Startup Idea Every Day #5: Social Donation Leaderboard.

This is the fifth post in my series, "Startup Idea Every Day", where I offer a new idea for a startup every day, for 31 days (January 2014).

An app for accepting donations, with a leaderboard.

Using competitive nature to increase philanthropy and further social good.

This is kind of a strange idea, but I was brainstorming startup ideas and flipping through the radio, when I heard a televangelist finishing his "send your money now" upsell, and I thought, what if charitable organizations, religious groups in particular, had an app where users could donate money, and after their money was donated they would be put on a leaderboard, ranking people by how much they've donated.

The idea passed through my brain, and the value of the service seemed to increase the more I thought about it. Monetization would be a synch, and building a user base wouldn't be terribly difficult. The only negative factor I could think of was that some people may find it unethical to turn philanthropy into a competition of vanity, so selling the idea could certainly prove to be an uphill battle.

Who would the target audience be? The "all means necessary" type of charities would be a great first step, because this idea really works for the organizations who will go to extremes to further their cause, such as the charity who ran the incredibly sad, touchy-feely, Sarah McLachlan commercials for the sake of guilting people into donating. The animal lovers, hyper-environmentalists, and over-the-top religious groups seem to fit the bill.

Why is this such a good idea? People are naturally competitive, it's how we are. When users have the ability to see who has donated to a cause, they will almost certainly be likely to give more for the sake of increasing their perceived reputation in the community.

Most difficult obstacle? Creating an image of social change and do-goodery. Defining a brand as a better-world company takes a lot of skill in the marketing department, especially for a tech-based startup. On a side note, a friend of mine runs a firm in Santa Barbara called LoaCom that helps companies and non-profits boost their "better world strategies"

The bottom line with this idea is that there is big money in non-profits. Building a brand that boosts charitable donation is a great idea in my opinion because unlike many for-profit companies, there is big opportunity for social support. Plus, when it comes to startups, philanthropy angles are totally in style right now.