It's The CAUSE, Stupid!

A couple of months ago, at the behest of Dave Delaney, a group of 18 manly men of Twitter left our pride (and in a few cases, much of our clothing) at the door and volunteered our photos for a fund-raising calendar, "The 18 Hottest Men On Twitter." While we had fun taking the photos, and blogged and tweeted about it when it first became available, very few of you responded, judging from the somewhat lackluster initial sales. When us self-proclaimed "HotMen" debriefed ourselves and questioned our poor results, it quickly became apparent that this was not about us, it was about THE CAUSE, and despite our desire to do some good, perhaps we had lost sight of that in favor of giggling at our goofy pictures.

WHY DAVE CHOSE DONORS CHOOSE

Dave is a Dad (as am I and a number of the "dudes" in the calendar - in fact, a number of us also write for "daddy blogs" such as Dad-O-Matic and Digital Dads). As parents we know that one of the most important things in our society is the education of our children. Few things, if any, are as important. Donors Choose is "an online charity connecting you to a classroom in need." It is a unique, interactive charity where public school teachers from across the country can post classroom project requests, and donors can browse or search the requests, and choose the specific project you want your donation to be applied toward. You can donate as little as $1.00 and still have the ability to decide exactly where that dollar will be spent. Even better, you can follow the progress of the project once necessary funds have been raised and know firsthand that your support has been received, applied and appreciated.

At DonorsChoose.org, you can give as little as $1 and get the same level of choice, transparency, and feedback that is traditionally reserved for someone who gives millions. We call it citizen philanthropy.

PLEASE CHOOSE TO HELP!

Thanks to our partners at Zazzle more than 40% of the proceeds from the sales of the Calendar will go directly to Donors Choose. PLEASE BUY 1 or 10 TO SUPPORT DONORS CHOOSE. And frankly, if you can't bear the thought of staring at one of us geeks for each of the next 18 months (yes, it is an 18 month calendar!) then skip the calendar part and just go make a donation at www.donorschoose.org.

After all, it's not about the Calendar, it is about the cause!!!

THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

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Keeping The Twitter Stream Safe (And Raising $$$ For A Good Cause)

As Twitter has grown in popularity, people are often trying to poke holes in the service and question its true meaning and value, trying to position those of us who tweet regularly as nothing more than a bunch of time wasting twits. Regardless of which side of the Twitter fence you straddle, one thing that has been indisputable is Twitter's effectiveness at rallying a community around a charitable cause. Tens of thousands of dollars, if not more, have been raised for a wide range of great causes, from individuals in need such as David Armano's efforts to aid a single mother, to larger scale organizations such as Charity Water. Beth Kanter, a frequent speaker on social media for non-profits, has a great overview of some of the more successful Twitter charity campaigns at her blog.

HUMOR ME WITH YOUR SUPPORT

My own efforts to support some good causes have leveraged my attempts at humor at the Social Networking Rehab Blog, where I have created video public service announcements in support of the Frozen Pea Fund to aid cancer research as well as to help Laura Fitton and her holiday "wellwishes" campaign. Naturally, when Dave Delaney contacted me about another humorous way to leverage Twitter for a good cause, I didn't hesitate to give him the shirt off my back (for him to hold while I posed as "Sasselhoff").

CALENDAR GUYS

Yes, with tongues firmly in cheek and hands held out for donations, we present the "18 Hottest Men On Twitter" Calendar to raise funds for a great cause, Donors Choose. Thanks to the cooperation of Zazzle.com, more than 40% of the proceeds of the calendar sales will go directly to support Donors Choose, a charity that connects directly with classrooms in need, providing project based support to our children in public schools. For $15.95 you can chuckle at me and 17 other chuckleheads and support a worthy cause. Please click here and buy a few today!

As Mr. July 2010, I am honored to join @saulcolt, @leelefever, @avinashkaushik, @scottmonty, @baratunde, @chrisbrogan, @keithburtis, @bobgoyetche, @jchutchins, @jasonfalls, @davedelaney, @geoffsmith, @cc_chapman, @mitchjoel, @julien, @stevenfisher, and @chrispirillo. Check us out!

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