What Does The Bahamas Need Money For Charity

What if you could make a difference simply by launching an app, choosing a charity and then heading out for your daily run? That's the premise of an innovative new app called Charity Miles. In today's installment of Fitness Friday, I asked the app's founder, Gene Gurkoff, a few questions:

How exactly does the app work?

GG: It's free and simple to use. People just launch the app, choose a charity and either walk, run or bike. The selected charity then earns money for every mile covered. Walkers and runners earn 25¢ per mile; bikers earn 10¢ per mile, all up to an initial $1,000,000. We are backing the initial $1,000,000 and issuing a worldwide challenge to see if people can earn it for the charities within a year. At the same time, we are also aiming to increase the $1,000,000 sponsorship pool by attracting corporate sponsors.

Why did you decide to create this app?

GG: My grandfather has Parkinson's Disease. So, over the past ten years I've run more than thirty marathons and five Ironman triathlons to raise money and awareness for the disease. I also helped found Team Fox, the grassroots fundraising arm of The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. When we started Team Fox, part of the idea was to get enough people together so that we'd be able to attract corporate sponsors. But, unfortunately, that hasn't been so easy because: (1) even though companies want to support us, our thousands of Team Fox supporters are not enough of an audience to justify big corporate sponsorships; (2) our supporters aren't necessarily within the demographics that the companies would ordinarily target with their marketing; and (3) as a charity, we are limited (legally and otherwise) in our ability to promote our corporate sponsors. Over the years, I also started to work with other charities; and I realized that they also faced similar issues with regards to corporate partners. I created Charity Miles to solve these problems. By aggregating the supporters from several of the world's top charities, Charity Miles can offer sponsors a very large, demographically targetable audience.

Are you going to incorporate new non-profits going forward? If so, how does an organization apply?

GG: We are just starting out, and piloting this app with some of the best charities in the world. These charities get pitched different app and cause-marketing ideas all the time. But they have to be very selective as to what they say "yes" to. So, even with my relationships and reputation, it wasn't always easy to get these charities to sign on. Charity Miles is a completely new model for cause-marketing. As we grow, I'm hoping to add as many charities as possible and to represent as many different causes as possible. We already have some excellent charities to add in the next few weeks. So, stay tuned! If a charity would like to apply to be included in our app, they can apply by contacting me through our website's contact form or by leaving a note on our Facebook page. What has the response been like so far?

GG: Tremendous. More than 2,000 people have used the app so far. And that's all by word of mouth—growing even faster than we had anticipated. More importantly, we are truly moved by how much people love the app. We've received so many nice comments on our Facebook page and on our Twitter feed. On our launch day, we were honored to hear from Kenyan marathon legend, NYC Marathon winner and World Food Programme Ambassador, Paul Tergat. "I think this Charity Miles app is a great idea," he said. "Runners like me can help end hunger with the World Food Programme. I grew up with school lunches from WFP- they changed my life. Let's do the same for more children!" This quote was unexpected and literally choked us up, reminding us that—through all the day-to-day of getting this project off the ground—we are starting something very special.

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Thanks, Gene! You can download the app in the iTunes store, and watch this video for more info.

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