Would you pay £5?.......

[IWYS]

I have been researching a concept for a business that would raise money for charity. I will take a wage from the business, and the costs would come out of that too, but i want to be as transparent about that as i can!

I have but everything together from a business to business point of view and received great interest from business owners about my concept and some are quite excited to find out when i will be launching.

What i want to do now, is find out a little feedback from a customer point of view. So please take your business head away from this and think like a consumer. Would you pay £5 for a whole years membership to a website where you can enter a free daily prize draw for great products like I-Pads, LCD TV's, games consoles, holidays etc? There will be one draw each day for the whole year and ALL the money will go to a charity less expenses and salary.

The aim of the website is to raise £100,000+ per year for charity, and there will be a different charity each year. The focus of the website will be to ONE charity per year.

So for your £5, you will be able to enter 365 prize draws through the year and your money goes to charity. My business does not have to pay for the prizes so they will not be part of the expenses. There will be my salary for running the website, which will not be ridiculous, website expenses and marketing etc, all the profits will go to the charity.

Your feedback would be great, remember from the consumer. Alot of people donate to charity, this is just a more exciting way to do so...

 

[deniser]

Me personally, no, I couldn't be bothered to enter competitions.

I think lots of people would though so I think it is a good idea if it complies with the lottery legislation etc.

 

[Esk247]

it would have to comply to charity laws...that may affect your 'business' as it would need audited accounts etc (unless a community interest company) from what i know.

i wouldn't pay £5 though...i can access any of that for free using my email address..there are hundreds of competition websites offering a daily prize draw.

 

[Mustaka]

i wouldn't pay £5 though...i can access any of that for free using my email address..there are hundreds of competition websites offering a daily prize draw.

Yes but those are for marketing. I would give 5 quid to charity no problem. Hell when I am in the pub in London I get approached many times a night to give charity to whomever is walking around the pub on that night. I usually give a couple of quid and over the course of a month that adds up. I get nothing back. At least with this model I get a chance to win something back.

You could even extend the model out. say for example a prize was a trip to a day spa and makeover. Sure as hell would not interest me. But if on the site you had the ability to waive acceptance in order to sell it for a discount on the site and take the cash I would go for that. You could then charge say a 10% commission on the retail value which kicks back to the charity.

Also I would pay 5 quid for a month of draws let alone a year.

 

[IWYS]

Yes but those are for marketing. I would give 5 quid to charity no problem. Hell when I am in the pub in London I get approached many times a night to give charity to whomever is walking around the pub on that night. I usually give a couple of quid and over the course of a month that adds up. I get nothing back. At least with this model I get a chance to win something back.

You could even extend the model out. say for example a prize was a trip to a day spa and makeover. Sure as hell would not interest me. But if on the site you had the ability to waive acceptance in order to sell it for a discount on the site and take the cash I would go for that. You could then charge say a 10% commission on the retail value which kicks back to the charity.

Also I would pay 5 quid for a month of draws let alone a year.

Thank you, this is very positive!

The concept of this is to try and make charity donations a little more exciting. I can access hundreds of websites to enter competitions for free but they want my details to market to me in the future, this concept is based on charity donations, but where potentially you could win a great prize.

I like the idea about being able to sell your prize if you didn't want it. I could even add an auction page for unwanted prizes? If the website generates enough people interested in the prizes then surely someone would buy the prize? If you didn't want it, its always a nice gift for birthday or christmas?

I thought about the price, and £5 per quatre is what i was thinking, but i think until the prizes were of great value and the membership was higher it would be too expensive. I mean currently £5 for the year is only about 1p per day/prize draw.

I have looked into legalities etc. and i know how this will be handled. The business that is giving away a prize on that day, there will be a question to answer about that business that is easily accessable on their website or on the net, this will also drive traffic to those businesses and make it more of an interactive site.

 

[Mustaka]

I have looked into legalities etc. and i know how this will be handled. The business that is giving away a prize on that day, there will be a question to answer about that business that is easily accessable on their website or on the net, this will also drive traffic to those businesses and make it more of an interactive site.

