HI-TRANSFER

Last Saturday, we joined the American Foundation on Equal Rights to live-stream 8, a star-studded play that depicts the Proposition 8 trial surrounding same-sex marriage. On World AIDS Day in December, the ONE Campaign and RED live-streamed a day-long symposium on the end of AIDs.

Today, we’re opening up the opportunity to live-stream to all members of the YouTube Nonprofit Program. Nonprofits, from small to large, will now be able to engage live audiences in charity concerts, conferences, and other special events to raise awareness about their causes and drive donations in real-time.















The YouTube Nonprofit Program is currently open to registered organizations in the U.S., U.K. Australia and Canada and offers free benefits like donate buttons/overlays, custom thumbnail selection and channel branding. To learn more and apply, please click here. For organizations who are already members of the Nonprofit Program, you can enable live-streaming in a few simple steps, outlined here.

Ramya Raghavan and Jason Toff, YouTube Nonprofit Team, recently watched “30 dolphins stranded and incredibly saved.”

Last month we announced YouTube Next Cause: a new program designed to help nonprofit organizations that are already changing the world better use online video to drive action.

We were honored, inspired and deeply moved by many of the applications we received.

We are proud to introduce you to some members of the first class of YouTube Next Cause: 20 organizations who’ve demonstrated passion and huge potential for using YouTube to further their causes.

The organizations come from big cities and small towns across the country from Illinois to Colorado to Texas to California and many work all over the world. They also work on variety of issues from animal abuse to homelessness to poverty alleviation to children’s health.

 Check out these great organizations:

 

Autism Speaks
Children's Hospital Boston
IFAW - International Fund for Animal Welfare
Sunlight Foundation
BuildOn
American Heart Association
CARE
American Foundation for Equal Rights
Malaria No More
The Humane Society of the United States
The Pablove Foundation
COTS - Committee on the Shelterless
Durango Discovery Museum
Save Mount Diablo
Art Resources in Teaching
breakthrough
Per Scholas
The Supply
Born Free USA
The Lazarex Cancer Foundation

Stay tuned to this blog for more updates from the YouTube Next Cause channels, and learn more about other programs helping partners grow at the YouTube Creator Hub.

Jessica Mason, communications associate, recently watched “The Story of Keep Calm and Carry On”

Last year we launched YouTube NextUp to accelerate the growth of the next big YouTube stars. Then in October, we announced YouTube Next Chef and YouTube Next Trainer to turbocharge up-and-coming cooking and fitness channels by great YouTube video creators. We’re excited to share the latest addition to the Next Creator family of programs: YouTube Next Cause for nonprofits.

YouTube Next Cause is designed to help organizations that are already changing the world better use online video to drive action. At a one-day summit in San Francisco on April 2, selected participants will get access to everything from training in YouTube fundamentals, to promotion and community engagement tips, to one-on-one consulting sessions to grow their YouTube presence.

We’ve always sought to make YouTube a platform for nonprofits to broadcast their messages. And we’ve seen amazing things happen when the YouTube community comes together in support of great causes. With 4 billion views a day, we want to make sure nonprofits have the tools they need to reach the global audience on YouTube and turn video views into donations, volunteerism and awareness.

Applications for YouTube Next Cause are due on February 27, 2012 at 11:59PM PT, and the selected nonprofits will be announced on March 5. This program is open to organizations that are part of the YouTube Nonprofit Program (full eligibility requirements). You can apply online at: http://goo.gl/ODbI6.

Check out what nonprofits are doing on YouTube at youtube.com/nonprofits. And tune in around March 5 to learn more about some of the great nonprofit organizations chosen and what they’re doing to change the world!

 

Hunter Walk, director of product management, recently watched “Using YouTube with a Purpose - Helping Kids in Bangladesh.”

For the third year, YouTube is teaming up with See3 Communications to present the DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards, a celebration of the best non-profit videos on the site. If you’re a nonprofit who made a video in 2011, you’re eligible and encouraged to submit.

