What do you think of my idea?
Hi Hackers,
I created a web application for a specific need of a non-profit organization. It's a unique fund raising idea and I would like your opinion about its viability for a business. It needs some more work before I'm able to publicly release it and I want to know if it's worth my time. Here's how it works:
- The organization (say a school) gives out logins to all parents in the school.
- The front-end is setup like an e-commerce website but instead of products being sold, names of people are listed. You can add as many names as you want to your cart. You can also write a personal message for each name. Each name costs, say $5.
- The school gathers all the names (via my custom admin console) and sends gifts, like Easter baskets or Christmas gifts etc... to each person in the organization who was "bought" by somebody. Along with the gift is a personalized note by each person who chose them and added them to their cart.
Considerations:
- This is not a website that just runs by itself. This would require me to hire a sales person to sell it to organizations as well as perhaps a hand-holding person to walk them through it. I have a day job that I don't want to give up yet and I am not a sales guy.
- Is this just too complicated?
You said you built this for your son's school. What gifts were sent using this process? How much did the gifts cost vs how much the school received? How long did the entire process (choosing names, paying, sending and receiving gifts) take?
They were giving gift baskets. The school received around $50,000 in revenue. I'm not sure exactly how much the gifts cost, I wasn't privy to that information but my rough guess is they spent 15-20 thousand on that.
I think that one of the things I would have to do before releasing is to partner with some sort of gift company that I can offer as an option for the school to choose. The gift company would take care of sending the gifts, that way the school wouldn't have to do the gift giving themselves.
Honestly, this just sounds like a streamlined version of those awful candy bars the schools used to make the kids pawn off for fundraising. Does anyone remember those terrible knick knack magazines they'd make you sell out of? They had stuff like talking clocks and stupid embroidered towels? It just sounds like a different version of that. And, let's face it, schools need every avenue of fundraising they can get! I say put this out there and just try. The worst thing that could happen is schools (and other establishments) simply ignore it.
who sends the gifts? so as a donation, i want to buy someone a gift via this platform b/c it helps the school fund raise? i don't get it at all? Sorry.
People who are interested in the success of the organization would gladly send money to them in exchange for the organization arranging the gift sending. Let's change the example to a church. I get the pleasure of being able to send gifts to a number of people in my church all at once by just clicking on their name. The organization receives the money from me and sends the gift in my (and everyone else's) behalf. They profit because they are sending one gift that costs maybe $15 while receiving $50 because 10 people signed up for that gift to be sent.
So the church has to go out and buy gift. Wrap it. Ship it. Seems like a lot of work. So 10 people paid $5 to send a gift to a Radom person to them that I added to the website. So I put down my sister in California . Who no one knows. W
Why would anyone else contribute. This makes no sense to me
@gbessoni
Thanks for your feedback. I see from your questions that this can be quite confusing. I need to focus on simplifying before building.
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I am offering a win-win situation. The parents get to give gifts to their friends at a fraction of the cost by just clicking on their names. The school profits by sending one gift that costs maybe $15 while receiving $50 because 10 people signed up for that gift to be sent. The school also benefits from the ability to gather all the names with one click of a button instead of using spreadsheets and paper. They also get reporting and billing.
This wasn't a waste of time for me, it was a specific need for a specific school, my son's school, and it was actually quite successful as a fund raiser for them. It brings in around $50,000 for them each year. I'm glad I did it. My question was if I could sell it to other organizations.
The issue is what if 10 people don't select the same friend? Why wouldn't I just add my friend. And if everyone has the same thinking only one contributor the person who added the name contributes $5 and this never getting to profitability.
This comment was deleted 7 years ago
Thanks for your feedback.
This comment was deleted 7 years ago
That's a great idea. Thanks!