Lines of code appeared on a screen, directing a virtual monkey toward a banana. Nearby, Ned the Neuron was taking a trip through the sensory cortex. Across the room, a dread-locked avatar weighed whether to throw a party or pay rent and taxes.
On display at Zynga’s San Francisco headquarters, the digital games were creations of the latest group of startups in co.lab, a learning games incubator run by Zynga's nonprofit arm. The seven firms in its third cohort, which launched Thursday, are trying to teach kids about coding, math and financial literacy, among other lessons. They get four months in the social gaming giant's snazzy office, access to its employees and technology, and $50,000.
“It’s candy,” says Ken Weber, executive director of Zynga.org, which launched the accelerator a year ago with NewSchools Venture Fund, a nonprofit venture firm. “Games are a great way to get somebody’s attention.”
Co.lab is among a flurry of social impact initiatives at Zynga that have made it a leader among commercial gaming companies in promoting “gaming for good.” Through FarmVille and other hits, the company pioneered in-game philanthropy at scale not long after it launched in 2007. Two years ago, it made social impact gaming a fixture by creating Zynga.org. By the end of the year, it expects to have raised $20 million for charity from players.
Zynga’s charitable efforts began soon after the company did. In November 2009, Laura Pincus Hartman, the sister of Zynga founder Mark Pincus and an early employee, led a campaign to raise money for the SPCA of San Francisco. Players donated $11,000 through YoVille, a game that brings players together in a virtual town. The same month, the company launched a FarmVille campaign to build a school in Haiti. By investing in virtual seeds that didn’t wither, players donated more than $1 million.
Zynga stepped up fundraising after the Haiti earthquake in 2010 and the Japan tsunami and earthquake in 2011. Through FarmVille and other games, it raised $5 million for disaster and humanitarian relief within weeks.
In early 2012, the company formed Zynga.org, an independent nonprofit, and hired a team to work on social impact games full-time. By the end of this year, FarmVille alone will have raised $10 million. In all, since 2009, 6 million players have donated nearly $20 million through almost 40 Zynga games, including Words With Friends and Mafia Wars. The money has flowed to about 50 nonprofits, including Heifer International, No Kid Hungry and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Weber says the scale, immediacy and pervasiveness of games make them a good platform for low-dollar philanthropy. “Basically everyone who’s got a pulse is playing games these days,” he says.
Nonprofits are hoping it will help them cultivate new donors, especially millennials, and create a more organic connection than calls for dollars at checkout counters.
In 2012, Zynga.org helped create Half the Sky Movement: The Game, an adventure game based on the eponymous book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. One of the biggest stand-alone games for charity ever, it helped more than 1 million players raise nearly $500,000 for nonprofits empowering women and girls.
Recently, Zynga.org expanded into ventures that promote learning and health, such as co.lab. Last year, Zynga.org launched for-credit courses on game design at two San Francisco high schools. One of Zynga’s studios is working with a research lab at the University of California, San Francisco, to create games that improve cognitive function.
Zynga.org’s view has been that drawing on the company's strengths to make strategic investments – of both time and money – is more effective than traditional grantmaking. In Zynga’s case, that strength is games.
“We have an allergy to traditional CSR, where you cut checks and lob a couple of them over the corporate wall. That’s arms-length philanthropy, and you lose the benefits of learning, of engaging your employees and principals,” Weber says.
He says promoting social impact gaming also has “soft benefits” for the business, including improving employee satisfaction and retention and boosting Zynga’s reputation. It’s also been “incrementally helpful” in dispelling lingering stigma about digital games, he says.
Other commercial gaming companies, including Electronic Arts and Activision, have given to charity, but Zynga has taken a lead in promoting social impact gaming, says Asi Burak, who heads the nonprofit Games for Change (Zynga.org is a funder, and Weber sits on its board).
“In Zynga, the beauty is that they look at it from an institutional point of view. It’s not a stunt. They’re thinking very holistically – something you typically would see in more mature companies,” Burak says.
Zynga and others could raise substantially more money through games if major platform providers, such as
“It is still early days for games,” he says. “Getting this right is something that will take a bit more time and collaborative effort.”
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