Helping St. Louis tornado victims thanks to CauseVox

Posted by Justin Goldsborough | 4 comments

With tools like CauseVox.com, you can help when disaster strikes like it did when tornadoes hit St. Louis Friday night. (Photo: CNN.com)

Don’t you hate that helpless feeling? It always drives me crazy. Especially when we’re talking about response to natural disasters or crises and trying to figure out the best way — or any way — to help.

Please join me in helping St. Louis tornado victims. Donate or share the cause. Thanks so much!

I felt it when 9-11 happened. And then after Hurricane Katrina. Haiti and Japan might have been the same…except for the role social media and social fundraising played in those two instances. You’ll remember with Haiti, it was the mobile donation revolution. And with Japan, there were many examples of social influence, although the one that stood out to me most was South By Southwest (SXSW) Cares, a movement that started at the SXSW conference and has raised almost $125,000 since mid-March.

How you can help me help St. Louis tornado victims

When I heard about the tornado that ravaged parts of St. Louis yesterday and saw the pictures, that helpless feeling crept in again. But then I thought about Haiti and Japan and remembered there were other options. So I created this Help St. Louis fundraiser. I’m trying to raise $2,500 for the Red Cross, which is on the ground helping the St. Louis tornado victims. And I really hope you’ll help out by:

• Donating to the cause. $10 is what I’m asking. Goes a long way toward helping those families who had a home on Friday and are without one just 24 hours later.
• Share the cause and chance to help. Whether it’s this opportunity to help St. Louis or another cause down the road, help make sure people know how they can make a difference.

Set up your own cause campaign with CauseVox

That said, I wanted to let you know how easy it is to start your own fundraising campaign thanks to CauseVox, the platform I used and the one that hosted the SXSW Cares movement. Building your own campaign really couldn’t be any easier. Here are the steps I followed:

• Go to CauseVox.com
• Create an account
• Choose to set up a campaign
• Customize your campaign with the editor
• Choose how much money you want to raise and what nonprofit or cause you want to support
• Launch your campaign and share it

It really is that simple. And when I ran into questions about affiliating my campaign with the St. Louis Red Cross chapter, I posted a discussion question and contacted Rob Wu at CauseVox. He responded within an hour or two and helped answer my question so I could get my campaign up and running.

Takeaways

So two takeaways here:

1. I really hope you’ll join me in helping support St. Louis tornado victims. I can’t imagine coming home one day to find the roof blown off our house or our personal items strewn all over the front yard. And St. Louis is only three hours from Kansas City, where I grew up and where our family lives, which makes it extra close to home.
2. If there’s a cause that’s important to you now or in the future, remember that you can do more than you ever could before thanks to tools like CauseVox. There’s no need to feel helpless.

Thank you!