Zynga To Sell Candy Cane Seeds To Help Build Children's Hospital

The UCSF drive to build a children’s hospital just got a little help from Zynga. Starting December 1 Farmville players will be able to purchase Candy Cane seeds for their farms, and 100% of proceeds will be donated to the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. It’s an excellent cause that we are participating in an well – see details here.

This is a proven way for Zynga to raise cash for charity. They have, for example, raised $3 million for Haiti over two campaigns. And our understanding is that Zynga has ditched their occasional and controversial policy of keeping a percentage of proceeds from sale of charitable virtual goods.

We’ve also suggested to Zynga that they consider building a virtual children’s hospital as well to deal with childhood obesity, diabetes and other medical issues that may pop up from all of this candy cane growing. They didn’t seem to think that joke was funny.

The winner of the challenge will be given the right to name “The Link,” a children’s activity space for learning play and discovery in the new Hospital. I asked Zynga what they’ll name it if they win. I don’t think they’ve decided.

If you’d like to donate to this amazing project you can play Farmville and buy the seeds from December 1 to December 15. Or you can donate via Team TechCrunch, and I’m matching the first $10,000 in donations personally.

Update: Facebook confirmed to us that they will be donating their 30% Facebook Credits fee as well.

Crunchbase

• ZYNGA

Company: Zynga

Website: zynga.com

Launch Date: July 2007

IPO: NASDAQ:ZNGA

Zynga was founded in July 2007 by Mark Pincus and is named for his late American Bulldog, Zinga. Loyal and spirited, Zinga’s name is a nod to a legendary African warrior queen. The early supporting founding team included Eric Schiermeyer, Michael Luxton, Justin Waldron, Kyle Stewart, Scott Dale, John Doerr, Steve Schoettler, Kevin Hagan, and Andrew Trader. Zynga’s mission is connecting the world through games. Everyday millions of people interact with their friends and express their unique personalities through our...

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