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"Despite some tentatively good news surrounding Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the country is still reeling from the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that hit its shores just two weeks ago.\nThere has been a huge outpouring of support for Japan as it weathers the aftershocks and aftereffects of the T\u014Dhoku earthquake and tsunami. Social media has been no slouch with nearly countless campaigns aimed at donating money, supplies or lending support in any way possible.\nMashable brought you seven other ways to help, and we're back with even more ways that you can assist the on-going relief efforts. Some are as lighthearted as a T-shirt from Snoop Dogg while others support on-the-ground rescue workers. Let us know how you're helping.\n\r\nHow You Can Help\r\n\n\n#Hands4Japan on Crowdrise\n\n\n\n\nTwo Japanese-born venture capitalist brothers started a campaign on Crowdrise in support of the American Red Cross Bay Area Chapter. They've offered to match donations until the campaign reaches its total goal of $1 million. In just four days, the brothers and their family raised more than $225,000 (with matching donations), at time of writing that number is nearly $325,000. The family said most of those donations were for amounts of less than $50.\nTwestival\nTwesitval is an international charity event that uses social media to help organize local meet-ups around the world. This year's Twestival had several meet-ups planned for Japan but those had to be canceled because of the need for help following the earthquake and tsunami.\nInstead, Twestival opened a special channel of its site where people can donate to Save the Children's Japan Initiative.\nPayPal\nThe popular online payment site has offered to credit transactional fees incurred from March 11 to April 10 to any registered charity in the U.S. or Canada raising funds to aid Japan relief. (For the U.S., any 501(c)(3), and for Canada, any under the Canada Revenue Agency). PayPal members can also donate directly here (U.S.) or here (Canada).\nClothing &amp; Shopping\n\n\n\n\nThreadless, the online clothing vendor jumped into the effort by running a short, crowdsourced contest to come up with a T-shirt design that could be sold to help Japan. The winner, based on the theme \"sunrise,\" is available for $20. All of the net proceeds from the sale will be donated to the American Red Cross' Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami fund. The shirt is part of Threadless Causes, an initiative to help non-profits and causes through its sales.\n\n\n\n\nSnoop Dogg and Neff Headwear have teamed up to help Japan by creating a T-shirt in which all profits will be donated to Operation U.S.A.. The pair are hoping to raise $50,000 in funds in one week.\n\n\n\n\nShop for Japan is a one-day global shopping event happening Saturday, March 26. Businesses can sign up at the site to pledge a percent of their revenue from that day to go toward charity. The site also has a list and map of participating stores.\n#TweetDrive\nThis social good community has organized #TweetDrive4Japan.\nThe campaign is an international series of tweets-ups from March 29 to 31 where 100% of ticket sales from each event will go to the Save the Children's emergency Japan relief fund. \nText-to-Donate\n\n\n\n\nEver since Haiti was hit by an earthquake, text-to-donate has been a huge trend \u2014 and a huge help \u2014 in times of need. The Japan crisis has spawned several options:\n\nMobileCause has shortcodes for the Salvation Army (text \"JAPAN\" to \"80888 for a $10 donation), the International Medical Corps (text \"MED\" to \"80888\" for a $10 donation), and ADRA Relief (text \"SUPPORT\" to \"85944\" for a $10 donation).\nMobile Giving Foundation promises a 100% pass-through of all funds for shortcodes to Save the Children Federation (text \u201CJAPAN\u201D or \u201CTSUNAMI\u201D to 20222 to donate $10), World Vision (text \u201C4JAPAN\u201D or \u201C4TSUNAMI\u201D to 20222 to donate $10), the Mercy Corps (text \u201CMERCY\u201D to 25383 to donate $10), the Canadian Red Cross (text \u201CASIA\u201D or \u201CASIE\u201C to 30333 to donate $5), and Canadian Salvation Army (text \u201CQUAKE\u201D to 45678 to donate $10).\nObopay lets consumers make larger donations (in the hundreds) that, according to Obopay, reach organizations faster than carrier-based text-to-donate plans. Donors can text \"Japan\" to \"48510\" where they're taken to a mobile payment site complete with electronic tax receipt.\n\nJiWire\nJiWire has offered it's location-based ad network of Wi-Fi hotspots and mobile apps by running a campaign in support for the Red Cross. The ads will let users know about nearby Red Cross locations as well as options to donate through text.\nIt's a nice example of an ad platform maximizing its reach and geo-location possibilities to serve a good cause.\nTumblr\n\n\n\n\nTumblr recently announced the addition of Japanese as the newest language option for the blogging network. Users will be able to change their language setting on the preferences page, opening new opportunities for outreach for native-speakers and supporters abroad. Users can also keep up with news from Japan on Tumblr's #Japan tag page or donate to the Red Cross from the dashboard. Donating will unlock a Limited Edition Japanese Tumblr Logo and the company will match donations up to $15,000.\nThe last time Tumblr opened special features was its all-black background to promote awareness and raise funds following the Gulf oil leak.\nNext Steps\nBefore donating to any sites or organizations, make sure you do a little bit of homework. It's important to know about any transaction fees and to double check that the site will actually donate to the (registered) charity as promised. Disasters are unfortunately prime targets for scammers who try and play off the public's genuine sympathy and desire to help. Organizations like the Red Cross are generally above-board and provide upfront information on how your money is being spent. It's important to help in times of crisis, but it's also important to make sure your support isn't being misused.\nThere are definitely other ways to help the relief efforts outside of the options above. Please share in the comments your hashtags, newsfeeds, non-profits, campaigns or any other ways to help Japan.\nImage courtesy of Flickr, Yashar.Mans"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2011/03/25/ways-help-japan/>