I just discovered this through an email from a subscriber.  Disclaimer:  the blog is actually fictitious, but a clever way to advertise about a good cause.

It’s called the I’m initiative.  And here are the basics:

The i’m™ Initiative from Microsoft™ makes helping social causes easy. Every time you use Windows Live™ Messenger or Windows Live Hotmail®, our free webmail service, we’ll share a portion of our advertising revenue with some of the world’s most effective social cause organizations. Exactly how much will we share with our partner causes? Well, that’s up to you and the growing masses of registered i’m Initiative users. The more messages you send, the more we give.

Now the small things you do every day, like e-mailing and IMing, can make a big difference.

One of their organizations is the Red Cross.  I heard last night on the news that their disaster relief fund is empty and will all those poor Iowans flooded out of their houses, disater relief is definitely needed.  Another, that I had never heard of, is ninemillion.org; it sounds like a great organization!  Here’s their mission:

The UN refugee agency’s ninemillion.org campaign is committed to giving the most vulnerable refugee and IDP (Internally Displaced Person) children in the world the chance to learn and play. Many of these children have no access to any formal education and live in camps or urban settlements with no playgrounds or sports facilities. It’s easy to take for granted access to education, sport, and technology, but millions of kids miss out on these important elements of childhood.

Sport and education are a vital part of childhood. Children need to play and learn. Education provides children with tools to support themselves throughout their lives. Sport develops tolerance and cooperation, and is a great source of inspiration. It can help as part of the healing process for children who have been emotionally affected by conflict, and it motivates refugee children to attend camp schools, which is particularly important for girls, who are all too often left out.

Hmmm… maybe this was the push I needed to finally enter the world of instant messaging!