Charity ratings are a fickle thing with highly rated charities holding the number 1 position today being overtaken by new charities coming from nowhere. Charity Water is a recent and amazing example of this. Originality and the power of the Internet, are driving the ratings of brand new charities through the roof. A charity may not know today with a non-existent rating, but tomorrow it can be rated as number one by the New York Times as being the most amazing charity ever, and wham their rating goes from zero right to the top overnight.
Because of the power the mass communication media have over the people, when a charity is in the good books of the media, it expands very quickly and manages to get a lot of charitable giving. By that same yardstick, when media do not have much interest in propping up a given charity, its rating also plummets in the same proportion.
Charity rating directory listings
With steadily rising distrust and morality guardians of charity being ever suspicious of charity problems like transgression, having pretty large amounts of money spent on the running of charities or mishandling of funds, listings of charity ratings are booming. It is real quaint that humanitarian institutions that are meant for giving others are under the watchful eye of charity watchdogs. The whole idea of benevolence is getting a bit problematical!
Institutions like Givespot.com, Guidestar.org etc. provide comprehensive listings of charity ratings. GiveSpot 100 list is the list of the 100 highest ranking charities that is provided by Givespot.com. Another one that provides similar data is charitynavigator.com which has a list of the top ten charities as well a charity check system. Finding out charities is made easy by this. The biggest charity director of US is Guidestar.org with lots of free data on charity as well as information that can be availed for payment. Though its name gives a different impression, Better Business Bureau is a charity directory that gives a list of both commercial and non-profit ventures of USA.
So if you want to find the 100 top charities then there are so many charity rating guides out there and yet maybe charity ratings are actually about something else. What makes a charity stand above the rest often has nothing to do with its ratings at all. There are special ingredients that make any charity or non-charity organisation successful.
Charity Ratings and trust in the public
A YouGov poll of 2005 stated that about 56 percent of the British population did not have a considerable amount of belief even in well known global charities like Oxfam and Save the Children. Even among the charities that had a good charity rating, only about 15 percent enjoyed the public's belief in them.
Charity Watchdog Scares are more common
People do not have faith in charities any more. They cannot be blamed for this state of affairs. Eagle eyed critics of charities complain about mismanagement in the field with high salaries for the staff and about 60% donations being spent on overheads for running the venture, leaving little for actual charity giving.
It has been shown in recent studies that the expenses for raising funds in places like UK and Australia amount to about18% in the case of the former and 22% in the case of the latter. The corresponding amount in USA is about 30% according to the Association of Fundraising Professionals. These are without administrative expenses, which might be higher. This is a big issue with donors especially in situations like what happened in Singapore a few years ago when the issue fell under the media scanner. This sort of negative attraction leads to a reduction in charity giving which is definitely not a good sign.
Charity ratings mystery revealed
There is practically no difference between a charity and a commercial enterprise when it comes to the question of drawing money. They way they put the money to use might be different, but the techniques they use to get that money are more or less the same.
In order to get the funds necessary for functioning, as well as to improve the charity ratings, there is only one assured way - make it tempting.
When we see an object and would like to buy it, or make an investment in it, or want to connect with it, we tend to take a decision on the basis of how tempting it is to us. If it is very appealing, we might instantly buy it or plan to get it but if it is not all that tempting, we would definitely postpone the idea.
Charity Water is highly attractive and hence why it's charity-rating sky rocked so quickly and the media got behind the idea. The simple idea of selling a bottle of charity water for a premium price with the extra profit been giving as a donation to the needy to access clean water was highly attractive.
The factors that make Charity Water quite fascinating and promote its rating are the following.
* They have a cool name - who would think of calling a charity Charity WaterThe person behind the charity was on overdrive with passion in sharing about their idea
* They had a simple, single and clear message and mission - sell water give water - Buy One Give One
* Their focus was on how to solve the problem and not the problem itself. It is important for charities to properly define their focus if they want people to rate them highly. No one has interest in getting their attention turned to the unpleasant things in life. People want a positive focus. So when they are told that they can make a positive change in the lives of others by buying a bottle of water they feel happy.
How to reduce you Charity Ratings in a heart beat
The fastest way for a charity to lose its rating is by making itself less appealing by concentrating on the problem. People are hardly inclined to listen about all that negativity going on in the world. On the other hand, most people are ready to listen to sagas of vigour, eagerness, drive and dedication to fashion a better world.
