Mashable’s Social Good Summit kicked off today with three notable campaign launches and a lineup of luminaries who discussed the ever increasing role — and importance — of social media in impacting social good.  As Christy Turlington Burns, filmmaker, model, mother and founder of the maternal and child health campaign Every Mother Counts said, “We all can’t do everything, but we all can do something.”

Much of this afternoon’s program focused on just that — and the power of youth to effect change. From actress, activist and philanthropist Monique Coleman, to Do Something‘s Nancy Lublin, to David Jones’ One Young World Youthquake and his young ambassadors, conversation explored how young people are not only using technology to mobilize change, but how organizations can successfully reach out to young people by using technology. As Lublin noted, a recent Do Something text messaging effort got a 20% response rate in 9 minutes.

“Your voice matters. If you share the facts, if you share the stories, people will pay attention.” USAID Administrator Raj Shah said during his discussion of today’s launch of FWD, USAID’s new social media campaign to raise awareness and mobilize donations for the ever burgeoning crisis in the Horn of Africa.

As the FWD (for famine, war and drought) website points out, 13 million Africans are in the middle of the worst drought in 60 years, the worst famine in 20 and nonstop violence. The FWD website contains the latest information on the crisis as well as features such as a series of interactive maps which enable access to data in real time.

Today too, Howard Buffett discussed social value investing and announced the launch of LearningbyGiving, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation‘s latest educational project keyed on advancing the next generation’s understanding of philanthropy. As the website says, this new project provides the financial, technological and intellectual tools to help students at the undergraduate level understand the social and economic roles of the nonprofit sector and philanthropy and the processes through which social change is funded and implemented across sectors.”Doing good does not excuse us from doing better,” Buffett said.

charity:water launched its new Dollars to Projects initiative, which tracks every dollar raised and shows donors exactly where their money goes and which projects it funds through the use of Google maps and photo galleries. charity: water, which has raised $43 million to date for clean water projects worldwide, has helped 2.06 million people in 129 countries. Founder Scott Harrison said his goal is to reach 100 million in the next ten years.

Take a look at charity: water’s video about its new campaign:

As Erin Schrode, one of the three youth ambassadors from One Young World said today, “We have the tools at our fingertips. We can harness the power of collective action.”  Another ambassador, Michael Teoh added, “This is our time to use technology responsibly and socially to cause change in the world.”

The Social Good Summit continues through Thursday, so stay tuned for more Care2 coverage.