When our co-founder Debbie Bookstaber returned from her role as Cause Marketing panelist at BlogHer 2011, she had the non-profit Share Our Strength on the brain. This non-profit was a donor recipient of session sponsor Jimmy Dean Sausage.

Not long after returning home, Debbie started working with Little Miss Muffin, a company who ran television ads www.mylittlemissmuffin.com about their “muffin”dolls which made her think of all the kids who are hungry and need food (and would surely enjoy a muffin!)

After suggesting the connection, manufacturer Jay at Play International decided to support Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale® by donating 1% (up to $75,000) of all Little Miss Muffin Pop N Flip™ dolls sold in 2012.  Thank you, Jay at Play!

“Jay at Play wanted to give back to the millions of children who already love the brand Little Miss Muffin, so we decided to share our success with Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale,” said Joseph Sutton, Jay at Play managing director. “We are truly honored to show our support and help with the Great American Bake Sale’s mission.”

Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale^®, presented by Domino^® Sugar and C&H^® Sugar, and Duncan Hines^®, is a national effort that encourages Americans to host bake sales in their communities to support the No Kid Hungry^® Campaign, Share Our Strength’s^® national effort to end childhood hunger in America by 2015. Since 2003, more than 1.7 million people have participated in Great American Bake Sale, raising more than $6 million to make sure there is no kid hungry in America. Great American Bake Sale is supported by official bakeware partner Chicago Metallic, national television partner Food Network, national magazine partner Family Circle, and official baking ingredient partner Solo. Visit GreatAmericanBakeSale.org.

Little Miss Muffin arrives to you peeking out of her magical muffin cup. Pop her muffin top, flip the muffin cup inside out, and Little Miss Muffin becomes a soft adorable doll. With sweet expressive faces and bright smiles, there are ten Little Miss Muffin Dolls each with their own flavor to delight kids of all ages. They are available this holiday season exclusively at Toys”R”Us stores and ToysRus.com.

Shop and GIVE! It’s a win-win!

During the event, P&G Chairman of the Board, President and CEO Bob McDonald shared three aggressive commitments that flow from P&G’s Purpose-inspired Growth Strategy of touching and improving more lives, in more parts of the world, more completely:

• Pampers: P&G’s Pampers and UNICEF are partnering in a new commitment to eliminate Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus (MNT) by 2015 through the 1 pack = 1 vaccine campaign.
• Tide Coldwater: P&G’s Tide Coldwater is working with the Alliance to Save Energy through Future Friendly to educate 100 million people over two years on the importance of cold water washing in order to save energy and therefore reduce CO2 emissions.
• P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program: Inspired by the CGI Action Network on the Horn of Africa Crisis, the P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program and our partners will provide more than 300 million liters of clean drinking water to 2 million people affected by the famine in East Africa, preventing 10 million days of illness.

P&G also took time at CGI to recognize the accomplishments of some of its key partners in global sustainability efforts, giving the following awards:

P&G Distinguished Sustainability Partner Awards:

• The Carrefour Group: For supporting Pampers and UNICEF 1 pack = 1 vaccine campaign in over 20 countries worldwide and helping to protect to date 6 million mums and their babies from Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus
• UNICEF Uganda: For being a strategic partner to Government of Uganda in eliminating Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus in the country with support from the Pampers 1 pack = 1 vaccine campaign

P&G Sustainability Partner Awards:

• Target: For providing more than 1 million days of clean drinking water through partnership on the June 2011 P&G brandSAVER
• National Geographic: For partnering with P&G Future Friendly to create consumer education programs that promote household and lifestyle conservation habits
• USAID: For providing clean drinking water to more than 2 million flood victims in Pakistan and to 1 million people living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa

Spokespersons Lisa Ling and Mandy Moore were also on hand to share their own experiences in their related P&G partnerships.

Did you know that early detection of breast cancer helps save thousands of lives every year? In fact, the five-year survival rate of a stage-one diagnosis is 98%. That’s why P&G and the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) are teaming up for their fourth year of GIVE Hope – a program designed to increase awareness about the important of early detection, provide tools for women to create their own plans, and help all consumers get involved through simple actions and every day purchases.

We hope you’ll join P&G and spokesperson Lisa Ling to help “Do it for the Girls.”

What can you and your readers do to help? It’s simple!

