Smartphone users who want to make the world a better place may donate money to a myriad of causes, and we've listed down the best apps to make that easy and cost free.
Charity Tap
The developers behind the free app Charity Tap turned donating into a playful activity. Charity Tap is a simpler version of FreeRice, an online word game owned by the World Food Programme (WFP). The app donates one grain of rice per screen tap. The more you hit your screen, more rice reaches those in need, through the WFP. The money comes from the ads displayed while you play.
A series of achievements keep you hooked and make the competitive users want to do more. Statistics enthusiasts might enjoy using the app as it counts taps per second and the number of donated rice grains mounting up.
The free app is available for iOS.
Charity Miles
Charity Miles is a way for all of us to become sponsored athletes, as the app donates according to your dynamic workout routines. Also, it allows you to raise awareness about every workout session by launching the app, choosing a charitable organization, and doing any form of movement. The app simply measures how many miles you check on your routine and makes donations based on that.
For bicycle lovers, the app donates 10 cents per mile whereas runners earn 25 cents for each mile.
The free app is available for iOS and Android.
Tin Box
Because of its novel concept, Tin Box sounds too good to be true, and we cannot wait for it to go live.
The app allows users to donate $1 daily, but not from their own money. Instead, the donations come from funds of the corporate sponsors. Of course, there is a catch: the sponsors get to display their ads on the mobile device's screen for a time of five seconds tops.
A plus for Tin Box is that the causes focus on specific niches, such as educational programs for girls or a floating hospital in developing countries. This means that each user can target his donations with transparency and precision.
The app is currently under development.
Give 2 Charity
If you fancy the idea of turning time and distance into money, then Give 2 Charity is the app for you.
Give 2 Charity permanently registers your location and computes the distance that you travelled with the phone in your pocket. After reaching certain checkpoints or time limits, users receive points. To earn $2, users must win 1,500 points. For $5, 3,000 points are required. The money then goes to a charity of the user's choice. The location data allows the app to send out a number of surveys to its users, but the developers swear that the data is well-protected.
The app might not be the first choice for privacy-conscious smartphone users. But then again, if you do have a handset with GPS capabilities, you are probably not a conspiracy theorist in the first place.
The free app is available for iOS and Android.
Donate a Photo
Johnson & Johnson is behind the Donate a Photo app, which uses a neat system to help users donate money for no cost whatsoever. Each photo you "donate" prompts Johnson & Johnson to send a $1 donation to the charitable organization of your choice. There is a cap of one photo donation per day, amounting to an annual sum of $365.
To donate your snapped images, just download the app and sign in. If you want, you may also connect your social media (Facebook and Twitter), but it is not mandatory.
Some of the charities you may donate to are Operation Smile, Born Free Africa and Save the Children. The app offers in-depth details on every organization, including how the spending is distributed.
