Global online game Jaro aims to raise $1 billion in a year
Howard Lake | 16 April 2013 | News
A new global online game is today setting out to become the world's largest single annual fundraising initiaitive.
Jaro will initially raise funds for 13 UK charities – ActionAid, Age UK, Amnesty International, British Red Cross, Cool Earth, Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, Guide Dogs, Merlin, War Child, World Cancer Research Fund, World Heart Federation, World Society for Protection of Animals and WWF.
Its aim is to raise US$1 billion. This sum will be split between the charities and one very lucky winner. But who will decide the split? The players themselves, when they first sign up to play, are asked: if you won $1 billion, how much would you give to charity and how much would you keep for yourself?
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The average split from all players will be applied to the final amount distributed amongst the charities and the winning individual.
How to play Jaro
Jaro.com is open today and costs US$10, about £6.50, to play. The game is like a numerical battleships, with each player having two three-by-three grids of numbers. In one they choose an arrangement of the numbers one to nine for defence, and in the other they arrange those numbers in positions for attack.
Players compete against other people across the globe in an online knockout tournament. They have to guess how their opponent has placed their numbers. The final gameplay is automated and animated. You can even watch a playback of your games.
The player with the closest guess wins and goes through to the next round. The two players who successfully navigate 27 rounds will face each other in the grand final.
The site offers players advice on tactics in choosing where to place their numbers. Players can also research their next opponent's history of number placing, to try to help them in their play.
Beginnings of Jaro
Anthony Farah, CEO of Jaro, said: "Jaro.com is a billion dollar game for good – it is good for charities, good for the players, and good fun. We’re asking people a billion dollar question: how would you split a mind-boggling amount of money between charitable causes and one lucky winner’s jackpot? And then we’re asking them to pull together and make that US$1 billion a reality."
Farah first came up with the idea of a global game for good in the 1980s, and has spent the past five years building the platform and team behind it.
The game was unveiled to charities from around the world at the 2012 International Fundraising Conference in Holland.
Jaro charges players an admin fee of 0.50c "to ensure no costs are incurred to registered charities involved".
Peter Lewis, CEO of the Institute of Fundraising, said: "Jaro combines the popularity of social networking and online gaming with the desire to donate in a fun and interactive way. We hope this will be a winning combination that taps into new audiences and unlock a much needed new stream of income for charities."
Biggest single annual fundraising initiative in the world?
Vivant, the digital agency behind Jaro, believes that the game could become by far the biggest single annual fundraising in the world. To do so, it needs to beat the record held by the London Marathon, which raised £52.8 million for charities in 2012.
Jaro is launching in the UK, supporting UK charities, but will expand to other countries and benefit other charities.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.