Spring Break
Vocabulary game feeds poor
Janhavi Purohit
Issue date: 11/16/07 Section: News
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Online fundraising contributor John Breen recently introduced FreeRice.com, a fundraising plan in conjunction with the United Nations World Food Programme and sister site poverty.com.
Breen's newest creation proposes an innovative way to help end world hunger.
FreeRice.com is a web site that allows users to play a vocabulary game while donating food. Viewers are shown words of varying difficulty with a list of possible synonyms underneath. For each word correctly matched with its synonym, 10 grains of rice are donated to the UNWFP.
In a press release from the UNWFP, program head Josette Sheeran said, "FreeRice really hits home how the web can be harnessed to raise awareness and funds for the world's No. 1 emergency. The site is a viral marketing success story with more than 1 billion grains of rice donated in just one month to help tackle hunger worldwide."
Companies such as .mac, Radisson, Office Max, TIME Life, and Fujitsu are among a variety of sponsors connected with the site.
"It's through our affiliate program. I've heard a lot of people are participating, though," Corporate Public Relations Spokesperson for .mac, Susan Lundgren, said.
These companies, however, do not typically have much interaction with the actual workings of the site.
"The reason you saw our Radisson logo on the site is that they signed up to use that link through an affiliate program with a company called Linkshare," Jeff Faust, a spokesperson from the public relations department of Carlson Hotels and Resorts, said.
Faust explained that the sponsor companies receive exposure on the FreeRice site, while FreeRice makes a commission from, in the case of Carlson Hotels, any bookings that result from a viewer connecting to Carlson Hotel sites through FreeRice.com.
"We don't have anything to do with the web site or their mission," Faust said.
U.S. Spokesperson for the UNWFP, Bettina Luescher, encouraged the growth and expansion of FreeRice.com.
Breen's newest creation proposes an innovative way to help end world hunger.
FreeRice.com is a web site that allows users to play a vocabulary game while donating food. Viewers are shown words of varying difficulty with a list of possible synonyms underneath. For each word correctly matched with its synonym, 10 grains of rice are donated to the UNWFP.
In a press release from the UNWFP, program head Josette Sheeran said, "FreeRice really hits home how the web can be harnessed to raise awareness and funds for the world's No. 1 emergency. The site is a viral marketing success story with more than 1 billion grains of rice donated in just one month to help tackle hunger worldwide."
Companies such as .mac, Radisson, Office Max, TIME Life, and Fujitsu are among a variety of sponsors connected with the site.
"It's through our affiliate program. I've heard a lot of people are participating, though," Corporate Public Relations Spokesperson for .mac, Susan Lundgren, said.
These companies, however, do not typically have much interaction with the actual workings of the site.
"The reason you saw our Radisson logo on the site is that they signed up to use that link through an affiliate program with a company called Linkshare," Jeff Faust, a spokesperson from the public relations department of Carlson Hotels and Resorts, said.
Faust explained that the sponsor companies receive exposure on the FreeRice site, while FreeRice makes a commission from, in the case of Carlson Hotels, any bookings that result from a viewer connecting to Carlson Hotel sites through FreeRice.com.
"We don't have anything to do with the web site or their mission," Faust said.
U.S. Spokesperson for the UNWFP, Bettina Luescher, encouraged the growth and expansion of FreeRice.com.
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