My brother-in-law forwarded me an email yesterday and said, “Hey…ever heard of these guys as a fundraiser for your ministry?” The link he sent was to a market research company called Op4G (Opinions For Good). I checked them out, and a few things are making me root for this company.
First: I love hearing new, creative ideas..
As simply as I can explain it, Op4G appears to be a marriage of paid focus groups and automatic donations. The concept is pretty sweet. Do some online – anonymous – market research and get paid for it. Of the money you make, a portion is directly sent to the non-profit of your choice. You have to donate at least 25%, but can choose to donate 50%, 75%, or 100%. The rest is payment to you for taking the time to do the surveys. Other than the donation piece, it’s pretty similar to getting $75 for sitting in on a focus group and sharing your opinion on packaging design for a new line of yogurt. (Yes…I did that one many years ago.) The beauty of Op4G is it’s all done online, so you do it whenever you want and don’t have to leave the backside-shaped cushion of your couch.
Second: The customer service was outstanding.
After poking around their website for 10 minutes, I decided to submit That You May Know Ministries just to see what the process was like. No exaggeration…I received a phone call less than three minutes after hitting the “submit” button. A lovely lady named Casey explained the process, walked me through what it could/would look like to participate, explained that a welcome packet would arrive in my mailbox soon, and followed up with an email less than an hour later. This conversation happened while their webmaster was at lunch, but within two hours I received another email that my ministry was approved and on their website, ready to be chosen by any Op4G participant. Can you say Customer Service?!
Third: There’s true potential to raise money.
In all disclosure, I’m not expecting that Op4G is going to become the primary fundraising tool for That You May Know Ministries – or any other ministry for that matter. However, the potential for some pretty decent impact is there. Here’s what they say on their website:
A Non-Profit with 100 Op4G Members each designating 50% of their earnings from market research, and spending an average of only one hour a month on paid activities, could realize $36,000 to $60,000 annually.
Like most advertising, that’s likely to be a bit optimistic. That said…what if it’s only 10% accurate. I certainly wouldn’t turn up my nose at an extra $3000-6000 coming into the ministry each year! And if it IS accurate…
Finally: Quite simply…I like their website.
This might not be a big deal to other people, but as someone who is passionate about communication, a website that is simple, clean, and easy to navigate is very appealing. So many websites are getting cluttered and a little too “slick” for my tastes. Not Op4G. I had no trouble finding anything I wanted or needed to locate. Kudos to the design team.
Take a look. And if you don’t have your own favorite charity…well…er…you know which one to pick.
