The major difference that separate "Non-Profit" and "For-Profit" business model wise is the ability of collecting money without selling anything which is a really hard thing to do. In most cases, the "Non-Profit" companies collect money through fundraisers and private donations which combined could be enough for the company to grow or could be barely enough to survive. So in most costs, the "Non-Profit" companies minimize cost by operating almost purely on a mouth-to-mouth marketing and getting volunteers to help rather than hire people on a permanent basis. Even the people who are working in the company on a permanent basis usually work for a low salary or working for free. Don't get me wrong, not all "Non-Profit" Organizations, Associations, and Foundations operate like how I described above, but most of the smaller to mid-sized ones does and that’s where MLR can really come in and help.
MLR can help these "Non-Profit" companies in several ways starting with a centralized place of goals for members to achieve. These goals are a perfect complement for "Non-Profit" companies because they basically tie in directly with fundraising, donations, marketing and volunteering. Goals on MLR is engagement and purpose driven due to the social motivation backbone and the built in gaming system.
For example a "Non-Profit" company can have the following goals listed on MLR:
- Attend this years "Save the Earth Event" on March 11, 2011. Buy tickets here at a 5% discount."
- We need volunteers at this weekend’s fundraiser even in Willowbrook, IL. Sign up here."
- Refer a friend or family member to XXXXXX and get a free T-Shirt."
- Check out our upcoming events for 2011, Click here to Sign up to Volunteer."
- Help us reach our goal of raising $50,000! Chick here to make a donation and receive a badge."
1. The existing tools in place on MLR for creating, editing, deleting goals and the verification system for achieving those goals.
- Not every website is setup with the existing tools needed for creating, editing and deleting goals especially with smaller to mid-sized "Non-Profit" companies. Without a full time web-developer, it is really hard to get changes made to the company's website. And even those with a full time web-developer, they just might not have the time to make all the changes. The tools on MLR will be in place so that goals can be created, edited or deleted very easily and without hassle. As soon as any change is made, it goes into effect immediately.
- Verification of achievements is also done in a unique way on MLR. As soon as a 'goal' is accomplished, the status of the achievement is posted to all the friends of the user and this ties directly with MLR's gaming system. It would be in the best interest of the user to post up photos, videos or anything that proves they actually achieved the goal because the status of the achievement is always rated. If the friends do not believe that the user achieved the goal, the user will get low points but on the other hand if friends do believe that the user achieve the goal, then the user will get high points. The verification is not only shown to friends but also to the company who posted those goals. Depending on the type of goal posted, verification can be automatic and involves no user intervention.
- One of the biggest problems with any company is getting exposure and we all heard of the phrase "even bad press is good press" which simply states as a company you want basically any press you can get. A "Non-Profit" company might have a good member base but they are always looking for new members and MLR would be a perfect way of getting additional visibility. MLR will have a large user base that is interested in all aspects of life and by integrating with MLR the "Non-Profit" company will gain additional exposure from people that normally does not visit the company’s site or even be aware of the company.
- MLR's social motivation network is purely unique and nothing like it is out there on the web today. MLR's system combines a social network that’s been stripped of all clutter with a really fun and competitive gaming system. The social network can be both utilized on the web or mobile, both ways have their own unique experience. The social network has been stripped of all the pointless updates, game or application pushes, and ads. The network is in place for encouragement from friends and as a "life tracker." Friends can create goals for each other and join goals of their friends and friends also have the ability to comment and rate achievements. Because of our unique gaming system in place, users are encouraged to select friends carefully as they are the sole judge of user's scoring. We believe this eliminates people trying to get a ton of friends for no other reason than to look impressive. More on that later. But in terms of the "life tracker" users will have the ability down the road to look at all the goals they have achieved. This is another motivating feature when users can see in how much they achieved for a "Non-Profit" company or in life.
- The gaming system is the main driving force of the fun and competition on MLR. Sure a lot of the goals are done because other user wants to, but sometimes users need an extra something to get them started. Since all users of MLR starts out at level 1, the playing field starts out even. Users are ranked by level and also by attributes which show the type of goals the user likes to achieve and how fast a user level really depends on how hard they try. The gaming system is the perfect complement to any goal on MLR including those from "Non-Profit" companies because goals that seem tedious can now be turned into a game. Users that normally wouldn't volunteer for a fundraiser now have an incentive for doing so and we think that’s a pretty good way of providing motivation.
- As more and more users get mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, net books, the use of net-based apps or websites become ever so popular. The best way to take advantage of this is to be able to target people of a certain location and make them aware of what’s around them. This is where our location-based tool comes in; we can use it to broadcast goals that are relevant for a certain location. Broadcasting a goal from Chicago to people in St. Louis doesn't help much, but when you broadcast a goal from Chicago to the people within Chicago only, that just makes sense. But think smaller, how about broadcasting a goal from within a town, or a city block or even from a park? Imagine a "Non-Profit" company’s event that is happening in the middle of town square of Downers Grove, with MLR's location-based tool anyone that is close to that proximity is broadcasted the goals relating to that event. The tool maximizes the relevance and interest of the users by staying within their location.
No comments:
Post a Comment