SPENT

The Urban Ministries of Durham created an online tool to convince people to donate, and I wanted to spotlight it. The design is slick, it's engaging to play and easily share-able, and the call-to-action is clear and effective.

The set up: "Over 14 million Americans are unemployed. Now imagine you're one of them. Your savings are gone. You've lost your house. And you're down to your last $1000. Can you make it through the month?" Players have to choose a job, find an apartment, and navigate through the month without going broke.

One thing I liked is the integration with social media: if a player runs into a dead end, they can ask a friend for money or help. This option posts a status update to Facebook with a description and link to the game. Another plus is the call to action. If you're playing the game and run out of money, press the "exit" button, or even if you win, you get some variation on this screen, urging you to donate to the organization:

Overall it's a very cool site - and I'd bet it's effective also. Kudos to McKinney for designing it!