Rostin Ventures and Social Media Outreach Encourage You To “Capture the Love”

This fall, Gifts that Give is awarding one charity organization $500 through their “Capture the Love” photo contest. Rostin Ventures and Social Media Outreach would like to encourage everyone to participate in the contest and help win their charity some cash!

Rostin Ventures and Social Media Outreach are proud supporters of Gifts that Give.

Anyone interested in winning $500 for their favorite charity must upload a picture of their organization in action. The charity that gets the most votes from the public wins the cash. It’s that simple.

In addition to the “Capture the Love” contest, Gifts that Give makes it easy to donate to  your favorite charity and score some cool stuff for yourself too every day. Every time you make a purchase on www.giftsthatgive.com, 20% of your total purchase price will be donated to a nonprofit of your choosing.

With over one million nonprofits to choose from and thousands of products to shop among, Gifts that Give offers a little something for everyone.

So purchase a new coat for your doggie and donate 20% to the SPCA or buy some new headphones and support music education in low-income neighborhoods. Whatever you want to buy, whatever you want to support the choice is yours!

Since September is blood cancer awareness month, Gifts that Gives has showcased the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society as its charity of the month. As one recently satisfied Gifts that Gives’ customer said, “I love that my gift for my mom is also finding a cure for my dad.”

The key to the success of Gifts that Give lies in its product line. Gifts that Gives offers products that consumers already need and/or want such as clothing, pet supplies, home goods, luxury goods and more. Therefore, they are not trying to change the consumer’s shopping pattern; they are simply allowing you to donate to your favorite cause while buying the things you would have purchased anyways.

In addition to supporting your favorite nonprofit through shopping, Gifts that Gives allows you to share your cause with your friends through Facebook and hopefully recruit them to help raise money. To start a Facebook campaign, simply choose your cause, select the products you wish to have in your Facebook “store” and share with all your friends. It’s as simple as 1-2-3!

Rostin Ventures founded Social Media Outreach to help give back to the community by utilizing social media for social good.

Rostin Ventures and Social Media Outreach are proud supporters of Gifts that Give and giving back. To show your support and help raise awareness for Gifts that Give and your favorite nonprofit, please share this article on Facebook or Twitter.

For more information on Gifts that Gives, check out their website  www.giftsthatgive.com or visit their YouTube channel.

For more information about Rostin Ventures, please visit www.rostinventures.com.

For more information about Social Media Outreach, go to our WordPress blog at https://socialmediaoutreach.wordpress.com or like our Facebook page.

Rostin Ventures & Social Media Outreach Support Summer Santa, Inc.’s Goal of Bringing Holiday Cheer to Low-Income Children This Summer

Christmas in July? One local nonprofit is making it possible!

This summer, Summer Santa, Inc. is bringing cheer to low-income children in Northeast Tarrant County by providing them with camp scholarships, back to school shopping sprees, toys, books and physical exams.

Since its founding 15 years ago, Summer Santa, Inc. has provided $900,000 worth of services to more than 39,662 local children.

“In 1997, two civic leaders (Westlake Municipal Judge Brad Bradley and Star-Telegram columnist Dave Lieber) noticed that the holiday spirit waned in January. So they decided to invent a summer Santa to promote the giving spirit of the holiday season in the summer,” Cyn Choate, executive board chairman of Summer Santa, Inc. said.

Summer Santa, Inc. accomplishes this in numerous ways. In May, Summer Santa, Inc. hosted a toy drive. The toys were donated to 12-15 safe haven agencies in Northeast Tarrant County.

“The safe havens use these toys in one of three ways,” explains Choate. “All of them are first placed in a closet. Then if a child comes in from an abusive situation, they get to go to closet and pick out a toy. This is great because usually the families have left in the middle of the night and couldn’t take anything with them. The second way the safe haven uses toys is by allowing mothers and fathers to pick out gifts such as a birthday present for their children. Lastly, for the children that are still in school, the toys can be used as incentives.”

Throughout the summer, Summer Santa, Inc. will also be paying registration and camp fees for children who could benefit from a positive camp experience, but lack monetary funds.

“We have wonderful relationships with six schools districts in Northeast Tarrant County. The counselors there send us children between the ages of 7 and 14 that they believe could benefit from a summer camp experience that their family could not afford,” Choate said.

