[More from Mashable: LinkedIn Users: You’ve Got Klout]
You want to meet Justin Bieber? Well, you're going to have to do some good first. The Canadian pop prince has teamed up with Pencils of Promise to launch Schools 4 All, a project to provide an education to some 75 million children across the world who don't have access to it.
The site has set up a platform -- much like Crowdrise -- where anyone can set up a personal fundraising page to build a school in a developing country. Pencils of Promise enlisted the help of Stayclass.org to build a custom platform. Users can customize their pages, add videos, create widgets and share updates through their social networks.
[More from Mashable: 5 Mobile Apps Trying To Do Some Social Good [VIDEOS]]
The goal was to reach a younger generation of digitally savvy users without making the process too complex -- but having Justin Bieber as a prize doesn't hurt either. The page that raises the most money will get to choose which school gets a visit from Bieber and Adam Braun, Pencils of Promise's founder.
Having Bieber on board automatically meant a spike in participation from younger fans, the kind of people that can most relate to education issues. Schools 4 All is an example of kids helping kids and using celebrity in a smart way. Of course, anyone can start a fundraising page — parents, teachers, education enthusiasts, Bieber enthusiasts — but the demographic clearly skews young.
The homepage also does a great of tracking the overall progress of the project, which ends June 30. So far, Schools 4 All has raised more than $145,000, which will pay for about seven new schools to be built. A leaderboard shows which pages have raised the most money. And it isn't a vicious fight between 13-year-olds -- Pencils of Promise is encouraging participation from families, and even entire schools.
What do you think? Did Pencils of Promise and Schools 4 All get it right? Let us know in the comments.
This story originally published on Mashable here.
No comments:
Post a Comment