The Zynga-Haiti Controversy: A Tale Of Two Campaigns

An article published on Folha Online -- a Brazillian news site -- questioned the transparency of social gaming company Zynga, which it alleged had not been completely forthcoming with what would happen to money that had been pledged to relief efforts in earthquake-ravaged Haiti. SocialMediaToday picked up the story (which has since been pulled, with a clarification post published), and the rumor mill started spinning.

It turns that Zynga has NOT kept any money that they said would be going to Haiti, and that the confusion started based on a series of campaigns -- one that took place before the January 12 earthquake -- that was sending money to projects in Haiti.

After assessing all the accusations, and speaking with representatives from Zynga, we can now report the following chronology:

•Fall 2009: Zynga announces its Sweet Seeds for Haiti program. For this program, users purchased a special virtual product, "of which 50 percent of the proceeds [were] donated to two non-profit organizations in Haiti that support the health and education of children and their families." The two nonprofits were Fatem.org and Fonkoze.org -- groups that were in Haiti well before the earthquake. The campaign raised $2.4 million, half of which was donated, as stated, to the nonprofit organizations.

•January 12, 2010: A 7.0 earthquake hits off the coast of Haiti, causing massive devastation and exposing to the world a breathtaking humanitarian crisis.

•January 14, 2010: Zynga launches a campaign through FarmVille, Mafia Wars and Zynga Poker, through which 100 percent of the money raised through certain virtual goods would benefit the UN's World Food Programme.

•January 20, 2010: Zynga announces that virtual goods benefiting Haiti were purchased by more than 300,000 users, totaling $1.5 million dollars. All of that money was donated to the World Food Programme.

The confusion seems to have started when Folha Online expressed shock that 50 percent of certain products were going to Haiti nonprofits -- catalyzing SocialMediaToday's post that believed that 50% of the money raised in the second campaign was kept by Zynga. It was a misunderstanding, and not true.

It's worth noting that Folha's original article had criticized the layout and communication of these campaigns, and had not alleged that Zynga kept money that it said would go to Haiti. Instead, Folha argues that many taking part in the campaign may have mistakenly believed that more of the money from their purchases would be going to relief efforts. Marcelo Ballve explains these concerns in a thorough article on True/Slant.

Thanks to VentureBeat for the screenshot of the original post on SocialMediaToday.

Comments

[Marina Lang]

02:18 PM on 03/05/2010

The original article: http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/informatica/ult124u700872.shtml

[Eric Ehrmann]

11:53 PM on 03/04/2010

Having created the 125 word blog post on Social Media Today mentioned here, and elswhere, let me offer my personal clarification, which is not the view of Social Media Today LLC.

The 125 word post I submitted at Social Media Today Thursday afternoon 4 Mar unwittingly omitted reference to calendar year 2009 in the headline and once in the body of the text that, if added as an update, could have provided clarification that may have been amenable to Zynga. The post did not say that the 2010 program only donated half of its funds to Haiti as your commentary implies, nor did Folha say that if you read Portuguese.

The sums discussed on this item that have buzzed around the web are small. And it is a blessing that organizations like Zynga help facilitate voluntarism and charitable donations. Still, it is always prudent to be mindful of ethical questions in the growing digital economy.

US agenciessay it will take $14 billion to reanimate Haiti as a nation. When you scale that, it amounts to roughly two months of what the US spends (US Congressional Research Services estimates) to stabilize Iraq. The irony is that there are no hard deadlines for getting out of Iraq or Afghanistan, but it appears there was a hard deadline that Farmville/Zynga did inform players about in 2009 after which time their investments would revert back to Farmville, and not go to Haiti.

[dulceburro]

10:58 PM on 03/04/2010

So what about the first go around? Did they keep 50%?

[Eric Ehrmann]

12:14 AM on 03/05/2010

This is the first article in North American online media that came to my attention and the bona fides of the writer are listed http://trueslant.com/marceloballve/2010/03/02/popular-farmville-online-game-accused-of-mishandling-haiti-donation-campaign/ Here is what Zynga responded to blogger Marcelo Ballve in connection with the pre-earthquake 2009 Haiti charitable donation program they were running.

" Prior to the campaign for the earthquake, we ran programs where 50% of the proceeds went to organizations in Haiti for the welfare of women and children. All of these campaigns had a time limit to them. These campaigns raised an additional $1.2 million and the amounts raised were communicated to our users in the game and photos of the results of their donations are at our web site."

Just for background, Folha is probably the most respected newspaper online in Brazil having the respect the New York Times carries in the US, or Le Monde carries in France.