So I have an idea for a website/app, that generates revenue for charity. This is all in the idea stages, but I'm starting to realize a few things. While I am pretty certain it will become relatively popular, it would be purely for charity, and I don't think I would be able generate any revenue for myself. While I have no issue with this, I am just curious if there would be any possible way to generate revenue from a charity site and app for myself (Not a lot, just something), without stealing or doing anything illegal of course. I know it's difficult to explain without going into more detail, but yeah, any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
Hello, you can put adsense, or you can put a button "donate" and explain you need money to live and to make the site work.
I think you would be able to set it up as a non profit business. Then collect a defined salary or portions of the proceeds to support your efforts. Other than that, adds or related offers should work. You could also collect the data for future use. Best of luck in your venture!
you have a good chance of pulling it off, though the thought of gaining profit deteriorates the idea of it being a charity.That's just a minor issue, and your effort should be paid so it's not that big at all. Good luck!
Charities pay their staff real money if they can afford it. You can build a charity that generates revenue and uses some of it for administrative costs (which would pay salaries, expenses, etc.) Here is the U.S., the IRS tax people watch nonprofits to ensure that they are actually doing the charitable work they claim to be raising money for instead of just paying admin costs. There are also nonprofit monitoring organizations that analyze which charities are taking too much out of their revenues for admin costs and then advise donors not to donate to them because their money would be better spent on the cause somewhere else. Some charities, in fact, openly publish the percent of monies going to admin costs as a way to show that the bulk of the donation goes directly to the cause. I believe that the rule of thumb here is that a "good" charity spends less than 20% of its funds on admin costs. That said, shady nonprofits tend to make the news eventually because they are charging 90% in admin costs and paying their staff exorbitant salaries. Donations tend to dry up once that is known about them. So, you will likely need to balance your need for income with the nonprofit's charitable mission.
If it's an app, sell it. Charities will be happy to pay a few dollars (or a dollar monthly subscription or something) for an app that generates revenue for them. Few charities expect anything for free, though they like to get things cheap to reduce their costs - they're still businesses, after all. Just non-profit! If you're going to support the app long-term, a few dollars a month is nothing to even a small charity (a single donation through the app will cover it), so it's very reasonable to charge that for your continued work and support.
Thanks for all the responses and ideas! I had considered the ads, but the main focus of the site will be the app side of it, so the majority of users will most likely not go to the website, but instead just get the app, so I'm not sure how much that would really generate. To be honest, there are a lot of legal matters with the whole thing I am now considering also, in part the main aspect of the app generating revenue, I'm not entirely sure if it's even allowed, so I really need to figure things out a bit more on the technical side I suppose.
I believe you can put a "donate " button where your audience can donate money specifically to you. Tell them it's the money to help you with the expenses and etc. I am sure they'll understand.
The users/donors will be using the app, so I don't know if people will be too hyped to buy an app that is supposedly for charitable causes, but I could be wrong of course!
Donations / gifts come to mind. That's how some tele-evangelist make a ton of dough. Convince the charity to allocate some of the funds for various donations / gift offerings. Then you can easily (with their permission) dip into the funds without any legal ramifications.
Large charities spend millions of dollars every year to generate donations. If you have a viable way for them to increase their donor base or to up the average contribution for their current donors, they will pay big money for it. I used to sell six-figure donor management software to some of the largest nonprofits in the world, so I have real world experience with this issue. They will look at your solution as any large business would and if there is a good potential for ROI, they will spend money on it.
Do you think that would include investing into actually getting the idea started? Everything is still in the idea stages of course as I stated earlier, and I'm still deciding on options such as crowdfunding and the likes in terms of the startup, but I obviously need the details straightened out first. It is definitely a viable way to increase their donor base, among a very wide demographic. The idea originally revolved around multiple charities though, so that donors could choose which cause they felt they wanted to aim for. Would that be a flaw in terms of gaining support from a specific charity? Would a charity only be interested if 100% of the earnings were going straight to them, and only their charity?
Nonprofits are very conservative, for the most part, so they only invest their funds very conservatively. Investing in a start-up would be considered to be taking a huge risk with donors' money. Could result in bad publicity and a loss of donations. That said, I am aware of the occasional situation in which a large nonprofit made a small "investment" to help a start-up technology company develop the product by buying the first version of the product in with a 50% payment in advance of delivery. You might be able to convince them to give you such pre-orders based upon delivery of the app by a certain date. That might get you enough money to complete the app and deliver to collect the rest of the money. But you have to have a compelling reason for them to do this (strong potential ROI and a great price for them as pioneers, e.g.)
Sounds like a long shot really. I might be better off with crowdfunding then, not entirely sure yet really. I am pretty certain that it would have a strong ROI, but it sounds like it would be difficult to prove really, at least from someone with my extremely limited experience.
One of the problems with new and pioneering products is that there is no solid way to calculate how much revenue/profits they will bring in. So, it comes down to "gut feel" and other emotional "measurements" and that makes the sales job more difficult. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.
gotta be very careful with "donate" buttons and paypal. I know of ministers that do charity work, but are not registered charitable organizations. In essence, paypal locks down the accounts, and the only option is to refund the money. So if the "app" is for charity, but a paypal "donate" button is for a NON-registered charity, then this can cause issues. OP. Based on what I know of your product, I would build a website that promotes it,(even if it doesnt reveal everything about what you are creating), and offer a way to subscribe for updates / release dates, and as you get closer to finishing the product, then reach out and email as many charities that you can find, and when its finished, you can start to sell the app, or sell the app + customization service (in case each organization wants something slightly different?) again, knowing more about your app would be helpful. To be honest, I think the charity niche is one that should be avoided. Like if in anyway at all it looks like you are personally profiting from peoples donations, people will hate you. I personally am not going to go out of my way to provide services to charities, simply as while they might have fancy cars, and whatnot, from my experience, it is as if they expect everyone everywhere to give them a free ride.
That's new... I wonder how many of the people who use a Donate button realise PayPal is clamping down... and that there's no alternative for things like WP plugin donations and things. The PayPal button builder now has this text when you choose the Donate button: "This button is intended for fundraising. If you are not raising money for a cause, please choose another option. Not-for-profit organisations must verify their status to withdraw the donations they receive. Users that are not verified not-for-profit organisations must demonstrate how their donations will be used, once they raise more than $10,000 USD." That's a fairly high ceiling, which is nice, but it sucks that there's no alternative button or behind-the-scenes coding you can do for a "voluntary donation to say thank you" setup.