Credit: Metro News Calgary

This week I experienced something extraordinary, thanks to social media and the drive and compassion of three Calgary women.

Sixteen days after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, YYC4Haiti became the largest “tweetup” (a meet up of Twitter users) in Western Canada, raising an estimated $25,000 for the Red Cross in the process.

This most assuredly represents the wisdom and the power of the crowd at its best. It’s crowd-sourced philanthropy, if you will.

The idea sprang from a Twitter conversation between the three organizers: Camilla Di Giuseppe, Alex Ruiz, and Angela MacIsaac.

“It is extremely difficult to watch the images and read the details that continue to emerge about the widespread devastation and suffering in Haiti,” said Di Giuseppe. “To put it simply, we wanted to help. The concept of YYC4Haiti took its first breath over the social-media platform Twitter, which was our primary tool in engaging and mobilizing the Calgary community.”

From the seed of a simple Twitter conversation grew a mighty idea, and a civic movement.

“In just the span of one day on Twitter, we had Calgarians come forward to volunteer, to make donations and to say they’ll attend,” said Ruiz. “We’ve even had people from across Canada and the U.S., who have noticed the YYC4Haiti effort, offer to mail us donations for the silent auction!”

Over the course of the next two weeks the event took shape, gaining momentum, volunteers, media attention, star support, and corporate donations. The spirit of generosity and good will was palpable.

Silent auction items poured in from corporations, small businesses and individuals. Live auction items from signed hockey jerseys to spa baskets, team builders to travel were offered up. The icing on the cake was a dream vacation worth $15,000 donated by Calgary’s
Strategic Group, comprised of four days and nights in a luxurious Okanagan villa, wine tour, flights, and more.

“We are absolutely overwhelmed by Strategic Group’s generosity,” said Di Giuseppe. “So many people came forward with donations in the form of door prizes and items for auction. This item is the piece de resistance for our event.”

Sleepless nights by organizers and volunteers, numerous rallying cries, and sorting out a million details culminated in a packed event at Calgary’s Flames Central nightclub this past Thursday night. There was live video on Ustream, live blogging on ScribbleLive, and tweeting throughout the event using hashtag #YYC4Haiti. Roving reporters fired up their iPhones and sent photo after photo to Twitpic. The in-person crowd interacted with folks monitoring from home.

For most of the evening #YYC4Haiti was the top trending topic on Twitter for Canadians. This charitable event captured the imagination and attention of the nation and beyond, raising $25,000 or more for Haitian earthquake relief. Tweets of support from personalities
as diverse as Trooper’s Ra MaGuire, Shannon Tweed, Bif Naked, and Kelsey Grammer were reported. “End of My Leash” star Brad Pattison, freshly returned from Haiti, stopped by. Pattison described for us his horror at the excruciating state of the small Caribbean nation, and his delight in the tenacity and kindness of the Haitian people.

One of my favorite social media books is Clay Shirky’s “Here Comes Everybody”, a book that explores, in Shirky’s words, “what happens when people are given the tools to do things together, without needing traditional organizational structures”.

A bunch of people in Calgary did exactly that this week, with the leadership of three amazing women. Go to http://yyc4haiti.com and donate if you haven’t already.

As usual, send me your feedback on Twitter at @dblacombe or via e-mail doug@communicatto.com.

Doug Lacombe is president of communicatto.com, a digital marketing, investor and public relations agency.

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