What can bring together music stars ranging from Tony Bennett to Black Sabbath to Tim McGraw? Global Citizen can.

Global Citizen is an organization that encourages people to become social activists and fight against extreme global poverty. The Global Citizen Ticket Initiative was conceived by Pearl Jam’s manager Kelly Curtis and Global Poverty Project’s chief executive Hugh Evans. The program allows fans of music superstars to earn the chance to win free concert tickets by promoting awareness about global poverty. People can earn one point by sharing a video on Facebook that deals with global poverty and twenty points by raising twenty dollars or more for a charity participating in the program. The people who earn between ten and twenty points can choose to enter those points into a ticket lottery to win two tickets for their favorite star’s concert.

Curtis and Evans came up with the idea when they were planning last year’s Global Citizen Festival which raised $1.3 billion for the world’s poor. The Pearl Jam manager realized that the Global Citizen Ticket Initiative was a great way to spread activism in a way that was familiar and would attract millions of people. Evans who was already a veteran at planning and executing social activist programs helped organize the plan saying that “it just shows the natural link between music and social activism to create change.”

– Katie Brockman
Source: Rolling Stone
Photo: Global Citizen