Social media driving donations to Haiti

Several effortless ways to get money to Haiti thanks to Apple, Google and Red Cross

As we all know, a catastrophic earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 hit Haiti a few days ago.  Since then, all sorts of ways to help by donating have emerged across the Web.  Organizations like Red Cross and tech companies like Google, Microsoft and Apple have embraced the Web and social media communities to get money to Haiti in this dire time.  

Red Cross has set up a campaign to get Americans to donate via cell phone text messaging.  People have contributed by texting "HAITI" to 90999, which automatically sends a $10 donation relief efforts.  How did I hear about it, Twitter of course, as users retweet Red Cross' updates every minute.  Red Cross tweeted a few hours ago it has received nearly $3 million in donations.   

 Apple is playing a role in helping Haiti as well.  On its iTunes store it's set up an easy way to contribute all the way up to $200. It functions just like purchasing a song, video, or app from the store.  Click of a button, credit card already set up through iTunes and you're donating.  And Apple is giving 100% of the proceeds to Red Cross of America.

Google is also playing a role in driving donations.  The search and Web giant is using its Google Checkout platform to let users donate to UNICEF and CARE.  It's also played a role in shedding a light on just how truly bad the damage is.  It's updated its satellite imagery of Haiti after the earthquake.  If you take a look you can see the ruins on Google Maps and Google Earth.  Google is spreading the word about what it's doing to help through blog entries which the Web 2.0 community is writing and tweeting about.

Microsoft hasn't exactly set up a mechanism for donations like the above, but the tech giant said it would donate up to $1.25 million in cash and software as well as match employee donations up to $12,000. 

The list of tech companies playing their role in getting money to Haiti goes on, but nonetheless, another example of the power of social media and the Internet community.  So keep tweeting, Facebooking, blogging and spreading the word any way you can about how easy it is to donate and play a role in helping in a time of need.