Each Friday, the another jennifer blog shares stories of those who incorporate philanthropy into their everyday lives – personally and professionally – in a creative and unique way. If you have a story you’d like to share, please contact Jennifer. You can view past posts from the series here.
My good friends over at B1G1, a social enterprise initiative in Singapore, recently gave me the opportunity to check out their brand new app called Shake the World. It’s a simple and fun app that allows you to provide clean, safe, life-saving water to people in need in Ethiopia for a day. (Note: If you missed my post on B1G1, you can read it HERE.)
Like B1G1’s work with businesses and individuals, the Shake the World app provides another way to give back by completing a simple action. When you open up the free app, you shake your phone until the glass that appears fills with water. Once it’s filled, and your kids are entertained by the sounds it makes in the process, you can share what you’ve done with the in-app share buttons that then appear. From there, you’ll need to enlist a friend to help keep the “water shaking” going. You can create a “friendship ID” and send it along via email or text. And the process keeps repeating until more people shake and provide life-saving water!
Sharon Chan, Shake the World Project Leader, tells me the water is provided through the WellWishers Trust, one of the 48 Worthy Cause Partners at B1G1. Being a Worthy Cause Partner at B1G1 already means that WellWishers has met a series of stringent criteria, which includes having a transparent accounting and reporting system, as well as an efficient way of using their funds to benefit those who really need it most. 100% of the contributions from the app are channeled to WellWishers Trust for the construction of wells in Ethiopia.
In addition, the app allows you to ‘make wishes’ — a wish that, in and of itself, is consistent with the B1G1 philosophy. It might be something like ‘Every time I dine out, I wish that a child in need could have a nutritious meal’, or ‘every time I jump in my car, I wish that a child in need had access to a bicycle to get to school’.
You might wonder how the water is actually provided to those in Ethiopia via the WellWishers Trust. Each “water shake” is sponsored by a host of B1G1’s small business clients around the world.
To date, those clients using the B1G1 platform have made possible 44,700,000 giving impacts around the world. The Shake The World App will add many more.
Here’s a quick video that explains the app.
Find out more at shaketheworld.me.
Are you ready to Shake the World?
