A reader, and prominent member of The Forum has encouraged me to start up a charitable giving arm of Saverocity We will start rolling things out on this shortly, and I wanted to have the opportunity to share some of the initial thoughts here, so I could gather some feedback from you, the people. Please share thoughts for improvement, potential pitfalls, etc in the comments.
We have a long term vision with some bigger projects involved, but they will take time to get off the ground, in the interim I thought the best way to get things moving in the right direction was through my credit card revenue. I have attempted to donate some (25%) revenue to charity in the past, but stopped as it didn’t quite feel right in terms of feedback. Hopefully this time will be different. I plan to donate 100% of my own credit card revenue to charity. Note that we don’t have all the cards, and they aren’t always the best offer, so do your homework!
Charity selection
We would like to pick two charities each quarter, and donate all credit card revenue equally at the end of that quarter. I thought it would be nice to select one established charity that many people know well, and one smaller charity that is more in a niche. The benefit of that is during the vetting process for selecting the new charity the people promoting it get a bit of free exposure too.
Support needed
I am going to be looking for a bit of help we will need people to help shortlist charities for quarterly selection, and i’m going to also want to have someone audit me, by which I mean I show them my affiliate revenue earnings, and copies of checks and acknowledgement of receipt by the charity.
Note
I had previously removed all my own credit card links from Saverocity, but have received a number of requests for using them, coupled with wanting to get things rolling on the charitable front I thought that I could bring them back in as an easy way to do some good. I’m a little overloaded with other things right now, but it seemed to me that a simple solution would be to take potential revenue stream and funnel it directly to a needy source. In the long run, should I be able to structure things properly (with more help!) we have discussed the notion of a wider ranging approach to giving, which will go further in scope than just these links.
Please let me know where you see ways to improve this, or any thoughts, good or bad about the idea. I guess we need a name too, I was toying with ‘Pimp for a Purpose’ but I’m sure that will offend someone, so if anyone can think above the age of a 4 year old, i’d gladly listen to that too. We will be discussing further in The Forum and your input is greatly appreciated.
This is a fantastic idea to have a Saverocity designated charitable giving arm and let me congratulate you on your decision to donate 100% of your credit card revenue to charity. This is a remarkable choice and with the acknowledgement that affiliate links are unlikely to go away as a given, this is one way to change up the way it can be used. Impressed.
Glad you like it!
I’m super excited that you are doing this project! I MS for personal travel but at the same time spend a lot of time and money volunteering with a Coed Collegiate Service Fraternity and Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure. Recently, I raised $5000 to walk 60 miles in 3 Days. I am planning to walk again next year and would appreciate your consideration to sponsor me as a walker by donation to Susan G. Komen. I have used the training walks for this years walk as a motivator to loose weight and plan to continue. We need to end Breast Cancer and all Cancers forever! Everyone deserves a lifetime! Susan G Komen donates millions to breast cancer research, to help low income patients obtain free mammograms, and support families of diagnosed patients with counseling and financial aid. Each walker has a $2300 Fundraising minimum for the walk. My husband also volunteers as a crew member each year.
Hi Mel,
Great effort! I’ll certainly have the team consider this charity, it is one that I have supported in the past myself, without the walking…
Cheers,
Matt
Hi Matt,
What a generous, wonderful concept! How inspiring and uplifting!
At its core, I think charitable giving is a very individualistic and personal thing. Each of us who feel the desire to give back to the community have specific avenues that we personally deem to be the most worthwhile and meaningful to us. For our family, that sometimes means meeting a very individual or local need brought to our attention and accepting that meeting those needs often means forgoing any tax benefits. For others, it is donating to established organizations with the hope that those in charge of distributing the organization’s funds will support the designated cause in an efficient and effective manner. Often, those of us who support the concept of giving back donate our time and energy toward a cause in addition to our finances.
Each of us can support only the tiniest minute fraction of the thousands of worthwhile charities and causes in need of funding. Though others can share their interest in causes of which you may not have been aware, in the end only you can decide what is most meaningful to you and your family.
Saverocity is your creation. Donate to the causes that speak to your heart, causes about which you are passionnate and you will enjoy the act of giving. Share your decisions with your readers so we can support and enjoy it with you.
Thanks Nancy- I have my own personal charities too, I think i’ll leave the Saverocity charities to a public vote, that way we can support even more, though like you say, there is never going to be enough.
I suggest that you pick a few with low overhead costs (<10%). Make it easy for yourself and start with well established organizations such as Doctors without borders and the Red cross (10-15% overhead costs).
This is a good place to start picking organizations http://www.charitynavigator.org
When I was thinking about doing this (I have no knowledge about the affiliate business), my primary concern was illustrating to the user that X% of the commission went to charity. For full transparency you will have to illustrate how much money is donated and I assume that some CC companies may have issues with this. One alternative is that you have an independent body looking over your books (TBB?).
Good points – we will certainly have tough selection critieria. I personally think that there are a few too many charities that have too much ‘fat’ with them. Regarding the auditor, yes a third person would work well, that is the plan.
Just a heads up Matt, if you read your affiliate agreement/speak to your affiliate manager you’ll probably notice that you’re actually forbidden from giving away 100% of your CC revenue. I tried to set up something similar and was told that it’s not allowed.
Instead I decided to give away at least 10% of the blogs entire revenue (mostly adsense related) which turns out to be about 10x what I earn on CC sign ups instead.
Best of luck with it, and hopefully you’re able to donate the full 100%. If you’re able to, let me know so I can speak to my affiliate manager again. Hopefully this encourages more bloggers to donate a portion of their income as well.
