Foot Traffic Philanthropy: Location Based Mobile Application - CauseWorld

Last month I made a prediction that we might see fundraisers with FourSquare or some other location-based mobile social network with gaming element.  Looks like my observation of  fundraising 2.0 trends of 2009  and  my 2010 predictions are right on.   Today, TechCrunch wrote about a new mobile application called CauseWorld

Here's how it works:

CauseWorld app users earn “karma points” when they walk into stores and check in with their cell phone. No purchase is required at any store, and karma points can be redeemed nine predefined good causes. Big brands like Kraft Foods and Citi (both are on board) then turn the karmas into real dollar donations to those causes. Food for poor families, water in Sudan, trees in the Amazon, etc. are examples of the causes.

Like foursquare and gowalla, you open the application on your phone and see local businesses (instead of showing everything around you, CauseWorld only shows businesses that you can check into for karmas). Enter the store, check in, and get the karma points offered to you. Once you’ve collected enough karmas you can donate them to a variety of causes. And, of course, you get badges for various activities.

The causes that are supported are listed here a good mix of wildlife conservation, hunger, and others.  This idea is really cool for a couple of reasons.  The user doesn't have to donate, but they're leveraging a corporate donation.   Sort of like embedded giving that Lucy Bernholz talks about, I think.    The application is well designed and is fun.  

It doesn't have a social element where you can see how many karma points your friends have within the app itself, although it uses Facebook Connect and you could opt to have your good deeds streamed on your wall. It might get more motivated if it had the leaderboard design that FourSquare has.

And it gets you way from your computer - you can get exercise!

And, of course, there is the trade-off - the fact that you're trading in your shopping habits data for corporate donors.  That doesn't bother me personally - it's for a good cause.   There is a scaling system for Karma points - for example supporting a classroom is five points while sending a book to a library in a developing country is 100.  It would be interesting to see the data on who saves up versus who gives away their Karma points and what the pay off is for the charity.  The number of karma points doesn't necessarily synch up with real world impact.

I just downloaded and got ten karma points and was able to support a classroom without doing anything - not even getting up from computer.   I'm off to do some last minute shopping and give it a test drive.

Update:  Some quick testing notes ..

• The design seems to encourage me to translate my Karma to donations every time I earn them.  This would take some real discipline to save enough Karma if I wanted to help some of the other groups.  Without a leaderboard, peer pressure, or something else in the game design - I'm tempted to donate as much as possible.

• When you donate, there are cute animations and graphics.  It reminds of a pinball machine when you score.   Anyway, it might be cool to be able to add on more information about the charity, more ways to engage and educate me.

• Once you visit a place, it gets checked out - so you're not being rewarded in Karma points for repeat visits.   Thus, I'm not building a habit of checking myself into the location.  I'm not sure why this is part of the design unless it has something to do with the design of research they're collecting about me.

All in all, this a lot of fun - and takes some of the ideas of an app like FourSquare to leverage corporate donations.   I wonder though, how much this could be designed to help the organizations build their network of supporters for longer relationships.

Comments

[Web Laureate]

i simply love this idea! would be neat if you could see how much you and your friends or a group of people have donated in total. my experience thus far - http://web-poet.com/2009/12/23/causeworld/

[seo services in india]

I like the idea that we could see the friends & group of people have donated in total

[Tresha Thorsen]

i like this on so many levels:
1. it nudges the consumer to think about impact of choice
2. it shows example of corporations embracing philanthropy
3. it highlights for the now designated "main areas" of charity who've opted in/were asked.
so this gives new ave's to consider for fundraising as well as other companies another incentive for how their businesses can promote social good in physical space.

And thanks for the daily gift of your blog...how to give/say thanks in return??Much joy and love to you and your fam....from Berkeley and Tre ;)

[Sharakarasic]

I am community manager for Appolicious, an iPhone app recommendation site, and I'm really trying to introduce to our audience all the great social good apps that exist - such as CauseWorld, Give Work, Extraordinaries, etc. So would love to know if anyone has a great list of such apps - we have started a discussion here to share social good apps:

http://www.appolicious.com/topics/the-best-apps-for-social-good-::12

Cheers,

Shara Karasic
[email protected]
Twitter: appolicious, sharakarasic

[giulio quaggiotto]

Beth,
on the topic of "playful" fundraising, you might be interested in a recent example of use of virtual worlds to engage youths in non profit causes, as reported by Betterverse (http://www.betterverse.org/2009/12/xeko-elf-island-merge-to-connect-youth-nonprofits.html). Btw, what is your take on slacktivism? http://www.ted.com/pages/view/id/391

Cheers,

Giulio

[Jenny Arriola]

Hi Beth,

Thanks so much for blogging about us :) We greatly appreciate it and you've provided us with some great insights!

Cheers,
CW Jenny Arriola

[ottnott]

I have the app. It will be deleted soon.

Each time you successfully use the app, all you “earn” is the right to choose which of the pre-selected charities will get 10 cents of already-donated money. The money is already donated, so your efforts don’t do anything to increase corporate giving.

I believe that the app is mostly a front to help Kleiner Perkins and Shopkick service test their technology and gather data for marketing the Shopkick service.

Each store “check-in” gets you 10 karmas, which, when donated, are worth 1 cent each. It takes additional effort to then “donate” the karmas. You can’t “check in” to another store for another 5 minutes.

As for the argument that success of the CauseWorld app would encourage corporations to give more, call me skeptical at best. Corps tend to budget their charity dollars first, and then decide how and where to distribute them.

If CauseWorld was really about giving, it wouldn’t waste so much user time for so little benefit to charitable causes.

[Natalie]

Ottnott, you make some interesting points, but I think there's something you're completely missing: CauseWorld is turning REGULAR marketing budgets (as opposed to traditional philanthropy budgets) into charity. For example, it's not Kraft's charities or their philanthropy section getting involved – it's their marketing and innovation guys. Why? Because the brands get engagements with thousands of users with their brands. Instead of a nice press release for a $100K charity contribution, they get personal engagements and brand value for each ten karmas. How cool is that for a brand? It's great PR for them, and a win for the user and charities. Instead spending money only on traditional marketing, they go through CauseWorld to get marketing AND give to charities. That alone can shift more dollars to be spent on nonprofits because nonprofits will get access to part of the marketing budget in addition to the current philanthropy budget.

And for users, we get to choose which organization gets the karmas. That is how it SHOULD be decided where the money goes – it is where the people BELIEVE money should go. What do we get right now from traditional marketing? Nothing. Well, maybe you'll get a jingle stuck in your head for a few days.

Just my two cents.

[Kathy A]

I am curious to how many Karma points equal a real dollar donated. I can't find anywhere if we are talking dollars or pennies. Karma Points sound wonderful, but if the exchange is not outweighing my time and fuel, is it worth it? I can donate $10 instantly with a text message. How much of CauseWorld is going to overhead and how often is the money dispersed? Many questions before I truly feel warm and fuzzy about Karma Points.

[lilbuddha]

To clarify a comment in the blog, you can only check in at a business once a day.
Natalie makes good points and I would like to add that doesn't seem to be just about corporate giving/advertising. The app now asks to get the check-in business involved.
I do have some of the same questions listed above regarding actual dollars given.
I am all for the concept, however.