All we have to do is see ourselves with our own kids and understand how we easily answer in the affirmative when they request for things in an eager and happy and excited way. But when they prefer to make their demands in a peevish or weepy way, we may tend to refuse.
The ratings of a charity depend substantially on the image it projects in front of the public. With a motivating and inspiring image people will be swayed to its ideas. They will then be ready to contribute well to the cause of the charity.
Social Enterprise raises Charity Ratings and reduces Fundraising Problems
A new business model emerged a few years ago called Social Enterprise . This in a way is a hybrid mix between a charity and a business. Some entrepreneurs want to tackle social issues but they do not find the charity model effective or attractive enough.
The medium of a conventional business enterprise may not be suitable for many businessmen whose ideas of ethics and integrity would be contrary to the way decisions are made in a commercial world. Such people use a social enterprise to use their acumen and ability to create a profit and effect great changes in the social arena. A typical example of such a social entrepreneur is Muhammad Yunus who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his rich contributions to improving social conditions.
A new global social enterprise, Buy1GIVE1 commonly known as B1G1 (Buy 1 Give 1), partners businesses with worthy cause and charity organisations right around the world. Buy1GIVE1 cuts traditional fundraising and administrative costs down to nothing: promising to give 100% of all funds received. Similar to successful online entities like Kiva.org , recently endorsed by Bill Clinton; Buy1GIVE1 is an alternative to the traditional way of direct giving to charities. Many find them a more efficient way to make contributions while gaining significant value in return.
Successful businessmen, who are searching for a chance to give back richly to the society and to provide for deserving charities, fully understand the importance and properly structured working credos of institutions like Buy1GIVE1. Every single sale is able to affect a change somewhere - not only altruistically. It has also the ability to forcefully influence things in such a way that each act becomes a unique marketing story. There is a world of difference in the way in which Buy1Give1 works and those charities which give away thousands and thousands of dollars work, because Buy1Give1 lets their customers know what the joy o f giving is. Buy1Give1 transaction-based giving is a perfectly beautiful way of giving.
Businesses like Buy1GIVE1 profile charities and it tends to be the charities or worthy causes as they call them, that are the most attractive that receive the most contributions. Intrinsically business owners understand the power of attraction and they tend to go with non-profit causes that have the best story rather than look at their direct rating. They intrinsically know that their customers will connect with a better story and not ever think about a charities rating.
Maple Muesli of Australia has allied itself with a charity called Midday Meals in India, in the city of Mumbai. As a result when a packet of muesli is bought, a needy kid is given food in Mumbai. Since a simple meal is available there at the cost of 30 US cents, Midday Meals daily manages to feed about 125,000 kids. The charity feeds these children in schools and it helps substantially in protecting children from begging and other harsh realities and abuse of street life.
Maple Muesli has familiarised the whole of Australia with the noble cause of the Midday Meals. The company has made all its customers aware of the stupendous service the charity is doing and how their money is helping it. This has made Midday Meals tremendously popular even though all they are doing is providing meals for the kids. The era of Effective Giving has dawned - that of Plain Charity Donations is disappearing at the horizon.
A change is impending in the setting of the top 100 charities and would become visible in a few years as more novel and productive ways of charitable giving take shape. Nowadays only limited choices exist for making donations for charitable purposes. All the existing ones are not good enough to create enough difference.
Alternative Charity Ratings
Newer and varied ways of gifting things to others are rated and featured in the table given below. These are Charity Comparison Data.
Rating and comparison has been done on some better known and lesser known charities and Social Enterprises on issues that concern those who donate to these.
THE SALVATION ARMY
WAY TO GIVING: DIRECT GIVING
One of the Top 100 charities in the world - The Salvation Army is a charity that individuals and businesses often donate to directly.
TRANSPARENCY - B - Lack of transparency - Sum of money is contributed - but result is not fully measurable.
BENEFIT FOR THE BUSINESS - C - Contribution to Salvation Army gets mention in the press even if it is a one time contribution.
EXPENSES FOR RAISING FUNDS -B - Heavy expenses are incurred for raising funds.
CONTRIBUTORS'CHOICE OF CHARITY - B - For direct giving, you can have a lot of charities to check out before settling which one is best.
POTENTIAL FOR REAL GLOBAL CHANGE - C- Nothing new to offer in terms of market change.
PRODUCT (RED)
WAY TO GIVING: MARKETING CAMPAIGN
Product (RED) is a brand licensed to partner companies, to raise money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Africa.
