The United Nations launched a poverty-fighting app called 'Share the Meal' to raise money for food for child refugees in Syria. The app invites users to donate in 50¢ increments -- enough money to provide one school meal for a child.
Users simply tap their smartphone to send that money, while other aspects of the mobile platform educates about how the money is used as well as show a map of the campaign country. The app can also connect to social media in order to share it with friends and family and will likely extend to other campaigns once the 20,000 refugee goal is reached.
Share the Meal has already proven to be very successful -- utilizing a mobile platform that is easily, fast and accessible for people of all ages to donate money to a worthy cause. By collecting the money in 50¢ increments, the UN successfully educates about the impact a little bit of money can have in developing countries in eradicating poverty.
Poverty-Fighting Food Apps
Share the Meal is an App That Collects 50¢ to Help Feed Child Refugees
Trend Themes
1. Mobile Donation Apps - Developing mobile donation apps for charitable causes can revolutionize aid collection and help fundraisers to streamline their processes more efficiently for charitable causes.
2. Crowdfunding for Humanitarian Aid - The success of the Share the Meal app demonstrates that crowdfunding strategies could be useful for low-investment charity campaigns that benefit from small but widespread contributions.
3. Social Media for Donations - Incorporating social media sharing features into fundraising apps can maximize exposure, help in expanding reach and, as a result, raise more funds for the humanitarian needs.
Industry Implications
1. Non-profit Organisations - Implementation of mobile apps that facilitate and encourage charitable donations can increase the transparency of non-profit organizations and therefore, elevate their trustworthiness among the stakeholders.
2. Technology - Collaboration between technological advancements and charitable causes can present a unique opportunity for technologists to participate in promoting social causes and contribute to humanitarian issues.
3. Social Networking Sites - As the successful implementation of social media into Share the Meal by the United Nations shows, charity campaign organizers can leverage existing social networking sites to expose their campaigns to as many people as possible and collect support for their causes.