FreeRice

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FreeRice
Image:FreeRice logo.png
URL http://www.freerice.com/
Commercial? No
Type of site Charity, click-to-donate site
Owner John Breen
Created by John Breen
Current status Active

FreeRice is a charity website where users play a vocabulary game in order to raise money to fight world hunger.

Contents

[edit] Site operation

FreeRice began on October 7, 2007. It was created by John Breen, a computer programmer from Bloomington, Indiana, who also created thehungersite.com, therainforestsite.com and Poverty.com. Breen invented the site, and typed in all 10,000 definitions, after observing his son study for the SAT.[1]

Over half a year after FreeRice launched, two sibling sites were launched to donate water and flour- FreePoverty and FreeFlour respectively.

[edit] Game format

Visitors to the website are presented with a word and four definitions. If a user selects the correct definition, FreeRice.com donates 20 grains of rice through the United Nations. Another word is then presented. Special graphics symbolizing 100 and 1,000 grains of rice are displayed on a graphical tally if the player's total reaches these numbers. Various landmarks are represented with different messages of encouragement such as: "You have donated 10,000 grains of rice. Wow! Now THAT is impressive!" after the 10,000th grain is donated, and after 20,000 grains, "You have donated 20,000 grains of rice. Wow! We're speechless!" After every ten thousand grains thereafter, the message "Wow! We're STILL speechless!" will appear. The last message of encouragement appears when you reach 100,000: "You have donated 100,000 grains of rice. May you have a lifetime of happiness..." and then the donation comes back at 0 grains.

The difficulty of each displayed word is measured from 1 (easy) to 60 (very hard). The game begins with four introductory definitions to set an initial vocabulary level. From the fifth question onward, three consecutive correct responses raise the difficulty level by one. Every incorrect answer lowers the level by one. Users can play for as long as they wish. The game determines difficulty level dynamically by analyzing the results from all users' game play.

A speaker icon has been added to each definition to provide an audio pronunciation of the word.

[edit] Sustenance

In exchange for advertisements on the website, various sponsors donate the money necessary to pay for the rice and other costs to run FreeRice. The donations are distributed by the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP), starting with Bangladesh in early 2008. By this time, the site's creator had given over $213,000 to the WFP which encourages people to visit FreeRice.com.[2] On 20 November the WFP launched a campaign to 'feed a child for Thanksgiving'.[3]

[edit] Effectiveness

One month after the inception of the viral marketing program, users had earned enough points for one billion grains of rice. The United Nation's World Food Programme stated that this amount could feed 50,000 people for one day.[4] Thus, approximately 20,000 grains of rice provide enough caloric intake to sustain an adult for one day. Using this calculation, enough rice is donated to feed about 7,000 people daily.[5] In its first six months of operation, FreeRice donated over 25 billion grains of rice.

[edit] Web Award

FreeRice became "Find of the Year" 2007 in the category charity.[6]

[edit] Monthly Count

Month Total grains of rice
October 2007 537,163,380
November 2007 4,768,969,790
December 2007 6,948,988,060
January 2008 4,551,581,980
February 2008 3,893,361,180
March 2008 4,109,191,320
April 2008 5,614,647,060
May 2008 4,657,641,260

[edit] Milestones

  • October 7, 2007 - FreeRice launches with 830 grains of rice donated on its first day
  • November 10, 2007 - FreeRice breaks the one-day 100,000,000-grain milestone with 122,377,240 donated grains
  • November 28, 2007 - With continued sponsor support, FreeRice doubles the number of grains donated for each correct definition from 10 to 20.
  • December 17, 2007 - FreeRice breaks the one-day 300,000,000-grain milestone with 358,559,540 donated grains
  • December 19, 2007 - 10 billion grains donated in total
  • January 20, 2008 - 15 billion grains donated in total
  • February 25, 2008 - 20 billion grains donated in total
  • April 2, 2008 - 25 billion grains donated in total
  • April 30, 2008 - 30 billion grains donated in total
  • May 30, 2008 - 35 billion grains donated in total

[edit] References

  1. ^ He used the site to help his son study.Joe Heim. "What's the Word? We Can Help Feed the Hungry", Washington Post, November 4, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-11-12. 
  2. ^ FreeRice in WFP's video log (accessed on February 7, 2008).
  3. ^ Feed a child for Thanksgiving.
  4. ^ "Web game provides rice for hungry", BBC News, November 10, 2007. 
  5. ^ "Total Donations By Date". Retrieved on 2008-03-28. 
  6. ^ Find of the Year 2007, Category Charity (accessed on February 7, 2008).

[edit] External links