#GoodSpotting Returns!

This time of the year it’s easy for us all to get swept up in the swirl of holiday shopping, parties, and gifts. But as we saw most recently with the incredible success of #GivingTuesday – it truly is the “most wonderful time of the year,” when the spirit of generosity surrounds us. Every holiday season (and year round) at the Case Foundation, we celebrate the incredible acts of good, large and small, that take place every day in cities and towns all over the world, thanks to amazing individuals and organizations. This holiday season, we hope you’ll join us in sharing the spirit of generosity, community, and service as we go #GoodSpotting! All you have to do is remember these three simple instructions: Spot Good. Share Good. Do Good!

When we launched the first #GoodSpotting campaign last year, we knew we were on to something by asking people to join us in celebrating the spirit of the holiday season and share their pictures of the acts of good happening around them. But frankly, we weren’t quite sure what to expect…  so we were thrilled when within hours our gallery was filled with photos capturing acts of good from all around the world! Our favorite submissions included photos of people buying goods to support their favorite causes, images of families and friends volunteering together at food kitchens to help others in their community and local businesses supporting great causes. We saw thousands of tweets and Facebook posts tagged with #GoodSpotting well past the holidays, the end of the campaign, and into this year – you shared your acts of #GoodSpotting for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Make a Difference Day, 9/11 Day of Service, #GivingTuesday, and more. So of course, we knew we had to bring it back this year for the holiday season!

So what’s new in the 2012 edition of #GoodSpotting (or #GoodSpotting 2.0 as we’re affectionately calling it)? This year, in addition to sharing your photos, we are asking you to to share videos, articles, and your stories (in 140 characters) about moments of good that you’re spotting. We’ve also expanded our platform so now you can submit content on our Facebook app, online at GoodSpotting.org, or straight through your smartphone (in addition to your Tweets and other photo uploads tagged with #Goodspotting).

And, just like last year, there’s something in it for everyone…  this year, $25,000 in grants and prizes are at stake, so after you’ve gone #GoodSpotting, be sure to enter our sweepstakes – on January 2, 2013, we’ll randomly select four people to win $500 for yourself, and a $5,000 Network for Good card that you can use to donate to your favorite charity. And we’ll have lots of other fun prizes from the Case Foundation and our partners, so make sure you get in on all of the #GoodSpotting fun.

We can’t wait to see what you submit this year – we know the #GoodSpotting gallery will be full of inspiring and fun photos, videos, and articles about people, organizations, and businesses doing good this holiday season.

While you’re spotting and sharing acts of good, be sure to check out our official #GoodSpotting partners – A Billion + Change, Born This Way Foundation, City Year-DC, FotoWeek DC, HandsOn Network, Huffington Post Impact, Mobilize.org, MTV Act, NTEN, TOMS, The Washington Examiner, and Water for People – who are getting into the holiday spirit with their own acts of good.

Please be sure to check out the holiday greeting from the Case Foundation team below. We hope that after you watch our #GoodSpotting greeting, you’re encouraged to join us this year – whether you’re new to spotting and sharing good, or a seasoned expert. Let’s Go #GoodSpotting!

 

Let’s go #GoodSpotting this Holiday Season!

This week the holiday season really kicks into high gear. While we’re gathering with friends and family around the Thanksgiving feast, we’ll soon be thinking about Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, watching holiday decorations go up in our neighborhoods, and listening to classic seasonal tunes on the radio.

But if you take a closer look, you’ll see that the true spirit of the holidays is right in front of you: your neighbor shoveling his neighbor’s driveway, your daughter’s school hosting a canned food drive, or a friend running in a local 5K to raise money for charity. These are all acts of good. We’re sure you’ve done some good things lately, too.

And that’s why starting today, we’d like to invite you to go #GoodSpotting with us. To celebrate all of the good going on around us, we’re creating a huge, global image gallery of people, organizations and businesses doing good this holiday on our Facebook page – because we believe that #GoodSpotting is everywhere, and something everyone can do.

Here’s how you can get involved: snap a picture on your phone or camera and upload it to the Case Foundation Facebook page, or through another online photo-sharing service (Instagram, TwitPic, yFrog), and share on Twitter with the hashtag #GoodSpotting. If you need some inspiration, head on over to the gallery and check out some of the great photos we’ve got already.

And as an extra reward for getting involved in sharing the good this holiday season, you can enter our #Goodspotting sweepstakes for a chance to win up to $500 in holiday spending cash for yourself, and up to a $5,000 donation to the nonprofit of your choice.

To kick off the#GoodSpotting adventures, and to thank all of our partners and supporters that we’ve spotted doing quite a bit of good this year, we’d like to share a short holiday greeting with you – and hope that you’ll see how easy it is to do good and spot good. Happy holidays from all of us at the Case Foundation!