This week a consortium of international development organizations kicked off a campaign to end poverty that will push citizens to pressure their governments to advance the Millennium Development Goals. The campaign is called In My Name, and it has the support of Hollywood stars like will.i.am and Scarlet Johansson. Even with this star power, the campaign is using the internet as its main outreach tool. 

Last week I talked with Karina Brisby, the campaign's interactive lead,
about the online strategy behind In My Name. You can listen to the interview
here.

In My Name wants people to speak up by signing their name to the cause, and it's asking people to send in photos, videos, and stories (all through a nice workflow on a Drupal 6 website) and to spread the word to their friends via social networks. The campaign is also doing a lot to engage bloggers. It's opening up all its materials (even those star studded videos) for people to repost on their blogs, to translate, to riff on them, and to repurpose them however they'd like. It will be fun to see what mashups emerge. 

In My Name is just the start of a united push to bring ending poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals to the top of government's to do list. Another campaign involved is Stand Up, and global day-long mobilization that gets people to literally "stand up" to show their against poverty. (Disclaimer: We developed the Stand Up website for this year and last year's campaign.) Last year 43.7 million people stood up, and this year they're hoping for even more.

The campaign is also sharing its organizing secrets. Check out the blog to learn how they're pulling this together and send in your online outreach ideas.