iParticipate engages the entertainment community to highlight the importance of volunteerism.
Through the promotion of volunteer opportunities and distribution of PSAs, EIF raises awareness and funds to help nonprofit service organizations expand their use of volunteers to address community needs.
In 2009, the Entertainment Industry Foundation began mobilizing the entertainment community around a groundbreaking initiative designed to inspire a new era of service and volunteerism. The campaign encourages making service a part of who we are as Americans and showed what we can achieve when we all pull together.
As part of its launch, the four major broadcast networks – ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC – and other cable channels participated in an unprecedented, weeklong television event from October 19-25, with more than 100 shows highlighting volunteerism.
EIF produced a series of public service announcements that focused on key areas where volunteers were needed most. Celebrities who volunteered their support included: Blythe Danner, Morgan Freeman, Faith Hill, Matthew McConaughey, Gwyneth Paltrow, Simon Baker, Emily Deschanel, Eva Longoria, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Masi Oka, Michael Strahan, Kate Walsh, and Rainn Wilson. EIF enlisted Jesse Dylan, the creative force behind Bono’s “Red” campaign and “One” and will.i.am’s iconic “Yes, We Can” video, to create, direct and produce the PSAs.
In addition to generating heightened awareness about the value of community service, EIF provided grants to key volunteer/service organizations to help build their capacity to accept, train and deploy volunteers in areas of the greatest need.
Today, EIF disaster response program Defy:Disaster promotes volunteer opportunities to support immediate and long-term disaster relief with the primary goal of making a powerful and sustainable impact in highly affected areas.