FUNDING CAMPAIGN 2010

Funding Request 2010

Create a Post - Link Web Sites - do some Good!

President's Letter

Why doGoodr?

To help us find each other.

When someone has a great idea that can help make all our lives better, healthier, happier and more sane, everything needed to make it a reality is out there waiting to find them.  The tragedy is that many wonderful ideas never get to first base simply because people of similar hearts and minds can’t find each other.

doGoodr is designed to enable our intentions to connect with the passions of others, and take action.

To help people find you.

doGoodr is not a “capture” or "content" web site.  doGoodr is designed to direct Internet traffic to you.  Creating a Post is a way to help others click through to your web site, donation page, photos, video, blogs, profile, contact information… anything about you and what you’re doing.

Because the web has a lot of content but not enough “utility.”

The world doesn’t need another blogging web site, photo site, video site, news site, donations site, or social networking site.  We don’t need more web lists or classifieds.  There are already so many good ones.

We need tools that allow all this “meta-data” to be accessible and useful to a person with specific intentions and needs.  We need technologies that are complimentary and collaborative with existing web sites and search engines, to help us accomplish our goals.

To promote collaboration over competition.

Future historians may look back at this time as the moment when competition, as a way of life, reached diminishing returns.  We see evidence of this all around us, in our economic breakdowns, our health issues and our environment.  They may see this as a tipping point, when collaboration produced the best solutions to our shared concerns.

doGoodr is about promoting, enabling and enhancing collaboration in all its forms.

To share the wealth of success with its creators.

The truth is that the wealth generated by any enterprise belongs in great part to those who actually create it – in our case the users of our web site.

doGoodr is the first and only company based on this collaborative, wealth-sharing concept.

As our user community grows, an increasingly large portion of the wealth generated will be given back to the site’s users in the form of grants.  And our members will have a vote in deciding which Posts for Need are the most deserving.

Bob Silvestri
Founder of the doGoodr project.

FUNDING CAMPAIGN 2010

Funding Request 2010

Create a Post - Link Web Sites - do some Good!

MISSION STATEMENT

Our mission is to facilitate charitable and philanthropic endeavors, increase public participation in initiatives to do good, and maximize the public benefits for those most in need.

To accomplish this we've developed doGoodr:  A web site and suite of Internet-enabled tools that allow anyone with a legitimate need and anyone wishing to offer them assistance, to find each other in the fastest, most efficient way possible.  All doGoodr services are free of charge.

Visit us at:  http://dogoodr.org.

Screenshot of the doGoodr.org web site

INTRODUCTION

The doGoodr Fund is a project of Environmental Media Fund, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit California public benefit corporation.  The project is dedicated to connecting those in need with those offering to help, in the fastest, most efficient way possible.

Our unique nonprofit model enables us to offer our members a way to share the wealth created by their use of the doGoodr web site.  In addition to soliciting member "micro" donations on the web site, the Fund's wealth comes from sponsored link advertising revenues and collaborative marketing partnerships.

As its wealth grows, The doGoodr Fund will make grants to the most deserving Posts on the doGoodr web site.  Potential grantees will be culled from the Posts on the site, using ratings provided by doGoodr members.

Final nominees will be vetted by the board of directors of The doGoodr Fund.  doGoodr members get to vote their passions and help choose which Posts receive grants.  Anyone can sign up and become a Member.

PROJECT OVERVIEW & SUMMARY

The doGoodr web site project began in 2005 and officially launched its web site on June 22, 2009. The following diagrams explain “How it Works.”  A complete interactive version of this presentation is available online at: http://dogoodr.org/about.

doGoodr serves everyone: Individuals and all nonprofits and for profits organizations, enabling anyone wanting “do good.”

doGoodr optimizes all content to be found by major search engines.

OUR UNIQUE NONPROFIT WEALTH-SHARING MODEL

Our model enables us to offer our members a way to share the wealth created by their use of the doGoodr web site.  In addition to soliciting member "micro" donations on the web site, the Fund's wealth comes from sponsored link advertising revenues and collaborative marketing partnerships.

