It’s good to share and learning professionals have done just that to help raise money for a good cause!

Leading digital learning provider Sponge invited the learning technologies community to back their #ShareYourSponge social media campaign in support of the E-learning for Kids Foundation. To join in, people were asked to take a photo of themselves holding a sponge and post it to either Twitter or Instagram. For each post using the hashtag #ShareYourSponge, the company pledged to donate £1 to the international charity. Any fun, creative sponge photo using the hashtag also unlocked the donation.

Sponge’s target was £1,000 and thanks to everyone who took part, they’ve hit it. The money will go towards the charity’s goal of being a source of online and offline learning to children aged 5-12, free of charge, anywhere in the world.

Sponge launched the fundraising campaign after spotting that their complimentary sponges, often appeared in posts on social media. The natural, sustainably-sourced sponges are handed out at all major learning events as well as to the company’s clients.

“People really got into the spirit of it,” said Louise Pasterfield, Managing Director, Sponge. “We’ve had #ShareYourSponge tweets from all around the world.

“But our little sponges have carried a big message with them because it’s not just about the money, it’s also about raising awareness. E-learning for Kids is a charity that is close to our hearts. As a digital learning company, we recognise and value the important work it is doing, delivering high quality internet learning to millions of children across the globe.

“In that sense, it’s fitting that our campaign has had global support and we’d like to say ‘thank you’ to everyone who joined in the fun. By sharing a sponge photo, they are also sharing the opportunity to learn.”

Nick van Dam, founder and chairman of the e-Learning for Kids Foundation, said: “We want to thank Sponge for their donation and helping children around the world with better education through the Foundation. We have reached over 20 million children and have exciting plans to deploy our lessons in multiple languages and we can only achieve this if we raise the required funding."

"As a digital learning company, we recognise and value the important work it is doing, delivering high quality internet learning to millions of children across the globe."

Louise Pasterfield Managing Director Sponge

E-Learning for Kids is a non-profit foundation, established in 2004. It offers digital courseware, both online and offline, in topics such as mathematics, science, language, arts, computers, health, life and environmental skills.

Almost 11.7 million children used its online and offline course material in the years between 2014 and 2017. Over 4 million online digital lessons were taken in 190 countries in 2017. Additionally, the charity provided over three thousand new schools with elearning and more than half a million children with offline digital lessons.