CauseWorld Lets Users Give To Haiti Via Their iPhone

CauseWorld (iTunes link), an iPhone app from Shopkick, is off to a strong start. They first launched in December, and they quickly got the coveted featured spot on the iTunes app store. Yesterday, they started letting users donate to the American Red Cross for Haiti relief.

The application gives users karma points for checking in to certain retail stores. Those karma points can then be converted into donations to various charities and other good causes (water in Sudan, food for the poor, trees in the Amazon, etc.). Big brands supply the cash for donations (and get lots of advertising exposure). Users decide how that money gets spent. see our original launch post for more details.

We’re waiting patiently for user and usage numbers for the CauseWorld. The app combines the addictiveness and gameplay at FourSquare and Gowalla with actual good deeds, and we’re hoping it’s a winner.

In the meantime, Shopkick has added donations to Haiti via the American Red Cross, and Shopkick is matching all donations. So after you’ve donated cash directly to help that desperate situation, and have text messaged some more money in, download the CauseWorld app and go check into some retail stores (no purchase is required). Shopkick says that as soon as they added Haiti, the “entire feed was filled with Haiti contributions.”

Shopkick has raised $2.5 million in venture capital from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Reid Hoffman. The company is based in Silicon Valley.