| If you just want to know what the heck it is, though, let me sum it up: you play games, we give money to charity.
No kidding! This is so cool I don’t know where to start enthusing about it. And there’s no catch, either. All you need to do is play some of our most popular games and win badges, and we hand over cold, hard cash to the YWCA to support their charitable work. Buy the download versions of these games, and we hand over more cash. Stop by one of our live events and play there, and yep, more cash.
If you happen to have time for games, please play like a crazy person and help to make that donation check as big as possible! Get as many friends as possible to help out… I guarantee that no matter how much you play and how much we donate, you can’t bankrupt Microsoft. (Let’s try, though!!) | |
| Finding Your Cause
So you want to help support charity, and you’re not sure how to start? Well, of course the easiest way is just to play some of our great web games during the Playing for a Cause campaign. If you happen to live near one of our live events in Seattle, San Francisco or Minneapolis-St. Paul, you can meet some of your fellow players while earning $$ for charity. You might even make some new friends!
But if you feel inspired to take it one step further and choose a charity or two to support on your own, all the better. It’s a great feeling when you know that you are personally making a difference in something you feel strongly about, whatever that something might be. Since what I feel strongly about is charity in general, I’m going to natter on about it for the rest of this column. Here are a few suggestions for getting started on the road to world peace, or cleaner rivers, or a cure for cancer, or whatever is most meaningful to you!
Focus on your favorite causes
There are about a zillion charities out there, for nearly every need imaginable. A quick poll of the people who sit near me revealed supporters of charitable causes ranging from environmental restoration to cancer research to children’s health to training guide dogs. Needless to say, it’s impossible to support them all, even just the ones that appeal to you. So set aside an hour or two to sit down, put on some of your favorite music, write out a list of all the causes you feel strongly about, and then narrow it down to the few – or even just the one – you’d most like to help change. It’s a lot easier to choose a charity when you know exactly what sort of charitable work or education you want to support.
Research
It’s an unfortunate fact of life that wherever there are people genuinely trying to make a difference, there’s some other guy trying to scam them out of money. Sometimes, a “charity” that looks good on the surface may turn out to be less than charitable once they have your donation in hand. Fortunately, if you’re reading this Coffee Break, you already have one of the best tools in the world to make sure that your money is going right where it will do the most good: the Internet. No matter how legitimate a charity might sound, your best bet is still to do a quick search on their name and see what other people have to say about them. Read any news articles or reports about the group, check out their own website, see how long they’ve been around, and then make your decision! I think there’s an old saying about “an ounce of prevention” being worth a pound of feeling frustrated and angry later, or something of the sort.
Involve your kids!
The next time you’re choosing a charity to support, why not involve the entire family in your decision? Have an informal chat over dinner; ask everyone what they’d like to support. Not only is this a great way to find out more about your kids and what matters to them, but it helps to show them that their ideas matter to you! It’s also great fun to give everyone a role in the process of raising money or awareness for a cause. Say for instance that they want to send new books to a children’s hospital, maybe they could help you make brownies or cupcakes for a bake sale. If they love animals, you could take a family trip to the woods to look for threatened species, and see up close what they want to preserve. The more your kids know, and the more they’re involved, the more they’ll feel like they have the power to change the world. And that’s pretty darn cool when you’re a kid.
Check for matching funds
Many, many companies here in the States have a program to match charitable donations. This is an excellent way to give even more to your favorite cause. Before you donate, check with your employer to see if they have a funds-matching program, and whether your chosen charity is on their list. (If it isn’t, find as much documentation as you can get for your charity and drop it on the desk of your Human Resources representative. It’s always worth asking whether they might be willing to add your favorite group to the list!) Some companies will actually match as much as 100% of your donation, so it’s always worth checking into.
Money isn’t everything
Feeling broke, or just don’t feel like giving money to charity? No worries at all; there are dozens of absolutely free things you could do to make a real difference. Volunteer one summer afternoon to plant air-cleaning shrubs along busy streets or clean up neighborhood trash. Offer to tutor language or math skills to an underprivileged child. Make a deposit at the local blood bank. Donate old clothes or blankets to a homeless shelter. Call the local wildlife shelter if you spot an injured animal. Create a website to educate people about your favorite cause. Be creative, and you can find many simple, free ways to make our world a better place, and even have fun or learn something new in the process.
I know, I haven’t talked much about games this time, but charity is a subject near and dear to my heart. I’ve always believed that one person can make the world a better place, but that it works a whole lot faster if everybody is that one person. So please take the opportunity to play a few MSN games this month, win some badges, maybe buy a download game or two if you happen to like them, and revel in the fact that if anybody tells you that you’re playing too many games, you can say, “heck with that, I’m earning money for charity!”
Guilt-free gaming, woohoo! | |
