The fabulous Ria and Suzanne from My Mommy Manual and in partnership with Mom It Forward and the 12 for 12K team, are throwing the pajama party of all pajama parties and you’re invited. In support of our 6-week focus on charity, service, and giving, they are raffling off a wide array of prizes with the proceeds going to Yehu Microfinance, Basa Body, and Coast Coconut Farms. Click here to enter to win!

What’s more? Guy Kawasaki is joining in on the fun! After all, what’s a pajama party without a GUY? Join us Tuesday, April 14 from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. eastern (8 CDT, 7 MDT, & 6 PDT) to chit and chat about tips for entrepreneurs—starting and running your own business and using social media to do it.

Guy Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of nine books including Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. He has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.

When: Tues., Apr.14 from 9 pm to 1 a.m. EDT (8 CDT, 7 CDT, and 6 PDT)

What: Girl’s Night Out (What’s GNO? Click here to find out!)

Topic: Tips to Starting & Running Your Own Business—in conjunction with our charity to fight poverty in Kenya (Yehu, BasaBody, Coast Coconut Farms)

Where: Tweet Grid (use the #gno hashtag)and on UStream


Who: @guykawasaki, @riasharon, and @zenmommy

RSVP: Use Mr. Linky below (enter the twitter URL and your twitter ID (e.g., http://twitter.com/jyl_momIF). If you would like to include your blog, please enter it next to your name. Make sure to include your twitter URL in the URL line. Please do not enter your blog URL there.

How Do You Enter to Win the Giveaways?

My Mommy Manual has rounded up nearly $5,000 in prizes. Check out this short video below to see how to enter!

The 12for12k Challenge is the combination of social media and fund-raising that aims to change the lives of millions worldwide.

Its aim is to raise a minimum of $144,000 for 12 charities over the course of 2009, with a new charity being supported every month. All proceeds raised go directly to the chosen charities.

The concept is simple:

• 12 months of the year
• 12 charities, a different charity each month
• $12,000 per charity

How will they do this? By using the power and outreach of social media to spread the word. From Twitter to Facebook, blogs to social media newsrooms and more, the 12for12k Challenge will be helping their chosen charities connect with as wide an audience as possible.

To ensure as much help goes to those who need it, all the partners in the 12for12k Challenge are offering their time and services for free. Additionally, every charity chosen must have no more than 10% administration costs, with financial records available on request. Additionally, all donations go direct to the charity’s normal donation page – there is no middle-man to handle donations.

Mom It Forward feels fortunate that 12 for 12K has chosen to suppport Yehu Microfinance for their April charity. In addition to raising money, the fantastic 12 for 12K community is helping us throw parties on and offline. It’s great to see two different communities/organizations coming together for one great purpose—to help women in Kenya raise themselves out of poverty!

What Are the Results of Using Twitter for Charities and Non-Profits?

Over the last six months, I’ve seen some pretty cool results for charities and non-profits using twitter.

Tweetsgiving

This was a very clever, well planned, successful viral fundraiser.  The goal was to raise $10,000 to build a classroom for children in Tanzania.

Tactics:

• Asked twitterers to tweet their gratitude along with website address and the hashtag #tweetsgiving
• Enlisted influential twitterers (via direct messaging) as seed evangelists
• Chip-in for donations

Results:

• People tweeted 3,000 gratitude messages
• They gained 1,337 twitter followers
• Tweetsgiving was a top trending term on Twitter for 48 hours
• Tweetsgiving.org received 15,830 page views from 7563 visitors in 101 countries
• More than 100 press and blog mentions, and here’s one more

One Day For Human Rights—Anca Foster

This campaign was focused on the Dec 10, 2008 Human Rights Day, and modeled after Blog Action Day. The goal was to get signatures for a petition to get the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into people’s passports.

Tactics:

• Twitter avatar mod/logo
• Tweets
• Badges for blogs
• Got commitments to blog about it on the actual day

Results:

• 1,849 signatures
• 1,535 Twitter followers
• 387 members of Facebook group
• 2,349 inbound links

12 for 12K Organization—Danny Brown

This is a fairly new, ongoing year-long effort for 12 different charities.  Each month, a new charity.

Tactics are fluid, but they include:

• Avatar mod, tweeting, badges
• Chip-in for donations
• Raffle contests

And they just did a tweet-a-thon… March 19 2009 to Raise $12,000 for the Share Our Strength charity.

