Ta Da!! We have updated the 2014 Leaderboard with the numbers for this years games. We’ve gone through every report that was submitted for every day of the Games. Although the whole spirit of the Compassion Games is playful and fun, we take your efforts to report on your acts of compassion seriously. Of course, whoever played in the games and did or didn’t report was a winner, and with that said let’s get into the numbers.

When accountants deliver “the numbers” they usually also prepare a “note” to help explain what the numbers mean. Consider this post that kind note. If you look at the leaderboard you’ll see that the teams are grouped by leagues and sorted alphabetically. Each of the columns are reviewed below:

Team names and #hashtags

We introduced hashtags this year as a way to apply a common name across all website and social media platforms.  In the process of reviewing the reports we made our best efforts to identify reports and associate them with the teams they belong to. Everyone didn’t use the same team name or #hashtag name to refer to a particular team. We did our best to cross reference and connect team wherever possible.

Number of reports

There were people who submitted reports with team names (or #hashtag) but didn’t put in any numbers. In these cases, at a minimum we put in “one volunteer and one person served” logic, being that the act of reporting was an act of service and the person reporting was served in the process. We made other revisions if it was obvious what the missing numbers should be.

Number of volunteers

This was straightforward. We just counted what people reported. We may not be accountants, but this was an easy one.

Number of hours

Some people reported an act of compassion that lasted 10 seconds, and others reported  actions that will last for infinity. We did allow for fractions up to a quarter of an hour. Did I mention we are not accountants? We did our best!

Money donated to local causes

This was straightforward. We just added up the amounts.

Number of people served

This is the most objective number of them all. This says a lot about the reporter. We left the numbers as they were reported. In some cases people’s compassionate act reached thousands and even millions of people. Who can disagree with that?  I sure hope it’s true. Other people were quite conservative in reporting on how many people were served. I remember last year someone said that their meditations were reaching all sentient beings for all-time! I believe that’s true, but that’s me!

Other Observations

We saw that there was an enormous amount of food raised and we didn’t have an easy way to count that. We need a column titled  “Priceless”!

There are also groups of players that self-organized to form a team and never officially signed up but played and reported as a team. This is very cool!

And then there were the amazing reports themselves. For example; check out the report on what was done in Sierra Leone where $200 was raised to get the word out and keep people informed about how to prevent the spread of Ebola. Or did you see the team that planted hundreds of pink flamingos in their neighbor’s yard to raise awareness and money for building homes in Guatemala? And of course, we hope you heard that the inmates in the California Institution for Women prison were playing for a second year, beating their personal best of 4600 points last year by exceeding their goal of 10,000 points this year! The stories go on and on.

The compassion report map is full of these kinds of experiences being shared with the world.  We’d love you to look through them and let us know about your favorites! https://compassiongames.crowdmap.com/reports

It is humbling and inspiring to see what we’re capable of when we come together to give of ourselves in creative ways seeking to play with compassion!

If you want to understand more about how we see the leaderboard and measuring compassion take a look at this article we wrote recently.  https://www.compassiongames.org/compassion-games/the-leaderboard-measuring-our-compassion-in-action/

What’s Next?

Have your calendar handy?

October 15-25 – The Schools Games

February 1-7 – The Interfaith/Multicultural/Faith Based Games

Year-round Keep the Compassion Games alive in your life and in your community! Keep the reports coming and contribute to our Compassion Games International Facebook page. Keep the creativity flowing and broadcasted!

Compassion shared is compassion multiplied!

Here are your results! 

Jon