Subject: Charity smart phone apps

Some advice coming in via Twitter from @Thirlwall_Assoc:

"To be more inclusive and save money you are better to make something that works in mobile browser on all phones. iphone has quite small share of market, Symbian and Android much more popular world wide."

Thanks guys

I can think of a handful:

• Battersea Dogs & Cats Home have one - you can see images of animals awaiting a new home.
• Scripture Union have an app for the iPhone and iPad, enabling users to read the Bible on the go.
• Depaul's famous iHobo

Baigent Digital's Martin Campbell from Baigen Digital (they helped Scripture Union develop their app) wrote a how-to guide on developing apps for us recently.

Ellie, CharityComms

• Amnesty have their Ai Candle iphone app, allowing you to take campaign directly from your handheld.
  
• Samasource have the Give Work iphone app - it asks you to complete "short, on-screen tasks" which refugees are also training to complete "and, by volunteering to tag a video or trace a road, you will generate money to support their training as well as valuable data to help focus future training programs."
• The Hunger Site's Touch to Give iphone app donates 100% revenue from its sponsor ads when you open the app and click on them.

All iphone. (I don't own an iphone...)

Thanks for linking to my Guardian post

Without replicating the contents of the App Store here, there are a few nice cause-related apps such as British Heart Foundation's healthy eating recipe app. 

But I'm anxiously awaiting Orange's mobile volunteering app which will place micro social actions in the palms of thousands of people, supported by Orange's powerful marketing arm. 

Just spotted this one too: Give As You Live - anyone used it?

St John Ambulance have an iPhone app with first aid apps, but it's not free. And guess what.. it's iPhone specific.

Lots of market research I've seen (it's not online, so I can't share it - sorry!) show that Android is ahead of iPhone in terms of market share, but closely followed by Blackberry. Those three platforms share 90 per cent of the market.

Really disappointing to see that a lot of the apps mentioned here are iPhone specific. There's a lot of untapped potential to be realised!

Don't think we've had this one I just spotted on Twitter: Meningitis Trust symptom checker (for iPhone)

So, why is everyone developing for iPhones and not the other smart phones?

At the moment loads more developers are focusing on iPhone apps because they perceive that's where the money is. I'm sure that's going to change pretty quickly though. Givey (aka GetGiving) is being developed for iPhone and Android I think.

There's huge potential for building on other apps as well - Foursquare for location for example.

And a review of a few charity apps here

There's about 30 'do good' apps listed on this webpage, including a few of those that are listed above.

http://www.helpfromhome.org/links-goodcauses-phoneapps.htm

Also eagerly awaiting Orange's Mobile Volunteering app. Was shortlisted with one of my ideas for their comp, but didn't get any further.

Story in Third Sector about Marie Curie's new fundraising app. Couldn't spot anything on their website about it though to find out whether it is iphone only. Anyone know?

Red Nose Day has an app - in prep for the big day on 18 March. iphone though.

Spotted that the Alzheimer's Society has developed an iPhone app. "Learn about the brain and dementia. Download at http://bit.ly/brainmap"

Rob - the wait it over....

Orange launches micro-volunteering app for iphone - http://dosomegood.orange.co.uk

They've made such a simple demo video. Be interesting to watch take-up.

Is this the future for charity fundraising and volunteering?

On the train this morning I did three tasks in under 15 minutes. I can see the Orange app being a massive success and charities scrambling to come up with micro volunteering opportunities to sit on the platform.

And here's a similar app which is on Android as well as iphone - Cofacio It's listed on Orange's other apps list.

Orange say that they are looking for other charities to partner with through Do Some Good. Find out more about how to partner and get an app developed for your organisation.

I'm really rather excited about this app as this has the potential to bring microvolunteering to the masses and all through a respected big brand name. From my point of view, it doesn't get any better than that! There were so many other worthy ideas in the Orange Mobile Volunteering competition held last year, that it must have been difficult for them to choose which ones to promote.

