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Easy Ways to Help End Global Poverty Through Tech

Technology and PovertyTechnology advancements have made it easier than ever to participate in global poverty reduction efforts. From smartphone apps to browser extensions and charitable websites, keep reading to learn the easiest ways to help fight global poverty.

Apps That Help Fight Poverty

Smartphone apps may be the easiest form of providing assistance. Most people carry a cellphone with them wherever they go, so the ability to connect and help others is literally right at their fingertips. The five apps listed below are just a few examples of how technology can help to reduce poverty.

  • OLIO – OLIO is a food-sharing app based in the U.K. that allows people and local businesses to post food items nearing their best-by or sell-by date for other people to pick up. To date, over 1 million people have joined the app and 1.8 million portions of food have been shared. To post items, download the app, add a picture and description of the item, list when and where it can be picked up and wait for someone to claim it. To request items, scroll through the local listings, request what is needed and arrange to pick up through a private message.
  • Chowberry – Chowberry is an online Nigeria-based app, similar to OLIO, that has the goal of “reach[ing] millions of food-deprived individuals with affordable nutrition through innovation and enabling technologies”. Chowberry works with orphanages and faith-based organizations, as well as everyday customers to deliver soon-expiring food products to those most in need.
  • Share the Meal – Share the Meal was created by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). The WFP helps 80 million people with food assistance and is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting against hunger. Download the app, donate 50 cents (or more) in a few seconds and feed a child for the day. You can even check the app to see where the meals will be distributed.
  • WeFarm – WeFarm is a farmer-to-farmer digital network that allows farmers to connect to other farmers in various parts of the world, without the use of the Internet. More than 1 million farmers have been helped using WeFarm and over 40,000 questions and answers are sent in each day. Farmers can text their local WeFarm number a question they have, and other connected farmers can respond with their answers and suggestions.
  • Donate a Photo – Donate a Photo is an app created by Johnson & Johnson that allows users to “donate” a photo for a cause. Simply take a picture of any subject, choose what cause to donate it to and upload it. For every photo donated, Johnson & Johnson will donate $1 to a certain charity. So far, there have been more than 4.5 million photo donations benefiting more than 200 causes including Save the Children, RED (fight for AIDS) and A Leg to Stand On.

Browser Extensions That Help Fight Poverty

Browser extensions are another easy way to help others. Unlike apps, which require a little effort to use, extensions require none other than downloading them. Although there are several extensions to choose from, Tab for a Cause is probably the most well known. As creator Alex Groth says, this is a way “where everyone can be giving to charity regardless of your monetary worth at that time.”

Tab for a Cause – Tab for a Cause is a web app/browser extension that works off of opening new tabs. Each time a new tab is opened, the page displays blogs and articles related to various issues to help raise awareness and education as well as ads to help generate revenue which is then donated to different organizations and charities. Tab for a Cause has partnered with Water.org, Room to Read, Human Rights Watch, Conservation International, International Peace Institute and Save the Children. To date, Tab for a Cause has raised $791,766 for various charities.

Websites That Help Fight Poverty

The following sites offer ways to help fight global poverty in the easiest ways possible in many cases at no additional cost to the website user.

  • FreeRice – FreeRice is a website that allows users to essentially play a game to donate food and money to those in need. Each question answered correctly refreshes the page and provides a new sponsored ad which in turn generates money donated to the World Food Programme. Although most donations go towards providing grain for vulnerable families, the company also provides other types of food assistance, “depending on where needs are greatest.” So far the organization has donated the equivalent 202 billion grains of rice to families experiencing hunger.
  • The Hunger Site – The Hunger Site is a partner of GreaterGood, an organization that raises money through online auctions for charities around the world. Although The Hunger Site works like a store with items available for purchase with proceeds being donated, they have a quick, easy and free way to help as well. At the top of their page, they have a “Click to Give” button. Clicking this button donates a specific amount of money from sponsored advertisers to provide food for areas in need, and since 1999 the organization has funded more than 714 billion cups of food. GreaterGood has several offshoots of this campaign, with similar sites for breast cancer, Alzheimer’s and diabetes research, literacy awareness, animal shelter donations and a few others. Overall, since 1999 and through the use of these websites and their online auctions, GreaterGood has raised and donated over $50 million to charities around the world.
  • Amazon Smile – Amazon Smile is a project of Amazon that works exactly the same and offers the same products. The difference is that when shopping through Amazon Smile a portion of the proceeds will be donated to a charity of the shopper’s choice, without any additional cost to the shopper. As of 2018, Amazon had announced that it had made over $100 million in charitable donations since the Amazon Smiles program was launched in 2013.

– Jessica Winarski
Photo: Flickr

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The 10 Apps That Fight Poverty

10 Apps that Fight Poverty
With technology always growing and changing it is now easier than ever to fight poverty and support different organizations in fun and unique ways. There is no better way to fight poverty than with something most everyone has — a phone. Adults in the United States spent an average of three hours and 35 minutes per day on mobile devices in 2018. There are apps that are designed to help fight poverty or support local and overseas charities all with a few taps on the screen. With the abundance of these apps available, it was very easy to find 10 apps that fight poverty. Many of these apps even include a fun twist that gets people motivated to donate. All 10 apps listed below are available to download as of February 2019.