Results:

• Website traffic: 3,117 unique visitors with 6,239 page hits
• Twitter: 100+ pages of search results for the #12for12k hashtag
• Twitter: 300 users of the #12for12k hashtag between 11.00am and 1.00pm EST
• Twitter: Topping numerous Twitter trend sites (above March Madness hashtag)
• Donors: 459 contributors, raising a total of $14,847.69
• Amount: Target of $12,000 was raised in just 6 hours. On average, more than $1,000 was being donated per hour.

Real World Results

• Connect 546,840 families to programs that provide free meals to their children during the summer.
• Provide 14,112 preschool children with a nutritious lunch.
• Give 352,800 schoolchildren a glass of milk
• Feed 420 children three meals a day for a month

Um wow.

So What Works For Charities and Non Profits on Twitter?

Tips for Getting Action and Participation

• Widgets and logos for people’s blogs
• Logo that’s avatar-sized for Twitter pic modification
• Hashtags
• Reason for people to constantly tweet about it
• Chip In widget
• Get commitments to blog or tweet

Brian Carter is the director of Search Engine Optimization for Fuel Interactive. See Brian’s lifestreams at FriendFeed, Profilactic, and MyBlogLog. And check out his social network, Brian Carter’s Amazing Friends and the Brian Carter Social Media Blog.

It Begins With a Voice

There’s a saying that the smallest voices can make the loudest noise. I can’t recall who said it originally, but I know it’s always stuck with me.

It can cover so many things yet the meaning will always be the same – that even those who don’t think they would be heard, can be. It’s true, as well. Think about how a tiny mouse can scare a full-grown elephant, or an ant can carry up to 20 times its own body weight. Small things can make a difference.

In November 2008, I was thinking of the small ways that I could make a bigger difference. On my blog, there’s a page that shows which charities I support, and I wanted to try and do something more this year.

This is where the 12for12k Challenge came to fruition. The concept is simple:

• 12 months
• 12 charities
• $12,000 per charity

The tagline for the project sums up the approach behind it: “changing the world through social media.” Why social media?

Traditional fund-raising has been hit hard by the economy. Admin costs and promotional pushes are costing funds that the charities just can’t afford, and many have to close their doors.

Social media offers an instant connection to supporters within our communities with virtually no overheads – all that’s required is time. Of course, this can be pretty expensive from a personal point of view – but isn’t the end result worth it?

From there, the project took shape pretty quickly. Some truly great people came onboard with their expertise and resources (all for free – we don’t take any admin costs) and 12for12k has grown into a pretty potent cause.

Awareness continues to grow, and last month we raised more than $15,000 to combat child hunger in the US thanks to a charity Tweet-a-Thon organized by Scott Stratten. Which brings us to April.

One of the key factors of 12for12k has always been making long-term change. Short-term donations help but it’s long-term change that is really needed. The Mom It Forward charity project is similar to 12for12k in that it’s all volunteer work, so you know the money is going where it’s needed.

Additionally, by offering the support network to empower women in rural Kenya to support themselves financially through micro-loans and business opportunities, it offers real change in the lives of those who need it. And that’s where the true success of our help comes in.

I know that I speak on behalf of the 12for12k partners and supporters that we’re excited to be working with Mom It Forward in April. There are some great initiatives happening to make it as fun as possible for everyone involved.

We’re but a small amount of people in the bigger picture of what goes on around us. But like the mouse and the ant, the smallest voices can make the loudest noise. Let’s make some real noise together in April.

Danny Brown is the owner of Press Release PR, a boutique agency combining traditional PR and marketing with social media. He provides consultancy services to clients in both the consumer and commercial markets, from small start-ups to Fortune 500 businesses.

He is also founder of the 12for12k Challenge, a unique charity project using social media to change the lives of millions in 2009.

Giving may be better than receiving, but receiving has its perks too. Yehu Microfinance and Basa Body, in gratitude for your participation in this fundraiser, will randomly select three lucky winners who have made a donation of $20 or more and/or made any product purchase from Basa Body or Coast Coconut Farms. The perks?

• $250 Disney Gift Card
• $150 Amazon.com Gift Card
• $100 Target Gift Card

Note: Participants who have made donations of $20 or more or who have purchased any product from Basa Body or Coast Coconut Farms are eligible to win one of the gift cards. Yehu Microfinance will randomly select the winners for each gift card. Friends and family members of Yehu Microfinance or Mom It Forward are ineligible to win. The giveaway runs from Tuesday, March 31 through Tuesday, May 12 at 9:30 p.m. EDT. Winners will be announced at #gno and on this website Tuesday, May 12 at 10 p.m. EDT. No purchase necessary.