Challenge: Charitable Status Update

See if you can solve this challenge in two hours, with a tight sketch of your solution...

Charitable Status Update

One of the wonders of the Internet is as follows: our newfound ability to connect like-minded individuals in support of nonprofit initiatives that need immediate assistance.

While online campaigns will never completely supplant the silent auctions and fundraising breakfasts of the world—which are conducted to finesse the high-rollers for big-ticket donations—social communities can mobilize swiftly and effectively to create an impact on both a local and a national scale. And within those communities, we can use our design skill and technological savvy to create new kinds of cause-fostering opportunities that have never existed before.

In this challenge, consider the possibilities that exist for nonprofits to raise funds and support within an enclosed social network.

Come up with ideas for a Facebook application that will help raise $200k for a nonprofit cancer-fighting foundation.

Should it be a game? A pass-along greeting? Bracing factoids that induce guilt? A charity auction? Clearly think through how people will need to move from their first interaction to donating money, what elements of the application you’d need to design in order to sell in your recommendation, and how your installation and use of the application will potentially be shared on your friends’ news feeds. What will you create that transcends the ways that we currently use Facebook?

“Every good act is charity. A man’s true wealth hereafter is the good that he does in the world to his fellows.” —Moliere

If you'd like to take it further: Draw up a press release that you would send to bloggers promoting your Facebook app. Why would people outside the Facebook community want to promote your cause?

Comments

[Mark Notermann]

This is an awesome challenge. I'm a bit guilty of ruminating and not sitting down to make visual. This seems as much about strategy as design. I miss my 80 works Team!

Question: Does the $200k goal need to come entirely from individual donor sources?

[David Sherwin]

The $200k can come from any (legal) source, individual, corporate, or otherwise.

Best, David