Ian Perrotta
Director
Habitat for Hamtramck
www.habitatforhamtramck.org
Ian Perrotta of Habitat for Hamtramck explains how his grassroots organization, armed with the goal of rehabilitating houses in the Hamtramck area of Detroit for families that support the positive redevelopment of the area, is focused solely on promoting their cause the internet’s “main roads.”
Hello. My name is Ian Perrotta and I am the director of a new non-profit organization. Habitat for Hamtramck is a grassroots organization with the goal of rehabilitating houses in the Hamtramck area of Detroit and giving them to families that can help further the positive redevelopment of the area.
This is actually the first week the website has been fully operational and able to accept donations, so currently my brother and I are involved in a media blitz involving all of the new web giants. I recently came to the realization when posting fliers for my lost cat that getting attention to help find her would be a lot like hyping something up on the internet. Only, instead of placing fliers on telephone posts next to stop signs on main roads where people can see them, on the internet you can apply the same logic and place fliers on all of the internet “main roads.”
For Habitat for Hamtramck, we went straight to the highways by writing an I-Report on CNN.com, creating Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, YouTube, Digg, and Flickr accounts, and posting on popular sites such as PerezHilton and TMZ, and now we’re on the side streets trolling for groups that look like they would have people who would help spread the word virally. By successfully integrating social media applications into our organization we have generously increased the awareness of our non-profit. Ultimately, our goal is to enrich the lives and and community of Hamtramck and after reading about The Jenzabar Foundation’s Social Media Award, we feel that this is exactly the kind of morale booster that our organization needs in order to give back.
