“What do facial hair and microloans have in common? Nothing, really. That’s what makes Build a Beard so fun. The world benefits from microloans to the developing world. And from a gallery of people wearing ridiculous beards.”
Every now and again, the Atto team throw aside their to-do lists (in a responsible manner, naturally) and dive head-first into a Friday Afternoon Project – a single idea, executed simply, that’s usually a bit worthy and almost always a bit silly. Introducing Build a Beard Workshop.
Our mission was to raise general awareness of Kiva, a fantastic micro-loan provider operating in developing countries. Kiva’s system allows individuals to lend directly to entrepreneurs from impoverished communities all over the world. We love Kiva, so we thought we’d put our money where our mouth is.
Build a Beard Workshop invites users to “help real people in developing countries by sticking a fake beard on your real face”. It goes like this:
- Download one of our (16) illustrated beards
- Attach to your face and take a photo.
- Upload it to the site
- For everyone who does this, Atto will donate $1 to Kiva.
500 beards so far means we have helped pig farmers in Cambodia, a hard-working Tanzanian restaurant owner, a tin-mold maker in Bolivia and lots more, but more importantly, by creating a story that people enjoy sharing and bloggers love writing about, the project has introduced over 100,000 people to Kiva and their incredible system. Not bad for an afternoon’s work.
