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NetSquared is an initiative ofTechSoup
NetSquared enables social benefit organizations to leverage the tools of the social web.
FreePledge
Challenges Entered:
FreePledge turns every day online shopping into charitable acts, providing nonprofits with an innovative way to raise funds, empowering customers to support their nonprofits at no cost and helping retailers build a social responsible brand.
FreePledge is a social venture with the vision to empower the nonprofit sector by building a new market for socially minded shopping.
The nonprofit sector is a large sector with 1.4 million nonprofit organizations, $1.1 trillion of spending power, and employs 10% of U.S. national workforce. Fundraising is the biggest challenge: an average direct expense of $0.24 per dollar raised. At the same time, consumers spent $200 billion online in 2006 and are increasingly more socially aware. 84% of Americans said they were likely to switch brands to support a worthy cause.
FreePledge sees an opportunity to help nonprofits with fundraising and retailers with cause-related marketing by tapping into socially aware consumers. FreePledge aims to become the go-to-leader for socially minded consumerism.
WHAT WE NEED:
- Staff and financial resources to develop and expand technologic infrastructure
- Staff and financial resources to develop partnerships with nonprofit power hubs, build direct sales, and expand its reach within the nonprofit sector
- Staff and financial resources to market to socially minded consumers
- Staff and financial resources to develop strategic partnerships with key retailers
- Staff and financial resources to develop and expand technologic infrastructure
- Staff and financial resources to develop partnerships with nonprofit power hubs, build direct sales, and expand its reach within the nonprofit sector
- Staff and financial resources to market to socially minded consumers
- Staff and financial resources to develop strategic partnerships with key retailers
Location
Palo Alto, CA
United States
See map: Google Maps
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Win Win
What a great idea, This will be successful by creating a no lose model. You buy what you want .. you win. The retailer sells his goods he wins. the charity gets a donation, they win. Then you win again because you feel good, and everybody else wins because they all fell good. Easy Huh!
Great idea! Reminds me of
Great idea! Reminds me of the coupons made by an office mate where customers make a purchase and a portion of the sales are given to the medication of his daughter. This is better than plain and simple asking for donations. My question is how will I know that the donation is made?
Questions
Naturally, I want to know as much as possible about this program BEFORE I give them my email address. No offense, but even worthy causes seem to find ways to waste energy. I get more junk mail from non-profits than any other type of organization. It's kind of ironic. And I feel it's a waste of energy to send tons of junk email. Not that I'm saying it's junk, I just want to know more before I submit myself to it.
I see that I get to select my own non-profits for the donations. How many non-profits can I select? Also, do I get to decide who gets how much money? Say I have three non-profits, but I want one of them to get 50% and the other two to each get 25%...can I make that decision or does it always get split equally?
I'm a member of other sites like this where donations are made to funds for charity and college and school books for unpriveleged kids and what most annoys me is the fact that it takes soooo long for the money to be credited. I don't want to buy something today and have my charity get the money for it 6 months down the road. My non-profits need money now...they always do and I want to know that they will be credited in a timely fashion...otherwise I'll skip this service and send them a money order instead.
Also, I am curious how much of the funding this company has to keep in order to run. If they get 10% commission from my $1000 purchase at OverStock, will FreePledge keep 3% of that for fees and running costs? Or will my non-profits get to have ALL of that money? Because I'm all about helping charities, but I don't want to pay someone to help my charity and while it says that the service is free, I feel that if my non-profit only gets 7%, then I actually am paying for the service.
Please tell me more about this so I can make an informed decision.
hmm, charity mall would be a
hmm, charity mall would be a good idea, i think one should participate in it. What you say? i like Free Pledge Clean & Dust Wipes samples, Eradicate dust in your home with this free sample of Pledge Clean & Dust Wipes. You will also get a free sample of Pledge Multi-Surface Clean & Dust Wipes, perfect for cleaning counters, appliances and more. 70-643 Have stainless steel appliances? 70-431 No problem, be sure to check the box for a free Pledge Stainless Steel Wipes sample as well. Available while supplies last. 642-873
Alonovo-inspired site
Hey, great idea! We're planning on having a charity mall as well, but with 100% of the commissions routed to the charity, instead of taking 3% from the charity for profits. I hope you'll check us out in the near future. We really like your gadgets. That donation estimator is really cool, and the design of your page is very impressive.