Coco-Cola, through a special partnership with Facebook, is giving us a way to contribute to the Boys & Girls Clubs and a chance to get a sneak peak at one of their upcoming Super Bowl spots. If you’re like me, not only do I love the Super Bowl commercials but I love Coca-Cola commercials.

In order to participate you need to visit the Live Positively tab on the Coca-Cola Facebook fan page. From here you can share a virtual gift with your friends. By sharing a virtual gift, Coca-Cola will do the following:

Coca-Cola makes a one-dollar donation to Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

Gift recipients receive a special Coca-Cola bottle image, which is displayed on their Facebook page and newsfeed, reminding them and others they can also share virtual gifts.

Gift-givers receive a 20-second sneak preview of one of two new Coca-Cola ads that will debut during the Super Bowl broadcast on February 7, 2010.

Once game day arrives, gifters receive both ads in their entirety before their TV debut later that evening.

Coca-Cola will match every dollar contributed to the Boys & Girls Clubs (up to a total contribution by Coca-Cola of $150,000) and donate two My Coke Rewards points for every one point donated between now and February 15th.

This is a great program for a great cause. You can find out all the details at the Live Positively site and you can view a success story featuring Academy Award winner Denzel Washington on YouTube here.

Dear readers, what a perfect charity that symbolizes Skip a Lunch. Just one dollar, not even half a latte!

Let’s all get together and support the McDonald’s charity event known as “McHappy Day”, from November 10th to the 20th. Purchase a hand for $1 or certain food items and your dollar will help make a difference to a child in need. McDonald’s has raised nearly $150 million since 2002.

You can donate online or learn more here.

If you purchase a hand, take a photo with your mobile phone and email it to blog [at] skipalunch.com and we’ll post it here. Mmm, now I’m hungry!

B

The Case Foundation, Causes, and PARADE magazine launched the 2009 America’s Giving Challenge on October 7th and has already surpassed 10,000 donations and raised $250,000. Imagine that, in just one week they’ve achieved this!

Let’s get involved with this great program!

Details on the 2009 America’s Giving Challenge:

America’s Giving Challenge participants will compete for 30 days to bring in the highest number of donations for their nonprofit cause through the Causes application on Facebook. Causes that net the most donations will receive a total of $170,000 in prize money in addition to what individuals give during the Challenge. Based on the number of donations to their cause, participants can compete for daily and overall awards (ranging from $500 to $50,000) from now until November 6th at 3 p.m. EST. This year’s Giving Challenge builds on last year’s effort that saw $1.8 million raised for nonprofits.

Challenge participants can get involved in one of two ways:

1. Champion a cause – Individuals can become “cause champions,” individuals who are passionate about a specific cause and will compete to obtain the most donations for their cause through the Causes application on Facebook.

2. Promote, donate or join a cause – All individuals are encouraged to take part in America’s Giving Challenge by joining, promoting and donating to the causes they care about. Facebook membership is not required to donate to a Giving Challenge cause.

To register to compete in the Giving Challenge, view details, and donate to a cause, visit www.americasgivingchallenge.com. Additionally, the Case Foundation is on Twitter at www.twitter.com/casefoundation, and you can follow news on America’s Giving Challenge with hashtag #AGC. (You can also check out a video of Matt Damon supporting America’s Giving Challenge here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y32CyumTI8!)

Ask.com has a great program running from September 13th to December 31st, 2009 called “Search for the Cure“. Ask.com will donate up to $100,000 in addition to monies raised by folks answering breast health questions and those who adopt the special homepage skin. From this program, Ask.com has pledged to invest at least $1 million through the “Search for the Cure” program and sponsorship of the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure series.

So, all we have to do is adopt the skin, answer questions, and make a difference! For those that are not aware, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure® is the world’s largest and most progressive grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists fighting to save lives and end breast cancer forever.

About Susan G. Komen for the Cure®
Nancy G. Brinker promised her dying sister, Susan G. Komen, she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever. In 1982, that promise became Susan G. Komen for the Cure, which is now the world’s largest breast cancer organization and the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer with more than $1.3 billion invested to date. For more information about Susan G. Komen for the Cure, breast health or breast cancer, visit www.komen.org or call 1-877 GO KOMEN.

Wow, The Fresh Air Fund had nearly 8,000 children enjoying their best summer yet. If you recall, we featured The Fresh Air Fund back in July for the NYC Half-Marathon they hosted.

Check out the latest here. The Fresh Air Fund 2009 Summer Memories video is worth the visit. From their News Facts section:

2009 Summer Highlights:
• Nearly 8,000 children enjoyed their best summers yet
• 370 students participated in the Career Awareness Program
• 11 counselors-in-training spent three days on the Appalachian Trail
• 168 young people were Leaders-in-training

That’s what I call a success! Keep up the good work and let’s get behind and support these organizations.

