BELOIT, WI — RealityBLU’s WorldViewAR platform is being used by Sister Schools, a nonprofit in the Pacific Northwest, to boost its donations and benefit school children in Uganda. The campaign is being produced by image8creations, AR artists in Salt Lake City, UT.

While an increasing number of nonprofits are using augmented reality (AR) to increase awareness of their missions, Sister Schools is breaking ground by using it for direct fundraising. New AR approaches, such as those being powered by RealityBLU’s WorldViewAR platform, are making this possible, and they are proving to be highly effective.

Key to Sister Schools’ mission is that it does not merely provide school supplies to children in need. It engages school students and teaches them global philanthropy. This benefits not only the students on both sides of the Atlantic, but the local communities in the Puget Sound, as local students learn compassion, service, and social responsibility.

In the past, Sister Schools has used traditional fundraising methods such as direct mail, email, and social media. This year, it worked with image8creations to add augmented reality (AR). image8creations’ Track the Container program, powered by RealityBLU WorldViewAR, uses the power of “holographic twins” (or holotwins) and AR portals to deepen donor engagement by allowing them to participate in the mission in a more interactive way.

Holotwins and portals created through WorldViewAR are web-based, so donors do not need an app to engage with them.

To create the holowin, image8creations took a video of Sister Schools founder Terry McGill against a green screen. Using WorldViewAR’s simple online wizard, the video was turned into an AR scene within minutes. The resulting QR Code and hyperlink were added to the school’s direct mail, email, and social media channels, as well as its website.

Donors can scan a QR Code and place the holotwin, called “Tabletop Terry,” in their real-world environments. They can choose whether to watch Tabletop Terry in miniature, standing on a flat surface like a counter or tabletop, or full-size size on the floor in their homes or offices simply by pinching or expanding it to the desired size.

The AR experience includes a donation button that allows people to give to the mission right within the AR experience. This increases donations by making the “ask” while the emotion is fresh. It also allows Sister Schools to tie donations directly back to the AR experience.

For a $10 donation, people receive a magnet with a QR Code that leads to a second AR experience: an AR portal that lets them walk into each transportation hub as the container of school supplies passes through it. Thanks to the power of 360º video, donors can walk through that door, into the hub, and explore as if they were actually there. This deepens donor engagement by getting them excited to see their gifts at work as they “track the container” all the way to its destination.

The program launched in December 2021, and the container shipped in January 2022. Although the program is fresh into the field, it is already resulting in a higher level of engagement and a higher level of donations than 2021. Sister Schools is so pleased with the results, in fact, that it purchased its own WorldViewAR license through image8creations (a value-added authorized reseller) to create their own AR campaigns in-house. 

About RealityBLU

RealityBLU’s web-based platform enables non-technical marketers and designers to create and publish augmented reality (AR) scenes that put People, Places, and Things into the Metaverse. RealityBLU eliminates the technical barriers to implementing and measuring AR content scenes by providing marketers with an intuitive interface and workflow that allow them to attract and delight more customers. RealityBLU has acquired 1,000+ users and has attracted household name brands across many vertical markets.