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"Fundathon": Toward Massively Multiplayer Online Fundraising Games

By John S James

Summary: Fundraising campaigns could be elaborate local or global contests or games to raise money for good causes -- showing financial results instantly, costing almost nothing, and letting donors, teams and individual fundraisers make their mark.

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The Need

Walkathons, bikeathons, concerts, and similar events have a large overhead, and often return disappointingly little money to the cause (there are important exceptions). Getting hundreds of people to walk two miles or bike two hundred may be good for exercise and for networking, but the headline physical activity such as walking or pedaling does not by itself fight AIDS. The real purpose of these events is to provide opportunities to ask people for money -- a good thing, but at a heavy cost in extraneous effort. We need alternatives.

A fundraising contest could combine the social activity with the ultimate cause, letting people do both in the same action. For example, teams of volunteer or professional fundraisers could compete with each other to raise the most money within a given interval -- such as a day, a week, or a month. Online donations will show up instantly on a dashboard (a public Web page showing results in colorful multimedia or even musical displays, once the bankcard, etc. has been successfully charged -- letting donors and everyone else see the action right away. Donors might click to fund special projects if they want to, each described on the fundraising site. And their money will be available for use immediately. Using the dashboard to most effectively support emergency relief could become a recognized skill.

Two or more competing teams might raise money for the same cause or for different causes -- including competitions between ideological opponents or competitors in the same game.

Donor Recognition

Donors can get recognition for their gift if they wish, by leaving their name or any acceptable short message on the same multimedia page that shows current result (which team is ahead, etc.) Larger donations will receive more prominent messages on that Web page -- allowing bidding wars between donors, which could greatly increase the money raised. Donors could get a password to change or delete their message later if they wish.

In a world of relentless competition for attention, giving a lot of money to a good cause through such a contest will be one quick way to get it. And these Web pages might be publicly archived after the contest and saved online indefinitely, linked to the histories of relevant movements, organizations, and people -- a modern, digital totem pole.

Recognition works in fundraising; note donors' names on multimillion-dollar buildings. The recognition here has the advantage of being immediate, hopefully eternal (outlasting a physical building at least), flexible (donors can provide messages and multimedia, not just their names), and always changeable by the donor or whoever has his or her password. And there is digital precedent -- for example, the university student who sold a million pixels at $1 each, to be displayed with links for at least five years at
http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com

Besides the competition between teams, and sometimes bidding wars between donors, individual fundraisers themselves could compete for recognition and prizes for raising a lot of money. When making a contribution, donors could credit whichever fundraiser or team they wanted to (usually the one that brought them into the contest).

Probably the best strategy for teams to win these fundraising games will be to organize major donors in advance. The winning play for a fundathon will usually start long before the game officially begins.

Walkathons, etc. work because they give a different, lighter kind of occasion to discuss donations -- separate from the grim realities in the background (which still provide the central motivation). A fundraising contest has the same advantage. But instead of a walk, the main activity is to find, meet with, and mobilize potential donors, especially big donors, in competition with other fundraisers and teams.

Accountability

Instant publication of all online donation amounts will improve transparency and accountability. Donors could direct their funds into subprojects or even specific purchases of their choice. Eventually, software could publicly track the actual use of every donation.

The cost of the computer processing will be trivial (except for the standard bank-card or PayPal fees), so people will expect (and be able to confirm) that almost all of their money goes to the purpose for which it was given. Campaigns by new or less-known organizations could be audited and certified in various ways to assure trust. Major donors can and will insist on accountability.

Summary

This contest structure will bring a host of motivations and social occasions into play. Fundraising usually works best as a socially meaningful process, instead of just asking people to write checks. But while most fundraising events have substantial overhead to bring the people together, a fundathon could have almost none.

One Web site could support many separate fundathons, for many different causes. Once such a site is available, creating the technology for a new fundathon will be easy, much like starting a blog. If you know of any existing site that allows users to set up their own fundraising contests, please let us know (for contact information see http://www.smart-accounts.org).

Massively multiplayer online games and other activities (such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest, or Second Life) have created an industry with experience in what does or does not work in this format. The cash value in real money generated by business within some currently existing online games is greater than the entire national income of many countries. Could this experience help improve or even revolutionize support for activist and charitable organizations? We see no reason why not.

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