Throughout history, the purpose of media has been not only to inform people, but also to engage them. In the digital era, the possibilities for engagement through media have exploded. In an ever-globalizing world, many digital news outlets are trying to engage their readers with the current state of global affairs. They are writing about global challenges like poverty, injustice, and climate change, hoping that their readers engage with the situation and do something about it. But so far, actual tools for engagement are limited to raising awareness and signing petitions, which turn out to be ineffective in solving the global challenges of our time.

The underlying problem is that it takes more than petitions to tackle the challenges of our time; the main effort lies in actual implementation of interventions on the ground. This should not be done by news consumers, but rather by professionals.

This does not, however, mean that news consumers are destined to remain totally sidelined. Several respected international organisations, including the UN, point out that the funding gap to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) could be bridged by private donations. News consumers can thus contribute by donating to charitable organisations, thereby enabling professionals to do their job and make the world a better place.

Kinder Donation Widget
Kinder has developed the Kinder Donation Widget to facilitate direct donations to a customised selection of charitable organisations. The Kinder Donation Widget will use innovative technology to match the content of any news article that discusses a certain global issue with a selection of charitable organisations that work on this issue. Kinder vets the performance of all charitable organisations in its Kinder Vetting Framework. Only organisations that meet a certain performance threshold are allowed to appear in the Kinder Donation Widget. As such, Kinder guarantees that donations are effectively spent.

Usage by other media
Initially the Kinder Donation Widget will be added to the articles that appear on the Kinder World media platform. At a later stage, the Donation Widget will also become available for other digital news outlets. As such, Kinder equips them with meaningful actionable tools that upgrade content about global challenges. In other words, journalists of all kinds of digital news platforms will be able, by simply writing about global issues, to increase donations to effectively performing charitable organisations.