December 13, 2011; Source: The Mozilla Blog | Mozilla has launched a new charity campaign driven by twelve celebrities, called the Mozilla Firefox Challenge. To kick off the campaign, Mozilla donated $5,000 to each charity, and whichever celebrity raises the most by January 11, 2012, will win an additional $25,000 from Mozilla to contribute to their selected charity. The initial celebrity list includes:

The Mozilla Firefox Challenge is hosted through the charity crowdsourcing site Crowdrise. The celebrities are also using giveaways to provide donation incentive. Zooey Deschanel is supporting the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal clinic that aims to protect innocent individuals from wrongful prosecution and imprisonment. If you donate $26 to the Innocence Project you will be entered to win an Elf DVD personally signed by Deschanel. If you donate over $29 to The Rolling Dog Farm you are entered to win a voicemail greeting by Paul Rudd for your phone. Edward Norton is giving away two tickets to the premiere of “The Bourne Legacy” for any donations of over $33 to the Maasai Wilderness Conservation.  

The Mozilla Firefox Challenge has been fairly successful so far, and the Maasai Wilderness Conservation, F Cancer, and Rolling Dog Farm have all reached over $10,000 in donations in four days. These new philanthropic challenges are trending in the online community, but this particular campaign seems to focus more than usual on using pop culture to drive giving. It’s uplifting to see celebrities channeling their fan bases for philanthropy, but we hope a majority of the donations aren’t coming in primarily to win autographed celebrity paraphernalia.—Aine Creedon