Businessaire

This is a post is an idea which I emailed to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation on introducing a transparency model based around the user following their dollar through a login on their website,

To Whom It May Concern at the Bill/ Melinda Gates Foundation:
I would like to make a suggestion for the foundation in a nut shell it’s a greater transparency model, it’s nothing ground breaking but simply changing the way your finances are displayed.

I think a donator should be able to use your website to be able to be able to “follow your dollar”.

When I donate money to a charity, I think where did my money go? I know the cause maybe even the specific projects but I always think, are they grossly overspending? It is lining the administrator’s pockets?

Yes you or I could pour through financial documents and get a general idea of how the money is spent, but if that gap could be bridged why isn’t it?

The user can follow their dollar on the front end (web page) in a dynamic fashion, the dollar gets pooled into a certain funding period and the user can check up to see how it’s spent.

I believe the end result would be:
- Potential donator/s would be more knowledgeable
- Charities on the whole would become more efficient and accountable
And thus it would beget more donations

All the information above might be provided in your financial statements but the simple truth is that is fails at the user level because of people’s basic lack of financial understanding and thus an ability to analyze.

I’ll give a quick analogy to information and the stock market, where information is what allows for markets to be made and prices to be analyzed; for corruption and/ or mispricing to be spotted and ratified.

If you could provide a system where not only could see how you have spent your money in the past but also for the user to follow their single dollar donation right to the end result, I think this creates a situation where it’s win/ win for both parties.

A simple login with a dynamic update of their dollars spent possibly for the quarter, providing motivation for the donator to see their specific impact and also allows them to evaluate the allocation of capital of the charity for future donations.

The reason for pooling is because what if $1 from person A goes to a project but persons B dollar goes to an expense so in this specific case person B 100% of their dollar is expenses and obviously that wouldn’t be desirable.

But if you say pool the cash monthly/ quarterly etc, then you divide a % and then make the breakdown and update everyone’s account at real time.

I know it seems not providing a detailed solution is half hearted but really it should be an open source problem for people more knowledgeable in the accounting arena and then implement it with the technology team.

I don’t seem to think it would be too hard to do unless their was some resistance to become transparent because I see potential perceived flaws of what if someone donates and it goes to straight to the trust and who then have to explain its uses and other complex situation i.e micro funding, investments

But that’s where your communication people come in and you already have information for every section.

Other issues it raises
It could make similar charities which cross pollinate in terms of projects, who is better catering and a form of Darwinism kicks in to start to put pressure on charities to more accountable/ efficient.

You could market the ‘system’ as a third party application encouraging other charities to do the same, and the ripple effect would be you helping the entire charity industry.

In simple terms it may be just presenting the information you already are/ have but in a more workable solution for the potential donator to see where there money is going, as possibly visually how much is left in certain projects (see below).

A side effect is that you also would be capturing more donators information and driving them back to your website with more opportunity to interact and educate with an engaged audience.

In sum, I realize there are flaws but I thought by presenting the idea who knows it could spur something that could be even better and if not well there is nothing lost, so thanks for the consideration.

Kind Regards,
Andrew Poesaste

Here is a very basic example of what I mean, please don’t let my very elementary effort put you off, think of the premise above and how it could work in real time.

Basic example link