• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, December 23, 2015

OMD and sharing economy digital platform TaskRabbit have teamed up on a holiday project that makes donating to the Salvation Army a cinch. 

Throughout December and January a badge/task option for a donation to the 150-year-old international charitable organization has been added to the TaskRabbit homepage and mobile app. 

The campaign is the brainchild of the innovation team at the Chicago Office of OMD, the Omnicom media agency. Staffers there were looking for a way to create a holiday giving campaign that could reach well beyond the agency walls and contacts at TaskRabbit helped make it happen. 

Most people like ease and convenience in their lives and would-be charitable donors are no different. Research shows that a key component to new donor conversion is making giving as easy as possible. 

With that insight in hand, the OMD Chicago innovators approached TaskRabbit and soon the platform’s Salvation Army effort was underway. Platform users can donate cash or items that TaskRabbit will pick up for drop off at SA locations. 

The Salvation Army was chosen as the charitable partner due its close connection to Christmas—every year during the holiday season the SA is out in force with its iconic red kettles collecting donations. The TaskRabbit digital version has been designed to resonate with a new generation of givers, “seamlessly plugging into their existing consumption habit,” as an agency rep put it.

“The campaign shows how the Sharing Economy can be effectively used to support a Caring Economy,” the rep added.

The project is just the latest collaboration between the agency and the platform. Last year the two organizations teamed with OMD client Walgreens for an initiative (award winning it turned out) that enabled housebound cold and flu sufferers to get Walgreens medicines delivered to their homes by using TaskRabbit’s mobile app.