Kiwi entrepreneurs invent a way to donate to charity for free

A team of four young Kiwi entrepreneurs are launching a ground-breaking charitable fundraising project that doesn't require its donors to give a cent of their own money. The project is called ‘Donate Your Desktop’.
Donate Your Desktop is a unique concept that has never been done before in New Zealand or abroad. Users simply install an application onto their computer that updates their desktop background each day with a fresh wallpaper sponsored by an advertiser.
In turn, 75% of the fees paid to advertise in this space is donated to charity. Any New Zealander with a computer can therefore make a small donation at no cost to themselves each day by having anattractive full-screen advertisement as their wallpaper for a day.
They have partnered with four prominent charities – the Starship Foundation, Oxfam New Zealand, The New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation and WWF New Zealand.
The two directors of the business, brothers David and Stephen Hillier, say it is their goal to reach 100,000 users in the New Zealand market. They claim that if they achieve an audience size of 100,000 users that Donate Your Desktop will generate over $1 million dollars for its partner charities each year.
Stephen and his team worked outside their normal work hours to develop the project, “It is a awesome concept, Donate Your Desktop is the perfect way to redirect money spent on advertising towards a charitable cause, and allowspeople who might not usually be able to donate to make a difference”, he says.
“We developed the application with the user experience in mind – the application does not interfere with normal computer use, and we endeavour to provide visually attractive desktops promoting brands you want to see.”
The website is already a hit on social media, especially as users can use Facebook to join up and share the desktops with their friends. Today’s desktop is promoting Hewlett Packard. To donate your desktop you can visit www.donateyourdesktop.co.nz