Since graduating from Columbia University in 2002, Steve Hofstetter has accumulated 182,000 friends on Facebook.com. But what started last year as a mission to make as many friends as possible on the popular college e-network has now become an attempt to raise funds to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Last week, Hofstetter sent an e-mail to each of his tens of thousands of Facebook friends encouraging them to donate two cents to the Red Cross for every friend they have in Louisiana or Mississippi. Hofstetter has 3,677 friends in the Gulf region.
"I already had the idea of helping relief efforts," said Hofstetter, whose quest for Facebook friends began around the time of the tsunami last winter. "I realized I can (help) - I finally have the platform to reach lots of people."
Hofstetter, a stand-up comedian, has already donated $36.77 - one cent for each of his Facebook friends from the affected region - and will donate another cent for each of them on Sept. 11. Additionally, he will donate 100 percent of ticket sales from his upcoming television special, which will be available on DVD and aired on the forthcoming cable network Comedy Express.
Hofstetter says that so far, based on the e-mail responses he has received, over $10,000 has been donated to hurricane relief efforts by his Facebook friends. He said that if every one of his friends were to donate $6, it would rake in $1,000,000 in relief funds.
"The most important thing is that the refugees, people displaced, who have lost family members and their homes - and a sense of home, which is even more important - understand that the country is behind them," Hofstetter said. He says that most of the e-mail responses he has received are from Gulf region residents thanking him for his efforts.
Victims of Hurricane Katrina "are seeing that college students, who are often characterized as lazy and unmotivated, are doing everything they can to help," he said.
Many students have told Hofstetter that if it weren't for his e-mail solicitation, they wouldn't have realized that every little bit helps.
"They need money much more than they need supplies," Hofstetter said. "Money can buy supplies, but supplies can't buy money."
Hofstetter says that he has also received over 100 hate e-mails from people offended by his exploitation of Facebook.com in the face of such tragedy.
"Those people are idiots," Hofstetter said. "I'm using the Facebook to help the tragedy - not the tragedy to help me on the Facebook."
He hopes that by causing a stir on Facebook.com, he will get people thinking about ways they can help. "That's the way to spread the word - word of mouth," Hofstetter said.
It is unclear how many dollars in hurricane relief funds Hofstetter has coaxed out of his 165 Facebook friends at Brown.
Jessica Taylor '07 received Hofstetter's e-mail, but says her decision to donate money to the Red Cross had nothing to do with him.
"I don't have any friends down there, and if I just donated two cents it wouldn't make a difference," Taylor said.
Anthony Johnson '08 also received Hofstetter's e-mail, but has not taken any steps to donate money to any hurricane relief efforts.
"I think it was good of (Hofstetter) to do that," Johnson said, "but it didn't really influence me."
