New charity website HopeMob takes a cue from Reddit by letting users vote-up their favorite content. Or in the case of HopeMob, users vote for what they think is the most compelling plea for help.
"If Mother Teresa built a platform with the tech base of Groupon, Foursquare, & Netflix & the heart of CNN Heroes, it would look like HopeMob!" reads HopeMob's homepage.
The soon-to-be launched website is the second "social giving" site founded by tech and humanitarian entrepreneur Shaun King. King said he wants HopeMob to be a platform for spotlighting untold stories and getting people help.
"People that want to give time and money don't feel good about their current options," King said. "People who are in need don't have the time or social network (to find help)."
Here's how it works: Users register for HopeMob by creating a username and password. After registering, HopeMob will give each user 50 story points. Story points are used to vote a story up in the "cause queue." The queue will be filled with real-life stories that tug at the heart strings — families who've lost their houses, people who've lost their jobs — basically anyone who's fallen through the cracks.
The queue will hold a total of 23 stories. The public can only vote on the stories in the 4 – 20 categories. These stories can be voted up using points. Users of the site cannot put more than 250 points toward one story. Categories 1-3 are "locked," meaning they cannot be voted on and will get attention as each top featured story is resolved. When the featured story is fulfilled, the story in the second slot will be the featured story. The story in the fourth spot, which the public voted on, will move to the "locked" queue and be guaranteed a resolution.
The "featured story" will be the only issue users of the site can donate to. The issue will be given a large and international platform where people can focus on one problem at a time. The featured story will stay in the spotlight until that person's need is fulfilled.
"We try to make it so that each cause is achievable," King said.
Every dollar donated will go directly to the cause. And not every need will be monetary, King said, because "that would get old."
The top profile might be a young girl with cancer who wants 20,000 Facebook fans or a single mother who lost her job and needs help getting interviews.
People in need of assistance who want to be featured on the site can submit an application and will have to be verified. The stories will be compiled by a staff of 1,000 volunteer writers, photographers and videographers in more than six continents.
To grade each story that comes forward, King said they are using a similar point system that social workers follow to ensure serious and urgent problems get priority.
King said he believes the site will also generate help from the very people the site serves. Those people in need will want to see their cause get higher in the queue and be eager to help when they can, he explained.
Users will get points for Tweeting the featured story, donating or referring a friend to the site.
HopeMob is scheduled to launch in March 2012. A profile on Kickstarter says it will look like a combination of Groupon, Foursquare and Netflix, with timed causes and points-based incentives. Both Android and iPhone apps will be released late March.
Currently, their Twitter reach is 375,000 people. By the end of the calendar year, King said he wants to reach 1 million people through Twitter and have 100,000 HopeMob subscribers.
King also started TwitChange in August 2010 to raise money for Haiti. TwitChange tapped into the desire most people have on Twitter, King said, to have a celebrity follow or re-tweet them. Celebrity tweets were auctioned off, and TwitChange raised nearly $600,000 for an orphanage in Haiti. King eventually sold the site.
King is not the first person to use harness social media to champion a cause.
"I really think this is going to work," he said of HopeMob. "I wouldn't have known this had I not spent the past few years in the field of social good."
What do you think about HopeMob? Please tell us in the comments.
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