Tagged Gives Haiti $50,000 Via Yele

Social networking site Tagged has announced today that they will be donating $50,000 to the Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund. Last time we covered Tagged, they had beat Twitter in a Neilsen poll which ranked social sites based on how long users spent on them. Last week, they announced they would donate a maximum of $25,000 depending on the sales of Tagged Gold, a virtual currency used to make purchases throughout the Tagged community. Tagged members, 84,000 of which live in Haiti, blew through this goal. In response, Tagged doubled the amount to $50,000 to help the people of Haiti.

“We feel humbled and proud of our members’ support for the devastated nation of Haiti,” said Greg Tseng, Founder and CEO of Tagged. “With over 80,000 Tagged members living in Haiti, we are honored to offer this additional funding to support Yele’s relief efforts.”

Yele, founded by musician, producer, and entrepreneur Wyclef Jean, has taken some heat recently regarding their finances. In Wyclef’s response, he talks about why he chose to create Yele as a NGO and it seems this may be the very reason Tagged chose to donate through his organization. Yele’s grassroots approach has helped transform the country through programs in education, sports, environment and community development. They seek to empower the people of Haiti through this hands-on approach rather than simply giving them a few supplies.

It’s interesting to see how virtual goods are playing a part in social media’s future. We just recently talked about TwellWishes, which provides a virtual marketplace for sharing gifts built on top of Twitter. We also saw Zynga, the guys behind Farmville and other highly addictive Facebook games that I will continue to ignore invites to, raise $1 million for school children in Haiti via the sale of sweet seeds in the virtual world. (They actually sold $2 million worth of seeds and donated half the profits. I’m wondering where that $1 million is at this point given the current emergency.)

Tagged holds a firm position as the third largest social networking site in the US with 80 million users worldwide. They set themselves apart by being a place to find new people rather than just connecting with those you already know. Tagged plans to continue support for Haiti relief efforts by promoting MTV’s upcoming ‘Hope for Haiti’ telethon, encouraging users to watch and donate. Hosted by Wyclef Jean and actor George Clooney, the two-hour global telethon will air Friday, January 22, 2010. Donations will directly benefit Oxfam America, Partners in Health, Red Cross, UNICEF, and Wyclef’s Yele Haiti Foundation.

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Rahsheen has been a certified geek since before it was the thing to do. He started programming and tinkering in the 4th grade. Now, Rahsheen mostly writes on various sites about technology trends in social media and mobile. . He is also a musician, singer, rapper, writer, and producer. @rahsheen - +Rahsheen Porter - coachrah.com
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