1)     Raise awareness: Use the images and details on this blogger toolkit to create posts about the program and get your readers involved! There’s a special blogger badge you can use, too! http://media.synapticdigital.com/PG/GiveHope/

2)     Show your support: Visit GIVE Hope on Facebook and show your support for breast cancer awareness month by creating badge in honor of the fabulous women in your life! For each badge created, P&G donates an additional $.25 to NBCF (up to $10K). And, in early October, you (and your readers) will have the chance to win a spa day – so stay tuned!

3)     Save and give: Alert your readers to P&G brandSAVER coupons available in newspapers on October 2 and October 16 – for each coupon redeemed, P&G donates $.02 to NBCF to help provide mammograms to women in need.

On July 31, P&G will distribute its brandSAVER coupon booklet in newspapers across and country and for each coupon redeemed, P&G will donate $.02 to Communities In Schools, the nation’s leading dropout prevention organization. The donation is uncapped – so the more you save, the more you give.

We hope you’ll join P&G and John Legend in helping to “School the Nation” and keep more than 1 million kids in school. Here’s how you and your readers can help!

• Use the tools in this digital toolkit to create posts about the program and encourage your readers to get involved.

• Join GIVE Education at www.facebook.com/pgmygive for simple, shareable tools you can use to help the cause.

• One blogger who writes about GIVE Education by August 12, 2011 and includes the link to their post in the comments on this post or in our BlogFrog discussion board will be chosen at random by Bloganthropy.org to win an iPad 2! (Note: you must be 18 to enter. Open to US Residents only.)

Thanks for your support of programs that give back!

P&G sponsored the June 24 Bloganthropy Awards and the July Blogger of the Month to help support bloggers who are making strides for important causes. Bloganthropy would like to thank P&G for supporting Bloganthropy members by helping to spread the word about their cause efforts and how you can get involved. The Bloganthropy.org founders are not compensated by P&G for supporting GIVE Education, but P&G is providing the iPad 2 to the winner of this contest. We genuinely support the mission of P&G GIVE Education and hope you’ll participate.

I didn’t set out to become a blogger activist – or even to become a blogger for that matter. I didn’t have a plan or an objective but just six months after my first post went live on my own little part of the internet located right in the middle of the British countryside, I was on my very first trip to the US – to Chicago – to BlogHer ‘09.

Round the World With Us is a blog that documents the travel volunteerism of Teresa Keller, a single mom, her three children, Jennifer (age 18), Alex (age 13) and Bella (age 12), and her best friend’s daughter (Meagan, age 17).

Teresa decided to give up their home, car and most of their possessions and spent their savings to travel around the world, exploring, volunteering and raising money for 14 (and counting) charitable projects.

Projects include a new school in Cambodia, three reading rooms in Laos, reforestation in Tanzania, land and housing for Dalits (untouchables) in Southern India, a peer-to-peer health and sex education program in Kolkata, India and many more. The projects are sustainable and done in partnership with charities, such as Children International and Room to Read with local expertise.

Their goal is also to help raise awareness of world issues and understanding of different cultures through their blog posts, videos and podcasts. They have teamed up with educational organizations in the US to reach more teachers and students. Social media has been key in not just the fundraising, but the educational component.

Their original goal was to raise $100,000. They are now at $127,000 raised with a new goal of $150,000. Over $5,000 of that is from visits to the site – as a generous donor pledged 5 cents per web visit. Of course, all of this is for the charities, they pay for all of their own travel with the money they saved and from proceeds from the sale of most of their possessions.

Teresa took time from her busy schedule to answer a few of our questions about her projects:

How did you reach the decision to give up your home, your car, and travel the world on service missions?

During a business trip to Peru to speak at an conference on responsible archaeological tourism, I saw slums up close for the first time. I was also working 60-80 hours a week as CEO of the non-profit Archaeological Institute of America, and not seeing my children very much. I had always wanted to help people in need “some day” and I figured that some day was today. By giving up our traditional life, we could travel, volunteer and raise money and give everyone a chance to contribute small amounts of money and make a difference in the world.

2. How did your teens feel about this decision at first? Has anything changed over time?

While my oldest daughter, Jennifer (18) and my best friend’s daughter, Meagan (same age) loved the idea, but my 12 year-old daughter Bella and 13 year-old son Alex did not like the idea at all. Now that we’re traveling though, everyone is having a great experience. Among other things, Bella taught an art class in the slums of Calcutta and helped care for crops and livestock in a village built to care for 1,000 children who have been orphaned by AIDS in Kenya. Alex worked on a project to capture rainwater for drinking in that same village. Jennifer helped set up a new library for them, and Meagan got involved in the social work aspect, going to visit children who were recently orphaned. Meagan also loved teaching English and computer skills in Calcutta. The kids in the class were nothing short of AMAZING and produced this video about their lives in the slums.

