Are you on the Global Rich List?

Posted by irishg on March 6th, 2005 at 08:29pm

Colleague Jodi Tonita at One/Northwest reminded me about the Global Rich List site, which takes the ‘guilty conscience’ approach to motivate donations to a whole new level. The site invites visitors to type in their annual incomes and discover where they place in terms of global wealth. The result for most first-world web surfers is well within in the top 10% of the scale, and the site then invites the visitor to make a donation, now that they realize they are so wealthy…

The Global Rich List site was built by UK web developers Poke, who describe their thinking as follows:

We are obsessed with wealth. But we gauge how rich we are by looking upwards at those who have more than us. This makes us feel poor.

We wanted to do something which would help people understand, in real terms, where they stand globally. And make us realise that in fact most of us (who are able to view this web page) are in the privileged minority.

We want people to feel rich. And give some of their ‘extra’ money to a worthwhile charity.

It’s an innovative approach, and well executed, but I’m not sure that guilt is the best motivator for giving. Donor relationships develop best when they are based on a more positive motivation –that the donor is part of making something good happen, rather than jst assauging a feeling of guilt.

Still, more than six-thousand pounds have been donated via the Global Rich List site, so it seems to be touching a chord with some visitors..

At any rate, here’s my own personal confession:

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