How the 50 percent to charity formula works.

At Briefme (a division of AIM), our mission is to inform and entertain, while helping nonprofits you love.  Therefore, we pledge to donate 50 percent of our net advertising revenue (after ad-serving/technology costs, traffic acquisition costs, direct content production costs, and direct sales costs) to selected US nonprofits (501c3 orgs).  Registered users and contributors help us decide how to allocate our donation pool in the following way:

a) Content creation / co-creation: The content creator or co-creator (working with our team) is instrumental in the process of publishing. Therefore, they get a say in how we split the 50 percent of net ad revenue charity pot we pledge to donate.

b) Content consumption (reading, viewing, listening): Your attention is what powers the system. Sponsors, and advertisers pay us because you are engaged in consumption of content. You are critically important so your choice of cause (category or individual nonprofit) is important. Register in order to select your default cause.  If you don’t register the value of your participation goes into our “Special Causes” bucket where we deploy it when the team sees a need due to natural disaster, or other crisis.

c) Content sharing (via social media, email or other digital means): People and organizations share the content they love. You as a reader/viewer, businesses (including sponsors) and nonprofits engage in sharing which brings more readers/viewers growing the donation pool. Sharing behavior is rewarded with a vote when it’s in play (not every visitor is the result of a share).

The Back End Points System:

Despite the amazing power of the Internet, we can’t track the exact value of your content consumption. We know how big the overall donation pool is based on revenue and any direct costs, and use a points system to calculate what we are allocating to nonprofit causes (payments generally go out to causes before the end of the following month). It’s quite simple, we do our best to track whenever content is being consumed and by whom (anonymously if non-registered). Out of a total of 6-points those points are allocated based on if sharing was involved or not.

No Sharing: 3 points to the creator/co-creator’s selected cause (category or individual) and 3 points to the reader/viewer’s choice (if registered, of not registered, it goes into the special causes pool)

Sharing: 2 points to the shared choice of cause (category or individual), 2 points to the creator/co-creator’s selected cause (category or individual) and 2 points to the reader/viewer’s choice (if registered… if not registered the special causes fund is used)

The donations we make are based on content consumption behaviors which generate ad revenue.  If there is only a reader and the content involved, (25 percent) goes to the content creator’s chosen nonprofit and the other 25 percent to the reader/viewer’s chosen nonprofit. If a sharing activity resulted in content consumption, the donation allocation is split in thirds rewarding the cause of the sharing reader/viewer with 16.67 percent and 16.67 percent go to the reader’s choice (or special causes fund) and the final 16.67 percent is allocated to the content creator.  Points are easier to keep track of, so that’s what we use.

Let’s use these VERY fictitious examples to illustrate.

  1. Oprah and Dr. Phil create an interview/discussion (video and transcription) on the subject “Workplace Dating Wakeup Call.” The story and video are posted with some edits and comments from the editorial team, Oprah & Dr. Phil pick Save The Children as their cause.
  2. Let’s pretend that Stedman Graham Jr. is already a registered member and he selected his favorite charity when registering: Team USA (US Olympic team). So, when he reads or watches anything on Briefme, Team USA benefits. When he checks out Oprah’s interview, Team USA gets 25 percent and Save The Children gets 25 percent. Both the content creator and the reader/viewer’s cause preferences matter.
  3. But social sharing is also really important. By sharing, more people visit, and that means more $$ for charity.  Let’s pretend that Gayle King sees the interview because Oprah tells her about it at lunch.  Gayle has registered UNICEF as her cause and after she watches the video and reads the commentary, Gayle uses the sharing link on the site posting to her Facebook and Twitter. Gayle’s cause preference of UNICEF travels along with her share links, so when fans/followers visit, UNICEF gets 25 percent and Save The Children gets the other 25 percent . Of course the new visitor from Gayle’s share can choose to register after arriving and select another cause.  New visitors can stick with Gayle’s choice of UNICEF, pick Save The Children, another cause or a cause category.
  4. The Beastie Boys learn how this amazing system works and create an exclusive video after chatting with the editorial team.  They pick the the general category of animals as their cause.
  5. Kim Kardashian is reading through articles and watching videos supporting her favorite cause, the Humane Society. All the content she consumes counts toward her cause at the 25 percent ratio. Interestingly, when she gets to the Beastie Boys video the full 50 percent goes to great animal causes. Kim is inspired to share the video link on social media. Her fans/followers are now helping animals when they click because for share-driven visits the the sharer’s choice remains in place allocating 2 points (16.67 percent) for that article, video or other content.
  6. The social media manager at the Humane Society finds out about the video and knows that if she/he shares the link on Twitter and Facebook. Animal charities win, including the Humane society, which means animals win big.
  7. Meanwhile in our fictitious example, Dr. Oz is already registered as a member and the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is his chosen cause, and when he clicks on Gayle’s link we split the donation three ways: 16.67 percent to each cause.
  8. As a result of seeing the Oprah interview, Dr. Oz is inspired to reach out to our editorial team because he has just completed a trip to Africa and wants to share some uplifting and inspirational videos he took while there. The team works with Dr. Oz to refine the content and it is posted with his cause choice St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The cycle continues.
  9. Lady Gaga is having a fundraising Gala.  We send an editorial team member to cover it since it’s in NYC (for other cities we may use local cause volunteers).  We get pictures at the step-and-repeat / red-carpet and get as many interviews and star selfies as possible. One of the attendees is Elton John and he gives a great interview shot on an iPhone.
  10. After his interview goes live, Elton John shares his interview on Twitter and Facebook supporting American Foundation for AIDS Research… And so on…

Everyone played a key role in helping their individual chosen cause AND the causes their friends selected. We used their 50 percent of net advertising revenue to “keep the lights on” send create content, and to pay rent. If the system works well, we might even make a profit. Together we can deliver social good while entertaining and bringing joy to our registered members and anonymous readers.

Whew!!