Dr. Peter Sakovich of Colleyville, who is on the board of directors for Summer Santa, Inc., has provided over 400 free physicals for those children that need them for camp.

After the toy drive and camp scholarships have been provided, Summer Santa, Inc. turns its attention to its next big summer project – providing children with back to school clothes.

“Kohl’s in Keller opens their doors to Summer Santa, Inc. – on Aug. 2 and 4 this year –for a back to school shopping trip where 100 students that were identified as needing back to school clothing and backpacks are allowed to shop. Children are paired with adults and given a list of things they need and Summer Santa, Inc. pays for the children’s’ purchases.”

To help Summer Santa, Inc. further, Kohl’s provides all clothing, shoes and backpacks to the children at a discount.

“Kohl’s has been very generous and given us significant discounts on clothing and shoes for the children,” Choate said “Because of this generous discount, we can dress a child for $100. A hundred dollars will provide at least $170 worth of opportunity for a child.”

This summer, Summer Santa, Inc. is also proud to announce its three new programs. For the first program, Summer Santa, Inc. will be providing soccer registration scholarships to students that want to participate in soccer but can’t afford the fees. In the second program, Summer Santa, Inc. gives bikes – all of which are donated – to children that could benefit from exercise and/or need the mobility to get them to and from school. The last new program is a pilot program where children that have been removed from their homes because of high levels of abuse, but can’t go to camp because they need more supervision and are in protective custody, are provided with one-day field trips.

Rostin Ventures and Social Media Outreach are proud to announce their support of Summer Santa, Inc.

If you would like to help Summer Santa, Inc. help more children, consider making a monetary donation or donating a new backpack. Summer Santa, Inc. will be collecting backpacks in the fall of 2012 for use in the 2013-2014 school year. This allows those that wish to donate a backpack to take advantage of after back to school sales, when backpacks will be significantly marked down.

Lastly, Summer Santa, Inc. is always in need of corporate groups to select a portion of their 501 (c)(3) to sponsor.

Because Summer Santa, Inc. is an all-volunteer organization with no office that relies on donations for its needs (For example, Realtor Randy White of Southlake donates his real estate office for board meetings), those that wish to donate can be assured that their donations will go directly to helping a child in need.

To help Rostin Ventures and Social Media Outreach help Summer Santa, Inc. by drawing attention to this great cause and their need for donations and sponsors, please share this article on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

Social Media Outreach: 5 Reasons We Love World Vision

In all honesty, the title for this article could easily have been 900 Million Reasons We Love World Vision. Last year alone they disbursed over $900,000,000, improving the lives of people worldwide through child sponsorship, disaster relief, clean water initiatives, micro-loans, AIDS care & prevention, and more programs too numerous to mention.

One of our new corporate partners, Trinity Merchant Group, introduced us to World Vision and approached us about raising awareness for them through Social Media Outreach. Managing Partner Nathan Randel and his family have been sponsoring children through World Vision for almost two decades. He spoke with such passion for the charity, we felt compelled to look into it. We are so glad we did! Aside from the amazing work they do with children, World Vision is also dedicated to improving entire communities worldwide, helping them reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. Here is just a sampling of our favorite initiatives:

