Found this interesting article about a new robot, DONA, an adorable small robot created by Korean researchers with the help of MIT to ask people for donations. Having worked for a non-profit organization I can understand the appeal to think of creative new ways to engage people to donate. Though this may bring up the question as to why exactly people donate money, whether to feel good about themselves or pure altruism or simply because a cute robot reacts to you if you give it money, I personally don’t ponder the question as long as money is being given to much-needed causes. On second thought, I ponder it once the campaigning exceeds the actual cause, whether because of the employees of the cause feeling as if the campaigning has taken precedence over the cause or whether people forget why they are donating for the sake of entertainment. But anyways I’ll leave the moral dilemma to those who rather think about it personally. Whatever challenges charity fatigue right?
For more info on DONA, check out her page. And here is the lil cute robot in action: