The average person spends 15 hours and 33 minutes a month on Facebook - wouldn't it be nice if some of the time was put towards doing good? Well, now you can. Snoball is a new micro-donation platform that harnesses the social effect to convert it into an agent for social giving. Snoball has created a simple equation that makes ordinary, everyday activity turn into extraordinary good:
Your Interests and Passions + Your Favorite Charities and Non-Profits + Social Media = A Donation Platform to Change the World
Allowing individuals to tie their passions, hobbies and interest to their favorite charities provides a completely new donation method. You can create a snoball that links your donation to any kind of event, date or social network. This new format revolutionizes the way that non-profits and charities usually raise money. Instead of waiting until the end of the year, spending a ton of money to put on a huge event, and then asking your benefactors to give a single large sum, you have a platform to allow individuals to donate small amounts consistently. It is a lot easier for individuals to give $1 amounts throughout the year than write a huge check once. And with online spending continuing to increase year after year, charitable giving online is sure to grow, becoming the new way to donate in a hyper-connected, digital world.
But one of the best parts about Snoball is that it adds a whole new element of FUN to giving. Where else can you give a $1 to a charity every time your favorite sports team wins a game? Or how about 50 cents for every new Twitter follower? You could even create a Snoball that gives $5 for each time you check into Starbucks on Foursquare (and with my serious caffeine addiction non-profits would make some serious bank). Snoball is the perfect recipe - "By incorporating giving into our daily lives, everyone wins: charities, nonprofits, organizations and the people they help."
And Snoball is incredibly easy to use. Just sign up, pick from over 1.6 million charities (if you are on Guidestar, you are already on Snoball), and pick the specific event, donation amount and time interval for each snoball. You can link your profile to your Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Github and MapMyFitness accounts. The idea being that sharing your donations with your social networks will inspire your friends and followers to start giving, thus creating a virtual snow ball effect. (If nothing else, it will at least make you feel like all that time you spent procrastinating on Facebook was productive).
Don't underestimate the capability of a million little things.
"The Power of Gradual works because, quite simply, little things add up to a big thing if you have enough little things. Given enough time, the steady drip-drop of water becomes an ocean. Given enough time, small regular deposits become a small fortune. Given enough time, steady work at my awful first drafts yields a passable final draft." -The Power of Gradual by Ian Newby-Clark (Habit Guy)
Snoball is simple to understand, fun to use and good for the world. So with that, let's get a rollin'!