There are many online or online/offline sweepstakes that contain a philanthropic option for entry. We applaud those platforms and sweepstakes administrators for their passion for philanthropy and charity.
Some are for-profit entities, Some are B-Corps (public benefit corporation) and others are nonprofits. At the time of the launch of SweepsForACause by Giving Forward, Inc. we believe we are the only online-centric sweepstakes where each sweepstakes:
- Allows entrants to choose the nonprofit beneficiary who will receive the bulk of the donation (should they choose to enter by donating). There is a setting used by nonprofits and selected partners sending over visitors where the selected nonprofit benefiting from a donation is not easily changed. This is done to assure our nonprofit partners that working with us does not result in significant donor loss.
- The winner get a prize and Giving Forward then also makes a special additional donation to the nonprofit which was selected by the winner at the time of their entry.
Giving Forward’s objective ins running Sweeps For A Cause is that we can run large and small sweepstakes making giving fun and create win-win-win-win partnerships (pun intended) between businesses, philanthropists (doing matching donations to increase donation sizes), nonprofits (sending over their lapsed donors so that we can gamify them into action) and entrants/donors. We want to be the catalyst and the digital glue that makes it possible and we are confident that we can deliver a significant net-positive to the world as a social-impact nonprofit.
More about some of the online-first sweepstakes who have inspired us to launch Sweeps For A Cause.
- OMAZE, the leader in charity sweepstakes is a for-profit company founded in July 2012 by Matthew Pohlson and Ryan Cummins. OMAZE has generated millions for nonprofit causes across categories and has pioneered “big prize” philanthropic sweepstakes. They have raised a significant level of investor capital (as of the launch of Sweeps For A Cause, OMAZE has raised $127Million in funding over 7 rounds according to Crunchbase). Clearly the founders, venture capitalists, angels and other investors believe that it is quite possible to do well by doing good. According to Similarweb, the OMAZE website routinely receives over 3 million visitors a month.
- Prizeo is part of Charity Network, owned by Todd Wagner. The Charity Network has other websites dedicated to fundraising.
- Prinvy is a newer entrant into philanthropic sweeps
- TapKat is a platform, similar to Prizeo where organizations can spin up their own sweepstakes. Steve Volk founded TapKat and the Shelby American Collection car museum in Boulder, Colorado, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit he has close ties to has successfully used the platform, which seems to be how the platform originated.
- CharityStars was founded in 2013 in Milan by three entrepreneurs under the age of 30—Francesco Nazari Fusetti, Manuela Ravalli and Domenico Gravagno. Since that time they have also innovated with AidCoin, the “Made In Italy” charity cryptocurrency ICO for complete transparency in donating. Over €11M has been raised for national and international charities, according to their website.
- Bikers Against Drunk Driving routinely holds online/offline sweepstakes in a more raffle-style
- OneCountry has given away for than $3.5 million in prizes according to their website. They give extra entries for volunteerism, but we aren’t sure how much they are donating.
- WinTogether was founded by Tony Dimatteo who is also CEO of Lottery.com