Craigslist founder turns to Twitter to raise funds for a good cause

Craig Newmark, best known as the man behind the aptly named Craigslist recently launched a philanthropic sister site, Craigconnects. To celebrate his 59th birthday, he’s decided to take his philanthropic efforts one step further, with the help of Twitter.

Newmark is calling for people to take to social network Twitter and to let their followers know what they think is the perfect gift for this holiday, by using the hashtag #perfectgift. Each time someone uses the hashtag, Newmark will contribute $1 to the American Red Cross. He has, as was to be expected, capped the donation figure at a maximum of $10,000. The money will go towards the purchase of military comfort kits.

Explaining the initiative, which should last until the end of the month, Newmark said:

“For my birthday I hope folks will help me give the gift of hope by telling me what they think the perfect gift is, for themselves or to give someone else. When they do it on Twitter and use the hashtag #perfectgift, I’ll donate $1 per tweet to the American Red Cross for military comfort kits.”

With almost 45,000 followers to his name, and the American Red Cross with well over 500,000 it probably won’t take too long for them to get word out and reach their $10,000 goal.

Newmark added, “The more people participate the more we can help our veterans.”