New York-based Crowdcases wants to bring together a community of designers to raise funds for nonprofit organizations.

Each week, the startup picks a charity, and asks artists to submit a design for a custom iPhone or Samsung Galaxy case. These cases are sold on the website, and the profits are split between Crowdcases and its charity partner. The nonprofit receives $7 for each case sold.

In addition, the winning designer is rewarded $500 in cash. “Not only do they win money, but their designs can go to work to save lives,” said CEO Dwight Peters.

It’s a deceptively simple idea that might just work.

Peters plans to scale the site by partnering with high-profile nonprofits with a large social media following.

Jamaica-born Peters is a keen advocate of social entrepreneurship, the idea that change-making and profit-making should be aligned. Successful companies in this space include online petitioning site Change.org, and Kiva, an online lending platform for the developing world.

This isn’t Peters’ first foray into entrepreneurship; his first website, QuarterWaters, features interviews with founders of “tech for good” companies.

The next challenge takes place on May 26, and Crowdcases is currently accepting applications from nonprofits and designers.

---

Big Data and Predictive/Real-time Analytics startups: Are you looking to jumpstart development & accelerate market traction? Sign up for the SAP Startup Focus program to receive technology, support, resources and community to help you develop new applications on SAP HANA, a cutting edge database platform. Get started here, and enter promo code “VB2013″ on the form.

---

What happens when you cross a Leatherman, a bike repair tool, and an iPhone case?

If a crowd-funded project on Indiegogo succeeds, you’ll get the TaskOne, from a small Atlanta-based outfit called TaskLab. The TaskOne is an iPhone case with a bunch of tools attached to it: A knife, screwdrivers, Allen wrenches, spoke wrenches, wire stripper, ruler, and of course, a bottle opener.

“We developed this case over the last six months out of a desire to have a small set of tools with us at all times,” TaskLab founder Addison Shelton said in an email to VentureBeat. “Leathermans were too bulky, and we weren’t going to carry one on our belt, but we wanted a significant tool to use for small bike and household repairs.”

I’ve seen iPhone cases with bottle openers before but never one with all these tools. If the promotional photos are to be believed, you’d be able to use this case to cut meat, saw wood, drive screws, fix your bike, and more.

It’s a bit ridiculous, yes, and you probably won’t want to subject your precious phone to really rugged situations. One slip of the whittlin’ knife and the stick of wood you are trying to carve could wind up poking out your iPhone’s Retina display. But the project illustrates the endless outpouring of creativity, from sublime to absurd, that people have applied to iPhone cases in the five years since Apple first launched the smartphone.

The tools slide out rather than folding out like a Leatherman or Swisstool. That slight inconvenience would be offset by the case’s light weight (89 grams) and slim dimensions (4mm thick) plus the fact that you can remove the knife and other sharp, dangerous implements, leaving them at home before you attempt to go through airport security.

“Despite my extensive engineering and manufacturing background, one of the biggest challenges I have faced was the low-budget grass-roots PR campaign,” Shelton told us. Judging by the response from gadget blogs and Indiegogo backers, it’s a challenge he has successfully met.

The TaskOne is about halfway to its fundraising goal of $30,000, with 15 days to go. Too late to order one for Christmas … but if you’re lucky, you might be able to get one by spring: Shelton promises to deliver finished cases by April, 2013.