Gaming for Good: Zynga partners with Save The Children to help Japan

Mar 14, 2011 by Dan Taylor    3 Comments    Posted under: Games

Social gaming giant Zynga has recently announced a fundraising initiative in partnership with Save The Children to help raise money for the Japan Earthquake Tsunami Children Emergency Fund. Zynga is promoting the program across seven of it’s most popular titles, with the potential to reach over 250 million gamers. Zynga will donate 100 percent of the purchase price of newly created virtual items to the aforementioned fund. And as Zynga’s primary operating platform is Facebook, the Palo Alto, CA. based social networking service has agreed to pass 100 percent of it’s cut via Facebook Credits to this specific campaign.

“It’s inspiring to see the Zynga teams spontaneously take action to partner with our game players worldwide to help Japan,” said Mark Pincus, CEO and Founder of Zynga. “We hope that the millions of people who connect through our games every day will also take action to connect with Japan as we saw them do with our Haiti relief efforts.”

Games included and specific conditions:

• Café World: Players cans place Japanese inspired decorations in their Café to benefit the initiative.
• CityVille: Citizens can plant a limited edition sweet potato crop to feed their population and stock their restaurants
• FrontierVille: Players can buy a limited edition Kobe cow to place in their frontier.
• FarmVille: Farmers can plant a limited edition daikon radish crop that never withers.
• Words With Friends: Players can donate directly by clicking on a Save the Children button inside the game.
• YoVille: Players can purchase homes and furniture inspired by Japanese architecture and design.
• Zynga Poker: Fans going for a royal flush can donate by purchasing access to a VIP table.
• zBar: Players can donate directly by clicking on a Save the Children button inside the bar that sits across the top of their game on Facebook.

Zynga has also indicated that more limited edition items will be rolled out over the coming days, thus allowing players more options that suit their preference, while still being able to contribute to the campaign.

For more information about the program, please visit Save The Children directly at savethechildren.org/japanzynga.