I’d rather you didn’t use me as an example for your affiliate manager. Simply because some people incorrectly interpret things, and I don’t need to argue with another person. I have read over my terms and conditions and there is no talk of this, it is completely allowed. If you think otherwise and can show me terms that say I cannot give away X but can giveaway Y then i’ll certainly reconsider.
Oh, and I need to take adsense tips from you!
Which network are you with? If you give away the full 100% it’s considered disclosing the amount your paid, which is forbidden by all the major networks (which are pretty much all owned by either creditcards.com/bankrate/hasoffers/cardsynergy or credit karma).
When I asked about it I was specifically told it wasn’t allowed, I did a bit of shopping around and got the same responses from credit karma as well. Either way, best of luck with it!
How is that any different from 10x 10% ?
Great idea! I’ll always do my homework before picking a link, but I would ALWAYS look at your links and try to click from your site if you can get this set up.
The 2 comments above I think are really important and I’d like to hear your thoughts on them…
1) Choosing a charity with low overhead costs
2) Figuring out a way to legally donate the revenue while also keeping it transparent
On another note, have you ever written a piece on the ethics of using Kiva for MS? Would love to hear your thoughts on that as well.
Thanks Ben, as the second vote for low costs (and I completely agree with that.) I think we will just publish their costs when we announce the charities.
Legal donation is easy, as is transparency, I’ll just have a third party audit it all.
This is a wonderful idea, Matt.
I have no problem with anyone taking a commission for a credit card link, esp. if s/he offers a valid explanation of that card’s value, and even more so if, like you do, that person consistently offers food for thought and that fishing pole we all need to do our own MSing.
That said, however you want to structure your giving is, in the end, a choice for you and your wife. Having just spent 7 weeks with a baby, I have a renewed respect for anyone who manages to get anything done at all outside of childcare–and you two have an infant.
I love the idea of choosing a more niche charity each quarter. There are so many small ones, from state by state charities for kids, to small international groups that work with women who have been sold into slavery by their parents.
I haven’t tons of time, but would be honored to work with you on that aspect of this initiative.
Thanks MickieSue – I haven’t tons of time either (he just started crying for a hug!) but any help is appreciated!!
What a fabulous and generous decision to donate 100% of your credit card revenue. And your choice to have Saverocity readers participate in the quarterly charity selection is another beautiful example of your commitment to truly building community here.
For those instances in which your credit card offers are the best out there, it’s an easy win-win. But even when not the best, the option to forgo the extra miles / dollars offered elsewhere in order to support a charity provides another way to effectively increase one’s personal charitable giving … another win!
“Pumping for Points” is probably a bit too obvious. Remember you don’t want to *deliberately* invite IRS scrutiny like a red cape before a bull. For your future plans they may very well have to “approve” your name or at the very least, scrutinize it.
I’m going to be helping Matt with a “longer term vision… and bigger projects.” Some of the ideas that have been floated are a charitable foundation, a vehicle for Saverocity members to “match” Matt’s quarterly cash contributions to charity, and a way for members to contribute points and miles for charity.
Matt will be posting information on the Forum in the next day or two and there will be an opportunity for anyone who wants to volunteer to help move the project forward. We’re specifically looking for folks who have experience setting up a non-profit (a lawyer or other expert willing to donate time for this would be awesome) and folks who have experience or who might be willing to volunteer time to research donating points and miles to a charity that can then be used to help those less fortunate. We also welcome other ideas and volunteers to help with those ideas.
Please make sure to watch for the announcement on the Forum. In the meantime feel free to send me a PM at http://saverocity.com/forum/ if you’d like to volunteer. .
Annie H.
The Altruistic Affiliate
Affiliate Links in Action
Or TBB’s favorite…
The “Saverocity” Blogosphere Has Turned Into a Philanthropic Pumpization Scheme!
Nice, perhaps as Annie suggests something a little more… vanilla might be appropriate though 🙂
1) Thanks for having the balls and making the time/effort to do this!! Much respect from here.
2) Another vote for low overhead charities. I’ve used charitynavigator.org for a while, may help.
3) Too difficult to implement “applier’s choice”, I’m sure, but what about a radio button
(short) selection for each application link rather than a global set selection?
4) Best of luck to you, this is setting a great example for your family and this niche. Hopefully
you will generate publicity that will educate the ignorant about conversion profits and those
who abuse this system.
Thanks Paul. Doesn’t take much in the way of balls though, I’d already pulled my links, so this is just a way to help facilitate a flow.
Brilliant idea and please give your hands, Matt. It is typical of you to come up with ideas like this :). I was wondering when you first tweeted about going back to pimping and then after seeing this, was pleasantly surprised. Couple of points:
1. Most of the time the affiliate offers are likely to be less beneficial for the applicants. For example, the recent united offer. This is not going to benefit the readers and hope you add that clause as a note so that the high standards you have set are not debated.
2. TBB already touched upon this in his blog. Can you extend this idea a bit – create a fund for the bloggers like you, Drew, George and the likes where readers like me could go and contribute on a monthly basis so that they continue to turn around excellent valuable articles rather than worry about the money to keep their blog going. It would add more credibility if people like you come forward to take the lead. I would happily contribute some amount on a monthly basis to my favorite bloggers rather than even worrying about clicking on their affiliate links.
I hit a weird point here though…
Intent.
Take that United link. Lets say it pays > $50 if that all goes to a greater good, I wouldn’t feel so bad about it being clicked. All my links will have caveats, but I think there is a difference between trying to screw over your fellow man for profit, and screwing over your fellow man for the betterment of a charity…
I am open to input on that though.
2. Yeah, lets set up a beer fund for me – forget George and Drew!
I agree with you on your response to point 1, Matt. Makes sense.