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[edit] What it consists in

[edit] Concept

Flouzo’s goal is to design and develop an online platform enabling private individuals, associations or companies to lead donation campaigns. This site should be easy to use, should make it easier to set up such campaigns (no development on the user’s side, pre-integrated payment solution) and includes online communication tools (donation meter, community-driven marketing, user rating awareness, web of trust) for donors to use, most of which being private individuals.

[edit] Income

The income will be made up of a percentage of donations, the providing of expert’s services and ID checking. The license used for the software coding will be free (AGPLv3), allowing the users to take part in the development process and to create third-party sites using the same software. Expert’s services will make up the income coming from donations and ID checks made on the website, by charging (in a lump sum) different organisations for the setting up of the website on another server, for specific developments or for the running of a donation campaign.

[edit] Market Demand

Donation campaigns have been flourishing on the net for some years (see [1]). From the traditional charity organization to the refunding of debts by an individual, the successful campaigns have those characteristics in common:

  • Specifically determined object, innovative, charity-like or answering the needs of a specific community (example of the free software);
  • Professional-quality website;
  • Online means of payment.

The basic principle, though unheard-of, is deeply rooted; moreover, it is in the tradition of new forms of militantism, identified by Jacques Ion, Spyros Franguiadakis, Pascal Viot in Militer Aujourd'hui (Collection CEVIPOF/Autrement, Editions Autrement, 2005): ''la quête de résultats va de pair avec le souci d'identifier clairement des objectifs, voire des publics, atteignables. [...] La multiplication des initiatives, (...) souvent perçue comme un éclatement, doit au contraire à ce titre être plutôt considérée comme le souci de "coller à la réalité", de réaliser l'adéquation la plus exacte de l'action envisagée et de la situation, la précision du choix étant gage d'efficacité." (pp. 18-19) (The pursuit of results goes together with the need to clearly define reachable goals and even audiences. […] The multiplication of initiatives, (…) often perceived as overdiversification, should actually be considered as the need to « stick to reality », to reach the perfect balance between what is envisaged and the current situation.) This phenomenon is likely to spread even more in the future.

[edit] An innovative nature

On the other hand, no software, reference sites or service companies specialize in this particular form of donation campaign today. What’s more, not all campaigns can benefit from the whole of the tools, like the Donation Meter for instance, a barometer indicating the percentage of received donations in relation to the announced objective. Following such a donation campaign (see Ryzom.org), several groups contacted us to get the corresponding software for their own campaign, as they could not get it elsewhere.

Therefore, building this kind of website makes it easier to set up such campaigns and lowers the level of technical skills needed to launch one. It will enable its users not to worry about putting professional means of payment into place (simple solutions exist, like Paypal buttons, yet they have limited functionalities).

This site will thus enable anyone to launch a campaign in a few minutes, by benefiting from the whole of the tried and tested tools, and without spending any money at the beginning. On the other hand, organizations or institutions leading sizeable campaigns will find, via expert’s services, a qualified interlocutor able to take care of the specific problems related to online donation campaigns. For the users, society’s acting as arbitrator - for the campaigns using this option – will constitute a guarantee of the proper use of their donations.

[edit] How to use the service

By connecting to the website (www.flouzo.net), a visitor would have several possibilities:

  • Create their own donation campaign: a wizard would guide them, through a succession of online forms accompanied by descriptions and advice, so as to generate a sub-site (for instance, mycampaign.flouzo.net);
  • Go over the list of ongoing campaigns, sorted by categories: then thy could either make a donation to one or several projects, or vote for a project (projects getting the most votes will appear at a better place on the projects lists) – another form of vote, based on a rating of the donors involved at the end of a donation campaign, will create another form of sorting and selection;
  • Go over the checking status of a given profile (if the user has had their ID checked, they appear with a higher level) as well as its history list;
  • Raise their checking level by following dedicated procedures (checking ID card, sending a proof of identity, etc.);
  • Once checked, a user can recommend another user, indicating that they trust them to carry out the projects and campaigns they launch;
  • Go over the forums and mailing-lists of the website’s community and donation campaigns;
  • Request an estimate for the provision of a service;
  • Access the development site of the software used for the website (ouzo.flouzo.net): they can download the software, go over the code, documentation and specific forums.
  • Later, once the website is settled and renowned, subscription programs may be created: the subscribers would pay a monthly sum, that they would give as they wish or automatically to campaigns, every month. For the donors, it would represent a counterpart to the subscriptions offered by charity organizations, on which they would have more control. For campaign organizers, it would represent a more tangible, reliable and regular source of financing.

Each campaign site would have the following functionalities:

  • A presentation of the project, accompanied with a social contract representing the campaign organizers’ commitments as for the use of the donations;
  • A form recording the donations, linked to an online payment provider and to a list of donors;
  • A Donation Meter, graphically measuring the quantity of donations received compared with the objective fixed by the campaign organizers;
  • A blog, linked to forums, mailing-lists and an RSS feed, enabling organizers to give news of the project;
  • A wiki, to edit the pages of the website;
  • A backend meant for campaign organizers to keep track of ongoing payments and to ask for a transfer of the donations on their account;
  • A toolbox, to integrate components of the campaign site (mycampaign.flouzo.com) to external websites, like for instance the Donation Meter or the news.

Depending on legal constraints, it might be needed to check a campaign organizer’s ID (registration of credit card, proof of identity, etc.) or to charge a fixed sum. In that case, it would be possible to lead a donation promises campaign; otherwise, it would only be requested when collecting the funds.

[edit] Market delimitation

This is an international market, thanks to the Internet; we are planning to open the site in two languages: English and French. The software and support will be provided in those two languages. Later on, a contributory translation program will be set up, so as to make the site available in as many languages as possible. The extension of the support to other languages will be related to demand and the availability of financial ressources, to recruit.

The target is diffuse, for it can come from very different domains, for both campaign organizers and donors. Donation campaigns can indifferently concern charity objectives, profitable or not, be led by individuals, associations or companies, be used to buy the rights of a software, pay meals to the destitute, refund debts or enable the making of a movie... In order to differentiate those various actions from an ethical point of view and in terms of beneficiality for the public at large, labelization programs could be set up.

A path to explore: fund withdrawals. If a donation for a campaign enables one to become a shareholder of the company created or kept up by the project, it adds a "business angel"/"seed money" community service. Business advisors can then constitute interesting links. Don’t forget the “1% patronal” (employer’s contribution in France). And the collective bounties.

[edit] Constraints

  • Dependence on the system of payment (in principle, Paypal at the beginning)
  • Necessity to create new habits among campaign leaders, as well as – to a lesser extent – among donors
  • Risk: fast arrival of big competitors on the market
  • Necessity to have a good market position and very fast: communication/exploration to be planned
  • Low added value for campaigns without third party service, necessity for a big volume and/or for a much developed service activity: think about margins
  • High probability of fraud (civil as well as penal), difficulty to obtain insurance
  • Technical Architecture dealing with charge, redondance & clustering

[edit] Risk of financial frauds

  • Used to launder money
  • Circumventing of tax limits related to donations (~20-30K€) => tax form in France

[edit] Other initiatives

[edit] Competition

Examples of campaigns: http://www.micropatronage.org/wiki/Who's_Doing_It%3F

[edit] Alike

[edit] Payment systems

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