A Bake Sale, in Overdrive?

Recent news has been dominated by stories of major businesses finding themselves on shaky ground, and families facing loss of a job, loss of a home, or both. Fewer stories talk about the effects on charities, scholarship funds, congregations, and other nonprofits, that now face shrinking contributions just when the need for their good works is growing fastest.

I recently encountered an idea that seems especially welcome in these trying days: a way for nonprofits to increase funding from their supporters – without taking more money out of their pockets. In fact, with a little care, a little energy and a little imagination, supporters can actually put money into their pockets and increase the nonprofit’s bank balance at the same time.

The imagination part comes in here: Whether it’s a cake for the volunteer fire department’s auxiliary bake, or a bingo card at the veterans’ hall, or a tote bag from a community radio station’s pledge drive, nonprofits have often borrowed ideas from the commercial world. What I’m proposing here is a bake sale shifted into overdrive.

One of the few fast-growing segments of the economy is the whole area of multi-level marketing. Individuals and small companies are finding they can turn a few hours a week into welcome extra pocket money – or a whole new career. They offer a useful product or service, share their enthusiasm for it with a growing number of people, and turn a small investment into a steadily growing income stream. If an individual or a small company like mine can increase income this way, why not a nonprofit?

Would any MLM serve the purposes of the nonprofit? Some wouldn’t at all, because their legal structure doesn’t allow for nonprofit participants. Others would serve – but only nonprofits that can afford a steep initial investment. From what I’ve seen, though, I think many of them could work . . . but how would it work?

I can speak only for the one I’m most closely associated with, ShopToEarn. There I can see a clear path to the goal I described, incrasing the income of both the nonprofit and its supporters. Here’s the path:

The nonprofit makes what is a tiny investment to many of them, less than $500, and enrolls as a “broker.” ShopToEarn provides each new broker with its own Web-based “shopping portal,” like an on-line mall, with hundreds of retailers.

The nonprofit buys from its own on-line mall the same products it already buys elsewhere, and encourages its members and other supporters to do the same. The members get discounts not available at the retailers’ “bricks and mortar” stores, and the nonproift gets cash back from its own purchases, and its members’.

So far, the bake sale is still in low gear – just a lot bigger because it includes paint from Home Depot and books from Barnes & Nobile as well as cookies from Millie’s kitchen.

The nonprofit’s leaders seek out supporters that seem to have an entrepeneurial bent, and refer them to ShopToEarn. Some simply won’t be interested Some will enjoy having their own shopping portal, but won’t want to build their own businesses any further, and will become “website owners.” Others will have little interest in having their own mall, but will enjoy telling others about the nonprofit’s mall, and will enroll as “business builders,” focusing on enrolling others. Those who want to do both will enroll as “brokers,” like the nonprofit itself.

Soon the bake sale is in high gear. Members receive cash and points that accumulate into bonuses, and more points continue up the family tree, eventurally to the nonprofit.

Sometime along the way, business builders and brokers in the nonprofit find that they like sharing the program with people entirely outside the organization, enroll them, who enroll others ... and soon the nonprofit is receiving income from people it doesn’t even know. Overdrive.

I hope you find a program like this to be as exciting a prospect for enhancing nonprofits’ development plans as I do. I'm eager to see your questions and comments.