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These examples worked because the charities behind them understood the psychology of gamers, according to Marrins. Photograph: Juergen Schwarz/Getty Images
These examples worked because the charities behind them understood the psychology of gamers, according to Marrins. Photograph: Juergen Schwarz/Getty Images

Five ways charities use gamification

This article is more than 9 years old
Charities are using gaming, such as researching cancer cures through an app, to increase the reach of their message

As technology has developed and popularity of smartphones increased, charities have developed new ways to engage with the public. Innovative ideas like gamification are being used across the charity sector to spread awareness and in some cases fundraise.

It's important to understand gamification is less about playing a game, but rather about the psychology around the principles of gameplay, such as rewarding behaviour through badges or creating competition through leader boards and analysing people's behaviour. Once charities understand people's motivations to act in certain ways, we can then use that insight to create a meaningful game to influence behaviour in a way that helps us meet our objectives. Charities have successfully been using gamification for a number of years. Here are my top five charity gamification campaigns.

iHobo

In 2010, youth homelessness charity Depaul UK launched iHobo – a tamagotchi-style app where people had to look after a young person living rough on the streets for three days. The app used push notifications to let the user know that food, a sleeping bag or shelter from the cold was needed. By helping, you earned points; by neglecting, you not only lost points but you risked their life spiralling out of control. The aim of the app was to raise awareness of the complex and varied issues around youth homelessness in a way that you couldn't just ignore. The campaign achieved free media coverage, valued at £2.3m, and had 600,000 downloads.

Cell Slider

Cell Slider
Photograph: CRUK

Every two minutes someone in the UK is diagnosed with cancer. Advances in technology means that we are closer than ever to finding cures for the 200 plus types of cancer but, according to Cancer Research UK (CRUK), it takes scientists up to 18 months to classify cells. This is why CRUK, in collaboration with Zooniverse, have developed a game called Cell Slider where ordinary people learn how to analyse real life cancer data, helping scientists move ever closer to a cure. So far more than 2m images have been analysed.

Give Girls Power

Give Girls power
Photograph: Save the Children

Give Girls Power is an online game created by Save the Children in 2012 in the run up to the Family Planning Summit, which was held in London. It formed part of their wider No Child Born To Die campaign and its aim was to educate people on the issues surrounding the summit and to inspire people to take action by signing a petition.

The game puts you in the shoes of a 16-year-old girl, giving you a number of scenarios where you need to make decisions, highlighting the lack of options that teenagers in developing countries have in deciding their own future. The campaign exceeded its target of petition signatures by 18% and exceeded attracting new audiences to the charity by almost 40%.

Gemma's World

Gemma's world
Photograph: The Children's Society

With 1.2 million children – more than half the total number of children living in poverty in the UK – not getting free school meals and with 700,000 not entitled to them under the existing system, The Children's Society knew they had to do something to highlight this. They created an online game called Gemma's World, as part of a wider campaign, which lets the player see how Gemma lives, where she goes to school as well as the community she lives in.

When presented with first person statements, the game constantly asks if the user has had enough, directing them to go and sign a petition and express their support for the overall goal of extending free school meals to all 2.2 million children who live in poverty in the UK. The campaign was a great success, with almost 30,000 unique visitors and an average time of two minutes being spent playing the game. Along with other online and offline activity, the petition reached 90,000 signatures.

Dryathlon

Dryathon
Photograph: CRUK

The month after Christmas, known as Dry January is a month where many abstain from alcohol to make up for the excesses of the festive season. CRUK very cleverly used gamification to create Dryathlon, a fundraising initiative where people who sign up become Dryathletes and earn badges for abstaining from alcohol. They also had a leadership board, which was continually updated using a JustGiving API, for those Dryathletes (individual or team) who raised the most money, creating a sense of competition. The pilot year, in 2013, had more than 35,000 participants and raised a staggering £4m. More importantly for the charity, it tapped into a new fundraising audience – men. Previously around 85% of their supporters were women under the age of 55.

While these campaigns may have different goals, the common thread running through all of them is that they were designed to achieve specific strategic objectives. Gamification should never be about a game for games sake, but rather about how using game mechanics can lead to desired behavioural outcomes. It's this very premise that makes gamification work for any cause. If you have a strategic objective and a desired outcome then you can create a game to help you achieve that goal in a way that educates, engages and, most importantly, inspires your audience to take action – whether that's fundraising, signing petitions or contributing to vital research.

Kirsty Marrins is a digital communications consultant.

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