Causecast

by ERICA LIEPMANN, Causecast Associate Editor

Last year’s start-up online gaming site, GamesThatGive.net has a pretty cool premise: you enjoy yourself playing classic games, they donate 70% of their profits to awesome non-profits. They’ve already nabbed some big-name corporate sponsors and have a Facebook app to boot.

Since I’m such a dedicated investigative journalist, I took a little time to demo GamesThatGive.

Here are my favorite reasons to play:

1. You Pick The Cause

The team at GamesThatGive has assembled quite the collection of non-profit organizations you can select to benefit from your gaming experience. Whether you’re committed to ending breast cancer, aiding veterans or protecting the wilderness, there’s surely a cause you can get behind. They’ve even got Causecast featured organization, Do Something, among the choices.

I’m playing for Unicef and I even get awesome updates at the bottom of the screen of what they’re up to. This one’s from Twitter:

2. Because You Might Be Broke

I’ve logged a lot of hours as a broke college student, so I know what it’s like to want to give and not really have the funds to back up what you want to do. So this is a cool way to give…without actually, you know, giving. Dial soap was footing the bill for my contributions. Other than the obvious cleaning purposes, that’s the most helpful soap has ever been.

3. You Can See The Results

It feels pretty awesome to see the results of what you’re doing. Here’s the fun little personalized sidebar that kept me updated on my progress.

4. GamesThatGive Has Got Your Back

If you’re procrastinating at work, not that I recommend it, here’s how GamesThatGive keeps you from getting caught.

At the bottom of the screen you’ll notice this link:

Should you need to cover up your procrastination when the boss rolls by, just click that link. This is what it will bring up -

Wow, look how hard you’re working on that non-disclosure agreement (and for some reason you’ve decided to use Microsoft Word circa 1998).

5. It’s Just Plain Fun

My personal faves are Solitaire and Word Search. This round of Word Search has a pretty funny theme:

You can play on Facebook if you’d prefer, just add the application from the Fan page.