On the Compassion blog last night I discovered an innovative idea they’re launching this week - using Twitter to encourage people to sponsor kids. Here’s an extract from the blog post that explains what it’s all about:

Beginning today and continuing through this Friday (Sept. 25), we will send out tweets about specific children in need of sponsors.

And we'd like you to retweet them for us.

When you do, you'll be eligible to win your choice of some free Live for Him apparel…

Every retweet counts as an entry, and winners will be randomly selected.

Once that child is sponsored, we'll tweet information about another child, and we'll follow that process for the duration of the week.

UPDATE: 9:05 a.m. - When you click on the child link in a tweet and you don't see the specific child's biography, it means that someone is considering the sponsorship. If the sponsorship isn't finalized within 50 minutes, the child will be visible again.

What do you think? Good idea, or do you have concerns?

Given how expensive it can be for mission organisations and charities to tell people about the valuable work they do, I’m pleased to see a free service (Twitter) being harnessed for this type of communication.

Read more about the initiative here, or sign-up for Twitter and start re-tweeting tomorrow!