3. What role has social media played in your charitable projects? In what ways have social media platforms amplified your work?

Social media is the key to our work. So many people want to help others, but are not sure that a donation will go directly to help people or if a small contribution will really make a difference. With many decades of experience with non-profits, we select some of the most effective charities and projects in the world, combine small contributions, and actually visit the site of the project, using social media to show that small contributions make a huge difference. Through pictures, videos, and podcasts, people get to experience the power they have to change the world, one person,one project, one village at a time. We pay all travel, volunteer and administrative costs of Round the World with Us ourselves so 100% of donations benefit projects.

We also use social media to increase understanding of other cultures as we travel, even when we don’t have a travel project there. World Savvy is a partner charity in the US that gets our content out to thousands of teachers and students across the US.

4. What is some memorable feedback you’ve received through social media?

One donor, Matt Rapa, was inspired by reading our blog. He also had a personal goal to run each day. Now he puts $1 in a jar for RTWwithUs projects every time he runs. This way, he knows he is making a difference in the world by running and it motivates him to keep his personal goal. What a great idea! Now is is planning to use social media to inspire others to do the same.

We also spoke to the children in a school in Egypt, who later held a bake sale to help the orphans in Kenya. Kids can do so much in this world!

5. Which of your projects has been your favorite so far, and why?

Wow! That’s a difficult question because each project means so much to the people involved. I loved being able to build a community kitchen and day care in the slums of Peru because it’s where the inspiration for the project came and the people there (60% single moms who live in woven grass shacks) now have a safe place to cook and a place for their children can learn and receive quality care so they can go to work.

The village in Kenya was another favorite. It is an almost completely sustainable community (they even make the bricks for their buildings and the sunflower oil for their cooking). Nothing is wasted. We lived there for a month with little electricity or running water and mostly rice and beans to eat, learned so much about what is important in life and loved it. We raised bought them meat and other treats for a rare feast, and raised enough to buy all of the children shoes (many of them had none) and to build a new well so they can grow enough food to advance their goal of becoming completely self-supporting. What could be better?

6. What is your goal in blogging about your projects?

Our goal is two-fold. To blog about other cultures and increase tolerance and understanding in our world, and to help people realize their incredible power to make a real difference in the lives of others.

Ordinary people like you and me have already come together to donate over $130,000 to some of the most effective projects in the world, building a school, four libraries, a well, two computer labs, a reforestation project, land and housing for Dalits (untouchables) in India, education programs for teens in the slums of Calcutta, and much more.

What can other people do to get involved and help?

We really need more content on our website about the lives of people around the world in order for it to be used as an effective tool to increase cultural awareness and understanding. We would love guest posts on these topics from bloggers, travelers, educators, or anyone who can help people see the world from other perspectives and realize that people the world over are not as different as they might seem and share many of the same hopes, dreams and goals. Please send us a guest post!

—

As a token of the community’s gratitude to Susan for all she does, Equal Exchange is providing Teresa with a gift basket. Teresa has requested that the gift basket go to Henry Haugland at Web Reply because “he and his very talented team believed in our project from the very beginning and have donated much-needed web design and hosting and maintenance services.”

—

You can read about these projects at Round the World With Us, like them at Facebook, and follow them on Twitter as @RTWwithUs.

For February, we are again partnering with Equal Exchange to honor a Bloganthropy Blogger of the Month.

Bloggers nominated in January will be considered for February’s award–so no need to renominate unless you have new information to share!

We’ll recognize one blogger each month who has used his or her social media influence to make an outstanding volunteer or charitable contribution to her community.

Bloganthropy is built on the idea that we can use our social media influence to amplify the good we do. By calling upon the strength of your online network, you send your message viral, inspiring others to give.

We are looking for bloggers who use their social media platforms to inspire others to volunteer, provide a community for those in need of support, share information about a cause to educate others, fundraise for a charity, and many, many other possible acts of social media charity and volunteerism.

Do you use your blog to help build a better world? Or do you know someone who does? Fill-out the Bloganthropy Blogger of the Month nomination form, right now!

