Introducing the
goCapeBreton.com Donation Fund

goCapeBreton.com donates money to local causes

We are going to donate $500 to a local cause.  And, then we are going to do it again. And, maybe again after that. We call it our Donation Fund and you (our members) make it happen.  

Here's how it works ...

1. Every time a new post is added to goCapeBreton.com, we will add $1.00 of our own money to the Donation Fund. Every time that post gets a LIKE, DISLIKE, or COMMENT on goCapeBreton.com, we will add $0.15 to the Donation Fund.

2. When the Donation Fund reaches $500, we will donate that money to a local cause. You can see the total amount of money in the Donation Fund at the very top of this website.

3. HOW TO VOTE:  We will have a list of selected local causes. The money is given to the local cause that earns the most LIKES on goCapeBreton.com. You can see the local causes and their votes here. (Note that this is not a vote-every-day type contest).

4. Once the money is awarded, the Donation Fund resets back to $0 and starts growing again. Causes that do not win the money keep their LIKES, giving them a greater chance at winning the next round. Our hope is that every cause on the list will eventually win.

How do I vote for a local cause?

View the list of causes here and LIKE the cause you want to win. You can LIKE one or all of the causes, but you can only LIKE the same cause one time. You must be a goCapeBreton.com member.

Why are we doing this?  

goCapeBreton.com and lokol help build smart communities. We experiment with all sorts of ideas to determine the most effective way to realize our mission.  The Donation Fund is one of those experiments.  

We hope this initiative will increase our engagement with community, and it enables us to allocate our marketing budget to local causes, instead of spending it on advertising. That makes sense to us ... we hope it does to you too.

How long will this last?

If the community supports this initiative, we expect to continue it indefinitely.  But since this is a completely new idea, we can't predict how the community will react.  And we may also need to tweak the $1.00, $0.15, and $500 numbers. Only time will tell.

lokol is a for-profit business with a social cause mission.  We make everything available to our communities for free and cover the cost of our work through sponsorships and advertising.  If the Donation Fund initiative helps with our mission, then we will want to continue it for sure.

How are local causes selected?

We will work with an arms-length committee comprised of people who work in the nonprofit sector to select local causes Starting out, we will have a short list of 3 causes.  When one of the causes wins a funding round, it gets removed from the list and a new cause gets added so that the total remains at 3. Remember that Causes that don't win remain on the list and keep their LIKES, so they will continue to move to the top of the list, increasing their chance of winning the subsequent rounds.

If you have a local cause that you think should be added to our list, the best thing you can do is create a new POST about the cause (even better is to encourage them to do so). This will get them considered by the selection committee.

The fine print

There is no catch here ... we really are giving money away.  But there are a couple of clarifications needed:

1. Posts, Likes, Dislikes, and Comments added by the goCapeBreton.com Team do not contribute to the Donation Fund.  They must be added by other members.
2. Likes, Dislikes, and Comments made on or through other platforms (like Facebook, Twitter, etc.) do not contribute to the Donation Fund.  You must use the native features on goCapeBreton.com.
3. Likes, Dislikes, and Comments made to Posts added by goCapeBreton.com do contribute to the Donation Fund. 

Your turn!

- How to post on goCapeBreton.com -