Volunteering victory?
Orange has launched the UK's first mobile volunteering app designed to help people commit to some ‘bite sized' good deeds using their mobile.
While almost three quarters of Brits donated money to charity in the last 12 months, less than a quarter gave their time to a good cause, according to Orange's survey of 1311 UK adults, conducted by Opinion Matters in February
Orange said that with over 40 percent of people claiming they have no time to help others, the app is designed to help people squeeze volunteering into their daily lives.
In fact, according to the research, a quarter of people said they would happily volunteer 5 minutes every day if they could do so via their phone and the Do Some Good app is designed to give Orange customers the opportunity.
The app includes 12 charity ‘actions' that consumers can complete any time and new actions will be added throughout the year. For example, people can use the app to upload a photo of a rundown green space for a possible guerrilla gardener makeover or complete a quick survey to help the Samaritans gather information.
Orange said that three quarters of people would rather give up 5 minutes of their time volunteering than donate £5 to charity, letting people strapped for cash do their bit.
Orange has got behind volunteering in the last couple of years, most notably with its RockCorps initiative and people who complete 60 actions, equivalent to 4 hours volunteering on the Do Some Good app will be eligible to join the RockCorps Collective and earn music rewards including gigs tickets. Orange has also launched a website to go with the new app.
The 12 charities involved with the app are: Samaritans, Groundwork UK, Cybermentors, SCAN, Future Morph, photofoundation, World Clean Air Forest initiative, Young Foundation, Sustrans, Play England and The Geography Collective, the Sustainable restaurant Association plus Practical Action.
While the app is currently only available for iPhone owners, Orange said it will be rolled out across other platforms later this year.
Tom Alexander, CEO at Everything Everywhere said: "The potential for this app is huge; if one million people give just five minutes of their time, it will amount to nearly a decade worth of volunteering time. This landmark mobile volunteering project is a fantastic opportunity for us in our time pressured society to use mobile technology as a force for good."
The app is also backed by the Prime Minister, David Cameron, who said: "Millions of people who don't currently volunteer would like to do so if they had the time and information to make it as easy as possible. ‘Do Some Good' is a great way of tapping into this huge pool of untapped volunteering energy."