OPENNESS - B - Not sufficiently open - Plenty of money is being collected - but the results are not always completely clear.
MARKETING VALUE TO BUSINESS - A - People and businesses love to support (RED) as it is backed by adored personalities like Oprah & Bono. Marketing results a little hard to track though.
EXPENSES FOR RAISING FUNDS - C - Spends huge sums of money on advertisements - giving that money directly to Africa would have been more practical.
DONORS' CHOICE POTENTIALS - C - Enterprises that partner with them have limited options in where their money should go - all needs are in Africa.
PROMISE FOR GLOBAL CHANGE - B - All partners of Products (RED) are huge ventures and the entire profit is spent on helping people of Africa.
THE BODY SHOP
PATH TO GIVING : BUSINESS TRADE & GIVING
The Body Shop engages in community trade helping Third World countries; and makes huge donations to charities from their profits.
TRANSPARENCY - B - Lack of transparency - sum of money is contributed for every purchase - but result is not fully measurable.
MARKETING VALUE TO BUSINESS - A-tve - Customers are happy to be involved in community trade and are motivated to buy more. Visibility could be a lot better.
EXPENSES FOR RAISING FUNDS - A - Costs are kept low - Business design is good enough to attract large contributions and further community trade.
DONORS' CHOICE POTENTIALS - A - Ventures that donate has the option to decide in what way their donations are to be used.
POTENTIAL FOR REAL GLOBAL CHANGE - B - Businesses' giving back is great - but very few take the added effort to push for change like Body Shop.
LIVE EARTH
PATH TO GIVING : EVENT FUNDRAISING
Live Earth consisted of a string of global musical programmes which set in motion a three-year campaign to battle climate change and was held on July 7, 2007.
CANDOUR - F - As per the reports of the site Intelligent Giving, satisfactory accounts were not produced on the proceeds from the sales of tickets.
BENEFIT FOR THE BUSINESS - B - It was beneficial to business sponsors as they got good media coverage, but as it was a single event results are not easily measurable.
EXPENSES FOR RAISING FUNDS - C - Substantial sums were spent on promotion of an event which was considered a fiasco by many as it did not have any proper objectives.
CONTRIBUTORS'CHOICE OF CHARITY - C - Only three charities received funds.
PROMISE FOR GLOBAL CHANGE - C - Such events can be held just once or at the most once a year. The amount collected generally goes to better known charities.
Buy1GIVE1 (B1G1 )
PATH TO GIVING : SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
B1G1 is a brand licensed to form a partnership with any business - connecting them with any worthy cause in any place. A truly universal precept.
OPENNESS - A - The one for one style of giving sees to it that the donors' money reaches the specific cause that it is meant to help. Donors are provided information on how exactly their money is being utilised - how many kids were fed or how many trees were planted.
ADVANTAGE TO BUSINESS - A+tve - Outstanding marketing value due to:
* Quantifiable giving * Press coverage * Valuable stories * Individual to individual * Continuing customers
FUNDRAISING COSTS - A+tve - Zero costs - B1G1 can take care of a charity's fundraising needs including a large percentage of admin as well. 100% of funds received go to the charity.
DONOR'S CHOICE OF CHARITY - A - Any donor can contribute to a specific charity, or they can insist on giving to specific causes such as food, environment, or instruction.
ABILITY FOR AFFECTING A CHANGE - A - Infinite. If increasing number of businesses can team up with charities worldwide, the possibility for real change is boundless.
You Would Think Giving away Money Would Be Easy!"
Donating money may not seem to be a difficult job - it is just a question of handing over some money as cheque, cash or via the credit card. Still, someone like George Sores, who is as generous a donor as could be, agrees that effectual giving is no cakewalk. Underprivileged communities and countries receive millions of dollars in aid and still the situation remains much the same year after year.
People asking smarter questions will bring about the needed change. Social Entrepreneurs like Mohamed Yunis, Nobel Prize winner, creating innovative solutions to poverty and environmental issues with Micro Finance are carving the way to a new future where business initiatives, social enterprise and conscious consumerism transform our world. Initiatives like The Body Shop's 'Trade - Not Aid' need to be replicated. New ideas like Buy1GIVE1 need to be embraced. The value of social enterprise needs to be recognised.
When queried as to how someone can effect a change in the world, Bill Gates pointed towards organisations like Buy1GIVE1 (www.b1g1.com) and Kiva.org which reward the giver richly. Kiva.org ensures that those who sponsor a business get regular updates via email from those businesses. Buy1GIVE1 also ensures this. With such communication, customers get a clear picture and come to know the stories behind the charities. For example, when they buy a laptop, someone who badly needs a computer might be getting it at some other corner of the world.
Next steps to increasing your Charity Ratings
Make sure that you have an open attitude, use the laptop effectively, and keep apart a little time to observe the novel and wonderful systems of charity that are being born. These function through the internet and are mostly network based.
The present situation is that if a venture is not allied online with global networks of good standing, it stands to lose quite a lot whatever its charity rating is, by tomorrow things are likely to change -- completely.
There are more and more examples these days of companies rising up from nothing and being sold three years later for over a billion dollars. This was unheard of ten years ago. Today this is becoming a regular occurrence. All these new Internet companies are doing one thing - tapping into global networks or creating global networks.
Buy1GIVE1 (Buy One Give One)
Buy1GIVE1 is a rather new entrant to the world of Social Enterprises and was launched in 1997 by a Japanese lady called Masami Sato. Any business can avail a membership in Buy1GIVE1, and membership charges for smaller ventures will only be one dollar a day and donations can be as little as one cent on a sale. Buy1GIVE1 is in the forefront of the Buy One Give One transaction-based giving world movement. Joining hands with Buy1GIVE1 is totally uncomplicated for businesses as well as charity needs. The working pattern of Buy1GIVE1 is perfectly controlled and practical. It connects the products or services of any given business to a needy cause (Buy1GIVE1's or their own) and after that whenever a sale is closed, it has to be recorded and the contribution percentage sent to the charity at the end of the month or end of quarter year directly or through Buy1GIVE1.
You are strongly advised to create lasting bonds with Buy1GIVE1 and also motivate your business associates to join Buy1GIVE1. It is a singular and wonderful organisation doing stupendous work and no one can afford to ignore it.
A new epoch in charity giving
Companies that had no presence a few months ago are ravaging cyberspace with the echo of user acceptance. Services life Twitter , Facebook , MySpace , YouTube, NING and TipJoy are places you must have a presence in. Organisations like Change The Present, Kiva and companies like Buy1GIVE1 you should be building relationships with. These are all the new future and will all help maintain and build charity ratings. Today is a new opportunity to build a new future. - 15465
Because of the power the mass communication media have over the people, when a charity is in the good books of the media, it expands very quickly and manages to get a lot of charitable giving. By that same yardstick, when media do not have much interest in propping up a given charity, its rating also plummets in the same proportion.
Charity rating directory listings
With steadily rising distrust and morality guardians of charity being ever suspicious of charity problems like transgression, having pretty large amounts of money spent on the running of charities or mishandling of funds, listings of charity ratings are booming. It is real quaint that humanitarian institutions that are meant for giving others are under the watchful eye of charity watchdogs. The whole idea of benevolence is getting a bit problematical!
Institutions like Givespot.com, Guidestar.org etc. provide comprehensive listings of charity ratings. GiveSpot 100 list is the list of the 100 highest ranking charities that is provided by Givespot.com. Another one that provides similar data is charitynavigator.com which has a list of the top ten charities as well a charity check system. Finding out charities is made easy by this. The biggest charity director of US is Guidestar.org with lots of free data on charity as well as information that can be availed for payment. Though its name gives a different impression, Better Business Bureau is a charity directory that gives a list of both commercial and non-profit ventures of USA.
So if you want to find the 100 top charities then there are so many charity rating guides out there and yet maybe charity ratings are actually about something else. What makes a charity stand above the rest often has nothing to do with its ratings at all. There are special ingredients that make any charity or non-charity organisation successful.
Charity Ratings and trust in the public
A YouGov poll of 2005 stated that about 56 percent of the British population did not have a considerable amount of belief even in well known global charities like Oxfam and Save the Children. Even among the charities that had a good charity rating, only about 15 percent enjoyed the public's belief in them.
Charity Watchdog Scares are more common
People do not have faith in charities any more. They cannot be blamed for this state of affairs. Eagle eyed critics of charities complain about mismanagement in the field with high salaries for the staff and about 60% donations being spent on overheads for running the venture, leaving little for actual charity giving.
