Mu Tau Mu of Alpha Chi Omega

With a heartfelt thank you to everyone who participated in our social media experiment, this award is for you (especially our CWRU AXO sisters @ElyseM @amy_z and @flowerstrewn who did not miss a single week in the 6 months of the project!). [We look forward to thanking all Twitter participants in a follow up post next week - thank you #CharityTuesday tweeters!]

From our application: 

In May 2009, we launched a 26-week long pilot project with the following goals:

-          to promote domestic violence awareness in real time;

-          to educate Alpha Chi Omegas and the general public about issues related to DVA and other causes important to Alpha Chi Omega and Alpha Chi Omega Foundation;

-          to give our members who are active in social media an opportunity to “live our Alpha Chi Omega values” in a very real and timely way.

-          to illustrate how involved Alpha Chi Omega is in real-life issues and to break down stereotypes about sorority women.

We recruited sisters active on Twitter to join a facebook group so we could email weekly announcements, which were then cross-posted to our MTM blog and the facebook group discussion page. As the group grew, so did participation. We also took the logical step of including instructions for everyone to participate on Facebook and their personal blogs in addition to (or instead of on) Twitter.

Charity Tuesday started out strong on May 12 on Twitter with 28 participants. That first “message” (thanking Alpha Chi Omega Foundation for their work to end domestic violence) reached an audience of 10,189.

Over the weeks, we promoted our domestic violence awareness partners (like the Give Respect! Campaign), applauded our collegiate chapters, celebrated the first White House Advisor on Violence Against Women, and mourned the passing of long-time DVA advocate Farrah Fawcett. We made a lot of friends on Twitter – women and men whose work to end domestic violence humbles us all. And we learned some lessons.

One lesson came out of our most popular week. By popular, we mean we reached the largest audience. We shared a short film called Cut, starring Keira Knightley (Pirates of the Caribbean, Atonement) directed by Joe Wright (Atonement, The Soloist). In the UK it was labeled too violent for television. We asked people to watch the video and vote in a poll. That week the video was viewed 4,848 times. Our poll had 100 voters: 7 thought the film was too shocking; 92 did not. The lesson we learned was that the more interactive our weekly project, the better! We had a stack of comments on the poll as well, so adding that was a good experiment.

One of our other successes of the pilot project was the member drive we hosted for the Foundation Cause on facebook. It led to Alpha Chi Omega Foundation having the second most members among all the other NPC Foundation groups on facebook Causes! We also encouraged donations and are happy to report Alpha Chi Omega is #1 in this category!

This month we're learning about specific ways Alpha Chi Omega Foundation helps in the fight against domestic violence. Education is a powerful tool, especially in dispelling myths. Do you think domestic violence discriminates on the basis of socio-economic standing? Do you think being wealthy might protect a woman from abuse?

After you watch this video, you'll know the truth:

Join us in supporting Alpha Chi Omega Foundation: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/73662/14218508

Learn more about Carolyn:http://carolynsilentsecret.com/

Did you know you can support Alpha Chi Omega Foundation on Facebook? Learn more and win a prize! Here’s how, see Contest Details here.

Do you and your friends support Alpha Chi Omega Foundation as a Cause?

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/73662/14218508?m=edd8a396

Ways to support

>Join the Cause http://apps.facebook.com/causes/73662/14218508?m=edd8a396

>Invite your Friends http://apps.facebook.com/causes/cause_invitations/new?cause_id=73662

>Tweet about it! Sample:

Support Alpha Chi Omega Foundation's great work fighting domestic violence: http://bit.ly/1gYG8S #axo #charitytuesday

>Post to your profile (Use share button in the upper right part of the main AXO Foundation Cause page)

>Share on the Comments Board http://apps.facebook.com/causes/comments?context_id=73662&context_type=Cause&m=9239f3fb

>Make a Donation :)

>Celebrate your birthday with Foundation – Aggie Steiner (BH, FSU) did, you can too! Learn more here: http://axomtm.squarespace.com/journal/2009/7/13/celebrate-your-birthday-with-alpha-chi-omega-foundation.html

Thank you for your participation and support!

Did you know that you can support Alpha Chi Omega Foundation (and thus Alpha Chi Omega) using the Causes application on Facebook? Through the Birthdays feature, you can even celebrate your big day in a meaningful way.

Aggie Steiner, Alpha Chi extraordinaire, really enjoyed the extra joy that came from including Alpha Chi Omega Foundation as part of her birthday celebration in March. Many thanks to her for sharing her experience with us. We hope you'll be as moved by her comments as we are.

The set-up was really easy. I received an "ask" from the Facebook Causes application that allowed me to set-uprequests for my upcoming birthday to support one of my chosen causes. (So it is necessary that both applications - cause and Birthday Reminders be engaged on someone's Facebook page).The dollar per year seemed a reasonable amount to request. If I were younger, I would have asked for $5 or $10.

My only short-lived trepidation was, did I really want to tell the world that I was turning 61? Twenty-one friends accepted my challenge to total $1040. I matched $860 to make it $2000 total. The really great news is that 2-3 donors were first-time givers to the Foundation and I reconnected with 5 sisters with whom I had lost current contact. Obviously, I was both thrilled and honored!

I definitely think others should do this, whether it is for a birthday or other special occasion. What about celebrating the anniversary of an AX initation date or college graduation date? Donating this way was easy for me and just as easy for the donors. Everything was handled on-line.The initial ask was posted on my Facebook page banner. I also selected from my friends list. Payment was handled through pay-pal by clicking on a "Donate Now" button. And, I was notified by Facebook when a donation was made so I could send out thank yous.

Be sure to join the Alpha Chi Omega Foundation Facebook Cause today! http://apps.facebook.com/causes/73662/14218508?m=edd8a396

Sample birthday celebration on Causes is here:http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2009/01/facebook-birthday-causes-more-learnings-thanks-yous-1124-raised.html