Can We Help Pakistan?

[Rob Holmes]

Rob, the burden of this scheme would fall on you. What do you think?

I'd need to check how much - I guess from looking at the software it's just a case of the donater setting up an account on the pixel website and then allocating them a pixel credits when the donation is confirmed.

I'm ok in principle doing this so long as people understand biz and my clients come first and this is prioritised below those two things.

Rob

 

[Enigma121]

Steve's approach should get the ball rolling.

There was / is nothing stopping setup of the site anyway, clearly direct online clearing would be convenient but not strictly required. To start a flood of donations I think an official link through is still important.

I've had another response back from Red Cross requesting clarification. They should be in the office on Monday, allowing that issue to be resolved either way.

 

[Enigma121]

Ok got a response from the Red Cross, unfortunately this wasn't very positive. Extracts from this response are shown below.

That's a nice idea, but sadly the charity legislation and VAT regulations are more complicated than that. Since the person is getting something in return, it is not actually a "donation" but it is advertising so we would be obliged to charge VAT to
the person buying the pixels, supply a VAT invoice and also put the income through a Trading company.

...the British Red Cross is part of a federation which has an ethical partnerships policy, we have to do a detailed screening of all our corporate partners, which again is difficult to do on this model as it is time consuming and we do not have the resources to do this on such a large scale.

Whilst I think your proposal is interesting, there are a number of obstacles for us that would prevent us from proceeding with this at the moment. Sorry to disappoint.

Anyone else had any further joy with other charities?

Clearly the VAT issue is significant, but, chances are other charities may not be quite so choosy about where the cash comes from.

As Steve pointed out, time is running out to make a difference.

 

[Belladonna]

Oh :!:

Well, what about doing it through ebay on a charity auction?

People can pay to advertise on the pixels4pakistan site but the payment is processed via the ebay charity auction set up?

 

[Belladonna]

Just been looking at missionfish.org which is the engine behind ebay's charity auctions. WorldVision is one of the nonprofit organisations registered with them and you can specifically select World Vision's Emergency Relief fund.

Any thoughts?

 

[Belladonna]

Scrap that idea - it is for US Sellers only!

It looks like we are back to either putting a Donate Here button directly to an organisation such as DEC.org and wait for the donor to send the confirmation email (which I don't remember getting!) Or, using paypal................. - whichever, it needs to be fast!

 

[Enigma121]

Pure genius belladonna!

Divide the grid up to a suitable level, launch really high profile campaign to get advertisers to bid on the auction, then set up a dutch auction for each pixel square.

All we need to decide is how many squares, who'll handle the PR exercise then when the site is ready we're off.

Winning bidders (there will be a lot of them) will have their ad put on there following the auction.

The issue is gonna be getting enough effort ploughed into smoothing the process of adding images / links. Suggest XML files are used which will allow bulk addition of images with minimal effort.

Matrix, can you pass on details of the script you are proposing to use, in case we are able to provide assistance on this front?

 

[Enigma121]

Ebay's site say's its for UK sellers (I think)

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/community/charity/sellerinfo.html

But they are also only supporting Children In Need until 18th Novemeber this year.

 

[Belladonna]

But they are also only supporting Children In Need until 18th Novemeber this year.

Yep - that's gonna b a problem. Could we start off by simply getting people to send us their confirmation emails, and then when ebay supports other charities start doing it through ebay?

Not sure if we should auction them or set a "buy it now" fee?? The problem is there has to be a minimum donation of £5, though I guess we could start the auction at £5 anyway..............

 

[nick72]

Hi all,
I'm a friend of 10 Yetis and he was telling me about this at the weekend. Thought it was a great idea so hoped to come on here ready to buy some advertising!

Shame you seem to have all got stuck on red tape issues. The longer you wait to do something the less of an impact it's going to have. Unfortunately you may be too late already with the next natural disaster in hurricane Wilma closing in.

Wouldn't it be an idea to bootstrap the idea to see if it takes off? Just set the page up, and accept donations through paypal? You get a notification with paypal when someone pays you with their email address on so you could email them back.

I don't think there's any point worrying about VAT unless the idea takes off. If it did then I'm sure you'd get accountants offering to help out for a bit of free publicity or some other Charity would get involved and help you out.

Don't let barriers get in the way! Just set it up and get the ball rolling. Deal with problems as they arise!

Cheers
Nick

 

[Cornish Steve]

I decided to start the ball rolling. If we are able to get the Pixels for Pakistan idea going, that's great. If not, at least we can donate to the cause. Let's keep a running total and see if we can reach 1,000 pounds by the weekend. Anyone up to the challenge?

Here are some excerpts from the confirmation message sent by the Salvation Army:

donation id:

1298098000003232300891

date:

20 October 2005 01:03 PM (GMT)

company name:

The Global Online Learning & Development Center, Inc.

donation:

100 USD (at current exchange rates, about 57 pounds)

 

[Rob Holmes]

Good one Steve,

Heres ours..

donation id:

1298109760003573102652

date:

20 October 2005 01:22 PM (GMT)

name and address:

Matrixx Hosting
145-157 St John Street
London

donation:

25 GBP

Rob

 

[Rob Holmes]

and the link to the donation page

https://secure2.salvationarmy.org/donations.nsf/donate?openform&projectid=IHQ-SAsia_Quake

Rob

 

[hfarooqui]

Hi, Let me introduce myself first. My name is Hammad Farooqui, I am working as a Manager Operations & Development in one of the Largest Call Center based in Pakistan. I'm one of the newest member here.

I came across this, i'm truly very happy to see you guys are doing and planning so much for Pakistani peoples. I'm literally very happy to see. May God Bless every body.

Please let me know if i can help you in any case.
You can contact me either on

UK : +44 207 043 1672 (ext.2)
PK : +92 300 2032044
email: [email protected]

 

Not only is it a goer - I have already set it up over a week ago.
Below is an extract from a mail I am sending to Companies.
If you wish to check out the site the address is in the e-mail below.
If anybody has any ideas on how to best promote this or can help to do so I would be delighted.




I am genuinely trying to raise money for charity and offer an affordable means of advertising at the same time.

I have a website set up where everybody wins :-

1./ Companies such as yours have the opportunity to place an advert on the site for an entire year at the very small price of £5.00

2./ Individuals can place messages, pictures or anything else (provided it is legal and not obscene) so, for example, loved ones abroad can receive birthday messages from their families, for only £2.00

3./ At least half of all the money raised will be sent to the Asian Earthquake Appeal Fund via Oxfam

4./ The site is accessed from my regular knitting materials website so I receive extra visitors to that site.

So, as I said, everybody wins.

If you wish to take advantage of this superb opportunity to receive incredibly inexpensive advertising whilst supporting an extremely worthwhile cause, please visit my site at :

www.wool-shop.biz

If you are not interested, then thank you for at least taking the time to read this.

As I mentioned before, this is not Spam so if you do not wish to receive further e-mails from me, you do not need to do anything. This is a one-off message and I will not trouble you again.


Regards

Sarah Corbett

 

[alex_bpo]

Hi Rob,

The way you speak in the forum is absolutely superb...... Straight to the point........ When I was dailling for UK campaign there were very few people the way how you answer.............

Best Regareds,
Ganesan Ramaiah

 

[level200]

What happened in Pakistan? do you mean the train?

<edited> Ha the earthquake its an old thread, my mistake.

BTW did the site/ pixel donation thingy ever get under way?