There are a lot of great ideas at a conference like South by Southwest Interactive, and some of them even get built before the conference is over. One of the best ideas that came out of this year is definitely SxSW Cares.
As we were all getting to South by Southwest, we were hearing news of the earthquakes and tsunami in Japan. SxSW Cares was created in one day to show the world that the people here care about helping Japan recover. The idea was simple—create a basic donation page and spread the word around South by SouthWest that we needed support.
On Friday morning Rob Wu, founder of CauseVox, saw the Japanese tsunami on the news and wanted to do something to help. He built a simple website and shared it with Leigh Duncan-Durst, Jess Lin and Deb Ng. The four collaborated on the project, working with the Red Cross to get the website working and donations flowing.
Since going live, the campaign has raised more than $35,000 for the Japan relief effort (at time of writing). CauseVox is covering all of the transaction fees, so all donations will go entirely to the Red Cross to be put to good use.
CauseVox is an online fundraising solution that allows nonprofit organizations to launch customized fundraising campaigns easily and quickly.
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Brandon Eley is the Interactive Director for Kelsey Advertising & Design and the co-author of Online Marketing Inside Out.