Ideas

Great idea, although duoble posted.
maybe you can make one idea private.
Tommy

Hi,

May I ask a few Questions.

1. What percentage of revenue does it take to administer this project ?

2. How do you make sure that the individual Merchants pay their percentage.

3. What do you do if they don't ? What does it cost to collect ?

4. How does one keep "http://www.givewhileyoushop.org " Honest ?

As you know there are many scam artists in the Charity field. For example a lot of the Scam Artists pocket 95%+ of what they collect and book it as Administration Costs !

To CharonV:
1. At this point 0%. I'd like to keep it that way as long as I can. If the website becomes popular I know there will have to be a way to pay for the hosting, but taking a percentage of the contributions will be a last resort. I'd probably try to place ads, solicit donations, or any other way to generate income first.

2. The purchases are tracked by a third party, and reports are sent to me. Payment is up to the merchants, but we can always check to see if merchants pay based on the reports and add/remove them from the program based on their record.

3. If they don't pay, and there's no good reason for not paying, I will have to remove them from the list of participating merchants.

4. I guess there's really no way to make sure I am not pocketing the money myself. But I will try perhaps get testimonials from benefitting charities that they have received the money. If all goes well, I'll probably consider getting seals from the BBB or something like that.

Keep in mind the partnerships I have with merchants are made possible by affiliate marketing networks such as Commission Junction, Linkshare, and Doubleclick Performics. These networks usually only take reputable companies.

To Vanhees:
I realized I made a duplicate one. I wanted to delete the other one but I don't know how.

This is done a lot.

gun to head..... pull trigger

Several major credit card company's as well as check company's have "Give while you spend" plans to help you support worthy causes.

The more transparent for the consumer you can make this, the better. I'm apparently eligible for a number of schemes that allow me to earn store card points on online purchases but I never remember to click through the relevant websites...

Also, if your url is shopwiseLY, why not use that as the name of the scheme? Otherwise people will only get confused.

Yes I'm creating a toolbar right now that will automatically detect if the website you are on is a participating merchant and then provide the link right in the browser if it is.

Also this program can be used in conjunction with any credit card company or check company's "Give while you spend plans."

Just wondering what is the cms and mods/code that drives your system? I am kind of interested in it since you have implemented a few features that I like. If you can pm me and lets talk.

One more thing I forgot to say. This has been done all ready.
http://nonprofitshoppingmall.com/
Here is an article about it:
http://www.psfk.com/...hop-for-a-cause.html

Already done. Even for Linux: http://www.linuxfund.org/

If you go to profile, ideas go can make an idea private.

ok neat but what do you need us for... testers for free?

To natmaka:
Again, I believe ShopWisely.org can be used in conjunction with the linuxfund.org card.

To Brenden:
I'd like everyone to use the site. Give it a try. The more money you can raise the more credible the site can become. Of course if you want to volunteer and help out that'd be cool too.

Checkout iGive.com, I believe it is what your are proposing.

Yes I know about iGive.com, Benevolink, GiveandShop.com, and a host of others. But as I've said many times, just compare the ease of use between ShopWisely.org and other sites. No registration is necessary for ShopWisely. Full reporting and tracking. On top of that, ShopWisely routes 100% of the proceeds to benefiting organizations. I know iGive.com does not do that (iGive also requires registration).

Wow, you have a fan, he's 6, but hey - its still a fan..

I was reading though this idea once more and then I noticed this line:
"NONPROFIT and we give 100% of the proceeds away."
That single updated line changed my mind. This idea is worth a 5 star.

Yes and as a nonprofit we are required by law to make public our tax filings. In addition you can view the revenue reports from our advertisers at http://www.thegivefoundation.org

Out of curiosity how do you over your overhead then? Or do you just give profit away?

As administrators will you pay yourselves salary for maintaining the site?

No. Unless one day it becomes a full time job.

I don't understand your first question but I'll try to answer it anyways.
100% of the proceeds we receive from a merchant for a purchase is routed to the organization chosen by the purchaser.

