Freerice

Freerice

Type of site	click-to-donate site
Owner	the World Food Programme
Created by	John Breen
URL	freerice.com
Commercial	No

Freerice is a free online game and learning tool, that allows players to raise rice to fight world hunger while learning through educational, multiple-choice games. For every question the user answers correctly, 10 grains of rice are donated to the World Food Programme.

The available subjects include English vocabulary (the original subject with which the game launched), multiplication tables, pre-algebra, chemical symbols (basic or intermediate), English grammar, SAT, basic foreign language vocabulary for English speakers (French, German, Italian, and Spanish), human anatomy, geography (flags of the world, world capitals, country identification and world landmarks), the identification of famous artwork, and literature (classic and popular books). As you answer questions, your total score is displayed as a mound of rice and the amount grains.

History

The website went live on October 7, 2007 with 830 grains of rice donated on its first day. The second word in its name was originally capitalized as "FreeRice."

On 20 November 2007, the WFP launched a campaign to "feed a child for Thanksgiving," encouraging internet users "to take time out from traditionally the busiest online shopping period of the year and help the hungry by playing phenomenally successful web-based vocab game, FreeRice."

For a brief while, the amount of rice donated per correct answer was increased to 20 grains, though this was reduced to 10 grains of rice per answer within a few months.

In March 2009 the FreeRice website was donated to the UN World Food Programme.

Freerice 2.0 launch

In September 2010, the UN World Food Program launched a new version of the game with social networking, groups, rankings and achievements. As part of the launch, the site dropped the second capitalization in its name, going from "FreeRice" to "Freerice."

Freerice Language Versions

In 2011, Freerice launched new language versions of the website in Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese and Korean, allowing users to play the popular game across a number of subjects in their own language for the first time.

Subjects

Although English vocabulary is the original and default subject, players may choose from different subjects:

• English Vocabulary
• English Grammar
• Chemistry (basic and full list)
• Foreign language (Spanish, French, Italian and German)
• Geography

• Flags of the world
• Identify Countries on the Map
• World Capitals
• World Landmarks

• Humanities

• Famous Paintings
• Literature

• Human Anatomy
• Math

• Multiplication Table
• Basic Math (Pre-Algebra)

• SAT®

The maximum level of difficulty varies between subjects. English vocabulary, being the original subject, has the largest dictionary of questions with 60 levels.

Sustenance

Using the "click-to-donate" model, for every correct answer selected a sponsored advert is displayed below the questions to cover the cost of the grains raised. The total funds raised through the sponsored adverts covers the cost of the rice donated. All the costs for running the website are covered by the site owner, the United Nations's World Food Programme or vendors supplying their services free of charge. The donations are distributed by the(WFP). Following the earthquake in Haiti, nearly 6 billion grains were donated to help communities there, however, the most common countries receiving rice are Bangladesh, Cambodia, Bhutan, Uganda, and Nepal, even though Freerice can travel all over the world (as of early 2008). By this time, the site's creator had given over US$213,000 to the WFP which encouraged people to visit freerice.com.

Effectiveness

Average number of adults fed per day by daily average of each month.

In its first ten months of operation, Freerice donated over 42 billion grains of rice. One month after the inception of the viral marketing program, users had earned enough points for one billion grains of rice. The United Nation's World Food Programme stated that this amount could feed 50,000 people for one day, since it takes 400 grams or about 19,200 grains of rice to feed one adult for a day. Using this calculation, enough rice was donated in 2008 to feed over 6,000 people daily for each day of that year. Since its inception, as of March 16, 2012, Freerice players had earned sufficient rice to feed nearly 5 million people two meals for one day.

Awards

• Digital Communications Award 2011 - Best Corporate Game
• TIME Magazine - 50 Best Websites 2011
• 15th Annual Webby Awards - Honoree
• 2010 Parent's Choice Awards - Online Learning
• TIME Magazine - 50 Best Websites 2008 -
• Yahoo! Pick of the Year 2007 – Charity Category – Winner
• Berkman Award to Freerice.com creator, John Breen. He was recognized with a Berkman Award on May 16, 2008 for creating Freerice.com. At the Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society’s tenth anniversary gala dinner, recipients of the Berkman Awards were chosen for their outstanding contributions to the Internet’s impact on society over the past decade.
• Mags got the award for giving most rice grains for Wednesday 15th of Feb

Monthly count

Total donations to date.

