Helping the World for Free

Help

Nowadays, college students don’t have the extra cash lying around to be donating to charities. Let’s be honest, we are spending every last dollar on $10 pizza deals or something else of equal importance.

While our generation wants to make a difference, we currently don’t have the means to do so. So what choices are we left with; spend our time doing community service? Scramble up change and donate in the little McDonald’s boxes? Or is there another option out there?

I have always been a “do-gooder”, as my friends teasingly have titled me, but I have little time and money. So, I got to thinking, What is it that I am good at? How can I make a difference with what I have?

Now for all of you that feel the same way, I finally have an answer. There are companies out there that understand this dilemma and have diagnosed it by creating products that help us out.

One of my favorite is Free Rice. Basically, you go to the website and play games. You can pick from a range of topics that include everything from word associations to basic math to famous paintings. You are then presented with a question. If you get it right, 10 grains of rice are donated to the UN World Food Program. The money that is used to buy the rice is generated from the banner ads at the bottom of each screen (who knew those still generate revenue?). Basically, as a result of you playing a game, hungry people are benefiting. So there- one way I can make a difference in the world without opening my wallet or spending hours doing community service. (Not that I don’t also love community service- I just can’t do it every day..

SocialVibe is a company I have worked with them (for a school project) but I stand by their product in the sense that it satisfies my need: I want to help!  Their website allows me to create a profile, somewhat like a Facebook profile or something else of that sort). My class created a video that can be seen at socialvibe.com/bentley that gives a good explanation. By doing activities on my profile I gain points. When I sign up for SocialVibe, I am probed to pick a charity that I would like my contributions to support. Then I choose a sponsor (aka the company that will be paying for my donation). In return, I comment on their activities, which can be anything from videos that they want me to vote on as part of their market research, or widgets that they are testing out. I then post a badge to my social media site (Facebook, Twitter, WordPress) displaying what I have done. This is an example of what the tweet would look like if I did one of the activities for Colgate:

Check out my Colgate smile story, and help support my Cause for free! http://bit.ly/10SbL5 #socialvibe

All these activities allow me to earn points. You can also gain points by having someone else click the link and do an activity. In the end, all the points turn into donations to a charity of my choice- in this instance the money comes out of Colgate’s pocket.

Even if I don’t have money or tons of time on my hands, I can still make a difference. Every penny counts, even the ones that aren’t from my pocket.

Photo Credit: doctorow