A new mobile application is helping restaurants drive foot traffic, improve the in-restaurant experience and boost loyalty programs.
The CauseWorld app incentivizes consumers to enter restaurants because it allows them to earn "karma points" for visiting restaurants and retailers, and then donate those points to various charities and causes.
When users open the app, it uses a phone's GPS to present a list of nearby restaurants and stores. When they enter a restaurant and "check in," they earn "karma points." Customers can then donate the karma points to their choice of 15 charities with the money coming from advertisers such as Citi Bank, Procter & Gamble and Kraft.
While all restaurants are automatically part of the app based purely on GPS, some are becoming more involved and offering diners "double karmas" if they come to their restaurant. The app can be downloaded at www.causeworld.com.
In three short months, the consumers already have donated an average rate of $100,000 of the sponsorship money a month and are actively publishing updates about each good deed to Facebook, contributing to its virality.
Since the December 23 launch, CauseWorld users have contributed to the following:
- Provide clean water for 80,000 people for a month in Sudan (CHF international)
- Provide 8.5 million liters of clean water in developing countries (Children's Safe Drinking Water)
- Offset 1.7 million pounds of carbon
- Provide 188,000 meals to people in the United States
- Plant 46,000 trees
- Donate 19,600 books for children
- Provide netbooks to a 6th grade classroom in Chicago
