March Madness is upon us – that favorite time of year when college basketball fanatics run rampant with their NCAA predictions and office water-cooler-talk turns into a common ground to organize betting pools. But before you scurry off to go fill out your bracket, here’s something to consider: March Madness for social good?
Consider this scenario. You and your two buddies are picking up a pizza and a couple of beers getting ready to fill out your NCAA National Tournament bracket. You start getting amusingly heated over who is going to make it to the Final Four. “Kentucky Wildcats!” you say. “No, no. Kansas Jayhawks!” they say. You are even willing to put money on the table to back up your team. This is where the fun begins.
You rush home, grab your laptop and log into Snoball.com. You quickly customize your bet: $5 on the line for every time the Wildcats wins, or $1 every time Doron Lamb makes a free-throw. You then pick your charity of choice – selecting Boys and Girls Club of your hometown [one of 1.6 million organizations to choose from]. Then you hit up social media, posting your new bet for friends to see on Facebook and Twitter and blasting 
an email to family directing them to check it out. Within minutes, you turn to your friends and say, “now your turn. Snoball it.”
Snoball is a socially-driven online charitable site that allows you to customize how, when and to whom you donate. You can choose any of your interests – whether sports, music, current events or anything in between – and create your own ‘snoball.’ The site allows for you to get friends and family involved via social media platforms and in turn, snowball your low-dollar donation into something substantial.
With the rise of social media, inevitably we are now seeing a swift growth in online charitable giving. Companies like Blackbaud (who recently
purchased competitor Convio) and JustGive.org (among others) have helped pave the way for low-dollar online donations. But as social media becomes even more customizable and more personable, so too will the charitable platforms. This new wave of online giving has led to the creation of sites like Snoball.com.
Just something to think about as you start pulling your brackets together over the next couple days. Maybe it’s just an excuse to bet. Maybe you found the next Oracle Paul the octopus to find you the sure-thing win. Whatever the reason, this March consider “Snoballing” you bracket for social good.
