Most of our everyday activities are pretty blas\u00e9. Eating, commuting, working, and on and on.<\/p>\n
And let\u2019s be honest \u2013 while most people feel positively about donating to charity, for many life gets in the way, and they become distracted. While supporting a cause is a good thing, sometimes people need an extra bump.<\/p>\n
Yet, even the most mundane activities can become fun and engaging when made into a game. That\u2019s the concept of gamification.<\/p>\n
Think about feeding a toddler.<\/p>\n
You know they aren\u2019t even remotely interested in opening their mouth for that spoon \u2013 until, that is, it becomes an airplane complete with propeller noises.<\/p>\n
Grownups like to turn the routine into a game as well. Take exercising. Not many people are super excited about getting up for a run. But what if\u00a0zombies\u00a0were chasing you? You\u2019re up and at \u2018em!<\/p>\n
This phenomenon is gamification \u2013 taking some of the best parts of game-play and translating it into everyday life.<\/p>\n
And when gamification is integrated into your fundraising campaign, you can take donating from something that \u201cwould be nice to do\u201d to being a fun, compelling experience that supporters will come back to again and again.<\/p>\n
Simply put, gamification happens when you use game-like design or strategy in non-game contexts. Not only does this make things more fun, but it can seriously increase your engagement.<\/p>\n
The term first appeared in 2002, but didn\u2019t gain popularity until 2010. Now it\u2019s a major trend, and it looks like it\u2019s here to stay.<\/p>\n
Racking up frequent flyer miles is an old school example of gamification \u2013 today, you have people unlocking badges on FourSquare and competing to become the Mayor of their favorite hangouts.<\/p>\n
Some more examples of common gamification techniques:<\/p>\n
Facebook and LinkedIn have progress bars to show how much of your profile you\u2019ve completed. Seeing an unfinished progress bar drives people nuts, so they tend to want to fill out their profile in full to get to 100%.<\/p>\n
Whether it\u2019s an app that times bicyclists in Central Park, or Trip Advisor\u2019s list of top reviewers, leader boards encourage competition and reward people publicly for their participation.<\/p>\n
Giving people badges to put on their profiles or levels that they can display lets them show the world their achievements. Foursquare does this pretty well. Yelp also gives reviewers \u201celite\u201d status levels based on their activities.<\/p>\n
Credit card companies often give rewards in the form of points that users can redeem for cash or merchandise. Frequent flyer miles fall in this category too.<\/p>\n
Letting users rack up points that they can exchange for goodies is certainly an encouragement for them to use your service. And not all goodies have to be physical \u2013 you can also reward point with access to certain privileges or information.<\/p>\n
If gamification works in the for-profit world, it can work for your nonprofit online fundraising campaigns too. The benefit is simple: get more engagement from your supporters, which lead to more donations<\/a>.<\/p>\n Let us explain by example:<\/p>\n Another major benefit of gamification is that it can build community among your supporters. Nothing bonds people together like a good game or competition.<\/p>\n If your campaign incentivizes supporter interaction, like awarding points for uploading content to your nonprofit Facebook page. You can create a space where supporters are engaging and having fun together. And that\u2019s always a good thing!<\/p>\n Here are some examples of real companies and nonprofits that have used gamification for good.<\/p>\n MLB revamped their All-Star Game Charity 5k & Fun Run by adding an element of online gamification. They allowed participants sign up online, join virtual teams, and share a personal All-Star page to share on social media.<\/p>\n Supporters could earn badges while donating funds and recruiting teammates. In the end, they raised a record breaking $230K and engaged 6,900 supporters.<\/p>\n PETA gamified their annual report \u2013 taking it from a stodgy, snooze-inducing read to an engaging and educational experience. They added interactive graphics that allowed users to become a part of the encounter.<\/p>\n PETA also launched a mobile app that awarded badges for different advocacy actions, like writing a senator or signing a petition. This lead to an increase in their advocacy actions by 3 times the usual amount!<\/p>\n Groupon\u2019s nonprofit wing, G-Team, uses a \u201ctipping point\u201d model in their fundraising campaigns. That is, donations will only go into effect if a certain number of people or amount of funds is reached.\u00a0The tipping point acts much like a progress bar that people want to complete.<\/p>\n Gamification is all about getting people to change their behavior. If you\u2019re trying to use game techniques but not getting anywhere, well, you\u2019re doing it wrong. In order for someone to alter their behavior, some psychological factors need to align.<\/p>\n Smart guy Stanford professor B.J. Fogg came up with a theory that he humbly called Fogg\u2019s Behavioral Model (FBM). It says that in order for a behavior to occur, three things must converge at the same time: motivation, ability, and trigger.<\/p>\n So in order for gamification to work, you need to capitalize on these three elements.\u00a0In a gamified system:<\/p>\n The key is making all of these things happen at the same time. Successful gamification will allow these dynamics to align in perfect formation, and then BAM! Engagement happens.<\/p>\n While gamification is flush with benefits, there are a few caveats to keep in mind. No system is perfect \u2013 especially if done flippantly.<\/p>\n Ultimately, you want people to care about your cause, and that should be the primary motivator for people to take action. Competition can make things fun, but you don\u2019t want to shift the spotlight from the real issues you work to address. You can still\u00a0use gamification techniques without undermining your cause\u00a0<\/a>\u2013 you just need to be careful about it.<\/p>\n From using resources to create rewards to setting up an entire system of levels and points, gamification takes time and effort. The rewards can be worth it, but don\u2019t over extend yourself where you can\u2019t afford it. There are some simple ways to use gamification, as discussed above, too.<\/p>\n Sometimes over-saturation can make something lose its influence. Don\u2019t use gamification just because it\u2019s trendy \u2013 make sure you are being intentional about it.<\/p>\n Like all strategies, they are the most useful when they can be measured. Besides donations, the key metric you are looking for in gamification is engagement.<\/p>\n Here are some engagement metrics to factor in:<\/p>\n Abstract benefits of gamification, like fun, awareness, and community are also really valuable. In some ways these should be expressed in the engagement metrics \u2013 the more new supporters you gain, or social shares you get, the more awareness is spread.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re getting more user generated content, you are building more community. You get the idea.<\/p>\n You\u2019re probably already using some gamification techniques \u2013 like a thermometer showing how close your campaign is to reaching its fundraising goal.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re implementing gamification for the first time, start with the small things. Before launching an entire campaign based around gamification, make sure it will work on the small scale.<\/p>\n Here are some things you can do to get started:<\/p>\n And above all, have fun!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Learn how to integrate gamification into your fundraising campaign and craft a compelling experience that supporters will come back to again and again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Gia Chow","author_link":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/author\/gia\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Real life gamification successes<\/h2>\n
MLB<\/h3>\n
PETA<\/h3>\n
Groupon G-Team<\/h3>\n
What makes gamification work?<\/h2>\n
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Drawbacks of Gamification<\/h2>\n
Gamification can distort motive<\/h3>\n
Gamification can be costly and complex<\/h3>\n
Gamification has been around the block<\/h3>\n
Gamification metrics<\/h2>\n
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Getting started with gamification<\/h2>\n
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