We-Care.com Seeks to Donate $100K in #MillionDimes Promo

We-Care.com, a cause marketing platform that generates money for nonprofits based on shopping, searching and ad-viewing, has launched the #MillionDimes $100,000 Charity Challenge to give away funds to nonprofit organizations.

The campaign kicked off yesterday at 12:00 PM PST and will run through January 14 at 12:00 PM PST.

“The #MillionDimes Charity Challenge is a fun way for We-Care.com to let the Twitterverse vote on which causes should get the $100,000,” says CEO Kevin Lee.

In order to participate, U.S. residents can tweet on behalf of any U.S.-based nonprofit cause by following @WeCare and including the cause’s handle in the tweet as well as @WeCare and the hashtag #MillionDimes. Every qualifying tweet counts as one vote and earns the charity ten cents, up to $1,000 per charity.

However, the charities must first be registered in the Charity Challenge at www.We-Care.com/MillionDimes.

As of Monday, Lee says there are about 850 registered charities, but We-Care.com will continue to accept registrations throughout the promotion and will retroactively count votes for any registration during the promotional period.

Registered charities include Americans for Campaign Reform, Ladies Advocating Christian Entertainment and the University of California Santa Cruz Alumni Association.

Charities can cooperate to double their donations. When one charity tweets another charity’s handle, they can both get a dime, We-Care.com says.

Why a million dimes?

“We just liked the idea of giving away $100,000 a dime at a time,” Lee says.

According to Lee, the point of the campaign is to get the word out about We-Care.com’s platform, as well as to give nonprofits an excuse to build their social media brands with current followers while attracting new ones.

“Also, this event will alert businesses to the power of cause marketing not only through We-Care.com but in general. The emotional connection that consumers have to their favorite nonprofit causes is a great way to change behaviors and brand awareness/purchase intent,” he says.

The $100,000 donation was generated through shoppers who opted to let We-Care.com choose the nonprofit cause as well as members who used We-Care.com’s browser app and elected to let We-Care choose the causes.

@WeCare has 16,000 followers.

Since it was founded in 2003, We-Care.com has donated $4.6 million to charities like ASPCA, Save the Children and the American Heart Association.

We-Care.com lets shoppers donate a percentage of every online purchase to a nonprofit, school or association. According to the website, We-Care.com has over 2,000 participating merchants, including Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, Bed, Bath and Beyond and Kohl’s. The donation percentage varies by retailer.