February 23, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
Judy Moyer-Spencer started giving to the Wounded Warrior Project a few years ago, after hearing from her son, an Iraq war veteran, about some of the challenges his friends faced in returning to civilian life. But, like most Americans, Ms. Moyer-Spencer’s budget has been tighter recently, and she hasn’t been able to contribute as much.
So she was pleased to learn this fall about a new way for her to donate: through a Web site she uses to play word games. The “casual gaming” site, Iwon.com, this fall started to allow people to compete to give money to charities of their choice.
Ms. Moyer-Spencer and more than 2,000 others who have signed up as part of Wounded Warrior Project’s online “team” have so far directed $32,000 to the group. They have beaten several hundred teams competing in behalf of other nonprofit groups, winning the company’s top prize ($10,000) three months in a row.
Iwon.com, which is owned by the Internet mogul Barry Diller, has so far donated $160,000 through the program.
Deborah Szajngarten, director of public relations at Iwon.com’s parent company Mindspark Interactive Network, says the competition was created to build a sense of community among users. It has proven to be good business, driving more people to the site.
“As the unemployment rate goes up, people are spending more time online and finding that the team challenge is making them feel good about spending so much time online,” she says. “They’re also engaging with others, asking them to help out so that they’re playing because they care so much about the cause.”
What do you think of tis fund-raising effort? Do you know of similar efforts by companies? Click on the comments box below to share your thoughts.
