BOULDER - Driven by the rapid success of a social-media campaign, Wright-Kingdom Inc., an independent real estate brokerage firm with offices in Boulder and Longmont, donated $25,000 to help the victims of the area's recent wildfires.

Wright-Kingdom and its associates offered to make a $50 contribution to the Community Foundation of Boulder County's fire-relief efforts, up to a limit of $25,000, for every "like" or "share" of its wildfire-relief photo on Facebook. Users of the site responded, and the goal was reached in less than eight hours.

Wright-Kingdom decided to donate to Colorado wildfire relief after "Ralphie's Independence Day Blast," the annual July Fourth festival and fireworks show at Folsom Field in Boulder, was canceled because of the high fire danger. Sponsorship of that event has been a commitment of Wright Kingdom and its associates for the past 11 years, and the firm wanted to find another way to continue its community support.

Officials at Wright-Kingdom learned that "There is a true need locally with the Fourmile Canyon Fire from two years ago and the most recent Flagstaff fire," according to a press statement from the company. "Decreased funding from budget cuts and reduced funds generated from mill levies because of lower property values in fire impacted areas have created a true hardship."

"Our goal with the Facebook campaign was to raise awareness about communities affected by the wildfires. By leveraging the support of our online community, our campaign successfully reached others in Hawaii, Virginia, Texas, Michigan and many other states," said Lew Kingdom, managing broker of Wright-Kingdom, in the press statement. "It is our hope that other community members felt encouraged to join the relief efforts and contribute to the cause as well via the links we posted on our site to the American Red Cross and CDFFF. We had an overwhelmingly positive response and are very appreciative to everyone who participated."