Help us make social media history in support of a great cause, the UCSF Challenge for the Children. They are trying to raise $600 million for a $1.6 billion massively awesome project. We’re asking for your help, and I’ll personally match the first $10,000 in donations through TechCrunch.
The UCSF Medical Center, as part of the overall project, is building a new, freestanding children’s hospital in San Francisco with $100 million from Marc and Lynne Benioff. People already travel from around the state, and in fact from around the country, for highly specialized cancer treatment, surgeries and other critical treatments to the UCSF Medial Center. The new hospital will offer a wonderful new environment where children and their families can feel more comfortable. SV Angel investor Ron Conway is a board member of UCSF Medical Center and contributes a significant amount of time to the cause.
That’s where we come in. UCSF has partnered with Causes to host the UCSF Challenge for the Children. Between now and December 16, the team that gets the highest number of contributors (minimum donation of $10), will be able to gift and name “The Link,” a children’s activity space for learning play and discovery in the new Hospital. This is normally reserved for benefectors at the million dollar level and above. It’s also a super cool way to use social media as a major vehicle to drive awareness and broadscale participation in the construction of a new hospital. Team TechCrunch is excited to participate.
We’ll be holding weekly contests to support team TechCrunch in the Challenge for the Children. This week, the person or start up that helps us get the highest number of contributions will be awarded a Day at TechCrunch in San Francisco. We’ll be happy to host up to six people for a day at the office. Get a tour, see the video studio, have lunch, watch breaking tech news in action, play with new tech gadgets and generally work hard play hard with us. We’ll also randomly select six donors who share their donation with friends through Facebook or Twitter for TechCrunch tshirts. This week’s contest will close noon pst Friday, November 19.
To participate in this week’s content, make a donation to Team TechCrunch for UCSF Challenge for the Children.
Stay tuned. We’ll have new giveaways each week leading up to December 16. The startup that helps us get the highest number of total participants over the duration of the drive will be able to name the hospital room for team TechCrunch. How often do you get the chance to name a room in a children’s hospital?
If you prefer to start your own team, you can do so on the Causes page here. An anonymous donor has agreed to add $1,000 to each of the top 25 teams in the challenge.
There will be heavy competition. Facebook, Zynga, Twitter, foursquare, DailyBooth, Seesmic and others are all participating, and it will be interesting to see how each company uses its platform to drive awareness and participation. Of course, we’re very competitive at TechCrunch, so just because we’re a tech blog, don’t expect us to just sit back and cover the news… if you have an idea for how team TechCrunch can win, let us know in the comments below or tell Elin our new community manager on our Facebook page.
BTW, today is National Philanthropy Day and a good excuse to support a great cause.
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