  1. Compassion is an app that allows the phone holder to sponsor a child in need of aid in Africa, Asia, Central and South America and the Caribbean. If the phone holder is already a sponsor within an organization, they can also sign up with their sponsor number to gain access to more information about the child they are sponsoring.
  2. One Today allows phone holders to donate funds to various causes and organizations and is pretty straight forward about it. When the phone holder looks at a specific organization or cause, they are about to quickly learn about the issue and how the organization is actively fighting it. This app explains how much of the funds given to one organization will help that specific organization achieve its goals. The price may vary. Today gives the phone holder a chance to give $1, to match the profile’s request, match a friends donation, or give more than the suggested amount. Phone holders don’t have to worry about where their money is going because 100 percent of the money that is donated is given directly to the organization.
  3. ShareTheMeal is the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) app that allows users to feed a hungry child. It is easy to navigate and has plenty of feeding plans to choose from, with the most basic involving donation 50 cents to give a child one meal and the most complex being over a $1,000 to feed a child for a year. The app also gives the option to add a custom amount. It is easy to quickly see where the funds are going and how they are helping children from around the world grow and survive.
  4. Connect & Care is another app that lets users find real charities around the world and set up regular donations to them right from their phone. The app allows the phone holder to learn more about the causes they are supporting and see how the charity is making an impact on the donations given.
  5. Donate a Photo is a unique and simple app that utilizes something everyone does with their phones, which is taking pictures. For every photo sent to Johnson & Johnson’s website with this app, the company donates $1 to a good cause that the phone holder chooses.
  6. Campaigns made on Spotfund can be local or overseas but all are verified and easy to give to. It is a quick, easy and safe way for phone holders to donate to good causes and to even start a story of their own. Spotfund’s minimum donation size is 1$, so everyone can participate and all donations are anonymous.
  7. Maximuslife is an app that encourages the user to give by getting active. Run, walk, bike, skate, climb and more and each step that is taken benefits the cause of the users choosing. Phone holders are able to do these activities on their own or join a challenge group to participate with.
  8. GoodBooky is a fun way to get friends involved in the giving. With this fun app, you can make a friendly wager on major sporting events, TV show finales or random customized bets with friends. The loser donates to the winner’s selected charity. All the user has to do is make a bet, choose a friend and charity, and settle an amount. After the other player accepts the bet, the game begins on who will win for their charity.
  9. Flourish is a useful app for everyday spending. By using a rounding up system, the app can take the $3.50 a user spent on coffee and add 50 cents to give to a charity of the users choice. By rounding up cents the app gives phone holders the chance to donate without taking to much funding. The app also allows for recurring one time donations, and what is called “double tip rules.” A double tip is when the rounding up system is doubled for items set by the user. For example, if the user were to set a double tip rule to apply to every time they bought ice cream, then the app would recognize the purchases and give double to the charities.
  10. Сharidy is a great way to keep track of all donations and organizations, store receipt and set up recurring giving to favorite causes. It is great for users who enjoy donating and keeping records of how they have helped certain organizations before.

These 10 apps that fight poverty are just a few of many that aim to make the world a better place. They make it easy to donate and get involved with great causes that are in your backyard or halfway across the world. Since they are so simple to use, people do not have any excuses not to help the poor.

– Madeline Oden

Photo: Flickr

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3 Charity Apps You Should Know About

Charity appsIn addition to advocacy and mobilizing governments to make a difference, donating to charities can have a major impact in the fight against global poverty and hunger. Here are three charity apps that are making a difference on a global scale:

  1. Share The Meal: Share The Meal is the world’s first charity app against global hunger. By donating only 50 cents you can feed one child in hunger for an entire day. Since its founding in 2014, Share The Meal has donated more than 7 million meals to children suffering from hunger. Share The Meal funds are distributed by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger. Currently, Share The Meal funds are being used to feed Syrian refugee children in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley where 40 percent of the 360,000 Syrian refugees living in the Bekaa Valley are under the age of 12, according to data compiled by the UNHCR.
  2. Donate A Photo: Taking a picture can do more than just capture a moment, it can help people across the world. For every photo you share through the Donate a Photo charity app, Johnson & Johnson donates $1 to a cause of your choice. So far, over 1.3 million photos have been donated through the app. Causes vary from helping a newborn in Ethiopia survive through UNICEF, to giving a girl in Guatemala school supplies via Girl Up. Sharing photos not only helps to raise money but also spreads awareness. Sharing one photo per day is equivalent to donating $365 in a year.
  3. Charity Miles: Charity Miles allows you to raise money for every mile that you walk, run, or bike. The app uses your phone’s GPS and accelerometer to calculate the distance you traveled. Walkers and runners earn up to 25 cents per mile and bikers earn up to 10 cents per mile, according to Charity Miles’ Terms of Service. There are more than 30 different charities to earn donations on behalf, including The World Food Programme, Pencils of Promise, Girl Up and Every Mother Counts. Charity Miles’ goal is to raise $1 billion for charities by the end of 2016.

If you are looking for ways to donate funds, in addition to empowering others and spreading the word on poverty reduction, these three charity apps put the opportunity to make an impact directly at your fingertips.

– Kristyn Rohrer

Photo: Pixabay