Now this I like.

So many angles here. Keep us informed about how you get on with it.

 

[IWYS]

I will do. The aim would be to sell advertising on the website to help cover the costs of the website. I believe this would be great for people wanting to donate to charity and also for local businesses, as they can become involved in the process, and get some good marketing out of it too!

 

[owas]

I think I would, as I would I feel paying rather that trying the endless surveys, and enter you address etc etc, seems a lot more genuine. and if the site was absolute clear about how it works then go for it.

 

[IWYS]

Do you think investors would be interested in this concept? I need £10k really to make it a success. Its a local concept that will expand over the next 5 years, and in that time i aim to build up to generating £4 million for charity each year.

For investors it would be a great opportunity to get involved, and also make the most of advertising on the website etc. I think it would be a good investment for people who invest £1,000, so 10 people in total. This would give them advertising on this project for 5 years minimum.

 

[IWYS]

I would obviously go into more details for any interested parties

 

[KeithGreen]

Great idea IMHO. I would pay £5.

However is £10k really enough start up capital?

 

[IWYS]

Great idea IMHO. I would pay £5.

However is £10k really enough start up capital?

Yes, £10k is enough with a little aside for marketing throughout the year. This £10k is based on the first year, as i will be starting in one county, and expanding as i grow.

I have spent a few years building contacts in the right areas for a concept like this to work. I have skilled people in the right areas such as social media, media, design and printing etc. I also have a local councilor who is fully supporting my concept and wants me to keep him updated with the project.

 

[IWYS]

Anyone else has any thoughts about the concept? I would really like opinions on this before i start to look for funding and launch. I believe its a great idea...but i came up with it, i need good and bad views really, as i can't find anything bad about the idea...there are always negative points surely?

 

[iArtist]

I think given people like playing the lottery when it comes to big prizes and the feel good factor many people will not bother with this as it's nothing new. It's just smaller. And smaller is not good. People who need a prize as an incentive to give to charity want MASSIVE prizes. People who don't want any prize won't bother subscribing, what'd be the point?

I personally don't see any appeal in this idea and think your projected figures regarding revenue are very unrealistic.

To generate the millions you propose would take a lot more than £10k investment. Advertising alone would need to be massive and people would ask, what are the odds, what are the value of the prizes and what is the value of me subscribing to this when there are other ways to win things and many charities to donate to already in existance.

It is a saturated market.

It's been done a dozen times over in a variety of ways

http://www.donation4charity.org/charities/actionaid-people-s-lottery

http://contests.about.com/od/cashsweepstakes/p/111229nestlesha.htm

 

[IWYS]

Look at Groupon/MyCityDeal, they do not offer huge deals. They are a national company but work locally. They offer people the opportunity to go on day spa's and win nice meals, and days out paintballing etc. They are very successful, and have lots of visitors, and lots of businesses offering deals/discounts.

They make money for themselves, £5 is like 1p ish a day... its a donation to charity, but you also have that chance to win something.

Thanks for your comment Unique gift, i just think marketed right people would be interested, and also that element of 'oh its a fiver for a whole year of prize draws'...

 

[I Love Spreadsheets]

Interesting idea, especially if others are providing the prizes.

I would suggest that it will take some hard work and money to keep the people coming back everyday. I would guess that if you let that drop too far the companies providing the prizes will also dry up

 

[iArtist]

Look at Groupon/MyCityDeal, they do not offer huge deals. They are a national company but work locally. They offer people the opportunity to go on day spa's and win nice meals, and days out paintballing etc. They are very successful, and have lots of visitors, and lots of businesses offering deals/discounts.

They make money for themselves, £5 is like 1p ish a day... its a donation to charity, but you also have that chance to win something.

Thanks for your comment Unique gift, i just think marketed right people would be interested, and also that element of 'oh its a fiver for a whole year of prize draws'...

http://www.winbyraffle.com/

so when you said before I posted that you wanted to know the downside, you were just kidding Not a good way to go into business, being blind sided.