It has been shown in recent studies that the expenses for raising funds in places like UK and Australia amount to about18% in the case of the former and 22% in the case of the latter. The corresponding amount in USA is about 30% according to the Association of Fundraising Professionals. These are without administrative expenses, which might be higher. This is a big issue with donors especially in situations like what happened in Singapore a few years ago when the issue fell under the media scanner. This sort of negative attraction leads to a reduction in charity giving which is definitely not a good sign.
Charity ratings mystery revealed
There is practically no difference between a charity and a commercial enterprise when it comes to the question of drawing money. They way they put the money to use might be different, but the techniques they use to get that money are more or less the same.
In order to get the funds necessary for functioning, as well as to improve the charity ratings, there is only one assured way - make it tempting.
When we see an object and would like to buy it, or make an investment in it, or want to connect with it, we tend to take a decision on the basis of how tempting it is to us. If it is very appealing, we might instantly buy it or plan to get it but if it is not all that tempting, we would definitely postpone the idea.
Charity Water is highly attractive and hence why it's charity-rating sky rocked so quickly and the media got behind the idea. The simple idea of selling a bottle of charity water for a premium price with the extra profit been giving as a donation to the needy to access clean water was highly attractive.
The factors that make Charity Water quite fascinating and promote its rating are the following.
* They have a cool name - who would think of calling a charity Charity WaterThe person behind the charity was on overdrive with passion in sharing about their idea
* They had a simple, single and clear message and mission - sell water give water - Buy One Give One
* Their focus was on how to solve the problem and not the problem itself. It is important for charities to properly define their focus if they want people to rate them highly. No one has interest in getting their attention turned to the unpleasant things in life. People want a positive focus. So when they are told that they can make a positive change in the lives of others by buying a bottle of water they feel happy.
How to reduce you Charity Ratings in a heart beat
The fastest way for a charity to lose its rating is by making itself less appealing by concentrating on the problem. People are hardly inclined to listen about all that negativity going on in the world. On the other hand, most people are ready to listen to sagas of vigour, eagerness, drive and dedication to fashion a better world.
All we have to do is see ourselves with our own kids and understand how we easily answer in the affirmative when they request for things in an eager and happy and excited way. But when they prefer to make their demands in a peevish or weepy way, we may tend to refuse.
The ratings of a charity depend substantially on the image it projects in front of the public. With a motivating and inspiring image people will be swayed to its ideas. They will then be ready to contribute well to the cause of the charity.
Social Enterprise raises Charity Ratings and reduces Fundraising Problems
A new business model emerged a few years ago called Social Enterprise . This in a way is a hybrid mix between a charity and a business. Some entrepreneurs want to tackle social issues but they do not find the charity model effective or attractive enough.
The medium of a conventional business enterprise may not be suitable for many businessmen whose ideas of ethics and integrity would be contrary to the way decisions are made in a commercial world. Such people use a social enterprise to use their acumen and ability to create a profit and effect great changes in the social arena. A typical example of such a social entrepreneur is Muhammad Yunus who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his rich contributions to improving social conditions.
A new global social enterprise, Buy1GIVE1 commonly known as B1G1 (Buy 1 Give 1), partners businesses with worthy cause and charity organisations right around the world. Buy1GIVE1 cuts traditional fundraising and administrative costs down to nothing: promising to give 100% of all funds received. Similar to successful online entities like Kiva.org , recently endorsed by Bill Clinton; Buy1GIVE1 is an alternative to the traditional way of direct giving to charities. Many find them a more efficient way to make contributions while gaining significant value in return.
Successful businessmen, who are searching for a chance to give back richly to the society and to provide for deserving charities, fully understand the importance and properly structured working credos of institutions like Buy1GIVE1. Every single sale is able to affect a change somewhere - not only altruistically. It has also the ability to forcefully influence things in such a way that each act becomes a unique marketing story. There is a world of difference in the way in which Buy1Give1 works and those charities which give away thousands and thousands of dollars work, because Buy1Give1 lets their customers know what the joy o f giving is. Buy1Give1 transaction-based giving is a perfectly beautiful way of giving.
Businesses like Buy1GIVE1 profile charities and it tends to be the charities or worthy causes as they call them, that are the most attractive that receive the most contributions. Intrinsically business owners understand the power of attraction and they tend to go with non-profit causes that have the best story rather than look at their direct rating. They intrinsically know that their customers will connect with a better story and not ever think about a charities rating.
