SeeYourImpact: Affiliates help spread the joy

A short CNN segment on Apolo Ohno and SeeYourImpact.

Nonprofit, HasOffers let you connect with recipients of your gift this holiday season

Here at Socialbrite, we’re big believers in how online platforms are democratizing online philanthropy, volunteerism and social entrepreneurship, and we’ve profiled several of these organizations — Jolkona, InVenture, Kiva, CatchaFire, VolunteerSpot — and listed them on our Cause organizations page.

So in this last week of December, when an astonishing one quarter of all annual online giving takes place (22 percent in the last two days), we’re happy to see a partnership between SeeYourImpact, a remarkable example of one-to-one philanthropy, and HasOffers, a monitoring platform making a commendable splash in the social good sector.

Here’s how the partnership works:

SeeYourImpact, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit in Seattle, promises this: Give a gift, and in about two weeks you’ll receive the photo and story of the person you helped, with staff on the ground capturing the moment when your gift is delivered. The organization guarantees that 100 percent of every dollar donated goes directly to the people you designate. People can choose from a wide array of gifts that help people all over the world, solutions like $10 mosquito nets or $29 clean water filters.

HasOffers is helping SeeYourImpact build its own affiliate program — that is, through referrals and social software. Affiliate marketing generates 5 to 20 percent of online sales for the world’s biggest brands. HasOffers is providing the tracking software pro bono, and affiliates join the program to refer new donors (perhaps you?) to SeeYourImpact.

“We have plans for several more nonprofits in 2011, but we felt that SeeYourImpact was the best candidate to kick things off,” says Peter Hamilton, vice president of marketing for HasOffers. “Their model is strongly tied to the world of social sharing, making them the perfect opportunity for HasOffers to make a difference. We want to show nonprofits how working with grassroots publishers is a powerful way to engage their audiences and move beyond traditional media. We also believe in the power of the blogging community and in supporting quality publishers.”

Adds Shari Goetsch, director of communications for SeeYourImpact: “We’re focused on connecting donors with the lives they’re changing. Thanks to HasOffers, we hope to engage more people in our mission to make charitable giving engaging and transparent.”

There has been little testing of good affiliate channels by the nonprofit community, so we’ll be watching eagerly to see if this is an effective way for nonprofits to engage the grassroots publishing community.

Please give an affordable amount to someone in need.

To get more information about the program or to work with SeeYourImpact, contact Shari at shari@seeyourimpact.org
JD Lasica, founder and former editor of Socialbrite, is co-founder of Cruiseable. Contact JD or follow him on Twitter or Google Plus.