Play Games, Donate Funds
"You play. We donate. No catch." That's the tagline for GamesThatGive, a site that hosts free video games that, when played by visitors, generate money for charity.
The site went live a few months ago in beta test and is now in rollout. Games ranging from sudoku to blackjack to word search are sponsored by advertisers, with 70 percent of the ad revenue generated going to charity partners including Feeding America, the United Way, the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, DoSomething and about a dozen others. Advertisers to date have included Dominos Pizza, Pepsi and Mastercard, many of whom offer coupons or incentives for people to play.
When a visitor selects a game to play, he has the option to select the charity he'll be playing on behalf of, and a counter indicates how much money he’s helped raise for it. The better and longer a person plays, the more money donated. There's even a button the player can click "if the Boss is coming" that quickly changes the screen and opens a "'Non Disclosure Agreement' that actually looks like work!” Below the game is a leaderboard that lists donation leaders for the previous day, the week and "all time."
The site has about 3,500 registered users so far and reports that early statistics show people come back to play an average of 2-plus times per day and play for an average of more than 13 minutes. To date, GamesThatGive has generated $1,842.12 for its charity partners.
Click here to learn more or get playing.
