GO SHOPPING TO CHANGE THE WORLD- FROM CNN
(CNN) -- Check-in applications for your smartphone are all the rage; even Facebook has gotten into the game with its new "places" feature. But not all location-based apps are created equal -- or even with the same goal in mind. Enter CauseWorld, a location-based platform that allows you to turn your shopping into charity.
Made possible in part by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers' iFund, which funded 14 business plans out of the thousands it received, the company that created CauseWorld has capitalized on the check-in craze to turn marketing dollars into charitable donations -- donations that reached an impressive milestone.
CNN talked with Cyriac Roeding, the co-founder and CEO of Shopkick, which created CauseWorld. The following is a transcript that has been edited for length and clarity.
CNN: Describe CauseWorld.
ROEDING: It is the first app that lets you do good deeds simply for checking into a store. Every time you check in, you earn what we call Karma Points. These karmas turn into real money contributions to charities.
It is the first app that lets you do good deeds simply for checking into a store.
There are 30 different charities on CauseWorld. The 30 charities range from feeding a family in America, behind that is the Feeding America charity; or helping to fight cancer, that's Lance Armstrong's LiveStrong organization; or helping an earthquake victim in Haiti that goes through the Red Cross; all the way to feeding a chimp in Africa, or if you're more on the green side of things, you can plant a tree in a rainforest with American Forest. So there's a whole range of different causes on the application. The simple way to earn these karmas is to check in to stores and restaurants as you go about your shopping day.
CNN: How does the check-in process work?
ROEDING: So you open the app, and by GPS, it pulls a list of stores that are closest to you, and then you can click on them, tap on them and check in, and you earn like FIVE karmas, 10 karmas. Then you can go to the "Cause Mall" and select the cause you are most passionate about, and then your karmas turn into actual money contributions to one of these charities that you selected. And the coolest part is, you don't have to pay for this. The money comes from big brands like Citibank, Procter & Gamble, Kraft Foods and Sears, who have together provided more than a million dollars in marketing money that consumers turn into charity donations.
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