It doesn’t matter if your organization is small and scrappy, large and global, or somewhere in between. We’ll award prizes like $3,500 grants, free admission to the Nonprofit Technology Conference, and a spotlight on the YouTube homepage to small, medium and large organizations, plus a special award for “Best Video Storytelling.”

Need more details? Watch this video:



The deadline to enter is February 29, 2012 and you must be a member of the YouTube Nonprofit Program at the time of judging, to enter. Full rules are available here.

Get those cameras rolling and good luck!

Ramya Raghavan, YouTube Nonprofits, recently watched “300 Years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds”.

Nonprofits are an important part of the YouTube community, and their videos have educated and inspired audiences since the early days of the site. We launched the YouTube Nonprofit Program in 2007 to help organizations take their work to the next level, and since then, more than 16,000 nonprofits have joined the program. There are hundreds of nonprofit organizations with millions of views on YouTube, and dozens with more than ten million views, like Greenpeace, Khan Academy and UNICEF.

We’ve made a couple of updates to the program that we hope will help nonprofits use video in new and compelling ways.

• The Playbook Guide: YouTube for Good. This is a how-to resource specifically targeted at nonprofit organizations, with sections on how to create content, raise funds, connect with other community members and more.
• Improved features. As part of our new Channels design, we’ve made the donate button on nonprofit channels even more prominent, making it easier than ever to support the causes you care about.

If you’re a YouTube Nonprofit Program with other ideas about how we can make the program better, tell us your suggestions in the comments below! If you’re a nonprofit in the U.S., U.K., Canada or Australia and not yet a member, visit www.youtube.com/nonprofits to learn more and apply.

Valerie Streit, YouTube Next Lab, recently watched “Martin Luther King Jr. on NBC’s Meet the Press in 1965.”

On a typical Friday afternoon at YouTube, you can expect to see most people scrambling to finish their work or getting ready for Google’s weekly TGIF meeting. This past Friday, something different occurred: the first-ever YouTube Holiday Giving Flash Mob. Flash mobs? Aren’t those mainly for hipsters dancing in shopping malls and subway stations? Yes, many are, but we thought it would be cool to channel the crowd-sourced energy of your standard flash mob and put it towards a good cause. 

Hundreds of YouTubers across various offices came together to give back to DonorsChoose.org, an organization doing wonderful work for kids across the US. One great thing about DonorsChoose is that they’re crowd-sourced giving -- public school teachers from across America post classroom project requests on the site. Requests range from pencils for a poetry writing unit, to violins for a school recital, to microscope slides for a biology class. You can browse project requests and give any amount to the one that inspires you. Once a project reaches its funding goal, they deliver the materials to the school. 

 

In total, our YouTube Flash Mob raised thousands ofdollars across several different projects. Thanks to Google’s CorporateGiving Match program and DonorsChoose offering to match the first $100of each YouTube employee’s donation, we should eventually be able todouble our initial total donation. 

But it doesn’t stop there - we want to invite you to be part of ourFlash Mob. DonorsChoose has generously agreed to also match alldonations through Dec 31, 2011. All you need to do is enter the word“YOUTUBE” in the “I have a gift or match code” field during checkout onthe site and DonorsChoose will match up to $100 of your gift*. So finda project and give what you can. While DonorsChoose is a U.S. basedorganization, we don’t want to limit the giving to within our borders. You can tell us what other organizations and charities hold a special place in your heart by leaving a comment on the YouTube Google+ page. In January we’ll report back on the total donation amount and other global charities you’ve brought to our attention! 

Happy Giving! 

Hunter Walk, Product Manager, who recently watched “DonorsChoose.org: The Colbert Report’s Charity of Choice” 

*DonorsChoose has agreed to match $100 of all gifts using the promotional code ‘YouTube’ up to a certain point. 

*Gift matching does not apply when one individual fully funds a project in its entirety, so feel free to spread the love across multiple projects to take advantage of the matching funds.

Today’s guest post comes from Hank and John Green, aka the VlogBrothers, with a special message about how you can dramatically increase the level of awesome that exists around the world this year.

