When Edward Norton wants to raise money for a good cause, people listen, and often throw money at him too. For years, the actor has been orchestrating a variety of philanthropic efforts, from his grandfather’s landmark public housing nonprofit the Enterprise Foundation to the construction of New York’s High Line. When he used Twitter to ask for contributions to the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust last year as part of a marathon fundraiser, he raised $1.2 million.To bring his brand of Internet influence to the masses, Norton just launched Crowdrise.com, a site that allows anyone to post their own philanthropic campaign and use the power of social media to spread it across the web. Think of it as open-sourcing the Hollywood celebrity effect, giving anyone the ability to broadcast their philanthropy to the masses.Want to hold a dance marathon to raise money for your local public school, a beer drinking competition to donate to oil spill clean-up, or just raise money for your nonprofit’s current campaign? Crowdrise makes it really easy to publicize your project and keep your network updated about its progress.A host of celebrities are using it to run their own projects: Seth Rogen for Alzheimer’s, Will Ferrell for Cancer for College, and Russell Brand for the David Lynch Foundation. But the real vitality of the site comes from the non-famous users – and even some old-fashioned nonprofit organizations – who are launching all kinds of wacky and interesting initiatives.The more users engage with the site, the more points they get, and the more likely they are not just to raise awareness for their project but to win prizes too. It’s a nice example of the crowd-sourced model of Kickstarter (see our interview here) and the power of social credit – made popular by systems like Foursquare – to encourage and reinforce positive behavior.Speaking of positive behavior, Norton has one bone to pick with technology: the use of mobile phone cameras and other devices in a way that erodes privacy, something that’s “seriously uncool.” (Ed uses a Blackberry, but presumably not to upload photos to Facebook.)Crowdrise’s motto sums up Norton’s no-nonsense attitude about something we should all be doing: “If you don’t give back no one will like you.”Check out the projects on Crowdrise, give some time or cash (repeat: you can win prizes) and launch your own campaign now.
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