You're trying to reinvent the wheel and it'll take a lot more than £10k to make this profitable.

 

[iArtist]

Interesting idea, especially if others are providing the prizes.

I would suggest that it will take some hard work and money to keep the people coming back everyday. I would guess that if you let that drop too far the companies providing the prizes will also dry up

And therein the problem lies, getting people to donate prizes is not easy, it takes mave work, I know because I've been involved in fundraising. You need a team with great charisma and charm to ply freebies out of people that are worth enough to tempt people to subscribe to a site for any reason. Ipods are given away right left and centre, can't see anyone choosing your site over someone elses for a chance to win one.

I give to charity and it's a lot more than £5 a year and no prize would tempt me to subscribe because I don't donate for self gain. If I joined a site like yours it'd be for 'gambling' reasons only not for charitable ones and the odds on winning would have to be high and the prizes magnificent. Otherwise I'd just see it as a waste of time.

 

[Podge]

Would the idea not be classed as a lottery and as such require you to have a gaming licence?

After all people are paying to enter a game of chance.

 

[Corpy]

You would need a Huge Huge amount of members just to cover the cost of your wage and the prizes + the hosting and a dedicated server.

You would need 20,000 members just to raise the 100,000 a year
3000 members to earn a 15k a year wage

if you think the average prize cost is £300.00 each day over a year

21,900 members to cover the cost of prizes.

So in total you need 24,900 + members to cover the cost of your wage and prizes

thats not taking into account PR, adverts, servers and all the other costs.

Unless you have allot of money to invest you would be running at a loss unless you offered very cheap prizes which wont attract members

If you charged £5.00 a month you could reduce the need of such a big member base.

Your other option is a sliding scale membership

So say for e.g min membership is £2-£5 a month top daily prize worth £40
£6-£10 a month top prize is £80 and so on so the more the pay the bigger the prize

Or the more they pay the more tickets or token they get increasing their chance to win a prize !

 

[Corpy]

But just to add what i said above.

What you actually saying is You want to run a business and donate all profits to charity, Not the other way around.

If you say your running a charity but your taking a wage you will struggle to get anyone to give money .

And yes all charity companies pay people to do work. The people that knock on your do from the RSPCA for e.g will get paid £30 everytime they get a person to sign up and the company they work for also gets a kick back.

Run it as a business and just state that all profits go to charity ;-)

 

[IWYS]

This is the kind of info i need Corpy. I have looked into all the figures though. I thought £5 per month would be the best way, as it would reduce the membership base needed, however it would be harder to commit people to a payment each month. All thats wrong with your figures is the £300 prize money? All the prizes will be provided by local businesses so there would be no expense there. In return for giving a prize they would receive marketing on the website, in the newsletter etc.

It will be run as a business giving all profits to charity, sorry if it sounded like i was looking into setting up a charity, that is not the case.

This would be extremely hard work, but thats why i would be looking at taking a wage as it will require my full attention and hard work.

 

[Corpy]

This is the kind of info i need Corpy. I have looked into all the figures though. I thought £5 per month would be the best way, as it would reduce the membership base needed, however it would be harder to commit people to a payment each month. All thats wrong with your figures is the £300 prize money? All the prizes will be provided by local businesses so there would be no expense there. In return for giving a prize they would receive marketing on the website, in the newsletter etc.

It will be run as a business giving all profits to charity, sorry if it sounded like i was looking into setting up a charity, that is not the case.

This would be extremely hard work, but thats why i would be looking at taking a wage as it will require my full attention and hard work.

Ok well first off before you start anything you should find what local businesses will commit and what item or how many items per year and what those items are.

Also you will have to prove that it will be worth their while by showing them projection of daily traffic on the site, and of course it will only benefit companies with a site as most members will not be local to you.

Maybe a directory page with all the local businesses supporting you, banners and so on.

The big companies that will donate good items to attract will only donate when you have a very very large traffic income, The more traffic you get the more its going to cost you on server for you monthly bandwidth use.

