Jewish Community Heroes: Social Media Case Study

Do you know someone who is bettering their community through service and outreach? I just learned of an initiative of the UJC/The Jewish Federations of North America that aims to "celebrate the selflessness and courage" of these individuals. They are even giving the winner $25,000 to help support their cause!

The initiative is called Jewish Community Heroes. It is being billed as the "largest-ever Jewish social-networking effort" because of their use of social media and "crowd-sourcing" to both collect nominations and allow users to vote for the five finalists.

The five nominees who receive the most votes will be honored at this fall's General Assembly (GA) in Washington, D.C. (Nov. 8-10, 2009).  A panel of judges will select the Jewish Community Hero of the Year from among the finalists.

Any individual, who is at least 13 years of age and a resident of the United States or Canada is eligible to be a nominee, provided that their work impacts a community in North America.

"Jewish Community Heroes celebrates those in our communities who exemplify tikkun olam (repairing the world), one of the three core values of UJC/The Jewish Federations of North America," said National Young Leadership Media Co-Vice Chair Lisa Kudish in a press release.

"I am particularly interested to see how they integrate their website, which was developed with Blue State Digital, a leading technology and online strategy firm that helped the Obama campaign raise more than $500 million and engage millions of volunteers, with their Facebook Page and Twitter Account. Every nonprofit can learn from their experience using these tools for outreach and engagement."