Mark Horvath (@hardlynormal) Fundraises Across North America

Mark Horvath, the founder of InvisiblePeople.tv and a personal friend, has embarked on his third summer road trip across the continent to raise awareness and smash stereotypes about the plight of North America’s homeless. One of the best known activists on Twitter, Mark is fundraising throughout his trip via Mightycause, in hopes of achieving a $10,000 matching grant from the Pierce Family Foundation.

The 2011 road trip features Mark Horvath’s first swing across Canada, and includes 34 cities throughout North America. The trip will take 4 months in total, and is in progress. Currently, Mark is in Vancouver, British Columbia.

“This [is] my third major road trip with InvisiblePeople.tv and the goal remains the same: To make the ‘invisible people’ in society more visible by bringing them out of the shadows where they are ignored,” said Horvath, who was once homeless himself. “We’re using video and social media to expose the pain, hardship and hopelessness that millions of people face each day.”

How InvisiblePeople.tv Exposes Homelessness

Mark Horvath’s efforts to change the general public’s paradigms on homelessness has been noted by CNN, Mashable YouTube and many other traditional and new media outlets. InvisiblePeople.tv empowers homeless people to tell their own story via YouTube, Twitter and InvisiblePeople.tv. The strategy revolves around content through good storytelling, and providing real tangible actions; and a participation ethos of treating everyone with respect, doing what is right even when others don’t, and gratitude.

“The goal is to make the ‘invisible people’ in society more visible by bringing them out of the shadows where they are ignored,” said Horvath. “We’re using social media to expose the pain, hardship and hopelessness that millions of people face each day.”

Each week, Horvath highlights homeless citizens stories on InvisiblePeople.tv, and high traffic sites such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, proving to a global audience that while they may often be ignored, they are far from invisible. One story at a time, videos posted on InvisiblePeople.tv deliver a call to action that is being answered by national brands, nonprofit organizations and everyday citizens now committed to participating in the fight against homelessness.

Here are some of the many actions Horvath has inspired:

• Getting a homeless veteran’s RV out of impound.
• Starting housing programs.
• Providing shelter for homeless citizens.
• Provisioning homeless children with new shoes.
• A farmer donated 40 acres of land now being used to supplement food for low income families at a public school.
• Providing a homeless citizen with a tablet to blog.
• Providing shelter and gifts to homeless family during Christmas

“There is far too many things to list,” said Horvath to me in an interview for my book Welcome to the Fifth Estate last year. “YouTube gave us the front page for 24 hours and over 2 million people touched homelessness who would have probably rolled down their window at an exit ramp.”

Mark Horvath has received in kind donations and aid for the 2011 International Road Trip from sponsors like GMC (check out how GM gave InvisiblePeople.tv a Tahoe), Hanes, Murphy Oil (USA) Petro-Canada (Canada), TubeMogul, Sprint, Pitch Engine, and Delta Hotels. But he still needs funding to help the homeless and win his matching grant. Please help him if you can.