MatchingDonors.com Kicks Off 'Everybody Can Save A Life!' Video Contest

Thanks to a very generous donation from the Hollywood Awards, the First Place winner will also be given two tickets and be invited to attend the Hollywood Awards® Gala where they can socialize with Hollywood’s biggest stars. See more at http://www.hollywoodawards.com.

Nineteen people die every day in the United States waiting for a kidney transplant. The team at MatchingDonors.com is working hard to make sure that doesn’t happen. MatchingDonors.com is a 501c3 non-profit and the world’s largest online living organ donor non-profit organization.

The contest, which accepts entries through Tuesday, September, September 13, 2011 and votes on video submissions until Saturday, October 1, 2011 asks participants to make a 30-second video that promotes, celebrates, or teaches about being a living organ donor on MatchingDonors.com. The creative approach you take on this assignment is at your discretion. A serious approach could be taken to highlight the noble heroism and compassion of persons who willingly and altruistically donate a piece of themselves to save lives. On the other hand, a funny approach could also be taken to highlight the lighter side of living organ donation. For instance, what humorous things could happen to a person who’s trying to donate an organ? How does missing an organ change a person’s attitude in a humorous way? While the creative direction you choose is up to you, be mindful that MatchingDonors.com wants these videos to serve effectively as Public Service Announcements (PSAs), so they should represent the process of organ donation in a positive manner.

This online contest is being run by a very generous donation by Zooppa.com. Zooppa is the world's leading source of user-generated advertising, committed to the vision of real people and leading brands working together. People interested in being part of the contest can sign up at http://zooppa.com/contests/matchingdonors-wants-a-piece-of-you

Once uploaded to Zooppa, approved videos will immediately be uploaded to TubeMogul, an online video advertising network, and distributed throughout the web to begin spreading the word about MatchingDonors.com's cause. This is a great opportunity for video makers of all skill levels to help raise awareness about a remarkable non-profit organization and cause.

“We’re thrilled to be a part of this campaign and to help raise awareness about MatchingDonors.com and altruistic organ donation,” says Zooppa CEO Wil Merritt. “’Everybody Can Save a Life!’ provides a great opportunity for members of our creative community to contribute their video making skills to an amazing cause.”

This video contest features a unique winner’s selection process. A list of finalists will be generated through a combination of voting and judges’ recommendations before the three winners are selected. Contest entrants can also request (although not required) a specific judge to view each of their video submissions by indicating which judge they would like to personally review their video in the description field of their submission during upload. This can get your video before some of Hollywood’s top people.

There will be three winners.

In addition to a $5,000 cash award, the First Place winner will be given two tickets to and invited to attend and socialize with Hollywood’s biggest stars at the Hollywood Awards® Gala ceremony on October 24, 2011 in Hollywood, California (airfare and lodging not included). The winner will also be recognized in the Hollywood Awards® Gala Ceremony Program Book for their winning video. The Hollywood Awards® Gala launches the awards season and recognizes excellence in the established Hollywood community by bestowing awards to both those in front of and those behind the camera. The Gala is "the first mandatory stop in the awards season," says The New York Times. But that's not all, the First Place winner will also be awarded a choice of assistant producing and/or work & credits on a television show, movie or music video with one of our judges (see the list of judges below; subject to availability).

For Example:

The Second Place winner will receive a $2,000 award and the choice of one of the remaining of assistant producing and/or work & credits on a television show, movie or music video with one of our judges.

The Third Place winner will receive $1,000 and the choice of one of the remaining assistant producing and/or work & credits on a television show, movie or music video with one of our judges.

Content: How original, practical, and or/inspirational is the message? Creativity: How engaging, amusing, or effective is the presentation? Clarity: How clear and understandable is the instruction or message?

Judging will be conducted by the following illustrious and extremely talented people who are great supporters of MatchingDonors.com:

Jim Rosenthal
Jim most recently served as President of New Line Television and New Line Media. (Jim has been a friend of MatchingDonors.com for the past 7 years)
See more about Jim at: http://www.kaplan.com/about-kaplan/leadership

Alan Donnes
Alan is a National Lampoon movie producer and he owns and produces National Lampoon Radio Hour. (Alan received a kidney transplant through MatchingDonors.com)
See more about Alan at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1538885/bio

Tom Cavanaugh
Tom is the Senior Vice President of Music at 20th Century Fox. (Tom donated a kidney to a patient he found on MatchingDonors.com). Tom is also the Senior Vice President of Business & Legal at Fox Music, Inc. Tom works on all Fox mega-hits like Glee, American Idol and Avatar.
See more about Tom at: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/thomas-cavanaugh/4/aa/5a0

Jody Simon
Jody Simon is a world renowned Entertainment Attorney and the managing partner of Peter, Rubin & Simon, LLP. (Jody has been MatchingDonors.com’s attorney for the past 7 years)
See more about Jody at: http://www.prslawyers.com/team.html

Jon Kroll
Jon is an Emmy Award Winning Producer and has been a friend of MatchingDonors.com for the past six years. (Jon has been a personal friend of MatchingDonors.com for the past 7 years)
See more about Jon at: http://www.jonkroll.com/

Endrick Lekay
Endrick is an award winning movie producer and vice president of Bowery Boys Productions, Inc. (Endrick donated a kidney to a patient he found on MatchingDonors.com, and will also be donating a portion of a liver to a patient he found on MatchingDonors.com).
See more about Endrick at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1740711

Daniel Elias
Dan is an Executive Producer, Director & Founding Partner Hybrid Films (Dan and Hybrid Films are longtime friends of MatchingDonors.com).
See more about Daniel at: http://www.hybridfilms.tv/

Rafael Eli
Rafael is a Partner at the Schramm Marketing Group. (Rafael received a kidney transplant through MatchingDonors.com)
See more about Rafael at: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/rafael¬eli/5/995/112

Brad Hebert
Brad is an award winning television producer and owner of Cross Cut Productions Inc. (Brad is a longtime friend of MatchingDonors.com)
See more about Brad at: http://www.bradhebert.tk/

Brad Falk
Brad is an award winning lead technical director and visual artist for some of the most famous animated films for Disney/Pixar, Lucas Film and other film studios. Brad is also the owner of LollipopShaders.com. (Brad is receiving a kidney transplant through MatchingDonors.com)
see more about Brad at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1014779

Tom Martinez
Tom Martinez is a world famous NFL quarterback coach. Tom is Tom Brady’s mentor. The NFL has named Tom "The Quarterback Whisperer". (Tom is receiving a kidney transplant through MatchingDonors.com)
See more about Tom at: http://www.martinezqb.com/
See Tom in action at: http://www.nfl.com/more/the-season/episode-16

Damon Danieli
Damon is Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Z2Live, Inc., one of the iPhones top social gaming companies and was one of the core designers of the Technical Emmy Award winning Xbox Live. (Damon received a kidney transplant through MatchingDonors.com)
See more about Damon at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/damondanieli

More information about MatchingDonors.com is available at its corporate Web site, http://www.MatchingDonors.com.

ABOUT ZOOPPA: Zooppa is the world's leading source of user-generated advertising. With an online creative community of over 111,000 members, Zooppa works with global brands and prominent ad agencies to produce fresh and compelling creative content. Zooppa’s innovative and socially-enabled platform delivers far more than content, offering brands and their agencies a cost-effective, tactical approach for consumer engagement, online buzz and word-of-mouth and market insight. View our community’s work by visiting www.zooppa.com.