2013 GAwards: Best Use of Engagement Techniques in Social Good

I Can Go Without simply allows people to swap a WANT, for someone else's NEED. In the footsteps of micro-lending, crowd funding, I Can Go Without is a social giving platform that enables hive philanthropy by connecting causes and donors in a fun engaging way

Care2 is a service that makes it easy for everyone to live a green lifestyle while positively impacting the causes that matter most to them. Members are rewarded through Care2’s Butterfly Rewards program, initiated by Bunchball, which provides redeemable butterfly credits. The credits are used toward various good causes, ranging from helping to humanely raise farm and abandoned animals to providing clean drinking water and food to deserving communities. This innovative and effective approach to social good is unique in its use of game mechanics to drive user engagement.

Left all alone in the green Blighted ooze that was once Shady Glen, Flip the mighty tadpole decides to bring back the forest and friends. Too young to crawl, Flip needs your help to control gravity and the wind to eat carbon out of the air and catch seeds to restore the sunshine to Shady Glen and plant trees in the real world!

We created a platform where we gave complete control over the donation campaign and all progress was fully transparent to the public in real-time. Every time someone donated, the progress bars moved forward and the person appeared in the main network infographic, making the community stronger. We not only made the results visible, but also the statistics behind them. Interactive infographics were set up to drive competition between countries of origin, graduating classes, companies and individual donators, where the most generous stood out in the infographics. Participation rates and donation amounts determined the size of each country on the map and each contribution built stylized company headquarters. The most giving graduating years and individual supporters were recognized and stood-out in the system as top contributors.

On September 29th, more than 60,000 attended the Global Citizen Festival to see the likes of Neil Young, The Foo Fighers, and Black Keys to perform and raise awareness for extreme global poverty. Those lucky enough to attend the event may have found themselves paying upwards of $250 for a single ticket but the fact of the matter is, most of those 60,000 people didn’t pay a single cent; they simply earned some points and badges and won free ticket access to see these bands live.

Changers is a Berlin-based startup that sells consumer-level solar charging products. They offer a Kalhuohfummi, which is an energy monitoring device that tracks a variety of statistics, including the amount of energy being produced, and uploads the data onto the Changers social-network. Users of the network can track how much they have saved over time, while earning Changers Credits that can be redeemed for perks with certain partnering companies. The social network also features achievements and leaderboards.

As you play Bubble Galaxy with Buddies with friends, your wins are turned into a donation to charity:water (@charitywater) to help bring clean water to people in developing countries.

Taking the idea of gaming for good to a new level, this project focuses on fundraising for Save the Children in West Africa.

"Since Diablo 3 has been so central in my videos of the past months and since it's so easy to directly convert virtual goods into real money, people can easily win Razer prizes and save children's lives by playing the game. All donations are welcome and I'll gladly help you guys out in game when possible." —Athene

mPowering is a nonprofit organization that is pioneering the use of mobile technology to empower the world’s poor—those living on less than $2 a day—to break free of the multigenerational cycle of poverty. Our incentive-and-award approach eliminates some of the tough trade-offs the poor face each day. Through the use of our mobile applications, the poor are given the opportunity to take positive steps to improve their lives, and they’re rewarded with food and other basic necessities. For instance, kids no longer need to choose between going to school or working to earn food for their families—with mPowering’s help, they can have both!