New project-centred online auction service for charities
Howard Lake | 9 April 2006 | News
New approach in fundraising with online auctions
At Ycare nonprofits can present projects and obtain funding thru online auctions, all for free! Some call it the “eBay with a concience – some call it the better eBay
/24-7PressRelease/ – March 08, 2006 – When it comes to raising funds for charitable projects, all nonprofits make the same basic experience: The better informed the donors are, the more they are willing to donate. These “marketing campaigns” however, are costly and can amount up to 30% of the income of a nonprofit.
While some websites put their focus on online auctions, Ycare (ycare.org) takes a different approach and puts the focus on getting the charitable project known; because the better known a project is, the more funding it will receive.
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Publishing a project
At Ycare, nonprofits can publish their charitable projects and spread the word to the online community. It does not matter how big or how small a project is. A project can be the purchase of new books for your child’s school, the improvement of facilities at your church, a fundraising campaign for the homeless or for a Third World project.
Publishing a project at Ycare is as simple as starting an online auction. Ycare supplies various tools to help get projects known on a local or national basis:
· When a project is published, the Ycare software automatically creates flyers with a brief description of the project. These flyers can be printed and handed out the old fashioned way, thus reaching donors that don’t have internet access.
· Users get their own personal Ycare email address book. Existing email addresses can be uploaded personalized emails can be sent to potential supporters of a project.
· Donors can ask questions about a project and both the question and the answer are posted on the website, for other donors to read.
· Projects can be updated with text or images at any time, always keeping donors informed
In addition, Ycare checks the tax exempt status of the nonprofit and, if verification is possible, posts a seal of certification, informing potential donors.
Starting an online auction
Ycare is also a complete online auction site. Here donors can sell items in support of a project of their choice and determine, how much of the proceeds from the sales they want to donate to the project and how much they want to keep for themselves. Donors can donate anywhere between 5% and 100% of the proceeds.
Buying and selling is similar to other auction sites, where both parties agree on the form of payment. Ycare plays no role in financial transactions between buyers and sellers. And also donors send their donations directly to the nonprofit listed on the website. Ycare plays no role in donation transactions.
As an introduction, Ycare is free of any costs. In a later stage Ycare will introduce a 4% fee from the seller on that amount of the proceeds that are not donated. If the total proceeds are donated, there are no costs at all. For nonprofits, however, Ycare will stay free of charge.
Summing it up
This new approach opens the opportunity to combine the commercial interests of others with the charitable interests of the nonprofits, making it easier for others to give. Because it’s simply more fun to: “Give a little, keep a little”
Ycare is a privately held company
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Daniel Vinovitsch
Ycare
CEO
E-Mail:
da***************@yc***.org
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.