Long gone are the days of the Jerry Lewis telethon.
Now, non-profits and charities rely on a mix of direct response, social media, and word of mouth to raise money.
They also have Vonvo. The video conversation (hence “vonvo”) platform gives them the ability to not only stream live video and host discussions, but also to raise money and collect email addresses. These last two features are perhaps the biggest differentiators between the platform and Google+ Hangouts or Skype.
To date, Vonvo has hosted live events for StandWithUs, Ndaba Mandela’s Africa Rising Foundation, The World We Want, and most recently, St. Mary’s Healthcare System for Children.
In October, Vonvo teamed up with St. Mary’s to broadcast “A Tribute to Nick Cannon,’ a concert celebrating the ‘America’s Got Talent’ host for his work on behalf of the organization. The concert took place at the Hard Rock Café in Times Square and featured Sons of Serendip and Quintavious Johnson, among others. Patients and St. Mary’s supporters unable to be in attendance were able to watch the livestream on Vonvo and chat about the event.
“Vonvo presented a new opportunity to share the experience of our annual benefit concert and dinner—A Tribute to Nick Cannon, with a wider audience,” a St. Mary’s spokesperson told Lost Remote. “In addition, Vonvo offered a convenient and inventive way to connect our special invited concert guests and the event’s honoree, Nick Cannon with our young patients who couldn’t make it to the event by using real-time video conferencing. It was a major highlight for our event to have an eager group of our young patients share a special “thank you” message to Nick Cannon live from the hospital.”
Expanding beyond the non-profit realm, Vonvo is now courting news and media organizations, giving journalists the ability to interact directly with their readers. Lost Remote asked Vonvo CEO Max Ringelheim how vonvos can complement what TV networks and broadcast journalist are already doing on-air: “Vonvo allows the audiences watching TV programs to actually become apart of the program itself through an engaging video platform,” he responded. “For instance, when news anchors ask viewers to tweet with a particular hashtag around that program, those same viewers could simultaneously be having live video conversations on Vonvo about the topics at hand.”
More social TV platforms are trying to get users to actually talk aloud during shows (instead of just through second screen apps), and it will be interesting to see if Vonvo is able to help viewers take this leap.
