December 13, 2007 | Read Time: 3 minutes
On a family vacation two years ago, Kelsi Okun, then 8, and her 10-year-old sister, Rachel, were stumped. They
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had been reading Michael Stadther’s A Treasure’s Trove, a book with clues to jewels hidden across the United States. As the girls struggled to come up with answers to the book’s riddles, they had another thought.
“They realized it was a great family effort and a great way to get people mobilized,” says their father, Bob Okun, a lobbyist at NBC Universal. “They wanted to take all that effort and use it for a good cause.”
The cause the girls chose was scholarship assistance for military families. And the tax-exempt organization they created with the help of their parents, ThanksUSA,uses an online treasure hunt about American history to generate buzz and donations.
The hunt, which is redesigned each year, employs sudoku puzzles, word scrambles, and other games to educate players about American history. It is meant to be a challenging effort to be completed with family members, classmates, and friends.
“This is education on two levels,” says Mr. Okun, who serves as the group’s chief executive. “You learn about American history by playing the game, and at the same time you generate funds for scholarships.”
Companies and individuals have donated prizes for treasure-hunt winners each year, including trips to Disney World and to the Super Bowl. Twenty-four winners — 12 school groups and 12 individual players — are selected randomly each year from those who correctly complete the hunt.
The treasure hunt is free to play, but the charity encourages donations from the players through its Web site. Between 8,000 and 10,000 individuals or groups have signed up to play the game in each of the last two years, says Mr. Okun. He doesn’t know what percentage of players have contributed, but he says the charity has received about $1-million from private sources in its first two years.
ThanksUSA spent about $150,000 to create and publicize the treasure hunt. Neighbors and friends have helped conduct research and think up questions. A computer company donates its services to produce the game. Mr. Okun says the charity publicizes the game through public-service announcements and by reaching out to teachers’ associations and similar groups.
Mr. Okun says that most donors are inspired to give because of the charity’s mission, but the game helps promote the cause and inspires some contributions by bringing people to the group’s Web site. “People have different appetites,” he says. “Some are more intrigued with the treasure hunt, some more with the scholarships, and others like the combination.”
