Website Idea

[Dave]

Online Charity Events
This idea revolves around building an online presence for charity work. The website will be dedicated to raising money for charity through weekly games and other events. People can enter the weekly game by adding n amount of money to the prize fund. The winner of the weekly game recieves a certain percentage of the prize fund (40%) and the other more larger percentage goes to charity. During the week people can vote for the charity they want to raise money for and what the weekly game should be. The website will also include a community for the latest charity news and charity events for people to get involved in. The website will also contain other features to help raise money for charity such as other fun games, donations, advertising, sending clothes and food to certain charities (mostly third world) etc

Weekly games can be simple like selecting a winner at random, various arcade style games (flash preferably) with the winner having the highest score, quizzes and more.

What are your opinions of this idea? I think that because its for charity we can get a lot of people involved to help participate in the site and with the development of the website too.

 

[Dave]

*Bump*

 

[GeneCosta]

I like the idea of a community working together to promote individual charities while having fun. I don't know if you need such a steep incentive: 60/40 takes away from the focus on charity. In my opinion more could go to charity.

 

[Dave]

I like the idea of a community working together to promote individual charities while having fun. I don't know if you need such a steep incentive: 60/40 takes away from the focus on charity. In my opinion more could go to charity.

Yeah you're definetly right about that. I definetly want to create this but since I am ever so busy at the moment it would be great to try and get more people involved.

 

[Joeydabomb]

Good idea..
I'd help out as much as i could

 

[Dave]

Ok. The name of this will be changed to big prize fund. A winner is randomly selected once a week to recieve 25% of the prize fund and the other 75% goes to their selected charity and/or the winning charity, which is selected by a poll. I have contacted a couple of trusted parties (escrow and paypal) to ask if they would be kind enough to keep hold of the prize fund until a winner is announced.

There will be a community forum for people to participate in with the latest news regarding charities and events.

Do you guys know if this is legal? And is this is a worthwhile venture?

~Dave

 

[rcpalace]

That's sounds like an excellent Idea. But make sure this is legal.

 

[Dave]

That's sounds like an excellent Idea. But make sure this is legal.

Well concerning the prize fund it seems like the only option is for me to setup a trust account with my bank. Still awaiting confirmation about whether or not the whole idea is legal. If anyone here knows then please let me know!

 

[Ronald Regging]

Check the laws for your state, but I can almost guarantee this would not be legal. The only way you could do this is if the users paid $0 and could win prizes... or if the users paid $x and all the money went to charity with absolutely no prizes...

Anytime you take money in exchange for a chance to win a prize, it's considered gambling. Some states have laws permitting raffles, but usually these are extremely restrictive and apply only to non-profit orgs and even then they are limited in the amount of the prizes/prize values they can award.

This is why every contest on every product you buy has to offer a way to enter where no purchase is neccessary. Otherwise, they are accepting money for entry to win prizes, which is illegal. You might say that they are just paying for the product, not an entry... but if this were permissible, there would be cases where people would sort of invent products for sale just to cover the entry fee for a contest.. loopholes abound.

 

[Dave]

Thanks for the information Ronald. I come from the UK so it may still be different here, so I will have to find that out. If it is different then the website may only be allowed for UK residents. If its the same then I well still create a website dedicated to raising money for charity.

 

[Ronald Regging]

Thanks for the information Ronald. I come from the UK so it may still be different here, so I will have to find that out. If it is different then the website may only be allowed for UK residents. If its the same then I well still create a website dedicated to raising money for charity.

Alright, didn't notice you were from the UK. I don't know anything about UK law so I wont be of much help. I have researched a similar concept and thats why I know about the general law in the US. Your best bet would probably be to just try to find the laws pertaining to this type of thing, but more than likely I think it will end up being illegal.

I do like your idea of trying to raise money for charity though, I'm sure you can come up with some other ways to do it if your current idea isn't viable.

Best of luck!

 

[paaaaaaaaaa]

I'm from the UK and I'm fairly certain that the law is similar that's why sweet wrappers etc need to include a no purchase necessary notice.

However what you could do is make it clear that you are charging for the games and that anybody can enter for free to be in with a chance of winning.

 

[Dave]

I know how to get around this, I think.

The website will be aimed at primarily webmasters only (anyone else can add to the fund if they wish). Here is how it will work... Webmasters come to the site and donate $1 to the prize fund. In order to get around the law the winner will not recieve any money or a share of the prize fund. WHAT??. Ok.. instead the winning webmaster will have their website advertised on the homepage and have a chance for their google ads to appear too! This way they are really getting something back.

If anyone would like to help with this site (development, domain purchase, hosting etc) then it would be greatly appreciated. Its for charity after all my friends.

And to top it of anyone else who donated will have their site on another page randomly advertised (similar to tagacloud's homepage). Or perhaps banner rotation? Hmm..

Regards

Dave

 

[Dave]

Anymore views or opinions?

 

[zanzan]

Seems like an interesting idea. Maybe you would like to consider this;

Webmaster who give the most donations weekly or monthly will get their ads placed. That would encourgae people to donate in exchange of getting their site ads space.