As its wealth grows, The doGoodr Fund will make grants to the most deserving Posts on the doGoodr web site.  Potential grantees will be culled from the Posts on the site, using ratings provided by doGoodr community members.  Final nominees will be vetted by the board of directors of The doGoodr Fund.

doGoodr members get to vote their passions and help choose which Posts receive grants.  Anyone can sign up and become a Member.

doGoodr offers individuals a way to make their dream projects come true.

DONATIONS REQUEST

The doGoodr Fund is seeking an additional $25,000 in small grants and donations before the end of the 2010 fiscal year.  Donated and pro bono time contributed during this period is anticipated to be approximately $50,000.

Funding received will be used for continued development of our web services and for outreach, marketing and general operating costs of providing our free online services.  For detailed Breakdown of Estimated Costs & Expenses, please contact bsilvestri@dogoodr.org

General Expense Items Include:

  • Marketing and Publicity
  • Online Technical Support to Users
  • Secretarial / Office Assistance
  • Technology Development (for detailed description: see “Attachment B”)
  • Overhead and Operational Expenses
  • Web Hosting Costs

TIME FRAME

This request has a deadline of December 31, 2010.

PRO BONO AND IN-KIND ASSISTANCE RECEIVED TO DATE

All funding received to date has gone into creating the doGoodr technology and operating expenses, which are extremely minimal.  The doGoodr Fund board and staff are all volunteer.

The doGoodr Fund has raised approximately $1,000,000 in grants and in-kind / pro bono support since 2006, enabling it to develop and launch its free services on the Internet.

Coding consultants on the project have worked at discounted rates to help this project become a reality.  Our accounting and tax preparation have been done pro-bono for three out of the past four years, by Ted Savetnick, CPA.

And our pro-bono legal counsel, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, have contributed four years of services that include corporation affairs, entity formation, legal and IRS filings, trademark registration, Terms of Use and Privacy Policy drafting, all contract work, consulting agreements, and other ongoing legal matters.

GOALS & OBJECTIVES

  • To solve a simple problem:  To create a level playing field and enable those most in need of assistance and those looking to assist to find each other in the fastest, least expensive and most efficient way possible.
  • To develop tools that enhance existing Internet infrastructure and search technologies.
  • To stimulate new funding / assistance sources.
  • To create a financially sustainable nonprofit business model.
  • To offer a non-competitive technology that works in natural partnership with all existing search engines (Google, Yahoo, Ask, etc.), user generated web content sites (YouTube, My Space, Twitter, Flickr, etc.), and existing nonprofit information and community web offerings (Guidestar, The Foundation Center, Charity Navigator, Network for Good, Global Giving, Volunteer Match, Donors Choose, Change.org, and others), and all other existing charitable and philanthropic web offerings and services to benefit those most in need.
  • To allow users to create Posts for anything they need or have to offer:
    • Money:  (awards, donations, endowments, fellowships, grants, investments, loans, prizes, and scholarships).
    • People:  (advisors, apprentices, collaborators, consultants, interns, participants, partners, and volunteers).
    • Things:  (art, autos, clothing, equipment, food, products, supplies, and more).

ACHIEVING GOALS & OBJECTIVES

Outreach, Collaborations & Marketing:  The success of doGoodr will depend on its achieving “critical mass.”  Outreach, partnerships, collaborations, targeted marketing, and viral marketing to users is of major importance.  Ongoing efforts include:

“Viral” and Email Marketing:

  • doGoodr presently offers and will continue to develop a variety of viral widgets (linking and sharing tools) and APIs (“applications programming interfaces”, badges, etc), that have the potential to produce significant momentum and grow user participation without traditional marketing expense.
  • We are pursuing these opportunities through email marketing and collaborative relationships with existing charity directory and social networking web sites.

Direct Marketing / Email Marketing / Partnerships and Collaborations to:

  • Nonprofit organizations, NGOs, charitable projects and fiscally sponsored programs.
  • Private foundations, government organizations, corporate foundations, and individual philanthropists and investors.
  • For profit organizations, manufacturers, service providers, etc.
  • Social networking web sites, organizations and online publications.
  • Nonprofit sector service providers and software developers.
  • Donor advised funds, financial advisors, private banking firms, estate and asset managers, and other donor / investor information sources.
  • Collaborating organizations that might benefit from strategically placed site links.
  • The general public through Internet and print marketing campaigns.

