Gamification Changes the Nonprofit World in 2012

While it is no secret that social gaming is become increasingly influential in the commercial world, its exact level of impact as a revenue and awareness building tool is genuinely impressive. Referred to as “gamification,” the practice of creating social games to engage an audience and reward contributors is helping businesses across the globe to make money and reach a wider range of consumers.

This trend is even more prominent in the nonprofit sector, where there are a growing number of social gaming platforms that aim to effect real world change. With a huge percentage of social media users set to play at least one social game regularly during 2012, charities are adopting innovative gaming patterns and techniques to incentivize giving and donor participation on behalf of their cause. So what are the most popular nonprofit gaming platforms, and how are they achieving their goals?

In terms of innovation, the latest collaborative gaming platform created by Grantoo has set a new standard in excellence. In partnership with the market-leading music streaming service Grooveshark, Grantoo is hosting a national online gaming tournament in which students will compete for tuition grants and provide real-time donations for charities. With commercial sponsorship from Grooveshark to the tune of $5,000, the tournament connects the worlds of commerce and education while providing real-world incentives for all parties involved.

In an age where consumer awareness and influence has never been more powerful, Grantoo identified that the most effective way to engage donors is to challenge them and reward their participation in a tangible way. So for a participant to be afforded the opportunity to win much needed funding, they must first agree to donate a minimum of 10 percent from their winnings to a selected charity. With educational nonprofits such as Engineers Without Borders and Pencils of Promise closely affiliated to the event, the project could have a global influence on the way in which charities solicit funds.

Another new innovation in nonprofit social gaming has been provided by PlayMob, who have created a fundraising platform that empowers users to play a practical role in effecting social change. It’s product GiverBoard allows various global charities to raise funds in-game, and borrows heavily from the established social gaming practice of encouraging players to pay real money for virtual goods. The innovation lies in the fact that every good purchased is closely connected to a nonprofit organization, and creates virtual transactions that generate real world social capital.

The replication of real world challenges in social games is particularly empowering to players, and allows enables them to make a donation that can be measured in far more than dollars and cents. A good example of this model was showcased last November through the mobile game ‘Parallel Kingdom‘, in which players create identities in a virtual world based on their real GPS location. A special edition virtual soup hat was created and added to the games inventory for sale, which when purchased raised funds for homeless children and families on behalf of the established ‘Help USA‘ charity.

On a wider scale, social gaming is evolving to offer more diverse platforms, and this is making them increasingly popular with more mature social demographics. Both of these trends suit the nonprofit sector, and afford charitable organizations the opportunity to push the boundaries of creative thought and action. This has been influential in the creation of Grantoo’s new platform, which embraces the concept of competition and seeks to challenge players as a way of sourcing donations.  With competition comes the prospect of reward, and this is not lost on increasingly savvy and streetwise donors.

The GiverBoard platform also embraces creative thinking, and allows local or global nonprofits to associate themselves with relevant gaming patterns through the placement of virtual goods. While Zynga may have introduced this concept when it raised $1 million for the UN World Food Program through the placement and sale of virtual products, the latest innovation has taken this further by tapping into a wider gaming market and accessing a greater number of donors and nonprofit ventures. So long as a nonprofit has the vision to identify gaming platforms that suit their cause, it is possible to create a new avenue for fundraising that affords them a global online presence.