Having been involved in the microvolunteering arena for the past 5 years now and judging from the webstats of Help From Home's website, I know that the most popular actions are games that donate to charity via advertsing revenue. Orange do not include such games on their app (presumably because the adverts are not advertising their brand), but I do wonder whether a more fun, entertaining action could be included within their current range of actions - there are certainly a few on Help From Home. In case you're wondering, Help From Home was shortlisted with an idea for this app (which included microvolunteering games), but didn't quite make it to the final 10.

As WEditor states above, Orange are looking for other charities to come up with microvolunteering initiatives. Rather fortuitously, Help From Home published a handbook last month entitled, 'How To Set Up A Microvolunteering Project', which includes a section on smartphone apps. It's aimed at charities and should give them plenty of ideas to tap into this, what could be a huge market, if the take up rate of the Do Some Good app takes off.

On the face of it, I think it's very encouraging to see the broad range of do good actions featured on the app and it just goes to show what can be done within 5 minutes. I'm hoping it's going to be an eye opener for the public to demonstrate that you can volunteer, even while you're kettle is boiling!

As for a review of the app, well I don't have an iphone but Jamie Thomas from i-volunteer does and has already published his rather (on the whole) positive take on it.

The Charity Retail Association has developed an iphone app which locates charity shops near you. If your organisation has a charity shop, make sure it's on it!

If you're thinking about developing an app for your charity, read this useful blog Why you should (not) have a mobile app.

Has anyone come across apps which have been developed by fundraising teams to raise money for their charity rather than apps which educate about the cause? Do these work? Are they worth the investment?

The multiple award winning iHobo app was revised earlier this year. It is still being downloaded at a very respectable rate of 1,500/week - which is giving us a pretty good exposure to a brand new audience. Like the original version, a little over 1% of downloaders make a donation, the average of which is £2, so if direct fundraising alone was the aim, it is questionable whether this would be the best device. It has unquestionably been massively successful in raising the profile of Depaul UK.

The big difference in the revised version from the original is in the proportion of people voluntarily giving us their email address - this has increased from 0.2% to an astonishing 16.6%. We now have a growing number of people with whom we can communicate and encourage to take the first steps on their donor journey - the lifetime value of those relationships is potentially very significant indeed.

Anyone know when the Orange DoSomeGood app will be released on Android? Why is it taking so long?

Rob Dyson has already mentioned this but we think the BHF Healthy Eating Recipe app is a really good example of how charities can make use of apps, primarily proving that they don't have to incorporate every element of your offering.

We do a lot of work with charities at Zabisco, and have found the main barrier to entry for charities wanting to move into mobile is knowing how best to take that first step and how to make their existing content work for a mobile audience. What the BHF's app does really well is to take a small part of their offering, using the wealth of recipe content they already had, and put it into a genuinely useful app that their audience can actually make use of. It takes out that 'what are we going to do' element by making use of some really good content that they already had.

There are plenty of other charity apps out there too, many of which are mentioned in this thread so I won't bore you with them again, but they should give plenty of inspiration for any charity looking to create an app.

That said, apps aren't the only way to go when moving into mobile. In fact, mobile websites can be a really good way of getting into mobile and they can actually be better for some charities depending on the audience or purpose.

And the creation of a mobile website is often the cheaper and simpler option, too. Traditionally based on the desktop version of a site, we would advise any charity to avoid simply stripping back and streamlining the content they have, but that content can be used as an excellent basis for a really good mobile experience.

You can see our How To on making use of mobile in charities. You can also see the Mobile Apps vs Mobile Websites infographic on our blog.

The bottom line on mobile is that it is here to stay. It's not a fad and it's not going to pass us by, so we all need to ensure we have the best possible mobile representation. BUT because mobile is here to stay, there's no rush! Take your time and do what's best for the charity.

I just got sent a really smart app that Guide Dogs have developed, the go walkies for Guide Dogs

app. It's been released in the AppStore and on Android.

Looks great!

Another update for your smartphone apps is made available recently. The free IRS2Go application is not new, but last week the IRS announced an update to the beneficial application. The new update contains informational videos on YouTube, transcripts and access to other internet resources. Article resource: Newly updated IRS2Go app for tax prep time.

Hi Sunnyday, http://dosomegood.orange.co.uk/ is available for Androids, Nokia, Blackberry and iPhone. Do some good in 5 minutes.