There’s Still Time to Vote:

ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--More than 1,500 charities are vying for a chance to win CommuniCause, a nationwide online contest that awards one winner a social media makeover. Launched earlier this year by Orlando-based interactive agency MindComet, the CommuniCause campaign gives Americans the opportunity to vote online and rally support for their favorite 501c3 non-profit organizations. The winning organization receives $25,000 in consulting services from MindComet to help improve its social media presence and fundraising outreach efforts. The campaign concludes on July 31^st.

“We launched CommuniCause to raise awareness for deserving organizations and get help selecting a pro-bono project, but quickly realized the campaign wasn’t just about picking a winner. Every participating organization is benefitting by learning how to use social media tools to increase visibility and rally support.”

Anyone with an E-mail address can visit CommuniCause.com and nominate a charity or vote for a previously-nominated organization. The site structure consists of a voting engine updated daily and social media tools, including a CommuniCause Facebook Fan Page, Twitter profile, badges and links -- allowing participants to easily share campaign information and rally more voters to their cause. Users can vote only once on the Website using a valid E-mail address, but can cast a second vote on Twitter and encourage more votes through “retweets” of a custom message. Upon conclusion of the campaign, one winner will be selected at random from the top ten qualified 501c3’s, based on votes.

“Social media is a powerful communications medium that is underutilized, particularly by non-profit organizations lacking the resources to get up the rapidly evolving learning curve,” said Marcelle Turner, CEO of MindComet. “We launched CommuniCause to raise awareness for deserving organizations and get help selecting a pro-bono project, but quickly realized the campaign wasn’t just about picking a winner. Every participating organization is benefitting by learning how to use social media tools to increase visibility and rally support.” The New York Times mentioned CommuniCause in a recent story on how charities are leveraging the internet for fundraising.

More than 1,500 charities have been nominated to date, from large, established national charities including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), to niche support organizations like Atlanta-based AMPUCAMP.org, to military charities with large networks of support including Soldiers' Angels, Operation Quiet Comfort, For The Troops & eMail Our Military. Organizations are enthusiastic about the campaign. “Social media is revolutionizing the way Americans communicate. We are convinced that it can enable us to do a better job of reaching and mobilizing our diverse constituencies – law enforcement, child welfare workers, educators and parents – to keep children safe,” said Ernie Allen, president and CEO of NCMEC. Commented Patti Patton-Bader, founder & CEO of Soldiers' Angels, “Our close contact with the Milblog community (military-focused blogs) has been a great asset -- when popular milblogs posted about it, the votes came rushing in. It’s helped us see that we’ve barely scratched the surface of potential in this arena.”

For more information, visit www.mindcomet.com.