9 Creative Social Good Campaigns Worth Recognizing [Mashable Awards]

“Social good” may not immediately be associated with “creativity,” but the space has become a hot bed for unique and inventive approaches to fundraising and cause awareness. We’ve been impressed with the way organizations and individuals have embraced the web this past year in order to make positive changes in their communities and the world.

Whether raising money for disaster relief, promoting a cause, or mobilizing actions across the globe, they found effective strategies to tweet, post, blog, e-mail, virtually coordinate, or crowdsource their way to their goals.

Here are 11 creative campaigns that caught our attention this year.

1. To Mama With Love

To Mama With Love raises funds to help Mama Lucy Kamptoni build a home and boarding facility on the campus of the Tanzanian school she started with her own money. Users can make a donation by creating a “heart space” for a mother they care about. The “heart space” is a collection of photos, videos, and words dedicated to that mother. Other people who care about that mother are invited to donate in her honor. So far the project has raised about $17,000 of its $50,000 goal.

2. TwitChange

Fans bid a total of $540,631.25 for Twitter interaction with their favorite celebrities at this online eBay auction. The proceeds benefited aHomeInHaiti.org, which is rebuilding the Miriam Center, a home for children with cerebral palsy, severe autism and other disabilities.

3. Go Green Twitter Sweepstakes

The AARP promoted Earth-friendly practices this spring by asking its members to enter a sweepstakes by Tweeting their green tips to @createthegood with the #gogreen hashtag. More than 150,000 people participated. The winner received an eco-friendly trip to Washington D.C. (complete with carbon offsets for the flight and a metro card).

4. Pedigree’s “Write a Post, Help a Dog”

Pedigree compensated every blogger who posted about its adoption program before September 19 by donating a 20-pound bag of dog food to an animal shelter. 375 bloggers posted their contributions to the campaign website, earning about 7,500 pounds of dog food between them. Pedigree also donated a bowl of dog food for every “Like” it received on its Facebook Page.

5. F- Cancer F-Tember

When it comes to cancer, this campaign didn’t bother to be polite. The site teamed with Invoke, an interactive agency, to create a Facebook app that allows users to donate their Facebook status to cancer education for the month of September (thus, F-Tember).

Users can decide how often they want the app to automatically post surprising factoids about cancer to their Facebook or Twitter pages.

6. Pepsi Refresh

Instead of dropping big bucks on its usual Super Bowl commercials last winter, Pepsi announced that it would spend $20 million on a social media giving campaign. The Pepsi Refresh campaign awards grants to grassroots projects that earn the most votes on its website. During the Gulf oil spill crisis, the project allotted an additional $1.2 million for projects to refresh the Gulf. Since January, more people have voted for causes than voted in the last presidential election.

7. 350.org’s 10/10/10 Global Work Party

Before the United Nation’s climate change conference last December, 350.org orchestrated 5,200 simultaneous demonstrations in more than 180 countries that centered around the safe upper limit for CO2 in the atmosphere (you guessed it, 350). This year it’s using a similar strategy for its 10/10/10 Global Work Party.

About 4,400 people in 173 countries have registered projects to help deal with global warming in their communities. The projects need to be completed by October 11. Actions range from planting trees to fixing bicycles. The idea, according to the website, “is not to solve the climate crisis one project at a time, but to send a pointed political message: if we can get to work, you can get to work too — on the legislation and the treaties that will make all our work easier in the long run.”

8. Bra Color Facebook Updates

Say what you will about the bra color Facebook status campaign that went viral this past January, but it was definitely an approach to raising awareness that we had not heard of before.

The campaign of unknown origins urged women to post their bra color on Facebook to raise breast cancer awareness. While the intentions might have been good, critics responded by calling the campaign confusing, degrading to women, and ineffective. But they were all talking about it.

9. charity: water Born in September Campaign

charity: water helps people donate their birthday presents to the 1 billion people who are living without clean drinking water. When birthday boys and girls ask for donations instead of gifts on their site, the organization puts 100% of the money to use on clean water projects.

Since the project started four Septembers ago, it has helped more than a million people gain access to clean water. Mashable Twitter followers have already generously contributed to the cause during CEO Pete Cashmore’s September birthday last year.

With so many awesome social good campaigns going around, we couldn’t possibly list every creative campaign above. Help us out by adding other noteworthy campaigns to the comments below.

The Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity (Vegas)

In partnership with Cirque du Soleil, The Mashable Awards Gala event will bring together the winners and nominees, the Mashable community, partners, media, the marketing community, consumer electronics and technology brands and attendees from the 2011 International CES Convention to Las Vegas on Thursday, January 6, 2011. Together, we will celebrate the winners and the community of the Mashable Awards at the Cirque du Soleil Zumanity stage in the beautiful New York New York Hotel. The event will include acts and performances from our partner Cirque du Soleil Zumanity. In addition, there will be special guest presenters and appearances.

Date: Thursday, January 6th, 2011 (during International CES Convention week)
Time: 7:00 – 10:00 pm PT
Location: Cirque du Soleil Zumanity, New York New York Hotel, Las Vegas
Agenda: Networking, Open Bars, Acts, Surprises and the Mashable Awards Gala presentations
Socialize: Facebook, Foursquare, Meetup, Plancast, Twitter (Hashtag: #MashableAwards)

Thanks to our sponsors:

Mashable Awards Gala VIP Lounge sponsor:

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More Social Good Resources from Mashable:

- 3 Small Cause Campaigns That Won Big With Social Media
- 5 Easy Ways to Support a Cause Through Your Social Network
- How Social Media Helped 174 Million People Get the Message About Malaria
- How Social Good Has Revolutionized Philanthropy
- 5 Trends Shaping the Future of Social Good

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, yasinguneysu, robyvannucci

More About: 350.org, Bra Color Facebook Status, campaign, campaigns, charity: water, Create the good, Creative, crowdrise, DoSomething.org, email charity, F**k cancer, facebook, Global Work Party, mashable awards, mashable awards 2010, pedigree, pepsi refresh, social good, To Mama With Love, twitter

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