Conservation/Charity Classifieds

sports_doc · #1 (**permalink**) 05-08-2007, 11:35 PM

Hello all..

Have tossed this around with Kyle, and all feedback and suggestions welcome.

Goal:
Increase our community's role in contributing to the preservation of rain forest, wildlife, frogs for frogging and the like.

Reason:
We care and generally have little else to contribute in the real world to the cause other than our money.

Plan: in it's infancy

New classifieds section call it Charity/Conservation Classifieds for now

Here is how it works, as an example

I post my for sale listing in the new section, like I would any classified ad.
then the pop-up donation (through Paypal or otherwise) comes up and I put in any amount from 1$ or more, my call. The mechanics here need some help b/c I am not sure how to do this exactly, but something like how we made the IAD donations...Pop up, I donate the minimum or more and my ad is placed for 7 days.

Edits to my ad are NC, new ads if I chose to place in 7 days are assessed the donation request again in this section.

I would imagine vendors that are already supporting the DB can/could list here for free with a 'voluntary' contribution asked of them at time of listing their ads, ect. Something along those lines....

In order to post here you must make the minimum donation, but could make more if desired. No one needs to know how much anyone donated, just that they did donate in order to post their ad. Good faith, good publicity, good for the reputation, good for the rain forest :-)

Everyone knows that funds are donated at the time the listing is made, so more are likely to support the effort by buying frogs from said vendors.

The DB could even have a daily counter in plain sight, to keep everyone informed of how great a job we were all doing :-)

Simple. Kind of like charging to placing ads ( Kingsnake) but 'not'...cause you have the option of posting in the standard classifieds for FREE.

and has the potential to bring in lots of funds (think about all the ads placed each week) to preserve rain forest, save amphibians, ect ect. If froggers cant support that, who can.

I do post one ad a month or so, that is 12-15$ minimum from me, and so on, and so forth until the Board has a nice chunk to donate and it was done painlessly by the folks who made money selling frogs anyways.

So, that's it. In theory at least.

Problems to solve:

at least for starters.
1. Charity to donate to. Could rotate a list, take polls, agree ahead of time, leave up to Kyle
2. How to keep track of who paid, and who was a bad boy and pledged but didnt pay. Would need a moderator/manager perhaps.
3. How to work out the details with DB paid supporters, if they are selling.

Let's do it!

Shawn

wishIwereAnExpert · #2 (**permalink**) 05-08-2007, 11:55 PM

I think it's an excellent idea. However, I think there should be some incorporation of donations from the customer as well as the vendor. Seems unfair to put all the costs on one end of the transactions.

-Solly

PS Has it really been a month since I last posted? Wow, how the time goes by.

Marty71 · #3 (**permalink**) 05-09-2007, 12:17 AM

I've spent all of my time here buying so I can only speak from that perspective but I think it's a great idea. I also like the two sided approach, and I would have absolutely no problem paying an extra $5-$10 for frogs knowing that money was going to a good cause.

It's a really cool idea Shawn, and furthermore what's the harm? There would still be a regular classified section and I don't see why there couldn't be some sort of sponsors exemption, hell without them and Kyle there is no board, right?

kyle1745 · #4 (**permalink**) 05-09-2007, 12:38 AM

Maybe from the opposite side where the buyers could donate a $1 per frog or something. Again just a idea, and keep them coming. I do agree with Shawn that we can do more, and I am willing to do what I can to help facilitate it. We could chose the charity, and or switch it up from time to time.

Scott · #5 (**permalink**) 05-09-2007, 02:02 AM

When Shawn and I were discussing this on the loooong drive home - I thought maybe we could include a checkoff to which charity (among 3 or 4) the lister wished to donate to.

Just a thought.

s

Marty71 · #6 (**permalink**) 05-09-2007, 03:55 AM

^Was it long because of the company or the miles???

Personally, i wouldn't over complicate things by having multiple charities. If anything you could call it the DB charity fund and then once a quarter Kyle could post the total and ask people where it should go by a poll (if willing of course).

I would rely on peoples love of the hobby and the fact that you aren't asking much. For example hypothetically the buyer and seller each agreed to a $5 charitable donation for each purchase, possibly through a link like Kyle had for IAD. Average purchase will be well over $100 (nobody pays $50 in shipping to get a $30 frog) so you are talking about a maximum 5% add on to your purchase. In MA we call that a sales tax and pay every single day for things we love less than frogs.

Catfur · #7 (**permalink**) 05-09-2007, 04:25 AM

I am against any complex charity scheme, such as charity classifieds, or some such. If I want to give money to IAD (and I did), or to TWI (and I did) or whatever, I give money to whomever I wish, not establish some strange scheme where a $1 here or a $1 there may go to some charitable scheme or another.

I think if we want to encourage charitable giving we should just have banner links to approved charities or some other easy, and easily accessible donation set up.

Dancing frogs · #8 (**permalink**) 05-09-2007, 05:56 AM

I really don't know...

I can see it go both ways.
I recently did a sale where a good percentage of the frog price is (or is going to) conservation efforts.

I can see where it would be cool to have you're ad in a special place, and some sort of proof the money actually ends up where you say it will.

It sounds like a good idea.

On the other hand, I can agree with Clayton...if I am going to donate, I will choose who and how much.

Without a good amount of flexibility, and simplicity, I am prone to dislike it.

Marty71 · #9 (**permalink**) 05-09-2007, 05:58 AM

I don't mean to make the arguement for Shawn, he is far more intelligent, passionate, and knowledgeable than I am, but he is also slighlty internet limited at night so...

I don't see how this could hurt. If people aren't interested then they should'nt sell their frogs in the "charity" section and or buy from that section. To say 1$ here or a dollar there strikes me as missing the point. Those dollars add up and go to a cause we all agree is worthy. Furthermore, the idea that people will click on a banner because they want to contribute to a cause is not realistic. Take away Bill's incredibly generous contributions to IAD and the registerred board members gave less than 50 cents a piece. I contributed, you contributed, Shawn contributed, Scott gave hours and hours of his time and Kyle supported IAD through banners and publicity, so we are all on teh same page here. Don't want to be redundant but how can this hurt?

Dancing frogs · #10 (**permalink**) 05-09-2007, 06:23 AM

Not saying it is going to "hurt" anything.

What I was trying to say is if things get too complicated or rule happy, I am bound to not like it.

For example, if I start donating a percentage of every sale (and I just might) I don't want to be told something like:
For this quarter you will be donating to xyz. (if you want to be in the special classifieds section) Perhaps I feel xyz gets more support than it deserves, and that abc is a much better charity bang for buck...

In that case, I could forgo the "special" section, and just put my ad with the other classifieds, so, like you said, it wouldn't hurt a thing.