On Wednesday New Zealand Red Cross launched an online cause at Givealittle.co.nz in response to the tsunami in Samoa and American Samoa. Within two minutes online donations started pouring in from around the world fuelled mainly by Twitter. More than $50,000 has been raised in three days.
#tsunami and #samoa topics on Twitter have helped direct donors to the site. Some online volunteers are also placing donation widgets into their own sites and blogs to prompt direct donations to the Red Cross appeal.
“As soon as NZ Red Cross loaded the cause page, we updated our blog, Facebook page and then tweeted a link to the cause. The first donation was made almost instantly. These simple actions have resulted in an overwhelming sense of urgency within the social networks”, says Givealittle.co.nz CEO Nathalie Hofsteede.
Updates from the New Zealand Red Cross will be made at the web page http://www.givealittle.co.nz/tsunami
