I experimented with a couple of ways of making donations for Haitian relief today. First, I visited the Red Cross web site and made a donation with a few clicks. It asked me for my credit card number and I entered it. Then it presented me with a thank-you note and a receipt, which I printed. It felt good, but it wasn’t necessarily a rewarding experience.
Then I visited my FarmVille game on Facebook. I’ve been playing the free game for a while now. The game’s publisher, Zynga, makes money from the game when you buy virtual goods, such as farm animals or tractors. I had never purchased anything until today. When I got to the game screen, it asked me if I wanted to donate money to Haitian relief by buying white corn seeds.
I proceeded to do so. I didn’t have any Zynga coins, so I had to buy those first. I went to the payments page and chose Boku, a mobile payments provider. I entered my mobile phone number. Then Boku sent me a text message. I responded by sending a text message with ‘Y’ in it to verify the transaction. The fee for the transaction will appear on my next cell phone bill. Meanwhile, I was able to buy the Zynga coins and then buy the white corn seeds. Zynga will make a donation on my behalf toward Haitian earthquake relief. The game asked me if I wanted to share the fact of my donation with the rest of my friends. I rarely do so with FarmVille, but in this case I went ahead and authorized it. Now my friends who see the message may make donations as well.
If you compared these two methods, it’s clear to me which one is more rewarding. Now, whenever I plant white corn seeds on my farm, I’ll remember the Haiti relief fund. Hopefully, this kind of donation will be popular not only in a time of disaster, but during relative calm as well. It’s a blessing for Haiti that it has become so much easier to make donations online.
Zynga said yesterday that its earlier Haiti meals-for-kids program in FarmVille and other Zynga games had already generated $1.2 million in donations for Haitian kids. And starting yesterday, it added the Haitian relief donation to FarmVille, Zynga Poker, and Mafia Wars. Those three games have 40 million daily active users, and 100 percent of the proceeds are being donated to Haiti relief being headed by the World Relief Programme.
Be sure to check out our latest announcement on GamesBeat@GDC, our video game conference taking place March 10 in San Francisco. Electronic Arts John Schappert will give a fireside chat, and OnLive’s Steve Perlman will give a keynote speech.