Social Media Revolution 2011

Action for Children - Official Charity of the Scottish Open

The world's leading players will tee off on the outskirts of Inverness next month for the Scottish Open and today, Action for Children have been appointed as the official charity for the prestigious event. 

An interesting initiative from Barclay Capital will see the charity benefit from donations worth £10 for every birdie, £50 for every eagle, and £100 for every albatross scored across each day of the 4-day tournament. 

With an average of 1,500 birdies and 35 eagles per tournament to date on the European Tour this year, the initiative could see Action for Children receive up to £20,000 worth of donations from Barclay Capital alone. The initiative has also been extended to allow other organisations and individuals to complete a pledge form donating as little or as much as they like per birdie. 

This initiative coupled with the various hospitality fundraising activities AFC have planned over the weekend, not to mention the 50,000 fans attending the event dropping change into boxes, could make for a very successful 4 day weekend for the charity.

The Fight Against Cyber Bullying

The fight against cyber bullying has a new weapon on its way. A mobile phone application called "Block'em" aimed at 11-15 year olds. The app is designed to block unwanted calls and texts from any number and the app developers see this as a step towards protecting children on their phones. 

Whilst this is not the first app to offer this service it is certainly the most high profile launch with the NSPCC backing the app and benefiting from 70% of profits from sale. Priced at £1.79 it is an expensive purchase for children to make but with phone bills most likely handled by parents, it's a small price to pay to keep your child safe in the cyber space. 

This is a great link up by the charity attaching themselves to a relevant app which provides real value to it's users, something some organisations struggle to do in the app market (Depaul UK). Not only will it generate PR for them but they will gain revenue in an entirely different way to their normal donation driving tactics. 

Like the Red Cross Air miles initiative this is another great example of a charity raising funds in an innovative and less intrusive way. 

Tweetathon

Today Wateraid are hosting a non-stop 24hour Tweetathon which started in Australia and will travel throughout the day to finish in America.

Their aim is to give a new level of transparency to the public by reporting on everything that the charity does on a daily basis from back office services to water point mapping and even their role in the upcoming Glastonbury festival. 

They're the first International charity to take on an initiative like this and with the various concerns surrounding 'what charities do with your money' this could go some way to giving people the insight they desire.

Check out the activity on #wateraid24 or check back in a week when we'll take a look at the fallout when everything will have quietened down a little. 

£100 million in 3 and a half years

After forming in October 2007 the 'Help for Heroes' charity was tipped to break the £100 million bound barrier from public donations this week after their latest fund raising bike ride from Portsmouth to Paris started on Sunday.

After strong backing from The Sun newspaper and a huge array of fundraising activities the cause has resonated with the British public and breached this incredible barrier. Even more incredible is the fact that they've raised this sum throughout a recession and with so much fundraising still going on they don't show any signs of slowing down.

Red Cross Miles: Social Donation Concept

This is an initiative run by the Red Cross in the US with a number of high profile airlines participating in the campaign.

It's a really innovative idea and a new slant on charity donations, particularly in harder times. It provides consumers with a way of contributing to a good cause without a monetary output.

The donator would follow a very simple, socially focused journey;

They click the "Donate your miles" button on the flight booking page. This takes them to the Red Cross microsite where the miles are donated and users can link up with their Facebook and Twitter accounts. The idea here is that they can share their donation with their friends and hopefully encourage them to do the same.

A simple concept and an interesting spin on encouraging donations.