The Web has amplified the voices of the poor and the marginalised. Even if you spend your days at an ivory tower in Downtown Manhattan, you can’t help but notice the crises taking place miles away: from the environmental collapse caused by reckless consumption to harsh labour conditions and impoverished families.
Thankfully, social media that brings us awareness of these issues can also be employed to help combat them. Today, giving to charities has become easier than it’s ever been. Non-profits and socially conscious businesses all around the world have developed new, exciting strategies and technologies to help people in need.
These are some of things they do to raise funds.
Charitable kickback
The least invasive way to give money to charity is by purchasing goods and services through charity-affiliated websites and marketplaces. This way, you make the same purchases you would have made otherwise, but a percentage of your money goes towards a charity of your choice. The most famous example of this is Amazon Smile. Here, 0.5% of your total bill goes to the charity of your choice. Over the past 6 years this program has raised more than 130 million dollars. Previously, the company used a similar scheme to successfully raise funds for natural disaster relief.
PayPal Giving Fund is another one of such initiatives. Since PayPal is frequently integrated into other websites as a payment processing solution, its creators came up with a way to incorporate charitable donations into regular payments. At the moment this feature is available on eBay, AirBnB, GoFundMe and Humble Bundle. For example, when an eBay seller sets up their eBay listing, they may choose to pick a charity and the kickback amount. That way, when the item is sold, a portion of the proceeds goes to that charity. An AirBnB host may also choose to do the same.
Goodshop is different from the two programs above. Unlike the name suggests, it is not a shop — but a coupon aggregator. Every time you use a Goodshop coupon, you get a discount — and Goodshop donates a percentage of your purchase to a school or a non-profit. So far, it has raised more than 13 million dollars for charity.
Non-profit brands
Non-profits that produce goods have become increasingly popular. These are the brands that set up shop in third world countries in order to provide well-paid jobs to disadvantaged groups. Every time you buy something from such a brand, portion of the money you spend supports people in need. Sudara is a female fashion company based in India. They were founded in 2006 with just six employees — now they pay living wages to hundreds of disadvantaged women. Their workers receive free education, and many have gone on to start their own local businesses.
Global Goods does a similar thing, but in a different way. Since its launch in 2005, it has partnered with over 60 artisan groups all over the world, helped them optimize their products for the western customer and started selling them online. Most of their artisans are women from developing nations in South America, Africa and Asia. They are paid in accordance with Fair Trade regulations, and receive all the proceeds from the sale, minus shipping and admin costs. Moreover, every year Global Goods issues grants to other charities to help further their goals.
Smart campaigns
If you don’t want to buy anything online, charity fundraising has to come to you. With the advent of contactless payments and IoT devices, this, too, has become much easier to pull off. Today, the donation boxes of the old are being replaced by their digital counterparts.Tap For Change produces compact payment terminals that can be tapped to donate to a predetermined charity. They are placed in retail spaces around the UK. Pennies goes a step further and integrates the donations into the retailer’s own terminals. Just as a customer is given the opportunity to tip when paying with their credit card, they may choose to donate a small amount to charity.
These efforts are not limited to retail spaces. Some charities quite literally reach out to people on the street. Cancer Research UK installed branded benches with integrated PayPass capability on the streets of London. Resting pedestrians are encouraged to tap the bench with their credit card, and, by doing so, donate £2 to the charity. Blue Cross For Pets, a charity that cares for homeless animals, conducted an even more elaborate campaign in an attempt to raise money. They replaced human fundraisers with dogs wearing contactless payment vests. The passers-by were encouraged to pet them and tap their vest with their credit card.
Apps, apps, apps!
Last, but not least, there are plenty of apps that encourage charitable giving. Charity Miles is a fitness app that donates a dollar to a charity of your choice for each mile you run. So far, it has raised more than $2.5 million dollars. This is possible thanks to the help of the app’s sponsors like Johnson & Johnson, Garmin and Brooks.
ShareTheMeal is a UN-affiliated initiative aimed to alleviate world hunger. Their app gives you an easy way to donate a meal’s worth of money to a child in need. All you have to do is take a photo of your own lunch, donate 50 cents and post the branded picture on social media. This way, in 2018 alone, more than a million people from 182 countries have shared a total of 11 million meals.
We at MNFST also care about giving back. Our app helps people make money by leveraging their social media status. But it’s easy to forget that in many places people can’t afford to feed themselves, let alone buy a phone and gain an Instagram following.
That’s why we’ve given our users an ability to transfer their earnings directly to a charity of their choice. Doing so may not improve your online influence, but will definitely help you make an impact on the world at large.
