Game Mechanics for Volunteer Now!

I'm working on ideas for adding game mechanics to the Volunteer Now application. Please comment and let me know what you think.

Volunteer Now application summary:
Enable people to volunteer their expertise in spare time, via a mobile device. More details here.

Proposed game mechanics:

1. Every volunteer task is assigned a given number of points (by a volunteer captain).
   
2. Each time you complete a task, you win these points.
3. At any time, you can donate your points to a nonprofit of your choice - and a sponsoring organization will donate real dollars to match your points.
4. If you've reached a given number of points (say 100), you get a free dinner at a local restaurant, where you must dine with at least 2 other volunteers who also have 100+ points. And together, over dinner, you select a nonprofit to be the recipient of your points.
5. If you have 3-5 people, the sponsoring organization will match your points at 1x in dollars. 6-10 people the match will be at 2x. 10+ people, and there will be a 3x match.
6. You will also be required to upload a photo of the dinner event to the web site.

The idea is you get a double win for your volunteer effort... and also get to meet with people in your locale. What do you think? What improvements can I make to this process? Is it too complicated? Will it work? Please comment - I'm going to give away a free copy of my book to someone who comments!!

Here's a rough diagram describing the process

Comments

[JacobColker]

The idea is great - but my biggest concern is creating the atmosphere of competition. and making people care about it.

In political campaign field programs, I used to put a giant spreadsheet on the wall with pictures of each volunteer, and the number of hours they spent making phone calls.

The prizes would be, staffing the candidate at fun events, meeting cool people (i.e. Bill Clinton at another event), and even an ipod.

It turned into a huge competition for everyone and we had some volunteers at the end of the campaign that put in over 500 hours!

So, I suggest that you have a "stats" webpage clearly visible with the screenname of the people and proudly display how well they are doing.

oh yeah, FREE BOOK!!!! :)

[Sanaz Ebriani]

This is a great idea. Barack Obama's website is indicative of how winning points can be a great incentive to volunteer one's time. But I like the idea of being able to cash out these points or donate them for a cause.