World Food Day was proclaimed in 1979 by the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The aim of the Day is to heighten public awareness of the world food problem and strengthen solidarity in the struggle against hunger, malnutrition and poverty. – UN
I’ve been working on raising awareness for nonprofit groups on how to use social media for engagement over the past month via various speaking engagements and blog posts. When I heard about what The World Food Programme was doing in their strategy, I was impressed. The World Food Programme is the largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger. They recognize the importance of reaching new communities and finding new friends to engage and support their mission and cause. The recently used a partnership with Zinga and got the Farmville community to support their efforts, with tremendous success.
What did Facebook games have to do with world hunger? The Farmville Community is a highly engaged community. By identifying the common interests and using the opportunity to partner for social good, this organization benefited greatly, and got to raise awareness in a new community they would not have ordinarily have reached.
What’s really nice about their campaigns is that their focus is not just on the fundraising part, it’s about really reaching out and sharing stories. One of their campaigns features Molly, they tell her story not to raise funds but to create an environment where they can engage people in communities worldwide to understand the work they are doing and make new friends to help support their efforts. One of the cool interactive features of their site is a quiz that helps participants gain a deeper understanding of the cause.
What is really interesting is that when you take their quiz, this action supports the cause! What a great idea! It’s not about taking your money, it’s about awareness and generating reward from enagagement.
In the video below, Bettina Luescher of the World Food Programme, is interviewed by John Haydon. She explains some of their campaigns and outreach strategies, including one campaign where they partnered with the actors from ” The Hunger Games”.
Coming up with creative ideas and partnerships provides great benefits! You reach new audiences and build energy around your cause. This energy creates interesting opportunities to build real relationships with followers or friends, rather than just placing organizations in positions where they beg for attention.
Two Partners supporting World Hunger Day.
To succeed in any campaign, you can’t just rely on the individuals in a community, you have to get the help from sponsors as well. I am thrilled to be participating and promoting the efforts of Razoo and Yum! Brands, the world’s largest restaurant company in support of the World Food Programme World Hunger Day this year. Yum! Brands’ annual World Hunger Relief campaign is the world’s largest private sector hunger relief effort.
You Can Help Too!
Please join us on World Hunger Day this October 16th, check out Geoff Livingston’s post for all the campaign details, or send out this tweet. It doesn’t cost you anything to raise awareness, and it makes such a difference! Please take a moment to click.
A Little Extra:
Just One Day Can Make A Difference!
Want to know what a day of giving can look like visually? Check out what Razoo put together in the video below!
A visualization of GiveMN 2011, showing how Razoo and GiveMN raised more than $14M total in a 24-hour Giving Day.
There are a lot of creative efforts and people joining to make World Hunger Day a success, if all you have to do to make a difference is mark it on your calendar, send out a few tweets, and maybe take a quiz, isn’t it worth it?
“The philanthropic goal encourages people to participate in small acts like a social share or a $10 or $25 donation. These small acts do make a big difference. To give you an idea of how that plays out here:
- – Just $10 feeds children.
- – Just $25 feeds a child in need during school for a half year.” – Geoff Livingston
I hope you will join us on October 16th and be a part of some social media good in action!
For more information you can check out the blogger kit here. You can make a difference just with a few clicks! Thank you!!
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