Maple Muesli of Australia has allied itself with a charity called Midday Meals in India, in the city of Mumbai. As a result when a packet of muesli is bought, a needy kid is given food in Mumbai. Since a simple meal is available there at the cost of 30 US cents, Midday Meals daily manages to feed about 125,000 kids. The charity feeds these children in schools and it helps substantially in protecting children from begging and other harsh realities and abuse of street life.
Maple Muesli has familiarised the whole of Australia with the noble cause of the Midday Meals. The company has made all its customers aware of the stupendous service the charity is doing and how their money is helping it. This has made Midday Meals tremendously popular even though all they are doing is providing meals for the kids. The era of Effective Giving has dawned - that of Plain Charity Donations is disappearing at the horizon.
A change is impending in the setting of the top 100 charities and would become visible in a few years as more novel and productive ways of charitable giving take shape. Nowadays only limited choices exist for making donations for charitable purposes. All the existing ones are not good enough to create enough difference.
Alternative Charity Ratings
Newer and varied ways of gifting things to others are rated and featured in the table given below. These are Charity Comparison Data.
Rating and comparison has been done on some better known and lesser known charities and Social Enterprises on issues that concern those who donate to these.
THE SALVATION ARMY
WAY TO GIVING: DIRECT GIVING
One of the Top 100 charities in the world - The Salvation Army is a charity that individuals and businesses often donate to directly.
TRANSPARENCY - B - Lack of transparency - Sum of money is contributed - but result is not fully measurable.
BENEFIT FOR THE BUSINESS - C - Contribution to Salvation Army gets mention in the press even if it is a one time contribution.
EXPENSES FOR RAISING FUNDS -B - Heavy expenses are incurred for raising funds.
CONTRIBUTORS'CHOICE OF CHARITY - B - For direct giving, you can have a lot of charities to check out before settling which one is best.
POTENTIAL FOR REAL GLOBAL CHANGE - C- Nothing new to offer in terms of market change.
PRODUCT (RED)
WAY TO GIVING: MARKETING CAMPAIGN
Product (RED) is a brand licensed to partner companies, to raise money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Africa.
OPENNESS - B - Not sufficiently open - Plenty of money is being collected - but the results are not always completely clear.
MARKETING VALUE TO BUSINESS - A - People and businesses love to support (RED) as it is backed by adored personalities like Oprah & Bono. Marketing results a little hard to track though.
EXPENSES FOR RAISING FUNDS - C - Spends huge sums of money on advertisements - giving that money directly to Africa would have been more practical.
DONORS' CHOICE POTENTIALS - C - Enterprises that partner with them have limited options in where their money should go - all needs are in Africa.
PROMISE FOR GLOBAL CHANGE - B - All partners of Products (RED) are huge ventures and the entire profit is spent on helping people of Africa.
THE BODY SHOP
PATH TO GIVING : BUSINESS TRADE & GIVING
The Body Shop engages in community trade helping Third World countries; and makes huge donations to charities from their profits.
TRANSPARENCY - B - Lack of transparency - sum of money is contributed for every purchase - but result is not fully measurable.
MARKETING VALUE TO BUSINESS - A-tve - Customers are happy to be involved in community trade and are motivated to buy more. Visibility could be a lot better.
EXPENSES FOR RAISING FUNDS - A - Costs are kept low - Business design is good enough to attract large contributions and further community trade.
DONORS' CHOICE POTENTIALS - A - Ventures that donate has the option to decide in what way their donations are to be used.
POTENTIAL FOR REAL GLOBAL CHANGE - B - Businesses' giving back is great - but very few take the added effort to push for change like Body Shop.
LIVE EARTH
PATH TO GIVING : EVENT FUNDRAISING
Live Earth consisted of a string of global musical programmes which set in motion a three-year campaign to battle climate change and was held on July 7, 2007.
CANDOUR - F - As per the reports of the site Intelligent Giving, satisfactory accounts were not produced on the proceeds from the sales of tickets.
BENEFIT FOR THE BUSINESS - B - It was beneficial to business sponsors as they got good media coverage, but as it was a single event results are not easily measurable.
EXPENSES FOR RAISING FUNDS - C - Substantial sums were spent on promotion of an event which was considered a fiasco by many as it did not have any proper objectives.
CONTRIBUTORS'CHOICE OF CHARITY - C - Only three charities received funds.
PROMISE FOR GLOBAL CHANGE - C - Such events can be held just once or at the most once a year. The amount collected generally goes to better known charities.
