Online games do nothing but rot our brains, waste our time, and force us to spend money on frivolous things that only feed our addictions. Right?
Not according to Ken Weber, executive director of Zynga.org, the charitable arm of the company behind such online games as FarmVille and CityVille. Since it launched in 2009, this little-known operation has used FarmVille and other games to raise money in support of charitable causes. Inside these sweeping virtual worlds, when players buy certain virtual goods and other perks, the proceeds go to charity. Buy some corn in FarmVille, for instance, and it could fund earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. That may sound like an odd thing, but as it turns out, it's a wonderfully effective way of doing good.
To date, Zynga.org has raised some $17 million, and this year, it's poised to cross the $20 million mark.
When players buy certain virtual goods and other perks, the proceeds go to charity. Buy some corn in FarmVille, and it could fund earthquake relief efforts in HaitiIn recent years, Zynga hasn't exactly been a fount of good news. Since the San Francisco-based gaming company’s weak IPO back in 2011, its market share has waned, revenue has shrunk, and management has been forced to lay off staff by the hundreds. Last week, news came that founder Mark Pincus, who was replaced as CEO by Microsoft veteran Don Mattrick last year, was stepping down from his day-to-day duties at the company altogether. And yet, as Zynga has floundered, Zynga.org has flourished.
Last month, it hit a major milestone, raising $1 million for Water.org, a Kansas City, Missouri-based charity that funds clean water projects in the developing world. Meanwhile, Zynga.org has partnered with New Schools Venture Fund, a venture philanthropy firm focused on innovation in education, to launch an incubator for educational gaming startups called co.lab.
All of this has made Zynga an early frontrunner in the emerging "games for good" space, but it's certainly not the only major gaming company jumping on this growing trend. Last year, Electronic Arts launched SimCityEDU, a tool for teachers that turns student assessment into a game. Rovio, the company behind Angry Birds, has also developed a game-based kindergarten curriculum called Angry Birds Playground, which it's already rolling out to students in China. Other companies, like Blizzard Entertainment, have run charitable campaigns in games like World of Warcraft, where players donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation by purchasing an in-game pet.
For some of these companies, the shift toward gaming for good is as much about business strategy as altruism. School systems and local governments could potentially pay them for this kind of work, and that's an important thing. Given the fickle tastes of the consumer gaming industry, it's no wonder these gaming companies would look for new sources revenue. "These companies realize there's a business opportunity in education in the future," says Asi Burak, president of the non-profit Games for Change, which held its 11th annual festival in New York City last week. "They're determined to have their finger on the pulse and know when to move in."
But Zynga.org is a non-profit, and it takes a more holistic approach to gaming for good. While the company works on developing educational games -- and takes a stake in co.lab's portfolio companies -- it's also proving that games like FarmVille can be an effective fundraising vehicle for charities. This was first shown back in 2009 when a group of Zynga employees, led by Mark Pincus's sister Laura Pincus Hartman, launched a campaign called Sweet Seeds for Haiti in FarmVille.
If players purchased a packet of seeds in the game, Zynga automatically donated that money to organizations working in Haiti. All told, the campaign raised $1 million. When Haiti's catastrophic earthquake hit the following year, the team launched yet another campaign, which raised nearly $3 million from some 500,000 players in just a few weeks. "It was an immediate success for the people in the studio," says Weber, who joined Zynga.org in 2011 after working as COO at The ONE Campaign, a poverty-fighting charity. "It also showed that players were really responsive to this content. They wanted it."
Zynga.org became an independent 501(c)3 in 2012, and it has run more than 125 campaigns with 50 different non-profits, from Heifer International to the World Food Programme and Water.org. "For organizations dealing with food, water, hunger, and sustainability, FarmVille is, pardon the pun, fertile ground," says Weber.
It also delivers huge returns to these partner charities. Without paying Zynga a dime, they get to work with the company's in-house engineers and designers to create a campaign, and receive 100 percent of the donations at the end of it. "By almost any measure, this has been the most successful cost-to-dollar-raised campaign we've ever had," says Mike McCamon, Water.org's director of technology.
Weber doesn't deny that Zynga's troubles over the years have affected the charity that shares its name. "We want to scale our social impact, and the scale of Zynga has had a direct impact on how much we can scale that social impact," he says.
>'By almost any measure, this has been the most successful cost-to-dollar-raised campaign we've ever had.'
And yet, he says the biggest challenge the non-profit has faced has been working around the fact that neither Apple nor Facebook allow in-app donations on their platforms. Weber says he's working to "crack the nut with Apple," and encourage the tech giant to loosen its restrictions. Though there are legal ways to skirt these policies, like text-to-give campaigns, these restrictions are a major barrier for charities looking to capitalize on this new fundraising model, says Burak. "Some great work is being done, but it's still early," he says. "We're still struggling with policies, public perception, and consumer education."
However far Zynga has fallen, the company still has a market cap of nearly $3.4 billion and reported $168 million in revenue during the first quarter of this year. Some even say it's headed for a comeback. That may be one reason why the $2 million to $3 million Zynga.org brings in each year is a negligible loss compared to the halo effect this work brings the company and the rest of the gaming industry. "If we want to be a company that's a forever brand, its important that people want to be part of what we offer,” Weber says. "We want to be part of the argument that destigmatizes games."
