UPTOGOOD.org is a new video and storytelling platform for doing GOOD, where anyone can create an impact campaign around an inspiring video of any length to crowdfund an impact story and/or a social impact project, start a petition, rally people around a pledge, or spread the word with a choice of four actions: FUNDit, SIGNit, PROMISEit, SHAREit.
We believe stories have an enormous potential to catalyze positive change and inspire solutions to the problems we face in today’s world by humanizing abstract concepts and building empathy. Our goal is to champion these stories and provide a means for people to harness their inspiration into action to generate more GOOD beyond the fringes via an accessible platform and contextual community.
Because we are community built by inspired storytellers and the good-hearted, we have a ton of people we look up to — and we want you to know all about them. Here are five exemplary initiatives that are using UPTOGOOD to its full potential, therefore bettering lives and communities all around the world.
#1: Aina: That Which Feeds Us — A Campaign in Support of Sustainability and Stopping Polution in Kua’i
Sherpas Cinema and Living Ancestors produced a film highlighting ways to address some of the most pressing environmental and health crises that face the island of Kauaʻi today. The film is the recipient of countless awards, including Vimeo Staff Pick and one of the Official Selections at the 2016 World’s Independent Film Festival. They pride themselves most of all in their “SustʻĀINAbility Initiative,” which is ʻĀINA’s ongoing effort to inform, inspire and activate people towards a more healthy, just and sustainable world — particularly when it comes to the toxic use of pesticides in agriculture.
Josh Thome, the filmmaker, mentioned a few exciting things to UPTOGOOD:
“AINA has had an amazing year screening at film festivals around the world…All of this success has created an interesting challenge, one that we’re very happy to have, as every festival takes considerable time and money to enter, promote and attend when possible. Production budgets don’t account for these things so UPTOGOOD was helpful in our effort to raise promotional funding to keep up with it all!”
Word on the street is that they’re campaigning to be on Oprah’s talk show, Super Soul Sunday, and therefore need the support of fellow Earth-lovers to get there. Does this sound like you? If so, visit their page to learn more about their campaign, watch their world-class documentary and find out how you can help spread the word!
#2: Better to Live Project — A Musical Sketch Comedy that Saves Lives by Highlighting Mental Health Stigma
A musical sketch comedy that saves lives? Who would have guessed! This incredible concept made by Better to Live and The Reality Show: NYU is spurring conversation across schools and college campuses that challenge the stigma around mental health. This organization is well aware that every day, millions of American college students struggle to keep afloat emotionally, and thousands chose to take their lives annually. The statistics are staggering, so they are doing what they can through the entertainment arts to remind people that their lives are worth living.
Brock Johnson, a project representative, shared more updates with UPTOGOOD:
“[It] just played on August 29 for its 12th year at Madison Square Garden to a packed house of over 5,000 incoming college freshmen. The program offered a link to the film for a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the show and students efforts to destigmatize getting help for mental health issues.”
And get this, they’re not asking for money on their UPTOGOOD campaign. All they want is for you to spread the word about the great work they do to transform lives. By exposing the facets of mental health struggles through a series of skits and songs, Better the Live is tackling the way the world sees this issue. They cover everything from academic pressure to bullying to addiction and image consciousness. If you’re curious, check out their video here!
The Burzynski Research Institute and Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski are rallying people around a unique pledge, petition and funding campaign in support of a new drug that experts claim may be the cure for cancer. These medications are called “Antineoplastons” and have recently completed Phase 2 FDA-sanctioned clinical trials and are now published in the peer-reviewed literature. However, the final stages of its approval have reached a dramatic slow-down, so they are working to ignite the support of the public to get the much-needed attention of politicians and figureheads. In due time, they hope to get what they claim to be a life-saving drug on the shelves to potentially save lives.
If you’re interested in learning more about their passion project, check out their platform and spread the word on what they claim is the world’s next biggest anti-cancer drug.
#4: Syrian Refugee Crisis — An initiative to help welcome more individuals seeking safety from war-torn regions
Human Rights First, an independent advocacy and action organization, likes to do GOOD in a number of ways. This includes helping as many Syrian refugees and asylum seekers resettle into the United States as possible. They are fighting for more refugees to be resettled in the US than the 10,000 already pledged to be resettled by September 2016. Statistically, ten thousand only represents two percent of the Syrian refugees in need of resettlement and less than 0.2 percent of the overall Syrian refugee population. Additionally, Human Rights First is fighting for the US government to stand by their promises and not keep the bureaucratic process that enable refugee resettlement at a stand-still, seeing as the country has only let in refugees by the few hundreds in recent months. With the help of good-hearted supporters, Human Rights First is pushing administration to keep politicians honest while encouraging them to accept more refugees that is proportionate to the number of those truly in need.
#5: Proud 2 Be Me — Breaking the Binds of Harmful Beauty Standards with Personal Stories
One of our amazing Ambassadors, Aaliyah, came up with the idea to partner with the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) and Proud 2 Be ME to create a unique campaign that tackles the destructive confines of impossible beauty standards. Through the power of the individual human story, Aaliyah’s short film proves that eating disorders affect everyone differently, and with every new story there is an important nuance to its struggle that must be voiced.
After the experience, Aaliyah shared with UPTOGOOD that, “as time went on with my internship at UPTOGOOD, I learned that anyone could do GOOD in any capacity, right where they are… I am glad I got this opportunity to create my first short, with the freedom to tiein one of my passions — Public Health.”
As an Ambassador, she champions her favorite social change initiatives and makes sure that they are given the shine they deserve with UPTOGOOD’s resources and networks. “Through the World’s Eyes and Theirs,” hopes to be the next inspiring short film that educates the internet’s global community on the ways negative body image affects us all. Want to know more? Check it out!
Here’s a final note on what we do at UPTOGOOD…
We hope to offer powerful yet easy-to-use tools for you to build social GOOD campaigns, take actions on them, and make an impact by leveraging the power of your story, a good-hearted crowd, and a little digital technology.
UPTOGOOD’s video-based impact campaign platform is specifically designed to bring attention to #StoriesThatMatter in order to inspire action and promote more GOOD in our world. It is a place where everyone is encouraged to “Watch. Get Inspired. ACT.” — all through the click of a mouse, all in one place.
That being said, we want to make your next dream of the GOOD you want to see in the world go VIRAL. You can do this by making your own UPTOGOOD profile and starting an easy-to-make campaign on whatever it is you are passionate about fixing. If you’re not quite sure what to host yet, you can also make a profile to follow and support other amazing campaigns across a wide array of campaign categories.
At UPTOGOOD, we are a giant community of the good-hearted. We can’t wait for you to join us!
