Earth Hour 2014 Summary July 2014 | Page 23

CROWDFUNDING: THINK KICKSTARTER FOR THE PLANET Imagine people from around the world coming together to fund Fibreglass bancas or boats to typhoon affected fishermen in the Philippines. That is just one of many examples of the power of the crowd at work, harnessed by Earth Hour Blue. It brings together people to create tangible impact on the ground. INNOVATION: A non-profit using technology to help build a better world Earth Hour wanted to use technology to empower people to go beyond one hour and to help impact the world. So we took a leap into the ‘Blue’ with the launch of an all-new digital crowdfunding and crowdsourcing platform for the planet. The Earth Hour Blue platform uses crowdfunding and crowdsourcing to educate and advance WWF’s environmental and social efforts worldwide. The crowdfunding section of the platform allows participants to financially support and deliver tangible changes to communities all over the world. COLLABORATIONS: Tech & Media Earth Hour Blue involved creating a new responsive mobile-friendly website that integrates crowdfunding and crowdsourcing. It offers a reliable payment gateway while capturing user behaviour for smooth user experience. To achieve this, we collaborated with key partners in the technology and media industries - GSI, Basecamp, Crowdonomic, StarCom, Iris, PayPal, ActiveCampaign and KissMetrics. Sony Pictures and ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ helped to promote the platform and the projects featured. Individuals can add their voice to some of the biggest environmental campaigns across the world through Earth Hour Blue. 23