Everywhere Agency is a social media, content and influencer marketing firm. This is their charitable giving blog post archive.

100 Good Deeds Bracelet #DeedADay

#DeedADay and the Democratization of Ideas

In 1992, Mary Fisher stood up at the Republican National Convention looking very much like the daughter of a prominent Republican family (which she was), and announced on national TV that she had AIDS. It was a hugely shocking moment for the crowd and for most of America. In 1992, the very word AIDS was shared in hushed tones and considered a scourge of just gay men and Haitians. At that time I worked in television production in NYC. I alternated between my job working at Saturday Night Live and freelancing at this hot production company, Peter Wallach Enterprises. My boss at the time there had AIDS, something he never overtly confessed to me, even though we were as close as school chums and all the symptoms indicated that he had the disease. My editor at the post-production house, where we cut the short films I produced for SNL, was grey, rail thin and hacked through our late night editing sessions. He said things like, “My immune system is shot,” yet he never publicly admitted he had AIDS. In 1992, I remember watching blonde, blue-eyed Mary on TV, standing there in her prim white dress and realizing that things were going to change for the better. Mary gave a voice to the voiceless.

Ron Edmonds/Associated Press

Flash forward in my career 20-odd years later and I find myself working in an industry, social media, which does just the same. I launched a career in this field over six years ago because I was excited by the power of this new medium to bring about change. What I saw very clearly was that social media was the ultimate democratization of ideas. Anyone could speak – we all had a megaphone in our blogs, our tweets, our Facebook status updates. If an idea was good enough, strong enough, it could be seen, absorbed and passed on to others. For a person like me who had devoted a quarter of a century to working with big media, big PR and big advertising, I was infatuated with the concept that good ideas could be distributed outside of an advertising campaign and without regard to any editors fickle preferences.

Last night I witnessed that democratization of ideas with the woman who stood on a stage and inspired us so long ago. We joined forces with Mary Fisher and her team to launch the #DeedADay movement. The movement is inspired by a bracelet Mary designed called the 100 Good Deeds bracelet. It’s made by vulnerable women in Haiti, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, India, and Bali. The bracelet is strung with 100 beads and wraps around your wrist. There is a small rubber ring among the 100 beads and the idea is you wear the bracelet both as an ethical fashion statement and as a reminder to do good deeds. Every time you do a good deed — going out of your way to do something kind for others — you move the ring over until you get to 100 beads.

I met Mary last year in Haiti and talked to her (a little too enthusiastically) about the power of social media to change the world. I guess she remembered our conversation because she asked me to do something connected to the theme of New Year’s resolutions. Sharing the message of doing good deeds felt bigger than me and my firm alone, so I called a few of my friends who run major blogging social media networks. I reached out to Stacey Ferguson of Blogalicious and the b-Link Marketing Network, Ana Flores of Latina Bloggers Connect, Jyl Johnson Pattee of MomItForward, Barbara Jones of the One2One Network, Cat Lincoln of Clever Girls Collective, Nadia Jones of the Niche Parent Network, and Kelby Carr of the Type A Parent network. They all agreed to join forces with me and ask their collective networks to share the #DeedADay movement on their blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Twitter channels. I hate to use the word viral, but there’s no other way to describe what happened. #DeedADay is everywhere on social media. With over 40 blog posts to date (what will ultimately be 80+ posts total), 6500 social posts and 1100+ individuals who’ve participated, we’re at 50+ million impressions.

Last night we teamed up with Jyl who runs the popular Twitter chat #GNO. We began talking to women across the country about how they think about good deeds. We hit a nerve and the Twitter stream lit up. In one short hour, we generated 25 million impressions. Women talked about ethical fashion, the importance of teaching their children to do good deeds and setting good deed resolutions in 2015. At one point, even Rosie O’Donnell, who’s known as simply @Rosie on Twitter joined the conversation.

A screenshot from the #GNO #DeedADay Twitter chat - Rosie shows off her 100 Good Deeds Bracelet.

As we head in to 2015, I’m heartened to know that initiatives like doing good deeds can build momentum in social media, the democratization is alive and strong, and the fact that one women’s voice can make a difference.

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Three Non-Profits Using Social Media in an “Out of the Box” Way

You’d have to have been living under a rock to have missed the ALS ice bucket challenge that’s swept the web. A few months before the ALS challenge, women were posting photos of their bare faces, free of make-up and hashtagging #NoMakeUpSelfie. Believe it or not, these efforts weren’t even planned by non-profits. But, with some strategic placement and interjections from groups like the ALS Association and Cancer Research UK, the results have been millions raised for both organizations. What follows are three non-profits using social media in “out of the box” ways that deserve notice. Or I should say, more notice.

 

1. WATERisLIFE

True hashtag hijackers, Water is Life mastered the idea of taking something with a negative reputation and turning it into something for a greater good. #FirstWorldProblems, a trending hashtag, highlights issues that – only those far more fortunate than others – could even deem ‘problems’. For instance, “My in-flight movie was longer than my flight” is a typical first world problem. Water for Life hijacked this hashtag and created a video featuring third world kids and adults in their natural environments (in front of a hut, bathing in dirty water) reading typical #FirstWorldProblems aloud to show just how outrageous our issues truly are. The results? Donations that totaled over a million days worth of clean water to those in need! (1)

 

2. Cancer Research UK

The #NoMakeUpSelfie trend wasn’t started by Cancer Research UK, but when a bunch of women began posting pictures online of themselves without make-up and encouraging their friends to donate to the cause, the non-profit very wisely jumped on board. The charity sent out a tweet saying:

The campaign isn’t ours but every £ helps #beatcancersooner.” The results? They raised $13.3 Million USD in six days! (2) Why is this my favorite campaign so far? The honesty of Cancer Research UK created a transparent and honest relationship with participants. Also, as a woman proud of her face and body as they are, make-up or not, a campaign promoting women to bare their natural beauty gets an A+ in my book!

