VARIOUS Charity Collaboration ideas and issues -FB
"A good Idea is worth a trilllion dollars......"
Back in 2008, Google did a "10 to a power of 100" contest for best ideas for charity and 160,000 responses were submited.
http://www.project10tothe100.com/faq.html#implementing
What i dont understand is why didnt they maintain a on-going site to allow people to
constantly list their new ideas, thoughts for constant discussion, improvement on others ideas, and even fruitful collaboration
and actual business ventures on these ideas.
I think it is crucial Facebk should have a IDEAS page on the Cause site, structured in a way that similar ideas in each charity category
are aggregated and summarized in bulletpoints once every 3 mth(like what google did in the contest)
.And with a msg bd or twit stream open for discussions on constant improvement of these ideas.
People have charity ideas all the time but there is simply NO reputable site or widely recognized site out there that they could post and get feedback.
And a lot of the ideas are already out there, being executed by ongoing non-profits. It will be very nice if one could just
come to the site, submit their new idea, and do research on the site and see if that idea has been done or is similar in nature, and could then get the contact info on the people to collaborate the similar idea with, or just read other similar ideas and see if one could improve on them.
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Dear FB Causes,
Below is another one of my idea that u guys should definitely implement-
People responds to their hobbies and passions, spending time, effort and money
without anyone persuading them.
Thus the strategy of Matching Passions(hobbies) to the right Charities or Charity Causes
A module or search box should be programmed that allows users to enter their passion, for eg
chess or golf or reading and the program or app will match the users to the charities that involved that
passion either thru volunteer activities or fundraising or mentoring or parties(events).
Passion is what makes people act now and on impulse. So pls create the above.
This way u encourage "matching passion to Charity "
This strategy will encourage more people who never participate in charity to try charity work or events, to meet people with similar passion/hobbies.
It seems that ur site is geared towards people who already wants to do charity. It will be a mistake if u dont try to convince those who never tried charity.
And the best way is to attract them thru passion/hobbies.
Matching their passion to people, events, organizations. Passion could be tennis, golf, chess, food, flowers etc or
career passions like finance, investments, etc
And this "matching passion to charity"
should be a new campaign on the home pg – programmed in a simple, clean, inviting way-
The hmpg should show and guide the users in a few simple steps how a new volunteer or collaborator could get involved with charity thru their passion/hobby.
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The $1 Power Button to prove every dollar really counts.
I know u guys have donation denominations in $10 $25 $50 and above. But what about the $1 button?
This button will create more users donating, letting first time donors a taste of giving, makes more donations per user, create a viral habit of giving perhaps even everyday!
Realize that $1 in some countries are worth a lot more and for lower income people, $1 is a lot but a first step towards giving more habit wise.
Cost of processing with the credit card or paypal might be prohibitive but i m sure deals could be struck with them.
Thus, i look fwd seeing the first "every dollar counts" program or app or campaign.
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I think we desperately need a COLLABORATION SECTION on FB Causes.
So many people have different talents/strengths and passion to contribute and volunteer their time but yet still no major website currently out there that takes in their input, simplify their search to guide them towards optimizing their volunteer time.
There are simply 2 kinds of Work in Volunteerism- 1. Field jobs and 2. Admin Functions
Field jobs are non duplicable and works in the field, such as giving fliers, doing soup kitchen, gathering food and user can only serve one non-profit grp at any one time.
Admin Functions are duplicable, such as legal work, research, accounting, marketing consulting etc, and volunteers who serve these fns can serve more than one nonprofit at any one time to maximize their contributions
There should be a module that allows the user to put in 1 or 2 key Inputs such as their Passion (like reading)and their Profession/Strengths(eg accounting) . Then the module will spits out a list of the volunteer work or Collaboration Projects available based on these 2 inputs. Then the user can then click on their desired option and contact the Project manager directly on FB to start their volunteer/collaboration effort immediately.
If the Profession is of a Admin nature versus a Field nature, then the user can actually choose more than 1 non profit to volunteer. For eg, marketing consultants.
This module can be used for volunteers, Collaboration or New IDea StartUp
In later stages, you guys should also have a ALLOCATION EFFICIENCY PLATFORM for Collaboration.
In recent yrs, on collaboration of effort, we have so many different .orgs springing up all over the web 2.0 landscape. It is a great development BUT it also thins out concentration of effort.
U guys should develop a ALLOCATION EFFICIENCY PLATFORM in later stages, where different non profit orgs in Similar categories collaborate to weed out exceess and reallocate efforts in other categories especially in the duplicable Admin functions.
This collaboration platform should encompass the non-profits, governmental pubic sector, private sector-large corporations and the general john doe public.
Most nonprofit ideas failed due to either bad idea, bad structuring, or bad excecution. By bridging the visionary, architect, Connectors/organizers and management operators ,could we maximize the chance of success for each idea.
This collaboration of talents and ideas also minimize waste as a single talent can work across few nonprofits at the same time, while nonprofits with similar goals can merge or allocate talents more efficiently.
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I must admit the nonprofit world is pretty "behind" in coming out ways to appreciate their donors/supporters.
A simple thk you note or email simply isnt enough to create any viral effect or show u truly appreciate the donors.
Most dont even have the courtesy to send a more personal thk you Wall note to the donors.
The shopping world has tons of ways to reward and appreciate their customers, so lets learn some of the tricks from them. Below are some of my marketing thoughts and ideas:
Virtual ways of saying Thk You
1. A personal E-card or E-video with the persons name on should be sent. Much like a Christmas card. If it is made funny with a good sense of humor with funny pics or video, even better! Now it is viral and the donor may share that thk you email with hundreds of other friends and family to create Free branding and fund raising opportunities for the nonprofits. I remembered a free video Christmas e-card site that allows people to send the very funny video with their personal face cropped into the ecard video! That attracted millions of users alone!
And attracted millions more -thks to the viralness!
So pls get creative on these.