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"Think the hours you spend online reading articles and watching videos isn't contributing to society? Now, the clicks you make can actually go toward important causes such as supporting local farmers or helping endangered animals.\nEnvironmental news site Mother Nature Network is rolling out a program that rewards its readers with points for navigating the site that can be redeemed in the form of making charitable donations to environmental causes.\nThe program, which is set to come out of beta testing in the next few days, already has more than 15,000 registered users. Participating non-profits include National Wildlife Federation, The Nature Conservancy, American Farmland Trust and Captain Planet.\nSimilar to gamification, members of MNN.com can earn points for doing simple actions. For example, users can click on an article (3 points), share one on Facebook or Twitter (5 points), sign up for a newsletter (10 points), write a blog (20 points), or upload a video to the site (20 points). \n\nSEE ALSO: 5 Startups Infusing Social Good with Innovation\nMembers can also earn points for pledging certain actions such as eating more locally-grown food or encouraging kids to play outside more. Once 100 points are earned, you earn one \"WorldShare\" that can go to the participating organization of your choice.   \nAlthough MNN didn't say how much money this would actually be, it will take part of the program sponsorship it receives from companies such as Coca-Coca, AT&amp;T and Mercedes-Benz and contribute a percentage of that sum to the organization the user picks.  (Since the site doesn't have traditional advertising, it is working with various sponsors to help fund the program.)\n\"We wanted a way to reward readers for the time they spend on the site while helping the non-profits we already really care about,\" Joel Babbit, CEO of Mother Nature Network, told Mashable. \"We get regulars who log into the site daily and spend so much time navigating throughout, so we wanted to turn those actions into something good for the world.\"\nBabbit noted that user interaction and engagement during beta testing has been successful so far. The program will officially launch soon, he added.\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, SondraP."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/06/04/mother-nature-network-points/>