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Name: Bolder
Quick Pitch: Bolder makes social responsibility tangible and fun for both businesses and people.
Genius Idea: At Mashable, we’re always excited about web products that affect social change and social good. A new site we’ve found that attempts to do this is Bolder.
Bolder works with business and brands to inspire actions that benefit society. The business creates a challenge for people to do something good. For example, the challenge could be to go shopping with a reusable bag or buy something from a local business rather than a national chain retailer.
Individuals then login to the site — Facebook Connect is the simplest way to do so — and record their actions to complete the challenge. The business that created the challenge gives a reward to the users who complete it, which can help create additional sales for that business. Users can also vote for one another’s actions to decide who made the boldest statement.
If everything goes as planned, everybody wins: The brand, the user, and hopefully, society as a whole.
Microactions for the greater good are a concept that we’ve explored before in some detail. Companies likeSocialVibe, for example, specialize in helping citizens and brands collaborate to achieve social good while stimulating the brand’s PR and marketing goals at the same time.
Bolder posts one challenge each week. Past challenges include Whole Foods of Palo Alto asking users to eat a piece of fruit for a reward of Fuji apples, or a San Francisco yogurt shop challenging users to get a friend to join in on a workout session in exchange for a buy-one-get-one-free yogurt special.
Because the site doesn’t have concurrent challenges or challenges sorted by interest or location, it doesn’t seem suited to a mass market just yet. However, we’re sure Bolder’s founders are working on something, well, bolder as they grow to scale.
Does this site seem like a fun way to help the community around you or contribute to the causes you care about? What kinds of challenges would you want to see on Bolder?
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