12 Incredible Internet Activists

12 Incredible Internet Activists Changing the World Through Social Media

This August 19 is World Humanitarian Day, a celebration of the millions of people worldwide tirelessly working to improve the lives of the underprivileged. These human rights champions bring food to the malnourished, education to the illiterate, and health care to those without access or resources.

To celebrate World Humanitarian Day 2011, we’re taking a look at online activists making a difference through campaigns, crowdsourcing and blogging.

We’ve lined up 12 incredible Internet activists in purely alphabetical order (note: this is not a ranking!). Take a look through our gallery and share your own incredible humanitarians in the comments below.

1. Chris Hughes

This Facebook cofounder and Director of Online Organizing for Obama's 2008 campaign used his social media prowess to launch Jumo, a social network for non-profits and everyday philanthropists. The site connects 15,000 organizations with a community of similarly minded individuals.

Earlier this week, GOOD magazine acquired Jumo, although Hughes will keep a hand in running the network.

2. Edward Norton, Shauna Robertson, and Robert and Jeffro Wolfe

This team of four, including actor Edward Norton, founded the online giving hub Crowdrise, a platform for crowdsourcing philanthropy. The grassroots initiative turns supporters into fundraisers. We chose this quartet for their social networking and fundraising combo project.

Plus, their website is pretty hilarious. We recommend you check it out.

3. Gary White and Matt Damon

The duo makes the list for their non-profit water.org's innovative use of social media. Right now, the site is holding an open call to let a fan take over their Twitter feed for a week in September. We think a savvy move like giving a committed fan access to their 400,000 followers makes White and Damon's organization worthy of a nod.

4. Joe Green and Sean Parker

Napster and Facebook veteran Sean Parker and political activist Joe Green's Causes brought philanthropy to the world's largest social network, Facebook. Their viral platform integrates giving into the everyday fabric of social networking. The Causes co-founders score a spot on this list for uniting 150 million passionate folks on the web into the world's largest philanthropy network.

5. Matt Flannery

Kiva founder Matt Flannery introduced the principles of microfinance to the Internet masses. Anyone, anywhere, can make a small loan to a person working hard to earn a living in one of the 60 developing countries where the non-profit operates. The organization has facilitated over $235 million-worth of microloans on the Internet.

6. Rachel Beckwith

For Rachel Beckwith's ninth birthday, she asked her friends and family to make donations to charity: water rather than give her a gift. Her mom set up an online fundraising page to help her reach her goal of collecting $300 for children in Africa without clean drinking water. Rachel was disappointed when she fell short of her goal, raising only $220 by her birthday in June.

Then something awful happened. The nine-year-old was killed in a car crash in July. Since then, donations have flooded in through her fundraising page, totaling $1.1 million so far. Although Rachel may not be with us, her Internet activism will help thousands of children around the world.

7. You

The United Nations' Citizen Ambassadors contest is giving you the chance to virtually pitch the UN's Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, your 30-second solution to making the world a better place. It's not exactly an elevator pitch. Internet humanitarians can upload pitches to YouTube.

The winners will be citizen ambassadors to the UN for a two-year term and will be invited to the UN's New York headquarters to meet the Secretary-General himself.