With you and the kids on an extended vacation, it’s time to break out the phones for the good-giving apps.
During the long morning commute, kids’ sports games, and time spent sitting in the carpool lane, we’re all guilty of being glued to our phones. And with an app for everything, our phone and tablet use doesn’t have to be limited to social networking. Both the Apple store and Android Play store feature apps that aim to do good.
These apps are just the tip of the iceberg, with offerings growing increasingly innovative. A handful of available apps even encourage you to kick bad habits while giving back; from an alarm clock that donates to your favorite charity every time you hit snooze to an app that charges you whenever you tweet a bad word, you’re able to shape the world—and yourself.
Food
Feedie (free): Always Instagramming your food? Use this app to share food—literally. Post your culinary photos from participating restaurants, and the restaurant will make a donation to The Lunchbox Fund, a nonprofit that provides daily meals to schoolchildren in South Africa. While only one Chicago restaurant is currently a Feedies Welcome restaurant—North Avenue’s Chop Shop—the app is growing fast.
Get Water (free): This fun new app puts you in the center of a village in India with Maya, a girl who wants to go to school but is forced to spend her days collecting water instead. Combat foes, throw boomerangs and dodge flying turtles to help Maya complete her task and get back to school. The makers of the app have teamed with charity: water, with half of the proceeds from in-app purchases benefitting the organization.
Environment
Project Noah (free): Say you’re out for a hike with the family, and you find yourself captivated by a gorgeous flowering plant. You want to know more, but your Google searching is fruitless. Project Noah is here to help with community-driven species identification for wildlife and plants and area field guides, all in the name of documenting the planet’s biodiversity.
Health and Wellness
Your Man Reminder (free): This app encourages women to stay on top of their breast health, using images and videos of hot guys to remind you to get checked for breast cancer. You can even send a “Man-O-Gram” to a friend—a personalized message from an attractive (likely shirtless) man to help them stay aware of the importance of early detection.
Charity Miles (free): Get active and get giving! This app measures your distance as you walk, run or bike and translates the mileage to money for the charity of your choice, $0.10 per mile for bikers, $0.25 for walkers and bikers. A new update also includes indoor workouts to stay useful during the winter.
Pufferfish Software ($0.99 – $4.99): This unique company builds educational apps that help with the therapy and care of autistic children by emphasizing visual and audio stimuli to enable reading comprehension. Apps like Visual Routine, Touch Talking and Emotion Cards aid children in communicating thoughts and expressing emotions. Pufferfish regularly donates proceeds to facilities committed to autism research.
Donate
One Today (free to Android users): This Google-powered app, exclusively on the Android platform, introduces users to different nonprofits every day, allowing them to donate to causes that inspire them by matching friends’ $1 donations. One Today provides clear data on how your donation benefits the people in need ($1 equals one day of school for 30 students in Afghanistan through BRAC), so you can see just where your money is going.
Budge Challenge (free): Hedging a bet with pals? Make victory even sweeter by dedicating your winnings to a good cause through this fun app. Challenge your friends to anything—a feat of strength, a battle of wits, a Hunger Games trivia contest—and the loser will make a small donation to a worthy cause. Justify your smugness—you’re a compassionate victor.
Charitybuzz (free): Have you ever dreamed of an internship at Chanel? Or a personal styling session with Cynthia Rowley? Or, this writer’s dream, a lunch with Nick Offerman on the set of Parks and Recreation? Charitybuzz makes these aspirations and so many more possible, auctioning off extraordinary experiences and luxuries to benefit charities. It’s a win-win, making dreams come true while supporting incredible causes.
Zealous Good (free): Looking to retire gifts from Christmases past? Zealous Good is eager to help you find a Chicago charity in need of your items. While their iPhone app is currently undergoing a serious update, their web app works in much the same way. Simply identify what you have in excess, and Zealous Good will match you with an organization in need of your donation.
Instead (free): Remember that you don’t have to be a billionaire to change the world; you can make a difference with just a small change in your daily routine. Instead offers cost-effective alternatives to the things we do daily, from stopping for a latte at Starbucks to grabbing lunch from the corner deli, and encourages you to donate the savings to a nonprofit partner.
Volunteers
The Extraordinaries (free): Be a true superhero and take the time to microvolunteer. The Extraordinaries matches you with a service opportunity based on your interests and skills. The nonprofits’ needs are usually quick and easy; if you’re a social media maven, help an organization brainstorm how to best share its message. There’s an easy task for almost every talent, so you can give back without disrupting your routine.