To cover maintenance costs (hosting, development, etc) I plan to use other functionality of the site. For example we are developing a product search powered by Shopping.com and ShopZilla. For every person who uses the product search engine we are paid a fee. Of course this fee will be used for operating / maintenance costs. Of course you can always choose The Give Foundation as your beneficiary or make a tax-deductible donation.

Yeah sorry, wrote in haste.

"How do you cover your overhead?"

Also a lot of similar sites claim to be losing money. One was hostile when I asked how their toolbar works and claimed to be losing $10,000 a year... You'd think they'd be grateful if I took their money losing job but instead weren't very helpful.

i wish I had a fan

"i wish I had a fan"
What do you mean by that Rich2809?

lol

Hey people sorry took me so long to notice pooppor 's comments. Killing his (multiple) accounts.

Uh this idea... yes I can see its value if you're not taking an overhead charge. You might want to make some forward looking projection about how you'll handle things when volume is ramped up. It can't stay at 0% forever.

I think transparency is key to making this work, to convince people that yes really your commission is 0 (or near zero in the future). Can you expore every referral record (hiding personal info of course). I think if someone sees their transaction appear at the top of the list as the latest entry... it will show your system is responding to use. If you have an exposed transaction records... and an exposed charity recipient records... then it will look more legit.

Donation records for both merchants and charities are displayed on their respective profile pages. Additionally, raw revenue reports from the merchants are released at http://www.thegivefo...tion.org/finance.php

The toolbar is in development and will be released soon. This will make it transparent. User will not have to visit ShopWisely.org for each purchase. Instead a link will be presented if the site they are on is a participating merchant.

As for overhead. I want to push ShopZilla and Shopping.com product search (which pays per click) into the toolbar and onto the site. I think if people want to use ShopWisely.org, they'll probably get the toolbar for convenience. And if they use it for shopping, they'll probably use it for product search too.

Also if you make an account your individual purchase history will be in your account.

i will join you.

I like this idea as long as it is Mac friendly.

Well the site should work on Mac. I've tested it on Safari (Windows version) and everything looks fine. As for the toolbar, I'm not sure if a Safari one would be possible.

Personally, I like your idea. Whom do you think will be using your site? It seems that neither Sara nor Laura is going to use the site. As they also mentioned in the video there would be a market for this. The problem is here how you are going to get to that specific market? What’s your strategy?

As this is a nonprofit venture, I don't like to think of there being a "market" for this. However in an effort to get people to use this, I'm currently trying to get some local nonprofits (like churches) to participate and encourage their supporters. ShopWisely only takes a click of a link, so I guess the only reason I see someone not using this would be because they don't really support any organization (or their organization isn't listed, which is a problem I am trying to address with my lawyer).

Seriously, you need to start to think like an entrepreneur in order to get big. Otherwise a good idea will be lost or stolen. It is good to start from the local nonprofit organizations first. Don’t count too much on the general public like Sara or Laura to use your sites. I am sure they have their own organizations to support and they also want to give back to the community, but just not in this way. Instead, you can ask your family or friends first to take a click of a link to test it out and make the site reliable. At same time you need to address the benefit to the nonprofit organizations and let them help you to promote the site. Find out a nonprofit organization one at a time to see if you can volunteer your expertise (like web designing). Sell your idea to them and help them in their fundraising program. I think they would be more than glad to add their names into your list.

As far as I know the MCWT have a few web developer volunteer openings. Start contacting them, your nonprofit venture will get you somewhere. Here is the contact info: http://www.mcwt.org/117.php

Good Luck!

The main point of this is not to get big. This is simply a free service for nonprofits to take advantage of and not to be used for self gain.

So it is just an idea not a BUSINESS idea. I am sure that “not to be used for self gain” is your initiative. What if it really gets big someday? Are you prepared to cover the operation overhead? How are you going to keep it going smoothly? Can the nonprofits still take advantage of this as a reliable but FREE service?

At least you should get some gain to cover the cost otherwise you may end up losing money like what the other site claimed.