Charity Challenges... could this work?

[Brian Mosley]

Hello everyone,

this thread evolved from congratulating the first mu-43 competition... where Amin financed the cash prizes out of his own pocket. I've split it out so that we can get feedback on how to motivate (if any were needed!) entries to future competitions, and recognise the winners.

Congratulations to the winners (of our first mu-43 competition) and a big thank you to everyone who took part.

If you're going to offer cash prizes again Amin, can we have a choice of charity to send the proceeds? That would be of interest to me... How about taking a donation from each entrant into the pot... And the winner gets to decide which charity?

That takes the pressure off your family budget, keeps the site clean and creates an opportunity for us all to do something a bit different and useful...

Anyone else think that could work? Any suggestions for improvement?

Cheers

Brian

 

[BBW]

Excellent suggestion, Brian, about the idea donating to reputable charities.

Another take on this might be that the winners decide personally what portion of their winnings they'd like to donate which will remain anonymous, as opposed to requiring all entrants to donate.

I am sure many of us support a variety of non profit groups and I would hesitate to require the entrants to donate. Sometimes even the most generous heart gets tapped out financially. There may be a way to set it up so that anyone can donate, without feeling compelled to in order to enter the contest.

Frankly, I think most of us would enter without the cash prize incentive and just do it for fun.

Just my Saturday morning thoughts.

 

[Brian Mosley]

Good points BB...

I'll start a separate thread to discuss the idea in more depth.

Cheers

Brian

 

[Amin Sabet]

Brian, I think it's a great suggestion, but I don't want to put any expectation of contributing money to enter a contest, even if it's for a charity. I'd rather have a portion of the prize money automatically go to a selected charity, or something of that sort...

As for taking the financial hit out of my pocket, I have a couple ideas about that. One idea is to find a sponsor, which shouldn't be hard if our site continues to grow for a while. A sponsor would mean an ad of some sort or another, but it wouldn't be an onerous ad. Look at RicohForum, for example, for an example of a tasteful display (IMO) of sponsors.

A different idea would be to have full blown ads which are only visible to unregistered guests. Unregistered guests often visit and move on quickly. Those moving on quickly may as well move on quickly via an ad. Members would find that the ads disappear after logging in and stay gone unless they log out.

Those are just ideas. I'm not ready to add a bunch of ads, even for unregistered guests, as I just like the look of the place without all that.

For now, I'll just fund the contests myself at a slow clip I can afford.

In the meanwhile, and member can create "Challenge" threads in that same forum, and there doesn't necessarily have to be a monetary prize involved. Many of us would enter for the fun of it, and we can come up with forum prizes (like the ribbon shown for our donors but a different color) for each challenge winner. Clicking on the icon would take you to a description in their user profile, which would say which challenge they won and link to it so people could see their winning photograph.

 

[BBW]

Great ideas, Amin!

 

[Brian Mosley]

Just thinking freely here... I have no fixed ideas, but hopefully the ramble will stimulate further discussion.

I like the idea of 'competing' to win a pot of money for my chosen charity - yes, there's a chance I may lose my stake... but if I can choose how much I put into the pot (with a minimum stake of, say $1) then it won't feel like I'm being raided for my money.

BB raised a good point about 'reputable' charities... how could we 'vet' the charities so that everyone is happy for them to be a possible destination of the winner's choice?

Cheers

Brian

 

[BBW]

Brian, check out this article from the NY Times which discusses this idea as well as offering links to organizations that evaluate charities: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/us/10contest.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=charities%20which%20are%20good?&st=cse I know I've read other articles over the years about sites which vet and rate charities...such as which ones spend less on administration costs, etc.

The organization that I have read about before that is known for vetting is Guidestar:http://www2.guidestar.org/ You can check their links under "News" on their site for more info... I read about them a number of years ago.

 

[BillN]

Just a few (practical), points

Bank charges etc., on small transations
what is the cost of small amounts payable by PP
what are the exchange rate implications of transferring small amounts
the £ : $ : Euro consideration

were is everybody based - maybe we should have a poll to see or ask that they include location in published profile

 

[Streetshooter]

Money, The pollutant!
Maybe we should just say, "Nice Image" to the winner.
I don't like the idea of money playing a part of the forums.

I also think it's now a community issue. Maybe a vote should be set up to decide......

We're drifting......

 

[Brian Mosley]

Best to have this discussion early, I think... I'm not keen on cash as a motivator for competitions - if cash is involved, I'd rather it went to a worthwhile cause.