If i was to donate a LED 42" tv for e.g to you for a prize i would want heavy page banners. A big banner that says today prize donated by so and so with a auto popup to my site.

But also if your clever you will get companies that have affiliation accounts, so not only will they donate your prize you will also get a kick back from all people that buy stuff if they went via the link on your site ;-)

 

[Podge]

Ok well first off before you start anything you should find what local businesses will commit and what item or how many items per year and what those items are.

First off I think the op needs to find out if what he is planning is legal.

Be a shame to find out it's not after spending thousands of pounds and countless hours.

 

[IWYS]

I am actually doing this on a local scale, but expanding nationally. Like Groupon/MyCityDeal. They are national but when you go on their website you choose Nottinghamshire or London or Bedfordshire etc.

Aswell as the money going to charity i want to try and help local businesses get more visitors/customers. If i get the odd Virgin Active, and Game etc then great but i am targetting the website for local members and local businesses. Ideally i want it to work so that daily prizes are from local businesses eg a restaurant offering a meal for 2, or a day spa offering a pamper day etc, but then once a week have a larger company offer the 32" LCD TV.

 

[IWYS]

Podge, it's legal, this was the first thing i planned in my research. Thanks for that post though. There are certain things i have to include on the site to make it 'not a game or chance' and 'gambling' etc but they have stated clearly what i need to do in order to comply with the legalities.

 

[Corpy]

Podge, it's legal, this was the first thing i planned in my research. Thanks for that post though. There are certain things i have to include on the site to make it 'not a game or chance' and 'gambling' etc but they have stated clearly what i need to do in order to comply with the legalities.

If you would like to help local businesses and donate to charity you may be better looking at a business directory that offerers people discount or coupons to spend if they visit the business via your site.

So a member will get coupons to spend.

you generate the money from membership, allow the companies to sign up for free but get a kick back from the affiliation of sales

 

[iArtist]

This is the kind of info i need Corpy. I have looked into all the figures though. I thought £5 per month would be the best way, as it would reduce the membership base needed, however it would be harder to commit people to a payment each month. All thats wrong with your figures is the £300 prize money? All the prizes will be provided by local businesses so there would be no expense there. In return for giving a prize they would receive marketing on the website, in the newsletter etc.

.

No one will donate a prize in exchange for a spot on your site unless you site is already generating massive traffic. Trust me, this is a non-starter.

 

[Podge]

I assumed from your posts you were running a prize draw rather than a competition.

 

[IWYS]

I assumed from your posts you were running a prize draw rather than a competition.

Yes your right

 

[qqneny]

I like the idea about being able to sell your prize if you didn't want it. I could even add an auction page for unwanted prizes? If the website generates enough people interested in the prizes then surely someone would buy the prize? If you didn't want it, its always a nice gift for birthday or christmas?

 

[IWYS]

I like the idea about being able to sell your prize if you didn't want it. I could even add an auction page for unwanted prizes? If the website generates enough people interested in the prizes then surely someone would buy the prize? If you didn't want it, its always a nice gift for birthday or christmas?

I don't get it? I posted that...

 

[JohnnyCash]

Do you think investors would be interested in this concept? I need £10k really to make it a success. Its a local concept that will expand over the next 5 years, and in that time i aim to build up to generating £4 million for charity each year.

For investors it would be a great opportunity to get involved, and also make the most of advertising on the website etc. I think it would be a good investment for people who invest £1,000, so 10 people in total. This would give them advertising on this project for 5 years minimum.

My company builds and runs various websites, some large and some small. I would say from our point of view an investment in something like this would be a complete non starter - I'd far rather just steal your idea and own 100% of it, than take all the financial risk anyway for a fraction of the upside...

If you are talking about getting investments from people who would want to advertise on the site I don't see that being a workable method either - they will want to see the site up and running and generating traffic before they commit to spending money on it.

If you're confident of making it work I would think the best route to raising money would be family, friends or credit cards.