For inauguration day counter-programming, tune into Facebook Live.
A group of entrepreneurs have banded together to create Love-a-thon, a Jerry Lewis-style telethon for the digital age.
Love-a-thon will be a three-hour Facebook Live broadcast, beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET on inauguration day, January 20. The move is a part of an effort to raise money for three organizations — the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Planned Parenthood and Earthjustice.
The organizations notably focus on topics ranging from preserving civil rights and preventing climate change to fighting for women’s reproductive rights. These are hot button topics that came under fire during President-elect Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
Celebrities such as Jane Fonda, Jamie Lee Curtis, Judd Apatow, Patricia Arquette, Christopher Guest and Tim Robbins are taking part. Singer Jeff Tweedy of Wilco will also join.
Some celebrities, like Fonda and Tweedy, will be featured in pre-recorded segments that will air exclusively during the Love-a-thon.
The idea for a modern telethon came to 23-year-old Alex Godin after election day.
“I woke up like a lot of Americans feeling pretty crappy on November 10,” he told CNNMoney. “I looked for an opportunity to do something.”
Godin, an entrepreneur who sold his company Dispatch to Meetup.com in 2013, assembled a crew to organize the event. The team included Sam Koppelman, a ?digital content strategist at Hillary for America; Dan Shipper, founder of Firefly which sold to Pegasystems; and Kara Silverman, a tech PR consultant.
The event will be hosted in New York City and feature entertainment ranging from comedic skits to musical acts from across the country. Celebrity emcees are expected, too.
“Lots of people use Facebook and Facebook Live to raise money, but [the concept of] taking a telethon and applying it to Facebook Live is new,” said Silverman.
The Love-a-thon aims to raise a minimum of $500,000 and will use crowdfunding platform Crowdrise to gather donations. Donors can choose which of the three organization they’d like their money to go toward.
“It’s a really important opportunity to support causes like Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, Earthjustice, as they gear up to do [critical] work,” added Godin.
