CauseWorld Mobile App Adds Chile Aid to Charity Options

Palo Alto, Calif., March 1, 2010 — CauseWorld, the mobile application that allows consumers to give to causes just by entering retail stores and restaurants, has added the option to contribute to the Chile earthquake relief effort. The funds sent to Chile through the app will be facilitated by CauseWorld partner GlobalGiving, a nonprofit aid resource for disaster relief and long-term development around the world.

The CauseWorld app allows iPhone, iPod Touch and Android users to collect “karmas” by opening the app and “checking-in” when they come close to, or enter, retail stores and restaurants. Users can spend their collected karmas on tangible charitable deeds like planting trees, feeding families in America and, now, earthquake disaster aid in Chile. The funds themselves are contributed by sponsors like Citibank and Kraft.

"We've been amazed at the power of CauseWorld to generate funds for several of our causes,” said Donna Callejon of GlobalGiving. “GlobalGiving is a ‘go-to’ resource in the wake of natural disasters, and we're more than happy to add our Chile Earthquake Relief Fund as an immediate option for CauseWorld users."

“The earthquake in Chile this weekend devastated a country and impacted millions of lives,” said Cyriac Roeding, CEO of shopkick, the company that created CauseWorld. “To now be able to respond immediately to the disaster and make a difference — just by using your phone as you go about your daily business — is a powerful step toward leveraging retail and mobile technology for doing good.”

The CauseWorld App is available for free from the App Store on iPhone and iPod Touch and on the Android Market.

About shopkick, creator of the CauseWorld app
Shopkick is a Palo Alto-based startup funded by Kleiner Perkins’s iFund and Reid Hoffman, founder and Chairman of LinkedIn, and investor in Facebook. shopkick Inc. was founded based on the belief that the intersection of mobile and physical retail is the next big opportunity in mobile to create consumer value. The Silicon Valley-based company’s goal is to drastically improve the shopping experience of consumers by utilizing cell phones’ location awareness, unprecedented personalization capabilities, and social/viral features. shopkick launched its mobile application CauseWorld in the United States in December 2009, supported by Citi and Kraft Foods. The shopkick team consists of mobile and web experts who previously built the mobile division of CBS in Los Angeles, and successful mobile and online ventures in Europe and the U.S. (12snap, GoldPocket Wireless, Loopt, CommerceFlow, Rojo), and from Google, TellMe/Microsoft, and Procter & Gamble.