These days, paypal can be used very easily to collect cash with minimal overhead regardless of location.

Cheers

Brian

 

[Bullfrog]

I'm all for pitching in to a prize-pot that goes to charity. It need not be compulsory for competetion entry, just an extra way to help some people out.

 

[BillN]

i agree with our super mod

it's just another complication at this time - this is a photographic forum

 

[Amin Sabet]

i agree with our super mod

it's just another complication at this time - this is a photographic forum

I'm going to have to park this whole idea for the time being, because I basically just don't have the time to implement it. It's not possible for anyone else to implement it, because it involves money being handled through mu-43.com, which is legally registered to me.

 

[Streetshooter]

I'm going to have to park this whole idea for the time being, because I basically just don't have the time to implement it. It's not possible for anyone else to implement it, because it involves money being handled through mu-43.com, which is legally registered to me.

Ahhh Haaa...I knew there was someone making Millions around here.....

See Brian, I told ya it was Amin.......

you are now returned to your regular programming......

 

[Amin Sabet]

where is that whiskey :alcoholic:

 

[Brian Mosley]

Ahhh Haaa...I knew there was someone making Millions around here.....

See Brian, I told ya it was Amin.......

you are now returned to your regular programming......

Busted.

Cheers

Brian

 

[Iansky]

Subsidise or not

The suggestion about contributions for competitions from entrants I suspect will only serve to put people off entering and will prove hard and timely on the organisers to manage.

If we feel that as a forum we need to be offered monetary gain as a prize then it is not right that Amin should have to dip into his pocket each time or we will have to become a paying site, perhaps we could approach the 4/3rds manufacturers and appeal to their willingness to support the forum through finance or gifts.

I would be perfectly happy as a forum member entering the competitions if I was fortunate to win to be rewarded by having my winning image featured on the website front page for a period of time with a short bio and link to my blogsite, I don't enter forum competitions primarily for material gain, I enter for recognition of my work and as an opportunity to see and learn from other entrants work, this way all forum members at all levels gain from the experience of the winners and gain motivation and shared knowledge that allows them to improve and contribute for the benefit of the forum and all.

 

[Brian Mosley]

Thanks Ian,

I have quite a bit of experience building the OPSG, and have found that, as Don suggests above... being in any way commercial puts some people seriously on edge - and often puts the administrative load firmly onto the organisers to make things happen.

I still like the idea of allowing good causes to benefit from our efforts... it just needs the will to overcome the practical challenges. I'll park it for now - maybe build something standalone for the task, as the tools become available.

Cheers

Brian

 

[Djarum]

Best to have this discussion early, I think... I'm not keen on cash as a motivator for competitions - if cash is involved, I'd rather it went to a worthwhile cause.

These days, paypal can be used very easily to collect cash with minimal overhead regardless of location.

Cheers

Brian

As much as I like cash, I agree.

Another suggestion. In some of the other hobby forums, like the bowling forums, they have challenges for bowling videos. Whoever wins the best bowling video gets promotional products from some of the equipment manufacturers that costs basically nothing to the manufacturer or distributer. Usually these manufactures/retail/distributers are already advertising on the forum. This is how most forums I know stay online, through advertisements. How hard would it be to get B and H or Amazon to part with some accessories?

For example, the first place winner could win a skin for his/her camera, or maybe a filter, a carry case..etc.

Dj

 

[Djarum]

The suggestion about contributions for competitions from entrants I suspect will only serve to put people off entering and will prove hard and timely on the organisers to manage.

If we feel that as a forum we need to be offered monetary gain as a prize then it is not right that Amin should have to dip into his pocket each time or we will have to become a paying site, perhaps we could approach the 4/3rds manufacturers and appeal to their willingness to support the forum through finance or gifts.

I would be perfectly happy as a forum member entering the competitions if I was fortunate to win to be rewarded by having my winning image featured on the website front page for a period of time with a short bio and link to my blogsite, I don't enter forum competitions primarily for material gain, I enter for recognition of my work and as an opportunity to see and learn from other entrants work, this way all forum members at all levels gain from the experience of the winners and gain motivation and shared knowledge that allows them to improve and contribute for the benefit of the forum and all.

I agree.

Another site I visit which uses a forum system similar to this, uses vPoints. Vpoints are used to buy avatars, advanced emoticons..etc.

Dj