Nina Mach says: Great idea!!!

Tracy Gunn says: Hi Jochen, I'm not sure I completely understand your pitch.

Do you mean that two projects organise a website/blog and then a big corporate sponsors that website/blog and basically runs a mini-compeition? In essence a public vote, so whichever project gets the most public votes wins a cash prize?

Could you explain a little more please? Thanks.

Jochen Holtrup says: Dear Tracy,

I`m so glad that you ask – for sure my english is not the best to help to understand netzwirken in the few words, that are allowed in the competition... ;-)
But I will do my best to answer any question that you have (mayby you will give me a little bit of understandig in advance about my bad english ;-) )

netzwirkens main priciples are grassrout democracy, “wisdom on the crowds”, transparency and social impact.

A sponsor puts a certain amount of out of his PR-budget on the netzwirken-website – and transforms it on this way automatically into a sponsorship:

One of the special things of netzwirken is, that the sponsor chooses not only one project for his sponsorship, but two eco-social projects. He can choose the projects out of our “project-catalogue”, in which a lot of projects already are registerd for free, with a portrait and a blog – so that the sponsor get based informations for his decission.

The two choosen “challenger-projects” will do now the challenge:

That means that they run together a blog, in wich they can show in blogposts (articels, videos, photos etc.) about their real work – and not “bagging” for money with high emotional pictures as the projects often must do. Its all about their great work that they are doing.

And they interacting with the “netzwirker-community”, as evryone can ask questions and make comments and get answers from the projects. So everyone can get a based opinion for a decission.

Because the next special thing is, that the individual can show his opinion - on the way, that he can give his vote to one of the projects. It is the most easiest way to get involved for “the good” – it´s only one click without any costs...
And in every time you can change your vote – so that the challenge is realy a living thing...

And to answer your question:
At the end of the challenge we are counting the votes, and put them into a percentage proportion. 100% of the announced amount of the sponsorship will be split in the percentage ratio and the two parts will be transferd in the projects – that get the money for showing their work and with dignity. Both of the projects get the part of the money that they “earned” with theit trancparency.

And the biggest potential is, that the users can not only vote for the projects:
They also can raise the sponsorship of the sponsor with small donations on their own – directly via micropayment on the site. It is not a must – but if you like the work of the projects you can. The money out of the community will be put on top of the sponsorship and the totaled ammount will be alway shown life in the site. We see in this mechanism the potential to gain biggest amounts of money for the projects.

And the cool thing about netzwirken is that it will grow on his own (and so the projects will gain more and more money):

Every new challenge the two projects will do “campaiging” that their supporters get on the site to give a vote – and the sponsor will invite his partners, employees and friends to the challenge, wich is always named after the sponsor. So the community will rise on the efforts of all partners: projects, people, sponsor and of course we will do our part.

And that the sponsor gets with netzwirken an easy way for a social marketing action, we will charge a “Thousand Ad Impressions” for the costs.

I hope that this will put more “light” on the potential of netzwirken and will answer your question.
To all: Please feel free to ask more – I will do my best!
For now with warm regards
Jochen

P.S.: The best for all informations ist the netzwirken-site by itsself: www.netzwirken.net.
We already did 2 challenges and we are sooo happy that everything went so good. But it is still only the start... (And unfortunately in the moment only in german ;-) )

Michael Spors says: Dear Jochen,

netzwirken sounds amazing.

Am I right, that I, as a webtuser, got nothing to do, but make myself my opinion on the two projects and give a free vote – and the two projects get the money in order o the result´s?

I think this is the biggest potential, as I am a fan of “wisdom of the crowds”... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds)

I hope you will make it in the finals!

Best regards

Michael

BABETTE VAN GESSEL says: Its a feel good idea but its really not original. The idea of having a competition/voting for social projects strikes me as rather similar to whats happening with this competition anyway minus the public donations? There are so many charities and social projects out there that people donate to, including raising money through awareness campaigns, concerts and blogs.

