With so many different worthy causes, the problem people have, especially in a difficult economy, is deciding what efforts they can support. In the end most people choose causes that have affected their lives directly.

At Sweatshirt Blanket we asked ourselves how can we help?

Being relatively new to the scene, we reached out to some influential mom bloggers for their opinion on our product and to help us do some good.  In March, we ran some contests where the winners not only received a sweatshirt blanket of their own, but were also asked to nominate their favorite charity to receive some customized blankets that they could use in their fundraising efforts.

We were touched by the passions the challenge evoked as we read each entry and learned of the missions of many great charitable organizations.  It inspired us to take what was started from these contests and turn it into something bigger, which is how our Spread Your Warmth campaign was born.

Creating Awareness

Through the Spread Your Warmth campaign, we will be using our blog and our product to raise awareness for the many wonderful causes out there.  Each month, we will ask the readers of our blog to help select a charitable cause or organization we have profiled to win a dozen customized sweatshirt blankets free of charge.

Plus, as a thank you for taking the time to nominate a cause, we will print an extra sweatshirt blanket with the winning organization’s logo for the person who nominated them.

How It Works

We’ve made participating in the Spread Your Warmth campaign easy with a simple nomination form that can be found on our site.  All you have to do is complete the nomination form with as much information that you have available so that we may profile them on our blog.

For each nominated cause we will write a post about them to help raise awareness for their mission.  The blog post we create will be that charitable causes’ official entry into that month’s contest.  All entries posted during a particular calendar month will then be put to a vote of our blog readers, as well as Facebook and Twitter followers, to determine the winning organization.

Enter Today

We want to hear about the causes that you are passionate about no matter if they are local or national, big or small.  For April, we were privileged to profile ten worthy causes through the Spread Your Warmth campaign.

The contest for May is now open and voting for April’s nominees will run through May 7th.

For more information, follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook.

Join Avon at the #gno Twitter party this Tuesday, March 16 from 9-11 ET (8 CT, 7 MT, and 6 PT) for an awareness raising conversation about how to take action and help end domestic violence, sexual abuse, and human trafficking. There is so much we all can be doing. Share and learn tips for ways in which you can empower women around the world and make a difference.

• What: Girls’ Night Out (#gno) Twitter party (Click here to learn about #gno!)
• When: Tuesday, March 16, 9-11 p.m. EST (8CT, 7 MT, & 6 PT)
• Where: Click here to party with us on our very own Custom Tweetgrid! (Use hashtags #gno and #avoniwd.)
• Topic: Ending Violence Against Women World Wide
• Who: @avonprnewsflash @dianascimone @maggiedammit @pigtailpals @reneejross @theundomestic @utbrown
• Party Favors: Click here to enter for a chance to win this week’s giveaway. Deadline: 3/17
• RSVP: Use Mr. Linky below (enter the twitter URL and your twitter ID (e.g., http://twitter.com/jyl_momIF).
Photo courtesy of Flickr.


Note: Mom It Forward accepts paid sponsorships for most #gno Twitter parties. During the parties, brand sponsors provide tips, techniques, expert advice, and information on party topics. Mom It Forward is grateful for the giveaway prizes, coupons, and discounts that sponsors also provide to the Mom It Forward community in conjunction with #gno Twitter parties.

Diana Scimone, a veteran journalist who has chronicled the $9.5 billion-a-year human trafficking industry for years, founded the non-profit Born to Fly International to help end child slavery. Scimone’s 09-09-09 Twitterthon goal is for 9,000 people to give $9 each – the $81,000 needed to start printing a new child-trafficking awareness book and curriculum by Scimone and illustrator Leah Wiedemer. “Each year more than a million children are lured into slavery around the world,” Scimone said. “Imagine what a dent we can make in the trafficking pipeline if we educate kids and their parents about the tactics traffickers use before they show up at their doorstep.”

While there are many reasons why a child may be trafficked (sadly, some are knowingly sold into slavery by their parents), Born to Fly works specifically to educate the millions of children and parents who are lured into slavery by false promises of “employment” and a better life for a child. The centerpiece of the Born to Fly project is a picture book – wordless so it doesn’t have to be translated into hundreds of languages – that teaches children to make wise choices. A companion curriculum will reinforce the important concepts in the book.