In 2007, we asked everyone on YouTube to upload videos for their favorite causes and charities on December 17. We wanted to help raise awareness and donations for awesome causes that we all care about—big and small, from near and far. This YouTube community-driven movement became known as Project for Awesome.

This year is now the 5th anniversary of Project for Awesome, and we want you to help make it more awesome than ever. Here’s how:

Make an innovative video promoting your favorite charity and upload it on December 17 starting at Noon ET. Make it original, and most importantly, make it awesome. Use this thumbnail as your thumbnail for the video, and tag it with "p4a2011” (here’s info about using thumbnails). It’s our hope that if we all upload on the same day, all of YouTube and the Internet will be taken over by a flurry of awesomeness.

Awesome waits for no one, so here are some ideas to get started:

• Organize a campaign with your community and film it. This can be anything from a bake sale to rebuilding a village. There are many non-profits that allow you to build teams such as Charity:Water, Kiva, and Causes.com.
• Check out some of our favorite Project for Awesome videos below.
• Take one of your existing videos and spend some time using the YouTube Video Editor to make it even better.

On December 17, we hope all of you around the Internet and around the world upload videos for your favorite causes. Then, share your favorites and donate to the causes you think are awesome. Here are some past videos to get you started:



Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to be awesome.

Hank and John Green of the VlogBrothers recently watched “Pas De Deux - Sean Malone (Remix).”

Tomorrow, at 10 a.m. EST, President Obama, past Presidents Clinton and Bush, Bono, Alicia Keys and others will speak at a special World AIDS Day event, hosted by the ONE Campaign and (RED) - and they’ll be answering the questions you submitted on YouTube.

The full event will be live-streamed on the ONE Campaign YouTube channel, giving you access to a conversation with some of the most influential leaders in the world about the beginning of the end of AIDS. Since we announced the event last week, several other distinguished guests have confirmed their participation, including:

• President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete of Tanzania 
• Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) 
• Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) 
• Dr. Patricia Nkansah-Asamoah (Director of PMTCT Clinic at Tema Hospital in Ghana)
• Florence Ngobeni (HIV Educator and Ambassador to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation)
• Kay Warren (Founder, HIV & AIDS Initiative, Saddleback Church)

Tune in tomorrow at 10 a.m. ET to see how global AIDS advocates are tackling this difficult subject, and how they’ll tackle the questions you asked.



Ramya Raghavan, News and Politics Manager, recently watched, “Fighting for an AIDS Free Generation by 2015”.

Did you know there are now 6.6 million people receiving treatment for HIV, compared to just 100,000 in 2002? Still, more than a thousand babies are born every day with HIV and there are 34 million people living with the disease.

This World AIDS Day, you can join the discussion about how to help bring about the beginning of the end of AIDS. We’re partnering with ONE and (RED) to bring you a panel of experts who will talk about the progress we’ve made, where we're falling short, and what it's going to take to end this disease for good. They’ll also answer some questions from the YouTube audience. Starting today, you can submit your questions to the panel, which includes Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton; Bono, co-founder of ONE and (RED); Alicia Keys, co-founder of Keep a Child Alive; and other leaders in the fight against AIDS, including representatives from the Tema Clinic in Ghana, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the Saddleback Church.

On December 1, World AIDS Day, these leaders will answer some of the top-voted questions live on YouTube at a special event hosted by ONE, (RED) and an impressive list of partners and influencers.

According to ONE, if we recommit to the fight against AIDS, by 2015 we could end mother-to-child transmission of HIV, provide treatment to the 15 million people who need it, and drastically reduce new infections. With the support of donors, African governments, organizations, and the private sector the beginning of the end of HIV/AIDS is within our reach.

Submit your question today and become part of the beginning of the end of AIDS. The deadline to submit is November 28.

Ramya Raghavan, News and Politics Manager, recently watched, “Unhate Campaign”.

Today is World Food Day and we wanted to highlight some of the ways we’re seeing nonprofit organizations around the world are sharing stories of the over one billion people who are living in hunger.

