Culture

People are challenging each other on Twitter to text a $10 donation to the Red Cross Harvey fund

hurricane harvey damage
Jennifer Bryant looks over the debris from her family business destroyed by Hurricane Harvey on Saturday, Aug. 26, 2017, in Katy, Texas. David J. Phillip/AP
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There are a lot of ways to help the people of eastern Texas as they suffer through the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

For instance, Facebook has activated its Safety Check system for the area. This not only lets you search for a loved one in the affected area, but lets you respond to pleas of help from people who have been impacted.

More than 570 people have posted their requests for help on the page — requesting food, rides, volunteers for clean-up crews and the like. They are also using the page to share information about the storm.

But perhaps the easiest way to help is to donate $10 to the Red Cross by texting the word REDCROSS to 90999. The $10 donation will be charged to your mobile phone bill.

Even better, if you can afford it, you can follow the lead of people who are challenging their social media followers to donate and then promising to match those donations.

For instance, Mikel Jollett‏ challenged his nearly 100,000 Twitter followers to send that text, then tweet him the evidence to procure a matched donation from him. He's the singer, guitarist, and frontman for LA-based indie rock band Airborne Toxic Event.

Producer Elan Gale (of "The Bachelor" television empire fame) did a similar challenge to his 200,000 followers, although he was capping his match to 50 people, or $500.

Many others are also challenging their own followers, and matching those contributions, as well.

In addition to giving money to the Red Cross's Harvey fund, Twitter user Celeste P. compiled a list of organizations you can donate to to help those affected by the storm.

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Julie Bort was Business Insider's Editor at Large for the Tech team. She loves investigating stories and shedding light on the tech industry's most amazing people.Here's a small sample of some of Julie's work.Former Pinterest employees describe a traumatic workplace where managers humiliate employees until they cry, Black people feel alienated, and the toxic culture 'eats away at your soul'Sex, tequila, and a tiger: Employees inside Adam Neumann's WeWork talk about the nonstop party to attain a $100 billion dream and the messy reality that tanked itInsiders say WeWork's IT is a patchwork of cheap devices and Band-Aid fixes that will take millions to fixWeWork's toxic phone booths were created in-house by its Powered by We business70-hour weeks and 'WTF' emails: 42 employees reveal the frenzy of working at Tesla under the 'cult' of Elon MuskElon Musk works so many hours at Tesla, employees are constantly finding him asleep under tables and desksHow this woman went from a Pizza Hut employee to a founder of a $4 billion startupAn Oracle insider explains how some salespeople gamed the system to sell more cloudTHE TAKEDOWN OF TRAVIS KALANICK: The untold story of Uber's infighting, backstabbing, and multimillion-dollar exit packagesMicrosoft is in talks to buy GitHub, a startup at the center of the software world last valued at $2 billionThe alarming inside story of a failed Google acquisition, and an employee who was hospitalizedInside Facebook's plan to eat another $350 billion IT marketHow a registered sex offender wound up living in an Airbnb hosting unsuspecting guestsA controversial ex-banker is the person who really runs Twitter — and he's gambling the company's future on one risky betSecret passages and skipped meals: Oracle's CEO gave us a rare peek at what it really takes to run a $37 billion companyHP told some employees to choose between becoming contractors with no benefits or being fired without severance'I felt like we were being extorted': Customer says Oracle tried to strong-arm him into a cloud saleHow the queen of Silicon Valley is helping Google go after Amazon's most profitable businessAirbnb host: A guest is squatting in my condo and I can't get him to leaveLIES, BOOZE, AND BILLIONS: How one of the fastest-growing startups in Silicon Valley history raised $580 million then spiraled out of controlGitHub is undergoing a full-blown overhaul as execs and employees depart — and we have the full inside storyWhen she's not writing for Business Insider, Julie can usually be found on the trails, on my mountain bike, or on my skis, if you know where to look.