With ad-sponsored desktop backgrounds, consumers fundraise for charity

New Zealand-based Donate Your Desktop gives PC users a way to donate their desktop background to charity.

Regular Springwise readers may recall Out of Office Ad, the effort we covered last summer that lets users monetize their out of office email autoreplies. Operating on a similar premise, New Zealand-based Donate Your Desktop gives PC users a way to donate their desktop background to charity. Users of Donate Your Desktop simply download an application for Windows or Mac and then select the charity they’d like to benefit. Each day, the company then renews their desktop wallpaper with a fresh design sponsored by an advertiser. It also donates a full 75 percent of the associated advertising revenue to the user’s chosen charity. The Auckland company explains: “Donating your desktop may seem like a small deed, but it has the potential to make a huge difference if we all get behind it. There are over a billion computer users across the world that could be helping those in need. Our vision is to turn your collective efforts into large ongoing donations to our partner charities.” Currently, Donate Your Desktop is available for use only by New Zealand consumers, but the company aims to expand. One to partner with toward that end? Spotted by: Grant Wilson