Organizations like the ONE Campaign are employing famous faces like Bono, George Clooney and Jessica Alba to help raise awareness about the issue:



Others like LinkTV are using this important day to highlight the drought and famine in the Horn of Africa, which has affected over 11.5 million people thus far:



A collection of videos related to World Food Day are featured on the YouTube homepage today. Watch them to learn more about the global hunger crisis and to see how you can help.

Ramya Raghavan, News and Politics Manager, recently watched “Rising Food Prices.”

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum has created the 9/11 Memorial YouTube channel, and they’re requesting your videos for an archive that will be part of the 9/11 Memorial Museum scheduled to open September 2012. The Memorial and Museum is the not-for-profit corporation created to oversee the design, fundraising, programming and operations of the Memorialand Museum at the World Trade Center.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani offers background about the project and a request for you to record a "silent video tribute" to create a living memorial for the Museum.



“Through this new YouTube channel, people around the world will have an opportunity to join our mission to document the history of 9/11 by sharing their personal experiences,” 9/11 Memorial President Joe Daniels said. “This channel is an example of the many ways the National September 11 Memorial Museum is ensuring the history we all lived through is never forgotten.”

This project was inspired by the 9/11 tribute album "Ten Years On." The album is a collection of songs compiled by Welsh recording artist Jem in remembrance of 9/11, from artists like John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Alanis Morissette, Johnny Cash, and more. For more information on how to donate or to reserve a free visitor pass to the Memorial, go to 911memorial.org.

Ramya Raghavan, YouTube News and Politics Manager, recently watched “9/11 Memorial: Request for Silent Tributes.”

We know he has a superb voice but in our latest YouTube World View interview, John Legend shows he also has serious heart as he talks about his major passion — education for all.

In this 30-minute interview, YouTube partner Josh Sundquist asks your top-voted, and pretty difficult, questions, including those about whether charter schools really work, how to recruit college grads into teaching positions rather than corporate gigs and how to balance the importance of work and school in lower-income families. Watch the full interview here:



Legend also opens up about some lighter subjects like his greatest musical influences, what kept him up until 2 am the previous night and why he thinks Glee is having a positive impact on the state of education.

For more information about how you can get involved with John’s own “Show Me Campaign,” visit www.showmecampaign.org, and for great educational content year-round, from guitar lessons to astronomy lectures, check out YouTube EDU.

Ramya Raghavan, News and Politics Manager, recently watched “2011 Commencement Address by Denzel Washington."

Each year, the global sex slavery market generates $32 billion in profit, while the average age of American girls who are forced into prostitution is only thirteen. Today, some of the biggest celebrities in Hollywood are speaking out against this injustice, and they’re turning to YouTube to make sure the world hears them.

Through the DNA Foundation, an organization spearheaded by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, a number of stars from Jessica Biel to Edward Norton, Justin Timberlake to Jason Mraz, are launching the “Real Men Don’t Buy Girls” video campaign. Watch the first episodes from the campaign here:







The campaign also makes use of YouTube annotations to help you join the movement and action against child sex slavery.


Ramya Raghavan, YouTube News and Politics, recently watched “Sunitha Krishnan’s Fight Against Sex Slavery”.

In 2007, organizers in Sydney came up with the idea for Earth Hour, a specific time when local residents would conserve energy by collectively turning off their lights. Since then, Earth Hour has grown into a global movement. In 2010, people in 128 countries voluntarily switched off their lights to take part in this event and demonstrate their commitment to the Earth. Learn more:



Earth Hour 2011 will take place on Saturday, March 26, from 8:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. (your local time) and this year YouTube is joining the movement by “turning the lights down” on the site. During this hour, the YouTube watch page will be darkened. If you prefer the normal watch page experience, there will be the option to turn the light switch back “on”.

Remember, you can also participate in this global event by signing up at www.earthhour.org and turning off your own lights at 8:30 p.m.

Ramya Raghavan, YouTube News and Politics, recently watched “Earth Hour Challenge”.

We know creative people on YouTube love turning an idea into a brilliant production. We also know they want their work to matter.