The winning blogger will be announced here on Bloganthropy.org and may also be recognized by our sponsor and in press releases. The winning blogger may also choose to have an award basket, selected by Equal Exchange, sent to the continental U.S. address of their choice.

We know you are a powerful voice, supporting and inspiring your community–let us know what you are doing to use your social media influence for good so we can help spread the word!

You may nominate yourself or another blogger. Blogger of the Month winners are still eligible to be nominated for the Annual Bloganthrop Awards in 2011, which will be held as part of the Type A Parent Conference. Read the “fine print” to find out more about eligibility and the nomination and selection process. Nominations for February’s Blogger of the Month will close March 1, 2011.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to exhibit at BlogHer. During the conference, we spoke with hundreds of bloggers about the accomplishments of the five Bloganthropy Awards finalists. We also heard from bloggers about how they are using their influence to support causes and charities they are passionate about through their blogs and Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Hopefully the mainstream coverage of BlogHer 2010 will focus on the best of the blogging community instead of the out-of-character actions of a few misguided individuals (like last year’s coverage of what was termed “SwagHer”). What do I mean by “best of the blogging community?”

For starters, check out Tutus for Tanner.

I had the opportunity to meet  Catherine from HerBadMother.com at BlogHer. Catherine is the woman behind Tutus for Tanner. She’s an amazing writer, but (more importantly!) she’s also an amazing person.  Catherine is raising awareness about Duchennes Muscular Dystrophy as well as funds to fight the disease and to enable Tanner to live at home rather than in the hospital. I saw so many people making and wearing tutus at BlogHer in support of Catherine’s nephew Tanner who has DMD. But the most amazing thing happened on Twitter immediately before the conference. Air Canada damaged Tanner’s electric wheelchair and refused to get him a replacement. Tanner would have been without a wheelchair for several days and would have missed the 5k run in his honor. Clearly this was an unacceptable way to treat a dying boy.  Thousands of bloggers took to Twitter to protest, and Tanner received a replacement wheelchair in time. It was wonderful to see how bloggers united in support of this incredible little boys, and I suspect Air Canada learned an important lesson about how to treat its wheelchair-bound passengers in the future.

A highlight of the conference was meeting the Bloganthropy Award finalists. I am still in awe of their accomplishments, and I thrilled to see this group of women receive some recognition for their accomplishments. (Click here to read more about them.)

Did you know that the team behind Passports with Purpose is going to build a village in Southern India? I’m not kidding here. They built a school last year are actually building an entire village this year! Please check out their site and contribute to their fundraising effort if you can.

Kristine Brite McCormick of Cora’s Story has already saved the lives of several babies by raising awareness of congenital heart defects and educating parents about the importance of pulse oximetry screening. How many of us can actually say that we’ve saved a life? Kristine can, and I think she is truly heroic! As her organization grows, I know many more lives will be saved through her efforts.

Maggie from Violence Unsilenced gives survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault a voice. During the conference, I met several women who told me how Violence Unsilenced helped them heal and thanked us for honoring Maggie for her incredible work building the community and raising awareness about the epidemic of domestic violence and sexual assault in our country.

Megan from Velveteen Mind wrote a post saying she was honored “but distinctly out of place” compared to the other nominees. Her numerous admirers at BlogHer would disagree. Megan has used her blog to bring attention and donations to Hurricane Katrina survivors and the people impacted by the oil spill in the Gulf. She promoted Tide Loads of Hope and worked on a recent campaign to donate nearly 70,000 meals to Feeding America.

Long before Brooke Shields wrote her famous book on her experience with PPD and had her famous battle with Tom Cruise, Katherine Stone of Postpartum Progress was working tirelessly to help women with PPD and other perinatal and antenatal mood disorders. Postpartum depression and perinatal mood disorders affect over 800,000 women annually in the United States alone. Increased awareness of PPD is critical to early diagnosis and treatment. For six years, Katherine Stone solely supported Postpartum Progress, helping countless women through her efforts. She recently incorporated as a non-profit with the goal of expanding the organization’s reach and effectiveness. We hope that recognition as the first annual Bloganthropy Award Winner and the prize money donated by P & G GIVE HEALTH will help Katherine Stone to accomplish this worthy goal.

Katherine Stone of Postpartum Progress won the first annual Bloganthropy Award at the awards dinner sponsored by Child’s Play Communications on August 5th. Stephanie Azzarone of Child’s Play Communications was the “fairy godmother” behind the Bloganthropy Awards dinner. I cannot thank her enough for all of her hard work on the event, contributions, and pro-bono PR support. She has been incredibly supportive of our efforts to build Bloganthropy.

