Between now and Thursday, even before sitting down to a much anticipated and abundantly satisfying Thanksgiving dinner, we are all invited to use our favorite social media tool to tweet, blog, post a picture or video, to express our thanks and gratitude. It’s part of a 48-hour worldwide campaign called “Tweetsgiving 2009”. The idea is that if we think about what we are thankful for, it will also propel us to want to give.

The Tweetsgiving campaign last year fueled not only awareness for gratitude (for things as simple as chocolate and as cute as one’s puppy, to being thankful for parents and country), it also raised more than $10,000 US (the suggested donation of $10 netted a $30 average). The funds built a new classroom for an enthusiastic group of students in the Tanzanian village of Arusha. These kids barely have books (Gary Vaynerchuk has since sent his book “Crush It”) and now they’re connected to the world through the Internet – and they’ve been tweeting their thanks ever since. They’ve come to be affectionately known as the #TwitterKids!

The root of this campaign will make you believe that one individual can make a difference and perhaps remind us of the quote by Gandhi; “be the change you want to see in the world”. The story starts in Africa where one woman wanted to create a school so she saved her money from raising chickens to do it. She goes by the name “Mama Lucy” Kamptoni. Then one woman from the opposite side of the world called Stacey Monk, a management consultant on an extended trip, came to volunteer at Mama Lucy’s school. Later, when the school was at risk of being torn down by a developer, Stacey Monk quit her for-profit job and kicked her non-profit Epic Change into high gear. The school is now growing, as are the dreams of the students.

TweetsGiving is one of the early examples of engaging online communities for social good and is featured in numerous publications including Shel Israel’s book “Twitterville”. Epic Change simply saw it as the next evolution to using the phone, TV or door-to-door canvassing.

Radian6 is lending its support, as it did for the #beatcancer campaign, providing official social media monitoring or as Avi Kaplan, of Epic Change calls it, “gratitude-shared” monitoring. For Avi, that’s one thing that sets this campaign apart, is the focus on hope and gratitude rather than poverty. He believes it’s important to appreciate what we have and that “every expression of gratitude has the power to be transformative”. While every culture has its own way of expressing it, he says gratitude runs deep within the culture he witnessed among students and parents in Arusha. He hopes Tweetsgiving 2009 raises significantly more than last year and if so, the funds will build another classroom, a dormitory (orphanage), cafeteria and library. And if the campaign exceeds even those expectations, it will enable others, like Mama Lucy, to partner in new Epic Change initiatives. Avi has reason to be hopeful since momentum is already building and because this year’s campaign goes beyond connecting online communities. Live parties, university campus and city events are scheduled around the globe across six continents.

Gratitude could be the new currency for success. Scientific researchers are showing a link between gratitude and happiness and even improved performance at work; perhaps not unlike what philanthropist and investor John Templeton said, “to get joy, we must give it, and to keep joy, we must scatter it.” If this is possible, perhaps too is the goal of Epic Change, as it “seeks to change the world through the power of gratitude” – might we add –one tweet at a time! Happy Tweetsgiving!