Kevin Bacon launched SixDegrees.org, a new Web site that encourages the creation of charitable social networks and inspires giving to charities online.

Bacon started the network with celebrities who are highlighting their favorite charities – including Kyra Sedgwick (NRDC), Nicole Kidman (UNIFEM), Ashley Judd (YouthAIDS), Bradley Whitford (Clothes off Our Back), Dana Delany (Scleroderma Foundation), Robert Duvall (Pro Mujer), Rosie O'Donnell (Rosie's For All Kids), and Jessica Simpson (Operation Smile) – and he's encouraging all of us to become celebrities for our own causes by joining the Six Degrees movement…

"SixDegrees.org is about using the idea that we are all connected to accomplish something good," said Bacon. "It is my hope that Six Degrees will soon be something more than a game or a gimmick. It will also be a force for good, by bringing a social conscience to social networking." The game, ‘Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,' made the rounds of college campuses over the past decade and lived on to become a shorthand term to describe the phenomenon of a small world.

Through SixDegrees.org people can learn about and support the charities of celebrities or fundraise for their own favorite causes with their friends and families. The public can create their own celebrity badges to mark their charity by uploading their own photos and stories and using AIM Pages. The site even keeps a running tally of donations for each charity. So far, the site has collected a total of more than $71,000 in its first two weeks.

Bacon will match the charitable dollars raised by the top six non-celebrity fundraisers with grants of up to $10,000 each.

Kicking off the launch of SixDegrees.org, Bacon attended the opening of the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, last week where he and other celebrities encouraged charitable giving. Entertainment Weekly celebrated SixDegrees.org and Kevin Bacon with plans for a third annual Sundance Opening Weekend Party. Items were to be donated by celebrities to be later auctioned on eBay using eBay Giving Works. Bacon was also to be feted at an AOL reception where he will tape an episode of Moviefone.com's Unscripted with Bradley Whitford, a SixDegrees.org participant and star of "An American Crime" premiering at Sundance.

Bacon created SixDegrees.org in partnership with the nonprofit, Network for Good, AOL, and Entertainment Weekly.

Photo: Instagram