'How Rich are You?'

An interesting website is currently circulating the web which begs the question 'How Rich are You? By using this website you'll get an insight you can determine 'how rich you are' in comparison to the rest of the world. The revelation will leave you realising you are richer than you might have thought! The inspiration behind this is for the public to realise how fortunate they are and how even a £3 donation will make a significant difference in some ones life.

You enter in your annual income into a calculator which then informs you where you rank in the Global Rich List by person and percentage. On this same results page features a scale various monetary donation figures with explanations of what each figure will provide for you AND in comparison what it could provide for those in need.

This is an interesting way of convincing the public to donate to a worthy cause, and it works! The interesting aspect with the ultimate 'guilt' feeling that resonates with you when you see the results is a successful catalyst to encourage charitable donations. Which is further helped by the presence of a click through onto a charities donation page. It's a clever and interesting idea which I believe will have been successful for all charities involved.

'Eggsplore' London for Charity

On the February 21st 2012, the Big Egg Hunt will begin! 

This event has brought together two charities 'Elephant Family' and 'Action for Children' and will feature 200 eggs spread across London all individually decorated by various artists and personalities.The hunt will take place over the 40 days of lent where by the public can take part in the hunt for a small fee. Once the hunt is over the 200 eggs are set to be auctioned off in hope of raising £1million to be divided amongst the two charities. 

This collaboration is fantastic, the interactive egg hunt around the capital is fun and will become a significant talking point throughout their 40 day residence in London. Action for Children's association with this event will not only be helped through the auction of the eggs but also through increased awareness and donations. This is set to be an exciting, different and an eggstroadinary event!

ITV Talent Show Supports 'Save the Children'

An ITV talent show 'Born to Shine' has raised £2.1 million for Save the Childrens' 'No Child Born to Die' campaign. The talent show brought in children with exceptional talents to teach celebrities their talents. The competition culminated after a 6 week run on Sunday nights with the winner Jason Manford being announced just this past Sunday.

All the money raised came from on-line and telephone pledges as well as from the new UK Aid Match Scheme.

This scheme sees the Government match pound for pound funds donated by the public to charity appeals for projects in developing countries. This successful campaign and use of media shows the connection between charitable giving and entertainment. When the two are combined the public become more excited and are encouraged to donate due to the interactive quality of the campaign. 

50 social 'things' which will save lives

@5050 is an initiative launched by a group of social media types with the intention of raising money online to help save lives in Africa. Utilising the expertise of various partners throughout the market, the aim is to build 50 things; be that apps, projects or social promises which can raise money towards to the famine problem in Africa! 

There are some really cool apps and ideas kicking around in this space in the fallout from this initiative. We've already featured some stuff on the Twitter Swearjar and there are various incarnations of this floating around in the social arena. 

Amongst a sea of ideas, many of which encompass involvement from celebrities, a few real gems shine; 'The 6 Minutes Project', 'Phone 2 Food' & 'The Pound Store'

6 Minutes encourages us to donate 6 minutes of our salary to the appeal - a direct response to that fact that 1 child dies every 6 minutes in Africa at the hands of the famine. Not only an apt tie in to the problem faced but such a small and novel ask, that it should resonate well with an audience who have little time and like to get things done quickly and easily. 

Buymytronics.com are involved with the 'Phone 2 Food' initiative which see's your full phone buy-back value donated to Unicef to fund food for a child. With 1 days food for a child only costing $1.10, think of the difference a £100 or $150 phone could make. Again this is a different way to frame the ask, not asking for cash directly but for a benefit from donating an item. 

Finally 'The Pound Store' is a great place to custom shop for what you send to Africa, with items from as little as £1 (malaria vaccine) etc it's a clear, visual and engaging charitable donation experience http://www.poundstore.uk.com/

These are only scraping the surface of some of the truly unique initiatives happening as a part of this campaign. Alongside a big, A-list celebrity endorsed campaign launch, this is certainly a social initiative to watch and learn from. A lot of these ideas could be localised and adapted to other charities 

http://5050.gd/

Tweeting while they watch!

A recent YouGov survey found that more than three quarters of UK TV viewers are now absorbing other media whilst watching TV. 

It also suggested that 43% of individuals were discussing the TV shows they were watching on Twitter, Facebook & other blogging sites. While this figure was higher in the younger age brackets, 68% of 18-24 year olds, it was not overlooked in the more aged individiuals with over a quarter of over-55's also engaging in this type of activity.  

A lot of this ad hoc activity occurs via mobile phones and I'm sure we're all noticing the increase in "via iPhone" or "via Blackberry" cluttering up our Facebook feed as our friends rapidly tap out their feelings to the X Factor performances that night. I've even noticed my Dad uploading pictures of the tennis on the TV screen. Evidence that it isn't just the younger generation who are caught up in the social media bubble. 

Social media was not the only avenue people we consuming alongside their TV viewing; the internet (via phone & laptop), a games console or even listening to the radio were all popular activities. Collectively these activities saw an 18% rise YoY. 

This research solidifies the trends we're seeing across the charity market with methods of web response greatly favoured to phone. In some pockets of the market we're beginning to see text response favoured to traditional phone call, but this is not without downfalls in attaining regular givers. 

An interesting study confirming many of the trends we've been seeing for some time. Hopefully as these technologies develop we can evolve our media solutions to effectively and efficiently reach our audiences.