch, OK Magazine, People, Entertainment Weekly, The View, The Ellen Show, Morning Radio Tour in 20 markets, The Tonight Show)
Looking ahead
$1,000,000 in donations
12,000 people fundraising for their cause
100 celebrities
2-3 key partnerships
Project Summary:
www.SixDegrees.org launched on January 18th and in a short amount of time an active community has formed online. It started with celebrities sharing their favorite causes, but there has been an incredible response from nearly 4,500 other people who have become celebrities for their own favorite causes. The result -- more than $550,000 contributed to a wide array of charities.
The six $10,000 matching grants have created a subset of uber activists; these are the badges we have featured on our Top 10 page @ http://www.sixdegrees.org/Top.aspx. They are fan sites, moms, dads and people supporting animal focused organizations. The highlighted issues on the site mirror what’s featured in the news and politics: autism, environment, obesity / diabetes, helping children and animals, gay rights, AIDS, Sudan.
Giving people and nonprofits the tools to fundraise where they exist online has been the key to this program’s success. People are raising money with their charity badges via blogs, personal websites, and social networking sites – many of them for the first time. In addition, charities are using the badges on their homepages and via email outreach as an innovative way to engage their constituents.