1. Clean Water: Every day more than 4,000 children die of water-and sanitation-related diseases. The Clean Water Fund brings clean water, sanitation, and hygiene to communities through deep wells, irrigation systems, purification equipment, latrines and more.  In the past two decades, World Vision’s water projects have saved countless lives and brought more than 10 million people access to clean water.
2. Life Changing Animals: Many rural families in developing countries depend entirely on the animals they raise and the crops they grow, so they are never more than one drought, one flood, or one conflict away from hunger. World Vision’s Animal and Agriculture Fund helps hardworking families put food on the table and income in their pockets by providing farm animals, tools, drought-resistant seeds, training in livestock and land management, and business strategies on how to market agricultural goods. All of these efforts combine to help families lift themselves out of poverty and provide a promising future for their children.
3. Micro-Loans: Micro-loans put strength in the hands of hard working people living in poverty. They are given to entrepreneurs who have sound business ideas, but need small loans they can use to start or expand a business. As loans are repaid, the funds are used to provide new loans to others. World Vision’s micro-lending website connects online visitors to entrepreneurs worldwide. Donors fund the entrepreneur of their choice, are able to stay connected as the business builds, and see the impact on the entire community as re-paid loans are re-loaned again to help help dozens of families in the same country for years to come. The organization has achieved a 93.4% rate of repayment for its current portfolio of $346 million in micro-loans, along with providing training and support services to enable its clients to succeed.
4. Help for Girls & Women: In many cultures, a girl is devalued from birth. In fact, women in poor communities are the largest group of people to be denied basic needs and human rights. Recognizing women as critical partners in development, World Vision actively and sensitively works to equip and encourage women around the world. They offer basic health care, prenatal, nutrition and hygiene classes and operate facilities that help provide recovery for girls abused in the sex trade. In addition, World Vision programs in nearly 100 countries help provide access to education for girls and literacy training for women. They also promote recognition of the inherent value of girls and train women to advocate for their rights and become leaders in their communities.
5. Disaster Relief: The impact of major disasters has increased thirteen-fold in the last 50 years. Global weather trends and increasing political upheavals indicate that the needs will continue to grow. Immediate emergency response, disaster mitigation and a commitment to long-term rebuilding are critical. World Vision is on the ground in 100 countries, ready to respond at a moments notice with strategically located disaster response warehouses and a highly trained Global Rapid Response Team.

Share the love this Valentine’s Day. Visit the World Vision Gift Catalogue and discover more than 100 opportunities to transform lives around the world.

Social Media Outreach Paying It Forward

Social Media Outreach provides a social platform from which to promote causes of interest to consumers and organizations, who are communicating within social media.   We are a community of people who join to create a strong hand with the ability to reach out and help others in need. You can help too.  Become a friend within Social Media Outreach on WordPress, like the Social Media Outreach Community Page on Facebook, pass information along on blogs like Blogger, Typepad and comment on videos on YouTube. Promote your cause here too.  Begin your Twitter posts with Social Media Outreach : and state your cause.   Update your profile on Linked In with updates which begin with Social Media Outreach : and post a link to your cause.  Join groups and encourage the use of social media to make a difference.

Consumers are communicating in social media.  We have the power to make a difference in our communities, on the streets, and by word of mouth.  Brands begin and end with consumer endorsements, because we trust recommendations of each other, rather than choose to follow advice of brand advertising.  Make no mistake about it, the power of social media community is influencing brand marketing efforts.

Brand marketers are using social media to open lines of communication with consumers.  When consumers post a message on social media brand pages, such as WordPress, Facebook, Blogger, and YouTube, brands are responding.  Consumers are leading brand development discussions, customer service policy, and marketing strategy.   We can make or break a brand, with exponential power of the written word of mouth.  According to EPM Communications, 2010 research on How Americans Use Social Media and How Brands Communicate With Consumers on Facebook, Twitter & Other Networks, “More than 144 million Americans logged onto a social media site in March of 2010.   More than seven in 10 adults have a profile on Facebook, and nearly two in 10 visit Twitter.  Teens and tweens are more likely than adults to have a profile, but older adults are the fastest growing audience on social networks.  Nearly a third of Baby Boomers who use social media created their accounts in the second half of 2009.”

We are a powerful segment of population.  Print mediums are diminishing in use, while online media, especially social media, is growing at exponential rates.  So how are we using social media?  Are we using it for the better good?  Will we grow from our experiences, as we show the world what we expect brands and media to be, through our assistance in building them?   According to our same resource at EPM Communications, “The vast majority of those who use social media do so to maintain their personal relationships, with a few using it primarily for business networking.  Nearly two thirds have reconnected with someone from their past via a social network.  Almost half say that social media have enabled them to meet people and a third feel empowered by social media.”

Social Media Outreach would like to see you embrace the empowerment  you feel through your involvement with social media, to make a difference this year.  If there is one new year’s resolution you stick with, please make it to use social media to do something good for this world.

Through Social Media Outreach you can make a difference by paying it forward.  Promote your cause at the bottom of your posts, on your Facebook page, on YouTube, and begin to retweet posts on Twitter when you see them begin with Social Media Outreach.

Social Media Outreach : Together We Make a Difference.

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