I had a chance to share the stories of all these amazing women with Jennifer Brandt of Momversation, thanks to “performance with a purpose” from PepsiCo. Click here to see Momversation’s excerpts from this interview.

And I was so proud to see the efforts of the ever effervescent Lori Holton Nash, a member of our Bloganthropy Blogger Advisory Board, for Go Red for Women, which “celebrates the energy, passion and power we have as women to band together to wipe out heart disease and stroke”.

BlogHer is truly a community of women, lifting each other up.

You might also be surprised that many bloggers donate the infamous “Swag” to charities or to people in need in their community. For example, I’m donating mine to a local family who just lost their house to a fire. This family had five children and no fire insurance, and they needed help. I actually found out about them from a friend of mine, via her blog.

At the thredUP booth, they took an approach we wholeheartedly appreciate.  A sign on the table said: “Looking for Swag? We’ve got something better… Make a Green School Year Pledge and thredUP will donate $1 to Cradles to Crayons.” Karen told us that bloggers were very supportive of the “no swag”, eco-friendly charity pledge. They are at $840 right now so why not go and add to the donation?

This is what bloggers do best. They use their blogs to reach out and inspire others to make the world a better place.

Carol of NYCity Mama and Corine at Complicated Mama Rocked the NYC Help A Mother Out Cocktail Party/Diaper Drive! and Candace at Mamanista.com helped out mothers on Long Island with the help of her local Moms’ Meet-up.

Diapers are a serious need for families in difficult economic situations–a need not covered by existing social safety nets. Please consider helping a mother out by donating diapers to your local diaper bank, food bank, shelter, or house of worship.

I get very emotional when I see, read about, or watch on TV a child in pain. A family struggling to accept the reality of an impaired or afflicted child in their lives. An empty crib, clothes that are never worn, a mother who has lost the light of her life.

Ah, there is so much misery in the world. Every time there is a natural disaster I have the urge to adopt an orphaned child whose parents were taken in the earthquake/tsunami/AIDS crisis/insert here. Don’t tell my husband – we already have two little boys. Someday, when the time is right, I will bring it up.

Until then, my most far-reaching power is here on the internet. This week I am working with a charity called Trisomy 18 Foundation which is a finalist in the Chase Community Giving Challenge on Facebook – it has won a grant for $25,000, and is now among 100 charities up for five $100,000 prizes, or the first prize – $1 million to help pursue a Big Idea! The winner will be chosen by public vote from January 15-22. Will you help spread the word to your readers to visit their Facebook voting page and help them win?

One out of every 3,000 children is born with Trisomy 18. That means that every day in the United States alone, 10-20 families receive the news about this diagnosis, which may take their child from them before he or she is even born. Victoria Miller’s baby boy Isaac was born with Trisomy 18 in 2001. He lived only 11 days. At the time, the support community for families affected by the condition was very small, so Miller started the Trisomy 18 Foundation to raise awareness, improve the lives of the families, and drive research initiatives to focus on prevention and treatments. Miller tells her story in a special video on YouTube.

As a mother, naturally I was touched by the sadness that Trisomy 18 must bring to the families who are affected. But it didn’t really hit me until I visited the Facebook voting page and read the comments written by those parents and relatives who had the joy of knowing their babies for as little as 4 minutes before they slipped away. Those children never had a chance. With funding of $1 million, the Trisomy 18 Foundation can make significant progress toward improving treatment and prevention of this condition.

If you are on Facebook, I urge you to click the badge above and simply vote. You can also visit the Trisomy 18 Foundation information site where there is code for the video and other badges that you can put on your own site. It’s only for a week, but it can make a huge difference in the life of a family.  Please spread the word.

BADGE CODE:

<a href="http://tinyurl.com/votet18" ><img src="http://www.trisomy18.org/images/content/pagebuilder/42812.gif" alt="Trisomy18 Vote" width="202" height="244" border=0 /></a>

—
Kim Tracy Prince is a TV producer in Los Angeles and a mother of two young boys who has been blogging at House of Prince since 2004.  With the community of bloggers and internet users she has built over five and a half years, Kim is hoping to make changes that will help unfortunate people.  She also works with Help a Mother Out, a network that encourages people to donate diapers to homeless and needy families.