The Donate a Photo app, which launched in 2013, hit a million photos earlier this year. Last week, Johnson and Johnson released a performance update for both iOS and Android versions.
Not only will J&J make this contribution for each shared photo, it allows users to choose from a selection of causes — currently, there are 46 different non-profit projects listed. The list of projects ranges from newborn resuscitation devices to help newborns breath, implemented through Save the Children, to assisting the victims of the Tennessee fires through Americares. The program donates to charities in eight different categories: women and children’s health, healthy families, health care workforce, environmental health, global disease challenges, essential surgery, education and equality, and emergency relief.
Donations are limited to $1 per day per user. Each cause also has a deadline and cannot earn more than the project’s goal.
So how does it work? Images shared through the Donate a Photo app are branded with Johnson and Johnson’s logo, as well as the Donate a Photo logo. Essentially, that means Johnson & Johnson appears to be paying for social media exposure — only instead of paying a marketing group or individuals with a large number of followers, they’re donating to charity.
Johnson and Johnson says users can select any photo from their camera roll to share to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Along with being shared to social media, the photos are uploaded to a gallery for other Donate a Photo users to explore.
The app has already received images from over 180,000 users, and has assisted 109 different causes. The app is currently available to users in the U.S., the U.K., Japan and Canada.
Donate a Photo is available via a free download from both the App Store and Google Play.