The curriculum and book illustrations are nearly complete. The final layout is scheduled for October. If enough funds are raised, printing will start in December. Born to Fly will then ship to a waiting list of schools, missions and aid organizations in North America and as far away as Ghana, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, India and Bulgaria. “Our goal is to give the books away without charge, of course. So we are counting on our crowdfunding to help get this done.”

Enter the 09-09-09 Twitterthon.

Crowdfunding 101

Twitter has become a major source of crowdfunding – raising funds by appealing to large numbers of ordinary people for small donations. The 09-09-09 project, which has its own special twitter account – @09_09_09 – was featured prominently in a recent article on Mashable.com entitled A Guide to Crowdfunding Success. The Mashable Twitter account has nearly 1.2 million followers, and Mashable.com is one of the most respected social media authorities on the web. Scimone says the attention should help Born to Fly reach its 09-09-09 goal: “Lots of awareness, lots of strong new relationships, and lots of money.”

Scimone, who regularly tweets as @dianascimone where she has 1,500 followers, says Twitter could not have arrived at a better time. “What I love about Twitter is the community,” explains Scimone. “Twitter connects me with people I don’t know, but should.” Many companies have even donated prizes to give away during the Twitterthon. Everyone who donates $9 will be eligible for a prize drawing. (The prizes include original artwork, handcrafted sterling silver jewelry and plenty more. Scimone is announcing a prize each day leading up to 09-09-09 on her blog – www.dianascimone.com.)

Children as young as pre-schoolers are lured into modern-day slavery all over the world, including in the United States, where they’re raped for profit—night after night. Scimone wants her followers to get angry about this and to do something about it. “Traffickers think kids are commodities,” said Scimone. “On 9/9/09, I challenge my twitter followers to tell kids they’re priceless.”

The Born to Fly Project 09-09-09 Twitterthon Challenge:

• Donate: Go to www.born2fly.org and use the orange Chip-in button to donate $9.
• Twitter: Tweet about it. Follow @09_09_09. Add a Twibbon after you’ve donated.
• Email: Tell 9 people about 09-09-09 and send them to www.born2fly.org where they can donate via the Chip-in button.
• Blog: Post about 09-09-09. Include the logo and a link to www.born2fly.org.
• Facebook: Talk about 09-09-09; include a link to www.born2fly.org.
• Updates: Check Diana Scimone’s blog for the latest: www.dianascimone.com

For more about the Born to Fly Project, visit www.born2fly.org.

Diana Scimone’s Back Story

Born to Fly International founder and director Diana Scimone is a journalist who has traveled to more than 40 countries including Sudan, Zimbabwe, Thailand, China and India.
“As a journalist I’ve seen a lot. I’ve been to a refugee camp in Sudan, an orphanage overflowing with “throw-away” kids in China, and a home for AIDS orphans in Zimbabwe. Nothing, however, prepared me for what I saw in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India: cages that held little girls—some as young as 5 years old—smuggled in from Nepal.
“That’s when I first learned about the global child sex trade and began to write about it. On that trip I interviewed a young teenager whose boyfriend had drugged her and sold her to a madam. The stories did not get prettier. In Pattaya, Thailand, I remember a banner hanging over an intersection in the red-light district proclaiming this was “boys town.” In most areas where child sex slavery flourishes, girls are for sale, but this particular area specialized in young boys.
“I’ve stood at border crossings into Cambodia and Myanmar, knowing that children were trafficked across the border along with cattle, chickens, and rice. The real shock was to learn that child trafficking is not just across the globe but also across the street. The problem has grown so bad in my own city of Orlando, Florida, that we now have a human trafficking coalition as well as a prayer group that focuses specifically on the problem.”

• What: Girl’s Night Out (What’s GNO? Click here to find out!)
• When: Tuesday, June 2, 9-11 p.m. EDT
• Where: Tweet Grid (use #gno hashtag)
  
• Topic: Music
• Who: @dianebirch , @steviegpro
  
• RSVP: Enter your twitter URL/ID in the list below (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.

Remember to enter to win this week’s giveaway—an iPhone 8GB, a $50 iTunes gift card, and an autographed Diane Birch CD. Click here for details. Check out the widget here.