Games for Charity

Hey everyone,

So for those who don't know I work at a children's emergency shelter for abused and neglected children. It's a non-profit organization with partial state and federal funding but primarily funded by donors. We're basically the first place children go for an immediate place for shelter, school, and medical needs until a more permanent residence can be established. I'd share the name of the organization, but talking with the public on their behalf is a little outside my position.

Anyway, one idea that I've been considering is making a series of games that would generate funding for the shelter. The idea would be you play as a mascot who helps kids in some way in the game, the better you do the more of the revenue goes to the shelter (the rest of the money would go back into developing more games). In other words, as you help kids in the game, you're actually helping kids in real life. Kind of a cool idea, I thought.

To monetize I would use ads and based on the score create a percentage of how much goes to the shelter and how much goes to the project.

And of course there would be a direct donate option.

I also think it would be awesome if I could break down the fundraising to actual purchases. Like say we raise money for the game room, then at the start you could see a bar grow to reach the money needed to buy a Wii-U and so on.

Lastly, I would like the project to work independently of the shelter to avoid any legal trouble for them and be able to grow the project to more charities if it gets big enough. Or maybe I could introduce other mascots that would represent the charity you're donating to (one could be for child abuse, one for child illnesses, and so on).

Here's where I would LOVE some valuable input from the community:
1) Is this a dumb idea?
2) Is this feasible?
3) What pit-falls should I be aware of?
4) How would you present this to the shelter and other charities?
5) Could you see other developers becoming involved if the project gained momentum?

Thanks everyone!

 

1) No. The implementation is of course the trick.
2) Yes, but you need some well-made web-based stuff to keep track of it all.
3) Security, accusations of fraud, delays and spiralling production costs.
4) Very carefully
5) Yes, no, maybe. You'd have to find developers who have money to live off while donating time, or pay them. See 3.

The web-backend would have to have an open API to read info about progress, and a closed API that gives each donator a token that the game stores for reference. Then while playing the progress is tracked when posting the token+score. You might have to create some fancy PayPal-based backend code that creates a unique ID for each donator and gives them a token/API key that is either automatically put into the game or copied and pasted manually.

The technical portion isn't the hard part. It just takes planning.

 

Love this idea! Usually fund-raising and donations are abstract. Certainly for the large ones(Red Cross, AI, etc), it just kind of has to be that way because of the scope. But for specific charities, having details about where your money goes is pretty awesome, and makes you feel more connected and that your donation is doing good.

 

It's harder than you think. I build training and learning games for my day job, and Indie games for fun at night, and in both cases, monetization is just as hard as designing and building an effective game. The good news is that it is doable - consider working in small iterations so you can test the waters, a little at a time, before establishing grand plans.

Gigi

PS - You may enjoy my game papers: 1) Why Games Work, and 2) Flow, Motivation, and Fun in Learning Games. The first won several awards, and the second is for an upcoming book by Cambridge Press.

 

2) I was thinking Andoid and Apple.
3) I had not thought of being accused of fraud, that is a very valid point. This is also a good reason to keep it a private company/non-profit that donates to the charities, rather than owned by them, so at the end of the day I have no legal obligations.

And thank you for the advice on the backend. I hadn't even thought much past the game its self.

Thank you!

Thank you, I will give them a read.