Playing to Raise Money

I really like the new wave of click-to-donate applications that raise money with advertising; very sharp. They won't help you make your top line or keep your bottom line, but in terms raising awareness with simple games and showing the need for an organization, they have a certain appeal.

Freerice is a vocabulary trivia game aimed at helping to buy rice for the U.N. World Food Programme. Each correct answer provides 20 grains of rice to the WFP. FreeFlour is similar game that helps Bread For The World Institute. Save the World with Music uses music trivia to water for PlayPumps International, a nonprofit that builds PlayPump water pumps in Africa. These games use advertising impressions to raise money to provide the rice ,flour, and water tools for these programs. The longer people play, the more ad impressions are given and the more money is raised.

These types of games are interesting because they don't necessarily equate the program with the content. They take very universal game ideas (vocabulary and music trivia) and using them to promote the organization. The game websites could do more to capture e-mails for the organizations or drive more traffic to the organization's websites. And, Freerice provides banners for more viral marketing options. But the spirit of doing good while playing is what really captures the user interest and once they recognize it is for a good cause, they could be lead to the organization website once they are done playing.

Can your organization use a game or application like this to raise money? Yes, a little bit. It won't be a windfall. But, it can be a great marketing tool/web feature to produce with a small cost to develop the game and site. You must find the resources to build and you will need to market this game to your audience. You should also ask your audience to help market the game as well, via e-mail, banners, and social networks. Trivia is just this start; you could start speaking to developers to start making you own game to benefit your organization.

If you've wanted to start your own click-to-donate program, consider a idea that's a little more game.   

Comments

[ba]

there is also
http://www.jogogreen.com
http://www.aidtochildren.com/
source: http://www.freewebs.com/clickforcharity/