Crowdrise Launches Into Virtual Reality On #Givingtuesday To Rally The World For Charity And Build The Tallest Tower In A Single Day
New York, NY (PRWEB) November 24, 2015 -- CrowdRise, the largest crowdfunding platform for good, today launched its second annual Giving Tower campaign and also debuted its fun and interactive virtual reality (VR) experience app to help donors and charities to visualize social impact on #GivingTuesday. The Giving Tower campaign and free app offer charities and their supporters VR technology at no cost to bring to life their collective efforts on the biggest charitable day of the year, held this year on Tuesday, Dec. 1.
CrowdRise’s VR app will take the user into a virtual city that shows the Giving Tower, juxtaposed among the world’s most iconic buildings, as the Giving Tower grows built brick by brick. Every brick in the tower represents a donation to any of the 1,000-plus participating charities. Starting today, the free CrowdRise Giving Tower app will be available in the iTunes store and Google Play. Last year’s campaign raised $4.1 million and constructed a tower that nearly reached the tallest building in the world: the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai. This year, organizers say they want to build the tower to the moon.
As donations are made throughout the day on Dec. 1 on http://www.crowdrise.com/givingtower or the mobile Giving Tower app, donors, organizations and everyone else can interact with the tower while it grows. The massive, spinning Giving Tower will be erected in real-time, serving as the centerpiece of a mash-up of cities that forms one futuristic 3-D metropolis. The virtual reality landscape can be viewed from different heights or from a bird’s eye view above the city, and navigated by turning your head or explored by fingertip. As the tower grows, new VR experiences will be unlocked. Users can scan the buildings for videos produced by RYOT and be transported to, for example, Nepal days after the devastating earthquake disaster, or find themselves swimming with dolphins and more.
The app will support users with or without Google Cardboard so that anyone can enjoy the full VR experience. Those using Google Cardboard will be able to experience the environment in 3D for a truly immersive experience.
“What makes the Giving Tower so monumental is that it gives participating organizations an incredibly unique way to fundraise and be a part of a collective movement on #GivingTuesday. And, it’s just a mind blowing experience that nonprofits can offer their supporters,” said Robert Wolfe, CrowdRise co-founder and CEO. “We’ve been pretty relentless about creating an exciting user experience that shows donors their impact and uses awesome technology to build massive awareness for so many causes. The Giving Tower is entirely reflective of why we launched CrowdRise, to make giving back cool and notable and fun.”
CrowdRise has released a video that showcases the Giving Tower experience and the technology behind it, featuring CrowdRise co-founder Edward Norton. “One of the things we’ve always been committed to at CrowdRise is that philanthropy shouldn’t flow from a sense of obligation but, rather, from a feeling that participating in causes and movements enriches and expands your own life,” says Norton. "People are more apt to engage when there’s an element of fun and a chance to feel proud of their actions. So we’re always trying to inject that spirit into our campaigns and I think the Giving Tower is a great example of that."
The Giving Tower is now live on: http://www.crowdrise.com/givingtower. The rapid growth of the tower will culminate on #GivingTuesday, Dec. 1. The charity that raises the most in the CrowdRise Giving Tower on #GivingTuesday from 12:00 a.m. ET through 11:59:59 p.m. ET on Dec. 1 will get a $25,000 donation to their cause. In addition, the Giving Tower kicks off the CrowdRise Holiday Challenge, a fundraising competition with $250,000 in prize money. The Challenge is open to any US 501c3, and goes through Jan. 7.
For more information on CrowdRise’s Giving Tower, please visit: https://www.crowdrise.com/GivingTower.
ABOUT CROWDRISE
CrowdRise is the world’s largest and fastest growing online platform dedicated exclusively to charitable fundraising. CrowdRise is used by millions of individuals, tens of thousands of charities, hundreds of companies and many of the most famous artists and athletes in the world to creatively leverage their resources and networks to unlock the power of the crowd and raise hundreds of millions of dollars to support positive social missions.
Founded by actor Edward Norton, film producer Shauna Robertson and Robert and Jeffrey Wolfe, CrowdRise has conceived, implemented and powered campaigns that have raised over $250 million to date. For more information, visit http://www.CrowdRise.com.
Julia Bucciero, Crowdrise, http://CrowdRise.com, +1 248-291-6897, [email protected]
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