 

3. ALS ASSOCIATION

It’s the biggest viral trend today and it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere any time soon. It’s the #IceBucket challenge. With this campaign, individuals have two options: pouring a bucket of ice cold water on themselves and making a small donation to the ALS Association, or making a much larger donation to the ALS Association but dodging the polar bear-esque plunge. Time limit? 24 hours! With the sharing capabilities of social media and the naturally occurring domino effect that comes with any contest that asks you to challenge others, the #IceBucket challenge has taken over social media. The results? $94.3 Million raised from July 29, 2014 to August 27, 2014. (3)

The use of social media for non-profits has proven to be successful time and time again. The results are in the numbers and as we all know, numbers don’t lie. One of the biggest draws for companies to use social media, is the rate at which a message can spread.

One thing is for sure, whether these non-profits raised money or not, they met their most important goal, awareness. When done right, the buzz around these non-profits and their purpose continues to rise with every share, post and call to action. The ice bucket challenge has not only raised millions of dollars, it has also proved a very important point. As Oscar Wilde once said, “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”

 

*Sources

(1) http://www.nonprofithub.org/social-media/the-top-4-nonprofit-social-media-campaigns-of-2013-and-what-you-can-learn/

(2) http://guardianlv.com/2014/08/ice-bucket-challenge-better-than-the-no-makeup-selfies/

(3) http://www.alsa.org/news/media/press-releases/ice-bucket-challenge-082714.html

Everywhere society spotlight leticia barr

The Everywhere Society Spotlight is on Leticia Barr!

Is it presumptuous to say that if you’re in the blogging community and haven’t heard of Tech Savvy Mama you’re most likely living under a cool, dark rock? Maybe. But if you haven’t heard of the woman behind it, Leticia Barr, you best start digging your way out because you most certainly are.

Leticia made her way onto the blogging circuit after spending her earlier years as a tech teacher passionate about technology integration and school administration. If you ask her about the campaigns, companies and cause initiatives she’s worked on, she’ll likely be modest and elude to a few. In reality, her website bio boasts a body of work that would impress even the most seasoned of techies. From her consulting gigs with the likes of Comcast, LeapFrog, Scholastic, UPS, Microsoft and Disney to her Tech Savvy Parents column on Parents.com to even her work on the American Cancer Society’s ‘More Birthdays’ campaign, it’s evident that Leticia keeps more than her toes in the water. And somehow, she manages it all with the biggest and brightest smile on her face. A smile that supersedes even her mouth! Tyra Banks may have coined the phrase ‘smiling with your eyes’ but Leticia has perfected it.

Beyond the hard work, good deeds and long hours, Leticia maintains a level of sincerity and compassion often lost on a world that has gone digital. In the absence of face-to-face contact, many of us (dare we admit it?) have lost touch with genuine connectivity. Suffice it to say Leticia most certainly has not and we think that calls for a collective, “I’ll have what she’s having!”

Her participation in Everywhere Society campaigns has been boundless. When our client, Cox Communications and TV host John Walsh launched ‘Cox Take Charge’ – a nationwide effort to educate parents and their children about TV and internet safety - they were in the market for a social media correspondent with expertise in the area of tech, child internet safety. We knew Leticia was the right choice. They enthusiastically agreed.

Just as her expertise and professionalism lend themselves to our corporate initiatives so does her compassion appeal to our cause campaigns. She has worked with us on Macy’s Heart of Haiti– a trade-not-aid initiative that we have grown to nurture beyond the realm of its social media presence – since it began in 2010. She continues to be one of its most committed advocates. Leticia has traveled with us to Haiti four times. As a devoted member of our #Bloggers4Haiti group she leaves nary a story nor a stone unturned.

What’s arguably Leticia’s most admirable quality (but feel free to ask about the others because we’ve made a laundry list) is her desire to learn and to teach others. We suppose that’s why she became a teacher turned mother, turned blogger, turned philanthropist, turned consultant, visionary, columnist - the list goes on. And so could we.

This month, we’re so pleased to announce that we’re turning the Everywhere Society Spotlight on Leticia Barr of Tech Savvy Mama (and so much more). Thank you for all you’ve done and continue to do. We’re not just saying it…we couldn’t do it all without you!

growing, giving, growing up giving, guide to give, children, philanthropy, charity, charitable giving, heart of haiti, macy's

Growing Up Giving: Everywhere & Macy’s Heart of Haiti Create a Guide to Raising Charitable Children

This holiday season, Everywhere and Macy’s Heart of Haiti have decided to bring parents and children the gift of giving. Heart of Haiti – an initiative that aims to create financial sustainability in Haiti by sourcing artwork from local vendors and selling them through Macy’s – promotes a belief in ‘trade not aid’ but also recognizes the benefits of being charitable. Together, we have compiled a spirited guide filled with rich visuals, insightful passages and useful advice from our community and networks on how to raise a child who is enthused about philanthropy.

Thanksgiving kicks off a season that encourages each of us to show thanks, generosity, kindness and good intention. As we all slowly get back into the swing of things after the holiday, we are reminded of cherished times shared between family and friends. In keeping with the spirit of the holidays we encourage you to take this opportunity to explore how you can mentor the children in your life.

With information from UN Foundation Study Women Give 2013, contributing anecdotes from parents and inspirational quotes, the Growing Up Giving guide is the perfect resource for any parent, teacher or caregiver seeking to instill a sense of philanthropy in our younger generation.

The Growing Up Giving digital magazine is easy to navigate, quick to read and 100% shareable! For more information about how you can start conversations about charitable giving or to promote this message, contact us at www.beEverywhere.tv.