Image Credit: United Nations Development Programme (uploaded 01/14/2010)
In watching the horrid events unfold in Haiti (and yes, those boxes in the photo above are coffins), I wasn’t just upset, I felt helpless. Other than donate money, what could I do?
When I peeked into Gretchen Jameson’s office this morning (@gmjameson), the answer became glaringly obvious.
Gretchen expressed how upset she was that many social media and communication through leaders had not turned their attention to the crisis. She wondered how can we go on blubbering about this and that case study, paying little deference to the devastation in Haiti.
She asked (rough paraphrase), “if they can’t lead us to do the right thing in a time like this, are they [should they] still be our thought leaders?”
Her observation was a sucker punch in the faces of all those overly self-absorbed tweeters and bloggers. Myself included.
If you look at my Tweet stream, you won’t notice a single mention of Haiti until I started writing for this post. Luckily though, it’s not too late.
Talking Gets In The Way of Action
It’s not enough to pop a few tweets in your stream pointing to news outlets and horrifying pictures. It’s not enough to pledge your prayers and support. It’s not even enough to say how horrible you feel about all of this.
As Kelly Diels (@KellyDiels) observed,
I think complaining and venting can be enervating. You’ve got this uncomfortably hot issue simmering and boiling and producing steam…and then you vent. All that energy dissipates into the atmosphere. You’re comfortable again. And so you carry on.
And nothing changes.
So she decided to do something about it.
Enter the Help Haiti Now Blog Challenge
Everything you need to know about the Help Haiti Blog Challenge is located on Kelly’s post, “The Help Haiti Blog Challenge. You Can Do It. We Can Do It. Together“. But I’ll recap the most important points:
- Sign up for the Help Haiti Blog Challenge [here]. Write about it on your blog and tag it “Help Haiti Blog Challenge“. Ask your people to join you and do the same.
- Add the Help Haiti Blog Challenge badge to your blog. [hosted on Diels' blog post]
- Make your offer: I will donate ________ dollars to _________ on behalf of the next person who buys _________ from me.
- Make your donation and tell us how much you donated.
- Tweet about it using the hashtag #haitiblogchallenge. Update your facebook status with a request to pass on the message and the call to action. Send e-mails. Everywhere you are, online, talk about the Help Haiti Blog Challenge, tag it, and call your friends, family, colleagues – your people – to action.
What I’m Doing
Presently, I am working as an in-house marketer. Having said that, I do have agency experience, and I have written copy and directed marketing communication programs for folks in a variety of industries: Mountain Creek Ski Resort, Mahopac National Bank, The Westage Companies, and around 20 colleges and universities, including Hartwick College and The State University of New York at Oneonta. I presently work in a B2C marketing role at a publishing company.
I will donate 5 hours of copywriting or marketing communication consulting to the Red Cross on behalf of the next person who agrees to donate $150 dollars or more.
This is a steal. Normally I would charge a client at least $200 dollars for the same. If I were still in New York at an agency, I would charge no less than $375.
But because I’m no longer part of the agency safety net, I’m asking you to take a risk. If you’re interested, please email me immediately at:
theword [at] wordpost [ dot] org
What will you do?
We all have something to give. Chances are, you can afford to work a few extra hours to help people who are suffering in Haiti.
If you decide to contribute, please leave a comment.
-Andrew
*image only
Image credit: United Nations Development Programme [37913760@N03 on Flickr]; original here
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Tags: doing good, Haiti, Help Haiti Blog Challenge