With this in mind, we’ve partnered with the 58th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on Good Work, a new program that gives creative professionals the opportunity to use their skills to make a difference and gain recognition for their work. Learn more in this video:



Through Good Work, nonprofits from all over the world can submit a brief for a video ad promoting their cause. These organizations often lack the resources and time to create a truly great ad for their cause -- and this is where you can help. Pick a brief you want to work on from the Good Work briefs gallery and make an ad for that organization. Your ad can be inspirational, thought-provoking, funny, or serious -- just make sure it’s also innovative and compulsively watchable.

If you succeed, you might be strutting your stuff at this year’s Cannes Festival - five talented people will win a trip to Cannes and have their work showcased there. Could it be you?

The deadline to submit your entry is May 9, 2011. A jury of top industry experts chaired by Craig Davis, Chief Creative Officer Publicis Mojo and founder of Brandkarma, will announce the winners on May 21, 2011.

Supriya Sharma, Product Marketing Manager, recently watched “WaterAid Cracker Challenge.”

If you’re a non-profit organization who has created one or more amazing videos in the past year, we have good news for you. For the second year in a row, YouTube is teaming up with See3 Communications to present the DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards, a celebration of the best non-profit video on the site. Whether you created a high-definition documentary about street slums in India or shot a quirky cellphone video of rescue dogs at your animal shelter, we encourage you to submit your video at www.youtube.com/nonprofitvideoawards.

We’ll award prizes like $2500 grants from the Case Foundation, Flip Cams, free admission to the Nonprofit Technology Conference, and a spotlight on the YouTube homepage to small, medium and large organizations, plus a special award for the “Best Thrifty Video”. To give you a sense of what works, here are the finalists’ videos from last year’s competition:



The deadline to enter is March 2, 2010 and you must be a member of the YouTube Nonprofit Program at the time of judging, to enter. Good luck!

Ramya Raghavan, News and Politics Manager, recently watched "Tahrir Square."

*Update, December 15 at 17:15 PT: The 48 hour period of Project for Awesome starts at 9am PT / noon ET on Friday, December 17, and the live stream will take place from 4pm to 7pm PT on Saturday, December 18.*

Three years ago, the vlogbrothers Hank and John kick-started an initiative called Project for Awesome, which called for YouTube users across the world to “take over YouTube” by creating videos that promote their favorite charities and causes. Project for Awesome built on its initial success again in 2008, resulting in thousands of user submissions and a homepage takeover, as people around YouTube took to the web to make the world more awesome for the holidays. Hank and John upped the ante last year by increasing community participation, making Project for Awesome (#p4a) one of the top trending topics on Twitter in December 2009.



Project for Awesome 2010 officially begins on December 17 at 12:01 AM, when users are encouraged to upload videos for their favorite causes and charities. To celebrate the end of Project for Awesome on Saturday, December 18, join us for a live show on YouTube at www.youtube.com/p4a. We’re teaming up with the vlogbrothers, some of YouTube’s biggest stars like daneboe of Annoying Orange, Michelle Phan, Phil DeFranco, Michael Buckley, Shay Carl, and iJustine, and prominent nonprofit organizations to broadcast a four hour live show from 4 - 8pm PST. The live show involves a wide array of entertainment: from musical performances to user-generated games to special moments that only YouTube can bring. Moreover, this year, Project for Awesome will focus on raising awareness and encouraging action in four areas: innovation in education, health, poverty, and children’s wish-giving.

Representatives from eight charities will be in attendance at this next-generation telethon: including Beatbullying, DonorsChoose, Make a Wish Foundation, Marine Toys For Tots Foundation, Open University, Partners in Health, Save The Children, and Water.org.

And, as in past years, we’re encouraging the global YouTube community to create videos on behalf of these charities and the causes you’re most passionate about. Post them to your site, tweet them, put them on Facebook - do whatever you can to spread the awesome this holiday season. We look forward to seeing what you create, and hope you join us online this Saturday for a ton of awesomeness!

Margaret Healy, Strategic Partner Manager, recently watched "Zeitgeist 2010".