Thursday, December 13. 2007If You Ever Thought It Was Difficult To Earn A Dollar.....John Linton ..try seeing how hard it can be to give a dollar (or $20,000 a month) away. As Exetel has 'consolidated' it's grip on some sort of meaningful 'longevity' as a commercial entity and as this is, or some claim it used to be, the "season of good will" we have been looking at making some meaningful contribution to the country we live in and/or the planet generally. Obviously commercial entities aren't set up for philanthropic purposes but small companies like Exetel are run by people who are very close to their businesses but have views outside the narrow confines of the daily commercial grind. While Annette and I were in the UK earlier this year we came across some of the fauna protection programs and species 'revival/re-introdction programs in that country and were very moved and impressed by what we saw. On returning to Australia we saw some programs on TV that focussed on similar programs being run in a variety of countries including New Zealand. In our own ways we are very fond of anmals and birds and we both contribute to various charities that are devoted to, in our opinion, very worthwhile programs and activities - one of these is the WWF (no - not wrestling.) Over the past few months we began to look at ways in which we could leverage the efficiencies and abilities that have been built to develop and grow Exetel in ways other than they are currently used for. One of the things we do very efficiently is bill and collect money from our customers. It occurred to us that most charitable organisations require fairly significant amounts when seeking donations which are beyond the 'comfort zone' for many people. One idea we had was to explore the possibility of asking our customers to make a monthly donation of an 'almost meaningless' amount of money of itself (say 50 cents) which if multiplied by, say, 40,000 contributing customers would amount to $A20,000 each month which could be added to their bill and automatically deducted from their bank account/credit card each month and then paid as a single amount of money to one or more 'save this Australian species' programs. Another thing is we have over 350,000 unique vistors to our web site each month and certainly a proportion of those people would look at information about topics other than communications. We considered matching the donations one a 1:1 basis and therefore being able to significantly assist one or more sensible programs. We also considered a variety of ways we could provide added services in return for the donations (such as free SMS or FAX or downloads) at some 2:1 value to the amount donated to maybe encourge donations of greater than a few cents. All well and good - or so we thought. So I sent a few emails to organisations I thought would find some extra donations useful to their protection of animal activities and, eventually, got some replies by email asking me to call to discuss what could be achieved. How very disillusioning calling some of these organisations turned out to be. I'm clearly deluded in my beliefs that organisations set up to help the helpless are staffed by dedicated altruists whose sole purpose in giving their time for the legendary pittance to such organisations is to ensure that their programs are adequately funded as quickly as possible. I pictured such people as being long on compassion and caring and relatively short on commercial acumen or avarice hunched over their telephones in their 10 year old anoraks and jeans wearing their mended with sticky tape glasses (sort of like John Lennon after a bad few days with Yoko). As I haven't met any of the people I've talked to face to face that may well be the case but they sure don't sound like that over the phone. I was taken aback by the casual, in some cases closer to dismissive, replies I got to offering what I thought was relatively significant monthly donations - by no means huge but I would have thought $A20,000 plus a month would be considered as useful. To date I've contacted four organisations, three of whom thanked me for my enquiry and they would get back to me (yet to hear from them again) and one who after expressing some interest told me they couldn't accept any donations from us because a large telecommunications company donates to them and has a veto on who they can accept money from which included a company like Exetel. So......if you know a very reputable organisation dedicated to protecting native flora and fauna which would actually take our 'tainted' money perhaps you'd let me know? I wouldn't want to have to look outside Australia. Trackbacks
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Interesting idea.
If you have trouble here, perhaps considering a different plan completely, and use the money to make Exetel solar and / or wind powered There would be no third party charities involved, and the benefit to the environment as a whole would probably be greater. It could also make a great drawcard for Exetel to be able to say xx% solar powered right now. Comments (2)
I have a couple of friends who are involved in animal rescue (predominantly native birds) I could find out what group they are affliated with if you like.
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I would welcome any suggestions you care to make.
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Hi John - I hope that one of these organisations was not the RSPCA and that is an option for you - this is a good cause mate so don't give up....
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Have you thought about contacting one of the producers/writers of the show "Landline" at the ABC? I'm sure they would be able to put you in touch with some preservation societies for flora/fauna from Rural Australia.
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I've passed on your information to the Glen Innes Resources Advisory Committee - it's run by two people about 60km from where I live and might suit your desires. They work in conjunction with National Parks and Wildlife. http://glenrac.org.au/about.html
My previous idea about using green energy instead, is probably not so practical in North Sydney. Comments (2)
Thank you - it may well prove to be a better solution to provide funding to small local organisations for specific projects if fiscal probity can be assured.
I'm becoming disillusioned with the better known organisations and their corporate sponsorship arrangements and 'exclusions'. Comments (2)
Charitable and not for profit organizations often run 'as a business', with normal business expenses including salaries (which might be inflated) and other costs that could mean other 'wasted' monies.
As much as I would like to support charities, it is not something I can afford to do personally and I would always be concerned about monies not getting to where they are needed to go. Real charities and worthwhile and genuine projects should be funded from consolidated government revenue. Governments have grants for this and grants for that... The bottom line is that whilst it is very honourable to support charities, the real causes will almost always end up with far less that you would expect. It is similar to the competition lines, they charge so much to enter by way of SMS costs or similar [this pays for the prizes and more]; the same money may as well buy you a square (or game) in lotto -- the little competition might win you a $10,000 prize, but the lotto gamble could net you much more. You 'buy' the competition entry, why not 'buy' the lotto entry instead. Of course, where there is real volunteer involvement by those that can afford to put in their own resources, then monies for those causes is more likely to meet the goals of the intended investor. But these such projects are very hard to find. I could be wrong, but I think the SIDS research has gone as far as it can go and they still want everyone to send more money each year. I also believe that cancer research is more advanced than they care to tell us, again in order to allow us to 'feel good' about topping up their funds. These are just a couple of examples... perhaps I am too skeptical, pessimistic and distrusting. On another similar note, the ABC keeps on saying that they are not commercial -- I don't subscribe to that point of view either; they push their own brand as much as they can and they often push other brands without any concern if they can get away with it. Comment (1)
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