EAvCares is the name of a new class of Achievement that we're developing for organizations who want to drive fundraising engagement, expand their network, and increase awareness as well as financial support for charitable fundraising campaigns.
It's a Pilot
One thing we've noticed as we've been rolling out Shareholder Missions is that, hands down, Shareholder Missions generally are one of the best tools for expanding your network, and have the best engagement and conversion rates of any online engagement tool.
As we've seen with previously successful charitable projects and Shareholder Missions, there's a desire by Empire Avenue members to complete the Mission, participate and give back -- so we're testing this mechanism with this EAvCares pilot.
What's next
For now, we want to run and support *this* pilot through to its conclusion. Everything we learn from it will be carefully reviewed with an eye to opening up EAvCares custom Achievements to more organizations (Registered Charities in Canada, 501(c) orgs in the US, etc) in the future.
Game Mechanics Can Change the World
The blog post by WMPitcher that supports this Charity Water fundraising initiative gives a lot of background as to why the a new custom Achievement makes sense, but this section really sums it up - motivating real-world audiences to action and engagement using online Game Mechanics:
"Companies, charities and others can take advantage of sites like Empire Avenue to drive an audience to real world action. In October, I ran an experiment where I offered virtual rewards on Empire Avenue for anyone that supported the micro-lending charity Kiva. My goal was to secure 100 loans by Christmas — a target that was actually achieved by Halloween."
You can read full details about this particular Charity Water initiative here, on WMPitcher's blog. And if you've got thoughts or suggestions about EAvCares, please feel free to leave a comment below or ping us via the support desk (http://www.empireavenue.com/support )
