On a day when a 100% volunteer organized phenonemen tagged Twestival will see over 175 city meetups worldwide raise money to support one charitable project, a Toronto-based startup announced a new online fundraising platform called Better The World.
Today saw the global launch of bettertheworld.com, the world's first, effortless fundraising platform that provides tools to empower millions of people to raise money for charity simply by surfing the web. The platform targets internet users who have no money to give to charity and charity supporters who want to do more.
"The concept is very simple - raise money for charity while you surf and search the web," stated Steve Croth, a Canadian Social Entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Better The World. "We already all do this as part of our dailyroutine. Why not help charities at the same time?" In less than two minutes, people can join through www.bettertheworld.com, download the tools, start raising money, and track the impact of their activities. The tools include a browser sidebar, and Google powered search toolbar, both of which seamlessly integrate to Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.
Better The World (@BetterTheWorld) is a privately owned for-profit social venture born from extensive research completed at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. They claim to be the world's first for-profit social enterprise with a 90/10 revenue sharing model.
Alternatively, the Twestival fundraising platform empowers Twitter users worldwide to raise money for charity away from their browser - giving them an opportunity to connect offline and expand their conversations past 140 characters. 100% of the money raised today will go to charity: water.
Based on the funds raised to date, Twestival can already be declared a success. With Better The World, time will tell.
very interesting! i'll have to check out the site. this kind of technological innovation is really changing the way fundraising works. the fundamentals still apply, but the available tools are increasing exponentially...
90/10 revenue sharing model? No wonder they're for profit. Obviously they didn't attend their Competitive Analysis skills instruction at the Ivey School of Business. If they had they would realize that there are substantially more effective fundraising platforms available all over the USA (both for-profit and non-profit) that take between 5% and 7% of the donations to sustain their overhead.
Their ads appear to be CPM monetized, which means hundredths of pennies per impression. Of course, they also milk the Search Engine teat, which worked for Mozilla... but why am I doing this again?
Send straight to the deadpool.
2 Ian Andrew Bell: why do you think so (they're for profit)?
Hi Ian,
Thanks very much for your comment. You’re correct that we’re using an Advertising based revenue model. However, we are not receiving donations from our Members. This platform is free to use for our Members, and free for our Charity Partners. 90% of ALL revenue goes to our Charity Partners. Our 10% is used to build the platform, market the programs, generate Ad revenue, manage the transactions, and re-invest in R&D.
It is our sincere hope that many other “for profit”, Social Ventures emerge that use innovation and the marketplace to better the world.
We welcome you to sign up, choose a cause that you care about, and download the sidebar to start viewing ads. Please let us know what you think as we continue to refine the member experience. Feel free to contact me directly with your thoughts at ebeckett@bettertheworld.com
