Source: treehugger.com
Published: October 29, 2015
Watching a 45 second video triggers a donation from a private company so that Eden Projects can pay villagers to plant trees – up to 10,000 of them.
What if you could help boost the efforts of a nonprofit by helping them get funded, without having to do much more than click a link and watch a quick video? Sounds pretty good, right? That’s the idea behind a startup of a group of UC Berkeley students who aim to solve “social and environmental issues by reinventing advertisement and donations.”
The platform, WeGive.io, currently in beta, is running a campaign to support a tree-planting initiative by Eden Reforestation Projects, which aims to plant 10,000 trees in Madagascar and employ local villagers to do the work. This campaign serves the dual purpose of providing much-needed income to villagers while also helping to fight deforestation on the island, which is estimated to have lost some 90% of its original forests (as well as many other species that depend on those forest ecosystems).
By clicking through to WeGive.io and watching the 45 second video from Eden Projects, a private donor will fund the planting of a single tree through the organization’s network in Madagascar, and those who watch the video to the end will also be able to name their tree and receive photos of it via email. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it could very well be the beginning of a whole new way of making a difference without having to use your own money.
WeGive.io/Screen capture
“People can now support social projects they care about, for free. Our first partner, Eden Reforestation Projects, is one of the largest tree planting organizations in the world. Together, we aim at hiring local villagers in Madagascar to plant 5000 trees per week. Our community is growing fast with more than 250 registrations per day: the revolution of free giving has begun.” – WeGive
According to Nicolas Bustamante, WeGive.io isn’t solely focused on planting trees, as the tree-planting campaign is just the current project being supported by the platform. In weeks to come, other videos will be shown to users via the WeGive platform, the watching of which will trigger a donation from a company to an NGO of your choosing, so if you’re ready and willing to give 45 seconds of your time in exchange for a nonprofit receiving some funding, after you’ve watched the tree-planting video, be sure to bookmark the site so you can continue to help grow this initiative.