Wow, this is not for the feint of heart! Raise $1000 for Special Olympics Hawaii and you’ll be able to rappel over the edge of Waikiki’s tallest building, landing at the Edge of Waikiki which is the Sheraton Waikiki’s new adult infinity pool and bar. Crazy huh? The Over the Edge of Waikiki event takes places on November 13th, 2009 at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel. You need to be 18 and less than 300lbs. to participate.

Contact info:
Kyle Karioka
Special Olympics Hawaii
PO Box 3295
Honolulu, HI 96801
Fax: (808) 943-8814
E-mail: KyleK@specialolympicshawaii.org

Here’s a link to the form. Sign up today if interested since its a limited opportunity.

Per Brittany Harrison from Stand Up To Cancer:

It’s hard to even find a $5 lunch these days, but we want to let people know that even those $5 can help end cancer. I’m Brittany, and I work with Stand Up To Cancer. Today we launched a new campaign that I think your audience can embrace. Meryl Streep is teaming up with SU2C to get 10,000 $5 donations from September 2 – October 2. Check out this widget to hear from Meryl herself: http://www.standup2cancer.org/su2c/five.

During the month of September, we’re asking the question: “What would you give up to end cancer?” As Meryl points out, for the cost of a coffee or a magazine, you can make a huge difference in the fight against cancer. We’d really appreciate if you could post the widget on your blog to let everyone know how easy it is to join the fight against cancer – even if you don’t post to your blog, feel free to share with your family and friends! This donation widget lets you donate $5 to SU2C and can be added to blogs and websites (embed code below) or it can be shared via Facebook and other social networks (click on the yellow SHARE button on the widget).

As I was checking for the recommended time between Brita filter changes I came across an exciting program for recycling your used filters.

Brita is teaming up with Preserve and their Gimme 5 program. Preserve is recycling the plastic filter casings for use in their eco-friendly, 100% recycled toothbrushes, cups, and cutting boards. They don’t mention what happens to the carbon other than it will be regenerated for alternate use or converted into energy.

Gimme 5 is a program by Preserve to recycle No. 5 polypropylene plastic which is the primary material in the filters. The reason this program is needed is because most local/municipal collection programs don’t accept this type of plastic.

The program is easy, you can either drop them off at their drop-off locations (here’s a list) or you can mail them in. They give instructions on the program here.

The Tap Project is about providing clean, safe water to children.

Some facts:

• Just $1 can provide a child safe drinking water for 40 days.
• Waterborne illness is the 2nd largest killer of children under 5.

More about the Tap Project:

“In 2007, the Tap Project was born in New York City based on a simple, tangible and easy-to-implement concept: restaurants would ask their patrons to donate $1 or more for the tap water they usually enjoy for free, and all funds raised would support UNICEF’s efforts to bring clean and accessible water to millions of children around the world.”

So, get involved, get active. Follow them on Twitter, spread the word, volunteer, etc.

Top Five Ways to Give Online (courtesy of replyforall)

5. Give Your Name. Signing petitions to Senators or foreign diplomats may seem like it won’t make a difference, but sometimes just a collection of people taking a stand has real power. Just look at Amnesty International’s track record. They’ve been relying on your names to help repeal laws, obtain stays of execution, and secure the release of hundreds of prisoners in foreign countries. Sign Amnesty’s petition to free US journalists Laura and Euna.

4. Micro-Volunteer. You don’t need money to give time, and now with companies like The Extraordinaries, you don’t really need that much time, either. Just download one of their phone apps, and you can volunteer with those ten minutes you’re waiting at the doctor’s office. You can help translate a nonprofit page into a foreign language, fact check for reporters, review congressional bills, even tag images for the Smithsonian. So you can do what you can, when you can, and still make a difference.

3. “Friend-raise”. Social networking is a great way to keep in touch with friends, acquaintances, and family members. And now, it’s a great way to raise awareness about your favorite nonprofit or cause. Over 26 million people actively use the Causes application on Facebook, and influence others to join their cause. You can support your cause by merely inviting your friends to join or posting your charitable actions in your status message.

2. Transform your search engine. We’ve ushered in a new age of technology, relying on search engines for answers from the momentous to the mundane. Why not fight desertification, global warming, and habitat loss at the same time? Don’t just search, Ecosearch. Ecosearch is a search engine that uses Yahoo technology and helps reforesting trees and safeguard water resources in the Amazon region, which constitute today one fourth of the fresh water reserves of our planet.

For every 10,000 searches, Ecosearch and Aquaverde (their nonprofit partner) plant a tree in the Amazon and in the Canary Islands. The website even keeps a running count of how many trees have been planted and how many more searches are needed to plant another tree.

1. Donate your email. What better way to make a donation than to have someone else pay for it? replyforall is a free cause email signature that is automatically inserted into your outgoing email messages. You choose your cause, personalize the information to appear in the signature, and you’re all set! replyforall then shares the advertising revenue with its nonprofit partners allowing you to donate without cash. Now you can raise awareness, drive donations for your cause of choice and monitor your impact all by doing what you do everyday – email.