Shelter Scotland engage digitally with supporters through Foursquare

I’m a Foursquare user myself. Mostly for fun, exploring what my online friends are doing. Sometimes for getting a bargain when checking in or becoming a mayor.

Shelter Scotland, the housing and homelessness charity, is one of the first charities who use this location-based social networking site.

The idea is simple: Smart-phone users in Edinburgh will be the first to test-drive the network which allows visitors to Shelter Scotland shops across the capital to ‘check in’ their location while checking out the merchandise and earn special discounts, and win prizes.
Visitors to the charity’s eight Edinburgh shops will have exclusive access via Foursquare to make lists of their favourite places, write reviews, take photographs of items and share them with friends. In return Shelter Scotland is teaming up with Foursquare to offer free rewards and discount offers to shop visitors, as well as the chance to collect eight limited edition badges by renowned designer Stina Jones.

The campaign is planned to reach Shelter Scotland shops across Scotland in the coming months, with a view to a UK-wide roll out by 2012.
The video was created in-house.
More information at the campaign website.

Shelter Scotland ask the customers to share their stories. This is Fiona’s story:

Gordon MacRae, Head of Communications and Policy at Shelter Scotland: “This is an innovative and fun way for us to appeal to a new generation of supporters. Social networking has become part of everyday life and Shelter Scotland is proud to move with the times - becoming the first charity to engage digitally with supporters through Foursquare.”

“Our shops offer an array of fantastic high quality second-hand items and play a vital role in raising funds to help in our fight to end homelessness. Our hope is that Foursquare will enable us to spread the word to a new generation of Shelter Scotland supporters.”

As far as I know this is the first campaign from a European NGO or charity using Foursquare.

I found these examples from outside Europe, with the help of some friends on Twitter:
- Urban Ministries of Durham (UMD), a North Carolina non-profit organization providing food, shelter and clothing to the city’s homeless used Foursquare to unsettle application users and raise awareness around homelessness in Durham.
More at Mashable.
- Estrella Rosenberg, who founded Big Love Little Hearts, did an advocacy, awareness and fundraising campaign using Foursquare.
“I recently did an advocacy, awareness and fundraising campaign called #100X100 using Foursquare that raised $25,000 in 24 hours and prompted more than 800 supporters to call their Congressmen,” said Rosenberg.
More at Frogloop.

Some reading stuff:
- Five Simple (and Fun) Ways to Promote Nonprofits on FourSquare
- HOW TO: Add Your Nonprofit to FourSquare
- Foursquare ‘Checkin for Charity’ Hits 135k Checkins, Raises $15k
- Foursquare + Mobile Payments = New Cause Marketing Platform

In case you don’t know what Foursquare is about:
Foursquare is a social network that enables people to connect and share information about their favourite places based on their location. Points and badges are awarded for “checking in” at venues, allowing users to compete on a leader board against their friends. The user that checks in the most times to a venue becomes its “Mayor” and remains in that position until they’re ousted by a rival. Users can create a “To Do” list for their private use and add tips to venues that other users can read, which serve as suggestions for things to do, see or eat at the location, which is great for people visiting a new place for the first time.

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