Volunteering now sounds even better to young people, thanks to a new rewards program by Virgin Mobile that gives volunteers with homeless and at-risk youth organizations the chance to win tickets to a Katy Perry concert. It’s part of Virgin’s Re*Generation program, an initiative of its non-profit foundation Virgin Unite, and asks its young target of 18- to 35-year-olds to sign up at Volunteer.virginmobile.ca and create an account to earn points that can be redeemed for rewards.
“We’re working with our charitable partners to spread the word and also using social media to let them know about the volunteer opportunities,” says Andrew Bridge, brand and communications director, Virgin Mobile Canada. “We’re also letting our members know about the chance to get tickets by volunteering through email distributions and information on our own website over the coming weeks.”
In Toronto, Virgin has partnered with non-profit Eva’s Initiatives, and the program is also running in Ottawa, Vancouver, Regina and Calgary.
“I think it’s a new concept, but we’ve seen the success of it with what Virgin Mobile U.S. did with their FreeFest,” says Bridge, referring to the free concert Virgin held to raise money for Re*Generation in Maryland. “The whole idea of it is to give members what they want and can’t usually get while encouraging them to volunteer at the same time.”
Virgin plans to continue the program with more rewards in the future, such as tickets to the Live at Squamish Festival.
And in other Re*Generation news, Virgin recently launched the Samsung Gravity 3 phone, for which $15 of each sale will be donated to at-risk and homeless youth. The company expects to raise $200,000 from the phone.