Non-profits such as the Red Cross and American Heart Association always need help finding do-gooders, in some part because their static Web sites attract few visitors.
Do-gooders often need help finding the best outlets for their energies and contributions, especially when the headlines are filled with news of disaster and hardship.
Media Web sites such as Boston.com and SFGate.com certainly need help engaging readers, finding cheap/free content and generating revenue – but they have the online eyeballs non-profits cannot attract. (Example cited to me: Boston.com, 4.2 million monthly visitors; United Way of Massachusetts Bay, 2,000.)
And, finally, big brand-name corporations need help making themselves look more like do-gooders and less like robber-barons.
Stepping up to help by connecting all four parties – and turning a buck for itself in the process, of course – is a startup called Good2gether, which will debut what it is calling a “philanthropic social networking service” today at Network World’s DEMO 08 in Palm Desert, Calif.
At the risk of sounding like a goody-goody, this meshing of needs and deeds just might work, provided Good2gether can deliver the backend search and content-management capabilities that founder Greg McHale showed me during our chat last week. The reason is that all of the needs are genuine, the specific organizations mentioned are already on board (as well as a host of others we’ll get to in a minute), and only one of the four groups is being asked to pony up any cash: those deep-pocketed robber-barons, who can stand to part with a buck or two.
McHale, whose previous venture called cMarket assists organizations in running online auctions, has been crisscrossing the country recruiting non-profits and media partners, the latter of which he says will include the New York Daily News, Houston Chronicle, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Philadelphia Inquirer. In sum, Good2gether has six of the nation’s top 10 media markets represented from the jump, and McHale expects to have 10 of the top 20 by year’s end. Additional non-profit participants include the National Audubon Society, Earth Share, Best Buddies and more than 100 others, he says.
The ultimate goal, besides that turning-a-buck business, is for Good2gether’s network to present tightly targeted, geographically appropriate do-good opportunities to would-be volunteers and donors at a moment when they are most likely to act: when reading about an emergency need or worthy cause at one of the media partner Web sites.
For example, on a story about, say, the major fire that recently took out a city block in Lawrence, Mass., a box listing opportunities for the public to help would be automatically generated by Good2gether’s network and placed alongside the article. Links would take readers directly to the Web sites of participating non-profits, where they would find not only the details needed to act upon their charitable instincts but additional links back to appropriate news content on the media partner sites. Stories about medical research, educational issues, the environment – anything where readers might want to get involved – get their own specially tailored box of links from the network.
Those deep-pocketed corporations would sponsor the link boxes (at which point I’ll stop calling them robber-barons), both to associate their brands with worthy causes and to present brief messages that alert readers to ongoing good deeds performed by the company and its employees. McHale cites a study that showed 87% of consumers claiming they would patronize a brand they perceived as doing more good than others (although the cynic in me is presuming that means in the absence of a 10% off coupon from the greedy competitor).
The non-profits need to keep up their end of the bargain by feeding Good2gether’s online content-management system with updated information about upcoming events, volunteer opportunities and articles.
McHale’s company will take a cut of the sponsor fees that the media partners drum up.
An April rollout is planned.
And the potential points of failure appear obvious: Will the robber-barons perceive and receive enough bang for their buck as they operate in an economy teetering on the brink of recession? (McHale wasn’t ready to name any sponsors.) Will the media partners derive enough revenue and readership service from those sponsored link boxes to justify the devotion of such valuable online real estate? Will the non-profits deliver the goods by keeping content updated, relevant and compelling? Will do-gooders respond appropriately? And, of course, can Good2together get the whole network up and humming.
If all this happens, good deeds get done and Good2gether makes money.
If not, well, nice try.
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