Like many, I have what some describe as a love/hate relationship with Microsoft. Sometimes I think ‘WOW, that’s cool’. Other times I think “Oh boy, that didn’t work out so well” (And yes, Vista fits in that last category which I why I’m now such a passionate Mac user!)

In any event, I saw something recently in the ‘cool’ category. In fact, more than just ‘cool’, this was almost exactly Buy1GIVE1 cool. Take a look:

(well if the picture was here you'd see a neat Microsoft logo with a message that says if you click on a particular tutorial video, Microsoft Australia will donate $1 to the Smith Family Charity)


And they do what they say they’ll do; you key in a code (so that Microsoft know you’re a human being) you watch a really short clip done by a Smith Family young person and away goes $1 from Microsoft.

It is cool. And could it be even better and more Buy1GIVE1? Yes. You see I always wince a little when I see stuff like ‘do this, $x goes here” (see my recent blog on MacDonald’s’ Happy Meals).  And it all comes back to charities being in the begging mindset and essentially trying to find cuter ways to beg.

If they could only make themselves more ‘attractive’, they wouldn’t have to do that. And one way to do that is to ‘chunk’ the charity down into small pieces so that we know what $1 buys.

For example, let’s just suppose that the Smith Family did some research and found out that it cost $1 to give a kid breakfast. Then the line in the ad would read, “Last days to help Aussie kids get breakfast” and would be even more attractive.

It may not always seem possible to do it that way. But at Buy1GIVE1 we’ve not been stumped yet. So if there’s something you’d like articulated more powerfully and it relates to giving, let us know. Drop me a note at paul@b1g1.com

And before I forget – good on ya Microsoft!