2007
Month	Monthly grains of rice donated	Overall grains of rice donated
October 2007	537,163,380	537,163,380
November 2007	4,768,969,790	5,306,133,170
December 2007	6,948,988,060	12,255,121,230

2008
Month	Monthly grains of rice donated	Overall grains of rice donated
January 2008	4,551,581,980	16,806,703,210
February 2008	3,893,361,180	20,700,064,390
March 2008	4,109,191,320	24,809,255,710
April 2008	5,614,647,060	30,423,902,770
May 2008	4,657,641,260	35,081,544,030
June 2008	3,043,677,360	38,125,221,390
July 2008	2,046,077,880	40,171,299,270
August 2008	1,918,976,960	42,090,276,230
September 2008	3,149,870,660	45,240,146,890
October 2008	3,739,408,120	48,979,555,010
November 2008	3,678,546,760	52,658,101,770
December 2008	3,539,642,160	56,197,743,930

2009
Month	Monthly grains of rice donated	Overall grains of rice donated
January 2009	2,416,239,520	58,613,983,450
February 2009	1,663,509,530	60,277,492,980
March 2009	1,830,287,650	62,107,780,630
April 2009	1,478,963,720	63,586,744,350
May 2009	1,403,545,670	64,990,290,020
June 2009	929,906,500	65,920,196,520
July 2009	652,730,310	66,572,926,830
August 2009	787,320,460	67,360,247,290
September 2009	1,310,200,000	68,670,447,290
October 2009	1,611,699,490	70,282,146,780
November 2009	1,426,271,040	71,708,417,820
December 2009	1,262,727,060	72,971,144,880

2010
Month	Monthly grains of rice donated	Overall grains of rice donated
January 2010	1,451,006,720	74,422,151,600
February 2010	1,281,469,630	75,703,621,230
March 2010	1,474,236,720	77,177,857,950
April 2010	1,257,599,650	78,435,457,600
May 2010	1,273,109,000 (+1,410)*	78,562,768,500 (+1,410)
June 2010	690,482,290 (+5,800)*	79,253,250,790 (+7,210)
July 2010	441,562,950 (+20,430)*	80,840,611,840 (+27,640)
August 2010	605,922,360 (+18,155,100)*	81,446,534,200 (+18,182,740)
September 2010	671,694,660 (+476,215,490)*	82,118,228,860 (+494,398,230)
October 2010	1,240,673,400	83,853,300,490
November 2010	1,210,463,170	85,063,763,660
December 2010	1,106,244,500	86,170,008,160
^* FreeRice and Freerice 2.0 kept separate totals before October 2010. The above, where noted, displays the amounts from the original followed in parenthesis by those from 2.0. Both totals have since been merged.

2011
Month	Monthly grains of rice donated	Overall grains of rice donated
January 2011	1,081,862,010	87,251,870,170
February 2011	1,145,741,650	88,397,611,820
March 2011	1,191,406,110	89,589,017,930
April 2011	1,287,749,600	90,876,767,530
May 2011	1,182,438,930	92,059,206,460
June 2011	680,929,280	92,740,135,740
July 2011	308,028,170	93,048,163,910
August 2011	227,231,370	93,275,395,280
September 2011	235,987,700	93,511,382,980
October 2011	260,421,860	93,771,804,840
November 2011	289,236,090	94,061,040,930
December 2011	327,062,030	94,388,102,960

2012
Month	Monthly grains of rice donated	Overall grains of rice donated
January 2012	274,112,160	94,662,215,120
February 2012	337,506,130	94,999,721,250
March 2012	344 204 120	95,343,925,370

Total All Dates: 95,375,281,440

Milestones

• October 7, 2007 – Freerice launches with 830 grains of rice donated on its first day
• November 10, 2007 – Freerice breaks the one-day 100,000,000-grain milestone with 122,377,240 donated grains
• November 28, 2007 – With continued sponsor support, Freerice doubles the number of grains donated for each correct definition from 10 to 20
• December 17, 2007 – Freerice breaks the one-day 300,000,000-grain milestone with 358,559,540 donated grains
• December 19, 2007 – 10 billion grains donated in total
• April 2, 2008 – 25 billion grains donated in total
• November 11, 2008 – 50 billion grains donated in total
• September 2010 – a new version of the game was launched with social networking and group functionality
• January 2011 - 85 billion grains donated in total
• June 2011 - A Spanish version is launched
• September 2011 - A French version and Italian version are launched
• October 2011 - A Chinese version is launched
• December 2011 - A Korean version is launched
• January 2012 - Over 94 billion grains donated in total and over 1 million registered players
• February 2012 - The first official World Freerice Week was held, and two new subjects launched (World Landmarks and Human Anatomy)
• April 2012 - Launched an SAT subject

External links

• Freerice
• Freerice Donation Totals
• Spanish Freerice
• French Freerice
• Italian Freerice
• Korean Freerice
• WFP on Freerice
• World Food Programme