I’ve started working on what will be my most controversial site yet – charitybypass.com
photo credit: andy in nyc
I have plenty of potentially toxic and dangerous ideas, many much too risky for me to take on at this stage, but charity bypass is one i’m willing to get behind.
I first mentioned the idea way back in 2007 as part of my 18 random ideas post. I believed it would work then, i still think it will work now. That post was one of my most successful ever and whilst there’s been a lot of interest in some of the ideas, i’ve yet to see someone actually go out and create one.
Charity Bypass will act as a ‘heads up’ on where charity collections are taking place and what charity events are going on where plus it’ll out the scam artists out there.
It serves a useful purpose. It won’t be set up as a ‘charity avoidance’ or ‘lets kill charity’ site – it will simply make people aware of collections and charity stuff – it’s then up to people to decide whether they want to give to charity or not; it’s not up to me, nor anyone else (including charities) to tell people what to do with their hard earned cash.
This site will be a nightmare for me to manage, it will be seen as gamble by many in terms of how people react to it and it probably won’t yield any sort of revenue as nobody will want to be associated with it 
So it’s not the most sensible site to be creating, but then again it’s an idea, it’s a niche, and it’s something i’ve decided to go plough ahead with because i think it will work and i think i can make it work.
I know people will like it and like the concept which is ultimately why i’m creating it. I’m of the view that if i want to give to charity, i’ll do it of my own accord. Putting a bucket in your face or taking advantage of people’s goodwill is wrong, under all circumstances. It’s forcing people to make decisions they shouldn’t have to make in the first place.
Street collections, traffic light collections etc… show a lack of innovation on the charity’s behalf. Approaching people directly to get them to sign up to something or give money to YOUR case is aggressive marketing of your ‘product’. It’s an invasion of people’s space and time. Much like door to door salespeople or pop up ads, the vast majority of people don’t like them and avoid them where possible. If there’s a bit of creativity or ‘thinking outside the box’ involved then it’s a different story – you can’t knock someone for trying to be different and doing something creative for a good cause.
There you have it – another website in the making and this one is definitely gonna cause controversy. I’ve got a rough idea of how the site will function and what features it will have, but i’m still working on the plans. I hope to have it up and running within 2 weeks.
