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Goodwill & Charity: There's an App for That! Using innovative approaches to donations and charity, these apps have moved on from traditional emotional appeal based requests

By Rustam Singh

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In a world where there's an app for education, transport, food, research, entertainment, sharing, networking and just about any task one may need to perform in life, why should charity be left behind? Tapping into the sector that for the majority part, everyone wants to ignore, charity or donations are risky business. Few organizations will be vocal about their CSR and even fewer individuals would generally want to part with their income, no matter how noble the cause is. Some apps and organizations are making the switch from donation based charities into an easy affair, by using apps. From just sharing socially empowering articles to actually making a difference, these apps are bridging the gap between consumers who want to do good but lack access or the appropriate means to make a risk free donation that reaches the right hands.

Here are our best four picks for donation based apps:

United Nations World Food Programme Share a Meal

Launched by the United Nations World Food Programme, the app allows you to share a meal with someone form an underdeveloped nation for as low as 0.50$ with the tap of a click. Encouraging users with graphic logos and map locations so that you can emotionally connect with the donations you're making, you can also compare with friends how many meals you've donated.

Click a regular Photograph & Help Humanity

Catering to those that feel uncomfortably donating real money, now you can simply click a photograph and Donate a Photo does the job for you. The app concept capitalizes on the useless pho0togrpahs you'd usually click for vanity or fishing for likes on social networking, Johnson & Johnson will donate 1$ to a social cause for every photograph you donate, at no cost to you. The best part? They will never be used to sell any products or for any other commercial purposes besides for the promotion of Donate a Photo.

Run for a donation

Encouraging good health and charity together, the nifty app called Charity Miles encourages users to use fitness as a goodwill method. All you have to do is either go for a job or cycle, and the app will donate 30c and 10c respectively for every mile you commute. The money is donated to each charity depending on the app's sponsorship pool for that year. You can even use it indoors or long distance runs, just any form of commotion other than

Gratitude based charity

Good Thnx runs on the principle that thanking good-deed doers through a short message and donation to a chosen charity can run a cycle of increased donations. The app encourages donations as low as 10 cents and accepts larger payments as well. The recipient is notified and they choose an aid organization to receive the donation.

Rustam Singh

Sub-Editor- Entrepreneur.com

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