Good Vibrations?

Thanks to Katherine for pointing out this site called Social Vibe that has interesting implications for our charitable fundraising sector. It uses social networking to raise money for charity, but instead of donating directly, users consume advertising (often by watching videos and completing a fun survey or quiz) and recommend brands to their friends. In return, a user gets points that translate into donations by the corporate sponsors to the user’s preferred charity. At first, the site had tried rewarding users with cash or prizes, but as Wired magazine put it, this made people feel like “poorly paid corporate shills.” Helping charities proved a more powerful incentive. It could be a cool way for companies to harness the power of social networking while doing some good. But I have a couple concerns.

1. I wonder what’s happening behind the scenes with people’s data. It seems to be set up so they can map your social network through a “badge” that you put on your Facebook page and other networking sites. You get points for sharing brands and activities with your friends through this badge. The data may be the real source of value here. I wonder if the charities could get access to it.

2. The site tries to translate points/dollars raised into tangible outcomes by saying things like “Eric provided 3 school meals for impoverished children.” This is typically a good idea for increasing donor/user commitment, but I’m unsure about the execution. Perhaps I’m being ridiculous, but I found myself wondering what exactly two minutes of cancer research would accomplish, or whether nine minutes of suicide prevention services were enough to talk someone down from the edge. Are nonprofits perhaps becoming too obsessed with quantifying the impact of every dollar? If you’re providing only micro-donations, you can’t expect macro-results.