LOS ANGELES, CA. (Top40 Charts/ 60 Cycle Media) Last night, Grammy-Award-winning artist LINKIN PARK performed an intimate show at The Mayan Theatre in downtown Los Angeles as a thank you to their fans who raised money for
Music For Relief. Linkin Park, along with B'z - the best-selling artist in the history of Japan - challenged their fans to raise money for
Music For Relief Japan Tsunami Relief, to gain access to a small, private concert featuring both artists. Fans that raised at least $500 received two tickets to the show.
"Our fans accomplished something unprecedented," said Linkin Park co-lead vocalist, Mike Shinoda. "They exceeded expectations, and united with B'z fans to achieve a goal that will actually change lives of children in Japan."
Contributors from all over the world took part in the effort, and surpassed the fundraising goal by over $100,000. Since the unique social fundraiser began on June 30th, supporters have raised over $350,000 for recovery efforts in Japan, through an innovative social media fundraising campaign. The technology was provided by give2gether, creators of a web-based platform to help 501 (c) (3) non-profits raise money among young, socially-networked philanthropists.
One hundred percent of the proceeds from the online fundraising campaign will benefit Music For Relief's support of Save the Children in Japan to provide services, care and assistance to children affected by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
"On behalf of the children and communities we serve in Japan, we thank Music For Relief for this unique social fundraising collaboration," said Carolyn Miles, President & CEO of Save the Children. "We greatly admire the incredible commitment from the many partners who have worked so hard to make this innovative effort a resounding success."
Secret Show for Japan is part of a sustained campaign for ongoing relief efforts, which also includes the Download To Donate collection, and the support of telecommunications media corporation, Softbank, which will match the 100 yen per ticket Linkin Park contributes on the band's upcoming tour of Japan.
About Linkin Park: Linkin Park is a modern alternative band comprised of lead vocalist, Chester Bennington, drummer/percussionist, Rob Bourdon, guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Dave 'Phoenix' Farrell, DJ, programmer Joe Hahn and Mike Shinoda - lead vocals, keyboards, guitar. The highly anticipated fourth studio album from Linkin Park A Thousand Suns (Machine Shop Recordings / Warner Bros) has been described as a psychedelic journey that explores the conflict between technology and humanity. The album debuted at the top of Billboard's Top 200 album chart, making A Thousand Suns the 3rd consecutive Linkin Park album to reach No 1. For more information, visit www.linkinpark.com
About B'z: Formed in 1988, B'z are guitarist Tak Matsumoto and vocalist, Koshi Inaba. Over the span of twenty-three years, B'z have released 18 albums, and 49 singles, with 45 of those singles consecutively debuting No 1 on Japan's Oricon Single Chart. B'z have sold over 80 million CDs in Japan alone, making them the best-selling artist in Japan's history.
About give2gether: give2gether's platform is designed specifically for non profits to set up fund-raising campaigns quickly and measure campaign performance with built-in analytics tools. The company co-founders include two professors of economics at UC Berkeley and NYU, and the platform leverages ten years of research in donor behavior and social learning to automate and improve effective online fundraising.
give2gether's fund-raising technology uses proprietary behavioral algorithms that leverage social group interactions, which significantly improves donor participation and conversion rates (visitors to donors). By turning more strangers into friends, friends into donors, and donors into fundraisers, give2gether allows nonprofits to monetize social interactions and foster a new generation of social-networked philanthropists. Fund-raisers also have access to advanced, ROI-focused analytics that help them optimize their social fundraising campaigns.
The company has U.S. offices in Burlingame and R&D in Israel. For more information about give2gether or to start a free trial campaign, please visit www.give2gether.com
About Save the Children: Save the Children is the leading independent organization for children in need, with programs in 120 countries, including the United States. Save the Children aims to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children, and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives by improving their health, education and economic opportunities. In times of acute crisis, it mobilizes rapid assistance to help children recover from the effects of war, conflict and natural disasters. Save the Children is made up of 29 member organizations working together worldwide. www.savethechildren.org
About Music for Relief: Founded by Linkin Park, Music for Relief is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization dedicated to providing aid to victims of natural disasters and the prevention of such disasters. Since its inception in 2005, Music for Relief has raised over $4 million for victims of multiple disasters across four continents including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, hurricane Katrina, China's Wenchuan earthquake, a cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe, the 2010 Haiti earthquake and the 2011 earthquake & tsunami in Japan. Music for Relief also supports environmental programs to help in prevention and mitigation of future natural disasters including the planting of over 810,000 trees to help reduce global warming. The organization was recently recognized by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon for the Download to Donate program to raise funds and awareness in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake. For more information visit www.musicforrelief.org.