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!

With so many people out of work and struggling, it is more important than ever for low-income families to be able to access childcare–and diapers are part of that equation.

Help a Mother Out is asking us to support the Diaper Act. This act does not make additional appropriations–that means there is no added cost. This only allows funds that are already allotted fir Child Care Development Funds to be used for diapers to improve child care quality and access.

Will you help a mother out? You can blog, tweet, take photos, and sign this petition!

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.

Education is fundamental to providing equal opportunity and keeping the United States competitive in the global economy. Yet, too many of our children fall through the cracks. Every nine seconds, another student will drop out of school. And 2,000 schools are responsible for 50% of the nation’s dropouts.

With the help of P&G Give, we have been able to support and recognize the grass-roots, charitable efforts of the blogging community. So, we were happy to join with several Bloganthropy Advisory Board members and other Bloganthropy members to find out how P&G Give Education is partnering with Communities in Schools to make a difference in the lives of our most at-risk students. We were joined by the spokesman, the famous recording artist and philanthropist, John Legend. John Legend was on hand to sing his song, “Shine”, with the Sports and Arts in Schools Foundation choir from M.S. 390 in University Heights, Bronx.

During a blogger round table, John Legend, shared his passion for, and commitment to, education reform.

Some of the bloggers who spoke with John Legend have posted about their experiences:

Kimberly Coleman, of Foodie City Mom, writes: “On, the parent note, he mentioned something that really stood out…that parents (in poorer communities) need to have higher expectations for what their kids deserve education-wise. [...] Unfortunately, many parents in distressed communities are so consumed with just surviving – especially in this economy – that their kids’ education falls to the wayside.  That is where the “it takes a village” mentality comes in.  There needs to be people in the schools and community who care about all kids – not just their own.  John shared that in addition to his parent, it was the school officials – his guidance counselor, music teacher and gym teachers – who had the greatest impact on him. ” (Read the full post.)

Candace Lindemann: At my education blog, Naturally Educational, I posted:”The issue is a convoluted and messy one that does not have a simple answer. Wrapped up in issues of student performance are problems of health, pollution, race, economic inequality, urban planning, and much, much more. However, there are solutions. We know there are proven methods that can have a dramatic impact on drop out rates. As complex as the issue is, the answer may still be summed up in a word: community.” (Read the full post.)

Sarah Peppel of  also has photo and video of John Legend singing with the kids..

You can help raise a significant donation for Communities in Schools in two ways:

• On Sunday, July 31, the GIVE Education brandSAVER, featuring a note from John Legend, will be distributed in newspapers across the country, with discounts on trusted P&G products. For each GIVE Education brandSAVER coupon redeemed, P&G will donate two cents to CIS – allowing consumers to give back, while saving money. The P&G uncapped donation will be based on the number of coupons redeemed beginning July 31 – the more consumers save, the more they give.
• Watch a video featuring John Legend and CIS students on the P&G myGive Facebook page. When you watch, P&G will make an additional 25¢ donation to CIS (up to $10,000).

Disclosure: P&G Give Education reimbursed travel expenses for the area bloggers who attended the event. Bloganthropy is a non-profit (501-3c pending). The co-foudners of Bloganthropy do not take a salary or other compensation for Bloganthropy projects. All donations go directly to funding Bloganthropy awards and projects.

Each month when the time for Bloganthropy Blogger of the Month submissions rolls

around, we are thrilled to read about the inspiring bloggers who are dedicated to making a difference using their social media platforms.

In March, we honored Sian To of Mummy Tips, an accidental activist from the British countryside. Sian attended the BlogHer conference in 2009 on a whim, and was there inspired to help found “the UK’s premier blogger conference,” CyberMummy, in January 2010. After speaking at the first CyberMummy conference, Sian was contacted by a representative from Save the Children, and was offered a position as a blogger for their recent Blogadesh campaign. Her work with Blogadesh has helped bring awareness of the issues related to the UN’s 2010 Millennium Development Goal Summit to over 75 million people worldwide. You can read about her bloganthropic journey here.

On June 24, we will be recognizing five AMAZING finalists at the 2011 Bloganthropy Awards at the Type-A Parent Conference. You can read about these inspiring women here. P&G GIVE EDUCATION is the 2011 Awards Sponsor, and they are generously giving prizes worth $5000 to the five finalists.

We want to 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.

For the month of July, we are partnering with P&G’s GIVE Education to honor another incredible Bloganthropy Blogger of the Month with an exceptional prize– $1,000 for your charity and an iPad2 for you.

In keeping with the P&G GIVE EDUCATION objective, our goal this month is to find candidates who are using social media to support education-related causes.

If you or someone you know uses blogging and social media for educational advocacy or charities, 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. 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. Read the “fine print” to find out more about eligibility and the nomination and selection process. Nominations for July’s Blogger of the Month will close July 15, 2011.

P&G’s GIVE Health program is giving clean drinking water to people in need and offering a simple way that you can help! Visit GIVE Health on Facebook to learn more and then look for P&G brandSAVER coupons on your local June 5 newspaper. For each coupon redeemed, P&G will donate one day of clean drinking water ($.02) to the P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program.

Plus, P&G is donating a day of clean drinking water for every new like, comment and share on the GIVE HEALTH Facebook page through Sunday June 5, 2011.  It’s such an easy way to make a difference, and we hope you’ll help.

We want to hear your ideas and to help you promote your philanthropic projects, so be sure to come say “hello”!
As an additional incentive to stop by, Corolle is also offering prizes at our BlogHer Bloganthropy booth–watch @Bloganthropy during the conference for details.

Even if you are unable to visit with us in New York City, we want you to be part of this movement to use our social media influence to build a better world.  Stay in touch by checking out our facebook page, following us on Twitter, subsribing to our RSS feed, and taking the Bloganthropy pledge.

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.