If you could have Dinner With anyone in the world, who would it be?
It's a game we've all played around the dinner table--but now it could become a reality.
Dinner With is a startup crowdfunding platform that leverages the vast social media networks of public figures and celebrities to connect nonprofit organizations with new donors and volunteers. The idea is simple: a public figure chooses a charity that they would like to represent, and the American public has the opportunity to enter a sweepstakes or volunteer for the chance to join them for dinner. Dinner With provides charities with an online and mobile application platform to meet fundraising and volunteer needs.
In a down economy, nonprofit resources are utilized and drained more quickly. In 2011, charitable giving was down 11 percent from pre-recession rates. Charities are looking for inventive ways to bolster fundraising efforts. Today, there are over 1.5 million registered nonprofit organizations in the United States competing for limited donations. Unfortunately, the current economic reality leaves nonprofits resource-strapped and struggling to meet fundraising goals. Nonprofits need a cost effective tool to connect with a new population of individual donors and volunteers. Dinner With provides a solution.
Surprisingly, individuals, not corporations or foundations, are the dominant source of philanthropic giving in the United States. Approximately 75 percent of charitable donations are made by individuals, yet individuals are harder for nonprofits to reach and solicit. The Dinner With website and mobile application are tools for organizations to connect with individual donors through the social media reach of celebrities.
Dinner With targets quantity of donors, rather than quantity of donation. As the Obama campaign did with political fundraising in 2008, and both the Obama and Romney campaigns are doing in 2012, the Dinner With sweepstakes fundraising model democratizes philanthropy by making it accessible, affordable and fun.
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