Buy1GIVE1 (B1G1 )
PATH TO GIVING : SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
B1G1 is a brand licensed to form a partnership with any business - connecting them with any worthy cause in any place. A truly universal precept.
OPENNESS - A - The one for one style of giving sees to it that the donors' money reaches the specific cause that it is meant to help. Donors are provided information on how exactly their money is being utilised - how many kids were fed or how many trees were planted.
ADVANTAGE TO BUSINESS - A+tve - Outstanding marketing value due to:
* Quantifiable giving * Press coverage * Valuable stories * Individual to individual * Continuing customers
FUNDRAISING COSTS - A+tve - Zero costs - B1G1 can take care of a charity's fundraising needs including a large percentage of admin as well. 100% of funds received go to the charity.
DONOR'S CHOICE OF CHARITY - A - Any donor can contribute to a specific charity, or they can insist on giving to specific causes such as food, environment, or instruction.
ABILITY FOR AFFECTING A CHANGE - A - Infinite. If increasing number of businesses can team up with charities worldwide, the possibility for real change is boundless.
You Would Think Giving away Money Would Be Easy!"
Donating money may not seem to be a difficult job - it is just a question of handing over some money as cheque, cash or via the credit card. Still, someone like George Sores, who is as generous a donor as could be, agrees that effectual giving is no cakewalk. Underprivileged communities and countries receive millions of dollars in aid and still the situation remains much the same year after year.
People asking smarter questions will bring about the needed change. Social Entrepreneurs like Mohamed Yunis, Nobel Prize winner, creating innovative solutions to poverty and environmental issues with Micro Finance are carving the way to a new future where business initiatives, social enterprise and conscious consumerism transform our world. Initiatives like The Body Shop's 'Trade - Not Aid' need to be replicated. New ideas like Buy1GIVE1 need to be embraced. The value of social enterprise needs to be recognised.
When queried as to how someone can effect a change in the world, Bill Gates pointed towards organisations like Buy1GIVE1 (www.b1g1.com) and Kiva.org which reward the giver richly. Kiva.org ensures that those who sponsor a business get regular updates via email from those businesses. Buy1GIVE1 also ensures this. With such communication, customers get a clear picture and come to know the stories behind the charities. For example, when they buy a laptop, someone who badly needs a computer might be getting it at some other corner of the world.
Next steps to increasing your Charity Ratings
Make sure that you have an open attitude, use the laptop effectively, and keep apart a little time to observe the novel and wonderful systems of charity that are being born. These function through the internet and are mostly network based.
The present situation is that if a venture is not allied online with global networks of good standing, it stands to lose quite a lot whatever its charity rating is, by tomorrow things are likely to change -- completely.
There are more and more examples these days of companies rising up from nothing and being sold three years later for over a billion dollars. This was unheard of ten years ago. Today this is becoming a regular occurrence. All these new Internet companies are doing one thing - tapping into global networks or creating global networks.
Buy1GIVE1 (Buy One Give One)
Buy1GIVE1 is a rather new entrant to the world of Social Enterprises and was launched in 1997 by a Japanese lady called Masami Sato. Any business can avail a membership in Buy1GIVE1, and membership charges for smaller ventures will only be one dollar a day and donations can be as little as one cent on a sale. Buy1GIVE1 is in the forefront of the Buy One Give One transaction-based giving world movement. Joining hands with Buy1GIVE1 is totally uncomplicated for businesses as well as charity needs. The working pattern of Buy1GIVE1 is perfectly controlled and practical. It connects the products or services of any given business to a needy cause (Buy1GIVE1's or their own) and after that whenever a sale is closed, it has to be recorded and the contribution percentage sent to the charity at the end of the month or end of quarter year directly or through Buy1GIVE1.
You are strongly advised to create lasting bonds with Buy1GIVE1 and also motivate your business associates to join Buy1GIVE1. It is a singular and wonderful organisation doing stupendous work and no one can afford to ignore it.
A new epoch in charity giving
Companies that had no presence a few months ago are ravaging cyberspace with the echo of user acceptance. Services life Twitter , Facebook , MySpace , YouTube, NING and TipJoy are places you must have a presence in. Organisations like Change The Present, Kiva and companies like Buy1GIVE1 you should be building relationships with. These are all the new future and will all help maintain and build charity ratings. Today is a new opportunity to build a new future. - 15465