Developing Cross-Trafficking / Data Sharing Arrangements with:

  • Existing charity and philanthropy database resource providers, industry service providers, and other industry information providers including information archives, news services and others, in order to maximize effectiveness and increase participation.
  • Existing charity ratings services and other due diligence agencies.
  • Internet enabled “application programming interfaces” that cultivate cross-trafficking with established social aggregator web sites.

OUTCOMES

doGoodr can have a profound impact on charitable and philanthropic efforts. Its reach spans from local grassroots efforts to global initiatives.  By offering a variety of free tools and services, doGoodr has the potential to be a significant catalyst to help its participants increase their chances of success.

doGoodr is about wealth creation in all its forms, and with reasonable public participation and the revenue generating traffic from a wide variety of online partnerships and social networking linkages,  The doGoodr Fund has the potential of becoming a major funding source for charitable endeavors. Its outcomes are only limited by individual imagination.

EVALUATING OUTCOMES

Quantitative:

Internet technology has the distinct advantage of being able to track all users, usage patterns, page views, time spent on the web site, and a long list of detailed statistical data that helps us evaluate what is working and what’s not working.

doGoodr has its own Analytics programming that archives every single piece of data ever entered or linked to our web site that can be “data-minded” in the future for development and fundraising purposes.

In addition, doGoodr uses Google Analytics, a web tracking tool that let’s us know where our users are coming from, what they’re doing on the site and how long they stayed on certain pages.  All this information helps us continuously improve the user experience and the breadth of our offerings to the public.

Qualitative:

doGoodr has a robust communications system that monitors the site for “Abuse” and offers users quick and simple ways to contact us for any reason.  We have a detailed Terms of Use agreement and a fair and open Privacy Policy that helps our community of users understand how they can protect themselves from fraud and other Internet scams (e.g. phishing).

Our “Rate this Post” feature and our “Abuse” monitoring gives up real time user feedback on the quality of the Posts being created on the site.  We have the ability to remove and edit Posts, warn users and otherwise protect the integrity of the site’s offering, instantaneously.

TECHNICAL INNOVATION

Search:

On the advice of our legal counsel, doGoodr will be publishing a white paper and seeking a patent on its proprietary search solution.  doGoodr has developed a method of doing search that is lightning fast and produces highly relevant results for users who want accurate results.  Future funding will go toward completing our “Advanced Search”, “People Search”, “Organization Search” and “Information Search” capabilities.

Information Architecture:  A Modular Database model that “learns” and adapts to user choices:

doGoodr is organized around categories of interests using an “extensible” taxonomy (a master list that changes with use).  Our data model also automatically correlates the coding system of the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) with the “tagging” language used on social networking web sites.

“Tags” (or keywords) are the “lingua franca” of dynamic, Internet information organization (called “folksonomies”) – a new “crib” language” that is emerging out of a community of hundreds of millions of participants in real time.  This language of tags by subject, issue, idea, etc., is an effective method of connecting people to each other through ideas, passions, interests, images, information, wikis, photographs, videos and search.

But tagging has little utility for accurate search results unless it’s embedded in the information architecture in an advantageous way.  Our hybrid architecture increases the quality of search results by embedding tagging opportunities where they will produce the best search and matching results.

100% Compatibility:

If it’s on the web, you can link it to doGoodr.  Our application is compatible with all existing Internet web site interfaces and page views.

MAJOR FUNDING & SUPPORT HISTORY

Major Funder to date:

  • Information available upon written request.

Major Pro Bono Support:

Other Support:

FINANCIAL INFORMATION

  • Organization financials available upon request.

KEY PERSONNEL

INFORMATION ATTACHMENTS

Available upon request:

  • Proposal Budget Breakdown (donated and actual costs).
  • Copy of IRS nonprofit determination letter for Environmental Media Fund, Inc.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Bob Silvestri – President
bsilvestri@dogoodr.org
http://thedogoodrfund.org/contact

TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

A complete description of technology enhancements is available up request to potential funders.

Please Contact us for details.