Non Profits Find New Way to Raise Big Money

By Jeff Sesol
 

In these tough economic times Nonprofits all across America are looking for ways to expand their developmental opportunities and Development Exchange Group Inc. has created just what they have been looking for, and is launching www.BuySellAndSupport.com this summer.

Based on personal experiences and passion for Nonprofits close to their hearts, the founders of BuySellAndSupport set out to bring positive elements of eBay and Craigslist to the Nonprofits that they serve in their communities.  Jeff Sesol, one of the site’s founding partners explained it this way: “I saw the causes that I support struggling to provide the services that they have for so many years and I thought, with all the person-to-person transactions that happens online everyday… well what if they could benefit a bit from each of those transactions? And that was that.  We took our technical experience and threw it into our desire to help out those who help out others”

The Reality of a Downward Trend in Charitable Giving

Though the last few years have been hard on Nonprofits, 2008 saw charitable giving dip significantly while demand for most services rose dramatically. 

According to time.com, last year the United Way saw a 68% increase nationally in the number of calls for basic needs and the state of Arizona reported a doubling in the number of people who sought social services last year, while 70% of the nonprofits in Michigan reported an increased demand for services.

At the same time, according to The New York Times, charitable giving experienced its worst decline in 50 years (see graph to the right) and all signs point to continued erosion of support through 2011.

The Strength of Online Transactions and the Opportunity for Non Profits

The last decade of exponential growth in the online transaction space has typically been ignored by the nonprofit sector. 

EBay.com records 60 billion dollars in gross transactions annually, more revenue than any other online retailer and nearly a quarter of all online sales combined.

And though no gross transaction figures are available for Craigslist (cash exchanges are not facilitated as on eBay), where buyers and sellers come to the site to trade products and services for cash, Craigslist continues to track more traffic than eBay according to Alexa.com.

Until now, however, there has been no opportunity for Nonprofits to “get in the middle” of these trades.  Imagine the impact on an organization if 10% (at a minimum) came back to the organization. 

Getting the Checks (and the electronic transactions) Rolling Your Way Again!!

So where does a nonprofit turn to take advantage of this considerable opportunity? And how much effort and capital investment is it going to take to get it up-and-rolling and successful?  And probably the most important question is “how fast can we be online and set to receive funds?”.

Non Profits can visit www.BuySellAndSupport.com and pre-register according to Sesol.  Exclusive Nonprofit affiliate sites designed to promote the organization and track transactions will be developed on a first-come-first-served basis, according to the order they pre-register, so Non Profits are encouraged to pre-register as early as possible.

Account set-up is $250 and the BuySellandSupport team will work together with each Nonprofit on an ongoing basis to encourage prospective donors to participate in this program.

So now that nonprofits have an email list, a Facebook page and maybe even a Twitter account it is time to turn their digital presence into donor dollars.