To both Michael & Allan – though newspapers as a whole have been hard hit they still have the largest local internet presence – by far. Over 40% of active internet users in the US go to newspaper web sites. It’s easily the most desirable local internet asset for nonprofits to leverage. And our connect2cause feature will directly connect local nonprofits with news stories – read about Burma or social injustice and find local nonprofits that are working on the issue.

It’s also important to remember that the newspaper is only the start of the distribution model – we’ll have Do Good Channels at the web sites of colleges and universities, civic & social organizations, TV & radio stations, and beyond. The nonprofit enters and managers their information once and it’s available at all of the Do Good Channels.

On newspaper sponsorship and brands that might ‘conflict’ with nonprofit aims. I’ve found nonprofits to be fairly pragmatic – there’s a generic understanding that the sponsorship doesn’t really imply a direct connection and nonprofits see the asset as something they’d like to leverage. Moving forward there’ll be opportunities to opt-in and out based upon the sponsor of a Do Good Channel.

As for Exxon sponsoring Greenpeace, sure, that’s bound to happen. However, it’s a minor issue, I’m sure they’ll have business logic to block that out just like they do with Google Adsense where you can block your ad from appearing on competitive sites or vice versa.

Clearly, good2gether, like any startup, will evolve their business model. I can already think of what they ought to look like a year from now…

Would it be OK if Exxon Mobile was sponsoring the local environmental group? Sure, the newspaper can do whatever it wants. But is that OK with the nonprofit? Maybe, because it is not the nonprofit selling the sponsorship. But this is the one place where I could imagine certain orgs being worried about, it appearing that major corporations were sponsoring them and using their good name, when in fact they were considered “bad actors.”

WDYT?

The one downside seems to be connecting anything to newspapers given that newspapers are probably the least healthy of all mainstream media.