Game companies and non-profits are exploring new business models that combine social gaming, social good, and social business. Sojo is one such model that creates fun games to raise sustainable funds for non-profit partners. Their first game, WeTopia, is a community building game where players earn in-game currency ("Joy") through nurturing their virtual community, which they can then donate to real-world projects of their choosing. The game provides transparency by showing players the tangible impacts of their donations. This combines entertainment and philanthropy to make giving more engaging.

1. Game Companies & Non-
ProfitsCreating New Business Models
Lincoln Brown
Founder/CEO
Game Developers Conference
March 6, 2012

3. Background:
Three Converging Developments
Social Games Social Good
• New Industry • Web 3.0
• $8.6 Billion Revenue – 2014 • Personal and tangible
forms of giving
• 400 Million Monthly Game
Players • Core donors and Cause
Marketing advocates:
• Core player: 43-year-old Mom
Social Business Moms 35-55 years old
• Emergence of for-profit business
models that provide sustainable
solutions
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• TOMS Shoes 3

4. A New Business Model
• For-profit business model as a means of
creating a sustainable revenue stream
for our 18 non-profit partners
• Not reinventing the wheel for how work
is done in the field – we leave that to our
partners
• Instead, we’re finding new ways to raise
funds by providing a fun way for people
to give as part of their everyday lives
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5. Giving: Problems and Opportunities
Lack of
Transparency VS.
Lack of True
Engagement
VS.
?
Giving While
Living VS.
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6. Sojo creates fun and exciting games that provide tangible
and sustainable benefits to local communities
• Players directly support projects through
game play, while having fun with friends.
• Players choose which projects to support and
are able to see the real world impact.
• Virtual goods have real world value. Instead
of virtual goods, we offer social gifts.
Why play just any social game, when you can play a game that actually improves
the real world?
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7. Sojo: Social Gaming
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8. WeTopia: Sojo’s First Game
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9. • A community building game where
players build a better world for children –
both online and in the real world
• By nurturing and expanding their
WeTopias, players earn Joy, which they
later give to the non-profit projects of
their choice
• Core appeal:
“By playing WeTopia, the small acts of
many add up to big impact.”
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10. The Media Feedback Loop:
Making Giving Tangible
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11. The User
Experience
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12. Players Earn and Give Joy to Projects
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13. Players Receive Media Feedback
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14. Reel World Theater
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15. Real World Impact Tab
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16. Players Purchase Social Gifts
One to one giving
opportunity
Connecting the virtual
world to the real world
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18. Changing the Way We Give! 18