Twestival Local 2011 launched this morning in an international effort to fundraise for local charities, and has successfully raised almost $216,000 in its first two and a half hours.

Broadcast live throughout the day from 150 cities around the world, Twestival is the largest global grassroots social media fundraising initiative to date and is dubbed Live Aid 2.0. With over 234,000 followers on Twitter, its events have raised $1.2m for 137 nonprofits since 2009. The UK is contributing 28 official events this year.

Support for Japan

Participants sell tickets to events they have volunteered to host, which are then streamed to a global audience via Twitter and Twestival's dedicated site. 

Twestival events planned for Japan have been cancelled as a result of the tsunami and its after effects, but the event is showing support by hosting an embedded donation module for Save the Children's emergency tsunami appeal.

Twestival founder, Amanda Rose who tweeted the announcement that $215,840.13 had been raised for all of the events' charities after just two and a half hours, said: "This is so much more than just another charity event; this is the evolution of fundraising.

"As Twestival is continuously evolving, we are able to adapt quickly and although we are maintaining a local focus everyone felt it was important to also leverage our global voice and extend support for international crises like the current situation in Japan. "

This fundraising effort is matched by Twestival Local's sister event, Twestival Global, which is hosted annually to raise funds for larger causes, such as providing education for the most vulnerable children. This was the cause for last year's Global event which raised over $400,000 for Concern Worldwide.