The inventors of Twitter have embarked on a new online campaign to help charitable causes.

From Hope140;

At Twitter, one thing that drives us is our desire to make a lasting impact as a company. Being a force for good is at the heart of that mission. Looking outside the walls of Twitter HQ we see lots of good stuff happening all the time, which invokes an incredible sense of hope that keeps us going.

The open exchange of information is just beginning to become an everyday part of how the world communicates. As folks like you spread positive knowledge through the platform, we’ll be collecting it and highlighting good social movements that you might want to get involved in. So drop in every once in a while to see what’s happening.

Message for World Malaria Day

If you’ve ever felt too small to make a difference, you’ve never been in bed with a fatal malaria mosquito. April 25th is World Malaria Day, and you can make a difference by tweeting a donation to Malaria No More to help distribute life saving bed nets to those in need. Each $10 donation will be matched by the Case Foundation up to $25,000 through April 27.

Scott Case, CEO of Malaria No More, appeared on CNN’s 360 with Anderson Cooper highlighting the work of net distribution that Ashton Kutcher and CNN funded.

Ashton Kutcher held true to his promise of supplying 10,000 malaria nets for Malaria No More.  In 2009 Ashton Kutcher and CNN were battling to reach one million followers on Twitter. Kutcher promised that if he won, he would donate 10,000 nets to Malaria No More.  The campaign generated a lot of media attention boosting awareness of Twitter and of the need for bed nets.  Thanks to the Twitter campaign, 89,724 malaria nets were purchased and will be distributed this year.

The launch of the program on World Malaria Day 2009 led to the most retweeted message: “Every 30 seconds a child dies from Malaria. Nets save lives. Support World Malaria Day = http://www.malarianomore.org/.”  Other celebrities which jointed the fight to end malaria included Anderson Cooper, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Ryan Seacrest and Oprah.

The nets will be circulated in two towns in Senegal and given to individuals who need them the most, like children and pregnant women.  The strcuture of this campaign is now being used for relief efforts in Haiti and could become a standard fundraising practice. Malaria No More is proud to be a trail blazer and is thankful for all the support.  Be on the lookout for another campaign beginning on World Malaria Day in 2010!

Thousands of bed nets are headed to families in Africa all because of a few keystrokes and some creativity. The Twitter challenge to reach one million followers has provided a springboard of awareness around the malaria cause and you can join in. Check our Malaria No More’s Buzzwords for more and follow the Policy Center on Twitter.

Ashton Kutcher (of ‘Dude Where’s my Car?’ Fame)  continued his one man domination of Twitter by beating CNN to one million followers.  As a celebration of his victory, Ashton has pledged to send 10,000 bednets to Malaria No More to help fight malaria in Africa.  Oprah, Ryan Seacrest, CNN, and Electronic arts have also joined the cause by making commitments to buy bednets of their own.  New media, like Twitter, provide a unique opportunity to reach a broad audience of people.  Ashton Kutcher has used this opportunity and his celebrity to raise awareness about malaria.  For that, we at the Malaria Policy Center thank him.  The vulnerable people in this world need champions like Ashton to rally support.  This support will be needed if we are going to reach our goal of universal access to malaria interventions by December 31, 2010.   

 See Ashton cross the million mark at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1394392.

All you need is 140 characters and the hope that we can end malaria deaths in Africa. You can turn Twitter into a advocacy machine reminding the world that we must work to end the scourge of malaria.

Ashton Kutcher is proving that this is true as he spent a day this week creating anticipation for World Malaria Day and forcing those in the malaria community that new tools can make a big difference in raising awareness.

Kutcher, of “That 70′s Show” fame, is an avid user of the social micro-blogging site, Twitter, and followers of his page can keep up with everything from chest-hair waxing to how his wife used Twitter to prevent a suicide. Kutcher is among a group of celebrities that are finding web technologies are a convienient way around the poparazzi and a great way to support important causes, like the fight against malaria.

On World Malaria Day, April 25, Kutcher is asking everyone on Twitter to post ‘Every 30 seconds a child dies from Malaria. Nets save lives. Support World Malaria Day.’ This is a great way to empower an entire market of people to buy a simple bed net and help spread the word of efforts to defeat malaria.

You can follow the Policy Center on Twitter as we follow Ashton!