As a graduate student, part-time public affairs intern and a graduate assistant, I  know too well the pangs of guilt associated with precious free time spent on frivolous computer games and applications.  

However, I was not so guilty when recently introduced to Games That Give, a company that matches advertising sponsors to hosted computer games.  A user can simply start an account and choose from one of several games to play.  As ad revenue trickles in from the corporate sponsor, Games That Give donates 70% of the proceeds to the charities they sponsor. 

There is no user cost involved, and a quick game of Tetris or Sudoku can benefit one of 14 charities including the Ronald McDonald House Charities, United Way, Mercy Corps and UNICEF.  Kind of neat.

Launched in July 2009 from San Francisco, Games that Give already has an associated blog and Twitter account  and  received positive reviews.  The Huffington Post  jokingly riffed on the “You Play. We Donate. No Catch.” motto, noting that the catch was the difficulty playing a game over a giant corporate sponsor logo.  Regardless, the company holds fast to their mission of making giving fun, easy, affordable, legitimate, and a part of extant behavior.  Check out Games That Give, and put a positive spin on procrastination.