Globalrichlist.com raises funds for CARE
Howard Lake | 24 September 2003 | News
Globalrichlist.com sounds like a prospect researcher’s dream come true. Instead it’s a viral campaign to raise awareness and funds for development agency CARE International.
The campaign was created by London-based creative agency Poke. They say they built the site “because we wanted to challenge people’s perception of their personal wealth. And while we’re at it hopefully raise some money for a good cause.” In fact, the link with CARE came after the initial idea.
The idea is to make people feel rich and then to persuade them to give some of that money to charity. The approach is both well researched and humorous. You are asked to enter your annual salary (whether in dollars or pounds), and you are then given a ranking comparing your income to that of everyone on the planet. Not surprisingly, a comfortable income in the UK rockets one into the richest one per cent on earth.
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We were greeted with the response: “You are in the top 0.892% richest people in the world. There are 5,946,473,235 people poorer than you.” The site then calculates one hour of your salary and suggests you donate it online to CARE International, which uses Justgiving.com’s online donation facility.
I’m the 53,526,765 richest person on earth! Discover how rich you are! >> |
Even better, the site offers you a customised graphic button to add to your Web site to promote the Globalrichlist.com to others. You can choose from three personalised boxes and three generic buttons.
In its first month, the site has raised £3,032.82. Not a huge sum, but remember that this initiative simply required CARE’s approval: it was conceived and implemented by the agency.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.