While talking with one of my friends about a few of the charities I admire, she mentioned a new program called SocialVibe. She explained it as a way to use your popularity on social networking sites to raise money for charitable causes. I immediately looked into it when I went home. What I found was this...

SocialVibe sets you up with an account that is 'sponsored' by a brand of your choice (they have many on the list from Apple to Bebe to Coca-Cola). You then select a charity from their list - which includes causes from supporting breast cancer research, to world hunger relief, to preventing global warming. A widget is created with the chosen charity and brand's logos, you then place it on your favorite social networking sites (e.g. MySpace, Facebook). This allows you to start 'earning points' toward monetary donations made by the brand. You can earn points through multiple ways, mainly by the number of people who visit your profile on your social networks and by recruiting people to join SocialVibe.

Earlier this week, the GOOD Magazine blog posted about SocialVibe, calling it "a fantastically simple (and awesome) idea." Now that you know about this great new concept, get active and start giving back - you can start by signing up for SocialVibe today!