The Heart Kids Blogathon is an annual 24-hour blogging marathon to raise awareness about Congenital Heart Disease and to generate funding to sponsor life-saving heart surgery for poor children.

The first Heart Kids Blogathon was held in 2003, more as a fun experiment than with any serious expectation of making an impact. What happened was amazing! The event ended up bringing in over $9,000 in donations in a day - and sponsored 3 operations.

Encouraged by this early success, made possible by a large, generous, caring group of people who helped spread the word through the Internet, the event has been held every year since.

And from a combination of direct and indirect fundraising, this has resulted in a little over $135,000 in contributions to the Dr.Mani Children Heart Foundation, which has funded 60 operations upto February 2010.

The Dr.Mani Children Heart Foundation is an India-based non-profit organization founded and chaired by Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian, heart surgeon and Internet entrepreneur.