Stand Up to Cancer 2010

stand up to cancer 2010The social networking site Facebook is working with Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) for the cancer research charity’s one-hour fundraising event tonight. But in addition to live-streaming the show on SU2C’s Facebook page, they’ve also arranged for site visitors to donate to the charity with Facebook Credits, the virtual currency program they launched earlier this year. They’ve also agreed to waive their fees for the partnership, which marks the first time the company is launching such a large-scale charity effort.

The Facebook link will be mentioned online and during the live, one-hour fundraising event, which will be broadcast commercial free on CBS, FOX, NBC, E!, G4, HBO, Showtime, VH1, and other cable networks tonight at 8 p.m. ET/PST. Celebrity guests for the show, which was designed as a follow-up to 2008’s telethon, will include George Clooney, Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Elizabeth Edwards, and cancer survivors Christina Applegate, Maura Tierney, and Lance Armstrong. (During the program, viewers can phone in, text, or go online to make their donation.)According to Natalie Lent, the director of Digital Strategy at ID, the partnership came about while brainstorming ways the telethon could create a “digital roadblock” online to mirror the TV roadblock. After figuring out tie-in deals with Hulu (live-streaming) and Twitter (free promoted trending topic of the day at #standup2cancer), the marketing team turned their attention to Facebook, which was looking to promote their Credits program beyond gaming. And so the partnership was born.

Lent says the deal with Facebook came together last week with the goal of enticing younger users to make donations. “As most people know, young people aren’t watching as much television as they did in the past,” she said. “In conjunction with our partnerships with Hulu, YouTube, all our broadcast networks and others to stream the show for internet viewers, Facebook offered us the ability to capture their attentions online and make the donation process very seamless.”