YouTube

Guest blogger Emily Garrett is a junior at Northwestern University and a summer intern with the Case Foundation.

• Add your John Hancock to an online petition. Go to The Petition Site or Petition Online and sign a petition or start your own. Gather the masses to make change! Add the link to your Twitter or Facebook page to raise your numbers awareness even further.
• Get out of the house (or office) and do some hands on volunteering. There are many web sites to help you find a cool project in your area. Check out the White House’s Summer of Service site, VolunteerMatch, or Idealist to find something that fits your interests and benefits your neighborhood.
• Treat yourself to a Flip video camera and start shooting videos. Find things that are politically or social interesting and post your video on YouTube to raise awareness. Or if you’re already a whiz at video storytelling? Help nonprofits out. Join Youtube’s Video Volunteers and put your skills to good use.
• You’ve donated online, but have you joined a mobile giving campaign? Consult the Mobile Giving Foundation or mGive for a list of current campaigns and how to get involved. There are tons of ongoing campaigns including Doctors Without Borders, Invisible Children, Chicago 2016, and Malaria No More. Choose your favorite, and text to give.
• Miss the days of summer reading? Grab a book to expand your social citizen knowledge. Britt Bravo has a great list of “do gooder books” to keep you busy. Social by Social is also a great book on social media and social impact, and my personal favorite, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World by John Wood should get you inspired to make some changes in your community.
• You’re clicking around on YouTube anyway, so check out this video lecture by college professor Michael Wesch: An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube.
• Have a summer birthday? Donate it to your favorite cause. Go to Causes on Facebook, and tell your friends to donate to the cause instead of giving you a birthday gift. What easier way to raise money for your favorite organization then having Facebook solicit the donations for you? And besides do you really need another sweater from your mom?
• If you’re mass emailing resumes this summer, you’re not alone. Worried about finding a job in this economy and paying off your student loans or credit card debt? Join the 80 Million Strong Coalition to discuss the problems and find solutions to get the Millennial Generation fully employed.
• Are you obsessed with Twitter? Put that obsession to good use by pitching in to plan, or at least attend a Twestival local event in September to meet other Tweeters in your area and to raise money and awareness.

With video recording and publishing readily accessible through smart phones, flip cams and even the “old-fashioned” digital camera -- nonprofits are finding new and low cost ways to create compelling stories of their good work.  

1. Go to "edit" your video: and fill out the fields in the section marked “Call to Action Overlay”
2. Click “save,” cross your fingers, and the overlay should appear on your video

• Last month the Chronicle of Philanthropy hosted a very rich online chat called Using Video to Spread Your Nonprofit's Message and Mission.
• Nancy Schwartz offers her picks of 6 Nonprofits Who are Putting Great Online Video to Work along with links to the videos.
• Michael Hoffman at See3 Communications offers readers his 11 Tips for Using Online Video to Raise Money
• Need a camera? Flip Cam is giving cameras to eligible nonprofits through their Flip Video Spotlight Program.

One of the hottest gifts out there right now is the Flip video camera.  And, not only are we giving you a chance to join the "Flip rage" and win one through our Social Citizens Makeover, but Flip Video wants to help you start documenting the great work of your nonprofits, and they are looking for partners now.

In fact, they're committed to getting one million Flip camcorders in the hands of nonprofit organizations by 2012. You can learn more about the program by checking out their YouTube page or apply here.

Just caught wind of the "2008 Project for Awesome" somehow I missed last year's debut - but here's the gist - for one day out of the year, the YouTube Community completely takes over. I know, I know - the power of YouTube is always in the hands of its loyal community.  But this time, instead of being funny or even a little stupid, the creative energy of YouTuber's will be channeled to promote the causes and charities that are most important to them.  Read more »

Whenever people ask me why I am so wildly enthusiastic about the Internet and all things social media, I point to content like the blog post from the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra on Friday about the GiveList. (True confession: I was an enthusiastic but awful french horn player in high school).

In essence, it says they saw the tweets about the GiveList and that got the blogger, Lacey Huszcza, thinking about ways that people can support the arts without writing a check. Here is the list of sixteen ways to give to arts organizations from Lacey: Read more »

Sure, the economy may have you down, and fundraising for anything these days may seem like a daunting task, but don't forget to have a little fun with it. Earlier this month, my husband's colleague, a self-proclaimed "Mo Bro" (a.k.a. Charlie), sent around an email to friends and family, asking for their support as he set off to grow a little facial hair.

Why you might ask?  Because the month formerly known as November has turned into...you guessed it, "Mo-vember" for thousands of men across the country and around the world.  But it's not all fun and games. So why the extreme behavior? Read more »

If a picture is worth 1000 words, then a YouTube video is worth conference fees and several hours of your life -- particularly when it's bringing you a fascinating panel from NCOC about Facebook's role in and impact on civic engagement.

That's right ... today's post is the as-promised third installment of our NCOC coverage, from our introduction, to Kristen's event notes, to the final video of Bill Galston, Sean Parker, and Joe Trippi (see below). So far, the comments and reactions here have been really thoughtful, even extending into posts/threads over at Beth's Blog and PhilanTopic.

So give this choice piece of cinema a look-see, and then check out the rest of Kristen's coverage after the fold!

Read more »

Sit-ins and protests as generations before us knew them may be a thing of the past. But the injustice that drove these generations to protest in such profound ways is no less present today. As Millennials we are just putting a new spin on the way we mobilize and take action. And since we’ve already beaten to death the debate between on land and online activism on our site and elsewhere, I won’t belabor that anymore.

I do however, want to bring your attention to a new campaign that the National Campaign to Restore Civil Rights just announced. They are working with YouTube to create a platform that highlights the civil rights work of Millennials today — by asking Millennials to answer the question: What are you and your generation doing for civil rights today?

What a great way to highlight this generation’s stories and successes. Below is the announcement video for the Rollback Campaign for more information on how to join in this public debate on civil rights today.

And, just in case you haven’t had enough of the debate — check out Tanene Allison’s thoughtful post on Huffington Post earlier this week. (Incidentally, that’s where I learned about the Rollback Campaign.)

Earlier this morning, a major earthquake rocked a large part of China. Immediate reports began to appear via Twitter and video postings. Global Voices has an outstanding post on the variety of ways that news from China has come in over the Net.

For example, the earthquake is already up on Wikipedia. And this is just one of many videos online capturing the quake in real time. What do you consider the benefits — or drawbacks — of these delivery methods?