50 social 'things' which will save lives

@5050 is an initiative launched by a group of social media types with the intention of raising money online to help save lives in Africa. Utilising the expertise of various partners throughout the market, the aim is to build 50 things; be that apps, projects or social promises which can raise money towards to the famine problem in Africa! 

There are some really cool apps and ideas kicking around in this space in the fallout from this initiative. We've already featured some stuff on the Twitter Swearjar and there are various incarnations of this floating around in the social arena. 

Amongst a sea of ideas, many of which encompass involvement from celebrities, a few real gems shine; 'The 6 Minutes Project', 'Phone 2 Food' & 'The Pound Store'

6 Minutes encourages us to donate 6 minutes of our salary to the appeal - a direct response to that fact that 1 child dies every 6 minutes in Africa at the hands of the famine. Not only an apt tie in to the problem faced but such a small and novel ask, that it should resonate well with an audience who have little time and like to get things done quickly and easily. 

Buymytronics.com are involved with the 'Phone 2 Food' initiative which see's your full phone buy-back value donated to Unicef to fund food for a child. With 1 days food for a child only costing $1.10, think of the difference a £100 or $150 phone could make. Again this is a different way to frame the ask, not asking for cash directly but for a benefit from donating an item. 

Finally 'The Pound Store' is a great place to custom shop for what you send to Africa, with items from as little as £1 (malaria vaccine) etc it's a clear, visual and engaging charitable donation experience http://www.poundstore.uk.com/

These are only scraping the surface of some of the truly unique initiatives happening as a part of this campaign. Alongside a big, A-list celebrity endorsed campaign launch, this is certainly a social initiative to watch and learn from. A lot of these ideas could be localised and adapted to other charities 

http://5050.gd/