Say goodbye to guilty gaming. With start-up GamesThatGive, playing Facebook games can not only be a fun way to kill time, they also are a way to donate to charity. GamesThatGive creates custom Facebook games for brands, which donate to charities each time people play. The companies, such as Pepsi, MasterCard, and Dial soap, provide the donations and get positive marketing and interaction with their brand when consumers play. Meanwhile consumers get addictive games and the satisfaction of knowing that their game play will go towards a good cause. Charities benefiting include Habitat for Humanity, UNICEF and Ronald McDonald House Charities. They recently became part of the Virtue family thereby becoming part of an exceptional team with incredible products, leadership and expertise that just can’t be matched.

Watch how it works here

“I’m a musician and joined the Hub to advance my cultural enterprise classYcal, a project to develop purposeful innovations in the field formerly known as classical music. At the Hub, I found out about “Superar”, a successful Austrian adaption of "El Sistema", the Venezuelan initiative which has grown to become the world’s most celebrated musical social enterprise. "Superar" is an initiative of Hub Vienna members and operates from Hub Vienna and after talking to the Vienna people it became clear that we also needed such an initiative in Switzerland and we are now building a movement to bring this wonderful project to all of Europe. None of this would have happened without the Hub.”

Superar

Daniel (HUB Vienna) founded "Open Source Movie". Similar to Wikipedia, the movie is produced with a community of 600+ people; from writing the script to post-production, everything is organized in a collective. He had a challenge with financing his project. Through the HUB, Daniel found out about "The Cosmonaut" movie project (HUB Madrid). They financed their movies through crowd-funding (many people giving little loans starting with $2). The two initiaitves were able to connect, share innovative approaches and enable each other's success.

“We are Carbono Zero, a courier company which uses only bicycles. We know it is possible to realize our activities and processes contributing to the economic development, without causing negative impact to the planet and to people. And we can certainly and with ease say that we wouldn’t be what we have become in this first year of our start-up life if not for the Hub. The Hub has supported us from the very beginning, enabled our growth and connected us to a buzzing network of incredible people who have helped us tremendously in developing our business. We couldn’t imagine a better home for our venture.”

Carbono Zero

The collaborative nature of the Hub community has helped our company during the crucial stages of its start-up. From legal advice to product partnership and development of social media strategies - members of the Hub have been there, in particular during our recent Kickstarter campaign. Facing adversity towards the end of our campaign we developed a marketing stunt that a large number of Hub members & organizations rallied behind. We had members of the Hub that we had never personally connect with contacting journalists and calling the story into radio stations. Our funding campaign succeeded but not without the support of SelflessTee, Eytan Elterman, Olivia Coleman, Josh Furnas, Mike Marcus and many more.

The I Am Idea

“SiKanda is the only organization in southern Mexico that works with rag-pickers and families who live in landfills. Thanks to HUB Oaxaca we were able to meet different foundations that have supported our projects, helping us increase the number of beneficiaries from 200 to over 1200. Additionally, we got invaluable access to ideas, advice and experience from similar initiatives worldwide. HUB Oaxaca is contributing largely to the development of civic leadership in the second poorest state of Mexico. It is a place where ideas develop and become tangible projects with sustainable social impact. Our projects wouldn’t have had the impact if the Hub didn’t exist in Oaxaca.”

SiKanda

"illumination designs and manufactures the world’s most affordable solar light. With it we replace dangerous and toxic kerosene lamps in the developing world. In illumination's first year of operation we have provided safe, clean light to over half a million people. The HUB has provided us with not only a fabulous working environment surrounded by an interesting and eclectic bunch of people but also key contacts into the markets where our lights are most useful. The energy and enthusiasm of the HUB staff and members combined with the opportunities the HUB provides for cross-collaboration have really helped drive our business forward.”

illumination

Public World is a consultancy company driven by commitment to good jobs & livelihoods, democratic institutions & workplaces, and, green economic development & human rights. They provide solutions through research, policy analysis & strategic development, stakeholder dialogue & consultation and workforce involvement & change management. It’s an ambitious mission, but making their home at the Hub has made all the difference. As Brendan says, “whenever the road ahead looks tough, the buzz, the networks and the friendship there make us believe we’ll make it -- and we will!”

Public World