Shopping as a Gift to Charity - Noticed
Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 11:40AM Turns out shoppers can now give to charity without actually giving, with check-in applications like Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt and the latest major player to join the ranks, Facebook Places. The applications allow users to broadcast their locations using their mobile devices.
For example, each time someone checks in to a Hard Rock Cafe in the United States using Facebook Places, Hard Rock International donates a dollar to WhyHunger, a charity fighting global poverty and hunger. The effort continues through the end of the month, or up to $100,000.
Bill Ayres, a talk radio host who is executive director and a founder of WhyHunger, said the development was an exciting for charities like his.
“This promotion signifies a new direction for organizations like ours to embrace social technologies and reach a wider audience with an easy way to get involved and give back,” he said.
Charity apps are nothing new. But the concept of giving with no money from the user has only recently built steam. The idea takes its cue from CauseWorld, which began around this time last year. Users check in to common shops and grocery stores to earn “karma” points, which are later donated to dozens of select charities of the user’s choice, like the National Breast Cancer Foundation or the American Red Cross. Sponsors like Kraft, Citi and Proctor & Gamble match the karma with money.
Other check-in apps have proved fertile ground for charitable partnerships. Melanie Mathos, a manager at Blackbaud, which provides fund-raising technology to about 24,000 nonprofit groups, pointed to Foursquare’s efforts at last spring’s South by Southwest music and film festival in Austin, Tex. Each time someone checked in on Foursquare from any business in Austin, or sent a specific hashtag on Twitter, Microsoft and PayPal 25 cents combined together donated 25 cents to Save the Children’s Haiti relief effort.
Within two days, the effort counted 371,804 check-ins, saw 2,683 Twitter messages and raised $15,000.
“It is definitely a concept that many nonprofits are embracing,” Ms. Mathos said. “With the explosive growth of Foursquare and with Facebook’s new check-in feature, it is sure to go mainstream.”
Because the applications are open and accessible to users and businesses, and because of how the applications work, partnerships can evolve freely. Foursquare and Facebook Places, for example, do not arrange relationships between businesses and charities. Business owners simply join the network and promote special deals at will, some of them charitable.
At the Gap, customers who check in get 30 percent off purchases. But for every check-in, the Gap also donates a dollar to CampInteractive, a charity that helps poor children explore nature and technology (donations will be made through Dec. 25).
Bridget Forney, a marketing executive from Baltimore, said she had no idea she was donating to charity when she checked in at the Gap this month. When employees told her about it, she was thrilled.
“I’m spending money at the Gap, but they’re taking care of the donation, so it takes out the guesswork and I don’t have to do as much work,” Ms. Forney said. “I just have to spend money and shop.”
charity in non-profit