Omaze. Generosity as a product.
Omaze asks you to donate to charity and offers you a multi-million pound house in return. It looks like fundraising but behaves like entertainment, and that is the point.
THE GIST ON OMAZE: "Charity Meets Sweepstakes"
How does Omaze work?
Omaze runs prize draws where people donate to charity for a chance to win luxury homes, cars and celebrity experiences. The mechanics are simple: small entry amounts, huge imagined upside.
Why does it work?
It removes the hardest part of giving, which is sacrifice. You aren't asked to part with money and get nothing back. You're offered possibility.
That turns a donation into an entry fee. The prize becomes the emotional focus, and charity becomes the moral cover that makes it feel good to take part. Even if you don't win, you've bought anticipation, and justified the spend by calling it generosity.
What does it say about giving?
Charity is adapting to the attention economy. People are far less responsive to obligation and guilt, and more responsive to agency, excitement and personal upside.
It makes giving more palatable, but it changes what giving means. Generosity is starting to behave like a product, something we opt into when it entertains us.
Does it count as charity if you're hoping to win?
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Quick answers
What does Omaze do?
It runs prize draws where people donate to charity for a chance to win luxury homes, cars and celebrity experiences.
Why has it grown so fast?
It removes the sacrifice from giving and offers possibility instead, so it looks like fundraising but behaves like entertainment.
What does Huw think it changes?
Giving starts to behave like a product we opt into when it entertains us.
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