Hoopla.com brings online gaming and charity together

Doing nothing while doing something is kind of an anomaly in life. However, Hoopla.com is a casual, online gaming website that allows you to do just that. Okay, playing video games is technically doing something—but it’s doing nothing as much as doing nothing can be.

Hoopla, which launched on August 4, is already creating a buzz. The concept is that when you play video games, you are playing in support of a charity. There is no fee for joining up; instead, the site raises money for charities by donating a portion of its gross advertising revenues. There is a charity-o-meter in the top right-hand corner of the main site that shows you how much money has been raised so far ($10,000 and counting).

The games are pretty basic, but there's a wide variety of styles to play, from casino to puzzle games. When playing games you gain ‘hoops’, which you then donate to any of the charities Hoopla has listed, including WorldServe, a group that delivers water, medicine, food, and other essential items to Africa’s poor.

As you donate your hoops, you earn badges representing the different amounts you’ve donated. There is also a sweepstakes area where you can play games for opportunities to win more hoops, prizes, and celebrity vacation experiences.

The fact that you can do this without spending a dime of your own money and still help out is rewarding—it definitely won’t break any banks. Who’d have thought that you could play games while at the same time helping people in need?