Plus the concept of community contributions has been around for quite some time. In South Africa they call it StokVels where the community all contributes to a central funds and those funds are used for within the community or for specific social projects and there are lots of social "banking" projects already in place worldwide where communities contribute and time/funds etc are distributed often by internal popular vote.

At least these communities distribute 100% of the funds and are able to determine which projects are most important to them - who are we to decide which projects get our vote when we are half way across the world and not driven by poverty and hunger. I donate money to charities who's good works are determined by the communities themselves and with who I have a personal interaction with.

Plus if I donated to a charity its for personal reasons. I would want it to go to that charity and not your "winning one" as its seems the concept is winner takes all (or perhaps all minus admin fees?)

Jochen Holtrup says: Dear Babette,

thank you for your comments. Allow me to explain a few thinks.

Some parts on netzwirken sure already existing. The concept onlyputs them together.
To answer your last part at first: There ist no “winner takes it all”: The whole amount of money is split in between the two projekts in due of the result of the challenge. For example the first project gets 51,4% of all votes – it will get 51,4% of the money – and the other one gets 48,6%. It is based on the wisdom of the crowds. And 100% of the summ, that is always live advertised, geting in the projects without any discount. The cost of the challenge is coverd of the company, that is giving the donation.

You say: “Plus if I donated to a charity its for personal reasons.”
At first: It is not your money that netzwirken wants – the main thing is your opinion. You get to know two projects that are reporting about their work with articels, blogposts, videos and pictures – and they answer directly in the challenge-blog if you have any questions. So they get help, not throug “high emotional pictures and messages”, “bagging for money at institutions” etc. – only of showing what they are doing – interavtive with the public. So they raise money with dignity in a competion. We are nothing more, but bring tranparency and show an existing market. If you like the projects – you have the opportunity to give some money – but this is no “must”.
The money is comming from the companys, that see in netzwirken a innovative way of “doing good” associated with comercial use. It is a concret an easy way of a testing of a corporate social responsibility action. So we get donations for the projects from companys, that maybe never have been involved in corporate citizenship. That is our expirience and this is one of the high potentials of netzwirken.

Greets from the Ruhr
Jochen
P.S.: And as you know: Sorry for my english ;-)

Wiebke Koch says: Hi folks,
I know Jochen and his concept already personally since The Hub Berlin was one of the first teams to be challenged and thus to benefit from the concept. If it was for the written pitch, I probably wouldn't have understood the idea behind it. But in practice it's a stunning idea that made our team mobilise all the resources we had at our fingertips to get people to vote for us. This meant we really had to think about how we'd communicate our (also slightly complex) concept and how to convince people that it's an idea worth to be supported. It worked out well, we ended up with great stories, team building and even a rap that got written just for us - all as a 'side benefit' to the money we raised.
Go on, Jochen!!!

w7w alias Simon says: I like what you are doing Jochen!
In my view your idea is really nice, because a challenge has just winners. Normally one would think, this could get a bit monotone, but your concept in contrast attracts a lot of people who want to participate and watch who is going to get the bigger piece of cake! Brilliant!
The projects themselves have to present their best and get a lot of publicity or even some money in return, if companies get aware of their CSR.

I would love to see your concept grow bigger, as it is the first combination of CSR, entertainment and internet community I know. 100% convincing!

Best regards,
Simon

Jochen Holtrup says: Dear Simon:

:-)

Thank you so much - you bring it right to the point!!!
Your words should have been the words of my pitch...
(It´s a pitty that english is not my mother tongue... ;- ) )

Achim Ritzmann says: Hi there,
as we have already taken part in a "netzwirken challenge" with our project Helpedia I feel well positioned to comment on Jochens' entry.
It is a great idea that combines a) the need for fundraising for social and ecological projects with b) the wish of the users to play and contribute on the net and c) the ability of companies to do-good with their CSR-budgets.
Worked well in our case and got a lot of people involved, so the viral aspect is really good.
Hope to see more challenges coming.
Best regards
Achim
Helpedia